Best Crypto Exchange 2023: Fees, Coins Supported & More

With the Crypto Winter now supposedly behind us, only the strongest of crypto exchanges are left standing.

Looking for the best cryptocurrency exchanges to buy, sell, or hodl your favourite coins?

Here are some of the best-centralised cryptocurrency exchanges for you to consider, including their fees, safety, and more!

TL;DR: Best Crypto Exchanges in Singapore 2023

Do note that even though these cryptocurrency exchanges might not charge for fiat deposits or withdrawals, your bank or financial institution may impose fees on their end. So please do check with your banks or financial institution first.

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• Cryptocurrency Regulation Singapore
• Criteria For Choosing Crypto Exchanges
• Crypto.com vs Independent Reserve vs Coinhako vs Coinbase
• Crypto Exchange Withdrawal Fees
• Crypto.com Review
• Independent Reserve Review
• Coinhako Review
• Coinbase Review

Disclaimer: The information provided by Seedly serves as an educational piece and is not intended to be personalised investment advice. Seedly does not recommend that any cryptocurrency should be bought, sold, or held by you.​ Readers should always do their own due diligence and consider their financial goals before investing in any investment product and consult your financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

Regulation of Cryptocurrency Exchanges in Singapore

Cryptocurrencies or Digital Payment Tokens (DPT), as the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), would term it are not regulated by MAS as they are not considered legal tender or securities.

In other words, there is no legislative protection or recourse for you if you buy or sell cryptocurrencies and something goes wrong.

MAS has made it crystal clear that:

• They (MAS) will not be able to help you in any way if you lose money from dealing with digital tokens that are not products regulated by MAS. This includes situations where the digital token service is provided by an entity regulated by MAS, but where the digital token is not regulated by MAS.
• If you choose to deal with an unregulated person or entity or invest in unregulated products, you will not be protected under MAS regulations. If you suspect that an investment scheme involving digital tokens could be fraudulent or is being misused for any illicit activity, you should report it to the police immediately.
• As for cryptocurrencies, persons that buy or sell cryptocurrencies, or facilitate the exchange of cryptocurrencies may be regulated under the Payment Services Act 2019. However, they are not required to protect your cryptocurrency and are not required to ensure that each cryptocurrency transaction is processed properly. MAS regulates cryptocurrency service providers under the Payment Services Act 2019 mainly for money-laundering and terrorism financing risk only.

This is made clear with this advisory that MAS requires DPT service providers to show to customers:

• Your DPT service provider is licensed by MAS to provide DPT services. Please note that this does not mean you will be able to recover all the money or DPTs you paid to your DPT service provider if your DPT service provider’s business fails.
• You should not transact in the DPT if you are not familiar with this DPT. Transacting in DPTs may not be suitable for you if you are not familiar with the technology that DPT services are provided.
• You should be aware that the value of DPTs may fluctuate greatly. You should buy DPTs only if you are prepared to accept the risk of losing all of the money you put into such tokens.

In another parliamentary reply on 26 Jul 2021, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Senior Minister and Minister in charge of MAS, has also stated that:

As part of the transitional arrangements, entities that were engaged in regulated activities before the commencement of the Act were exempted from holding a licence if they submitted licence applications before the end of a specified grace period.

The specified grace period for digital payment token (DPT) service providers ended in July 2020, six months after the commencement of the PS Act. The exemption remains in force until the applications are approved or rejected by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) or withdrawn by the applicant.

Mr Tharman added that there are currently about 90 such DPT service providers that operate under this exemption. In other words, they are currently not regulated by MAS.

The complete list of these DPT service providers can be found here.

As of 26 Jul 2021, MAS has received over 170 applicants who have applied for a license to provide DPT services.

However, 30 DPT service provider applications have been withdrawn after consultation with MAS, while an additional two applications have been rejected.

In an interview with The Business Times, a MAS spokesperson stated that ‘a number of DPT applicants have not met its standards in the area of money laundering and terrorism financing and technology risk controls.’

Also, two entities, DBS Vickers (DBS’s brokerage arm) and Australian cryptocurrency exchange Independent Reserve were  granted Major Payment Institution Licences by MAS to offer DPT services in Singapore.

The Independent Reserve exchange is currently up and running, and you can trade cryptocurrencies there. But, DBS Vickers DBS’s (SGX: D05) is presently only allowing asset managers and companies to trade in digital payment tokens through its DBS Digital Exchange (DDEx).

Also, one more risk you have to consider.

In the world of cryptocurrencies and the blockchain, there is a popular saying:

Not your keys, not your coin.

In other words, when you are trading cryptocurrencies on any centralised cryptocurrency exchanges, you are handing over the private keys for your cryptocurrencies and entrusting them to a third party.

Ultimately, the one holding the private keys to the cryptocurrencies decides how it’s spent.

Suppose you are really spooked by recent events. In that case, you should consider transferring your large cryptocurrency holdings onto your own cryptocurrency cold wallet, where you are holding onto the private keys.

This will give you complete control over your cryptocurrencies.

Cold wallets keep your cryptocurrencies safe, as well as they are not connected to the internet, which makes them harder to hack.

Here are a few cold cryptocurrency hardware wallets to consider:

With that out of the way, let’s dive into the exchanges I’ll be comparing and why I chose them.

Criteria For Choosing Crypto Exchanges

With cryptocurrency being such a risky asset, it is thus important for us to be very strict with our criterias.

Thus, these exchanges must be a major payment institution licensed by MAS to provide DPT services.

We’ll also be ranking them based on popularity while excluding exchanges that aren’t available in Singapore.

If we were to take a look at CoinMarketCap, you’ll notice that Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Bybit, and Kucoin are five of the biggest cryptocurrency spot exchanges in the world.

FYI: CoinMarketCap ranks and scores exchanges based on traffic, liquidity, trading volumes, and confidence in the legitimacy of trading volumes reported).

However, the likes of Binance, Kucoin, Luno and a few other platforms have stopped offering their services in Singapore. Exchanges such as Kraken and Bybit on the other hand do not have an MAS license.

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Crypto Exchanges in Singapore Compared: Crypto.com vs Independent Reserve vs Coinhako vs Coinbase

Crypto Exchange Cryptocurrency Withdrawal Fees

However, suppose you want to transfer your cryptocurrency to other cryptocurrency exchanges, stake your cryptocurrency on other platforms or withdraw your cryptocurrency to another cryptocurrency wallet. In that case, you will need to pay a withdrawal fee.

This withdrawal fee is often dynamic and depends on the demand and supply of the computational power required to process the transaction on the specific blockchain network.

For these transactions, the exchanges will charge you a fee based on their estimate of the network transaction fees they anticipate paying for each transaction.

In certain circumstances, the exchange fee may differ from that estimate. But, all the fees that the exchanges charge will be disclosed at the time of your transaction.

Also, here is more information about the exchanges.

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Crypto.com Review

Crypto.com was founded back in 2016 as Monaco Technologies GmbH with Kris Marszalek as CEO.

The company underwent a rebranding and became Crypto.com in July 2018.

Crypto.com serves over 80 million customers today, with the world’s fastest-growing crypto app, along with the Crypto.com Visa Card, the Crypto.com Exchange and Crypto.com DeFi Wallet.

Do note that Crypto.com (App) and Crypto.com Exchange are two separate platforms. This means that you have to sign up for both if you want to enjoy the perks of lower fees from Crypto.com Exchange and be able to cash out from the Crypto.com (App).

Crypto.com (App)

Crypto.com (App) has the following features:

• Buy, sell and manage cryptocurrencies, including support for fiat currencies
• Option to use Crypto.com Visa Card
• Crypto.com Pay (get paid in crypto)
• Crypto Earn

Crypto.com (App) Fees

Buy/Sell Crypto Fees via StraitsX: 0.50%

Crypto.com Exchange

Meanwhile, the Crypto.com Exchange is a more advanced cryptocurrency exchange platform with lower fees but does NOT currently have support for fiat currencies.

The only way for you to get your cryptocurrency converted into fiat from the Crypto.com Exchange is to send your cryptocurrency into your Crypto.com (App) account, and then cash out from there!

Crypto.com Exchange Fees

Pros

• Affordable fees on Crypto.com (App) and super cheap fees based on trade volume on Crypto.com Exchange.
• Easy to convert fiat to cryptocurrency for Crypto.com (App).
• No deposit or withdrawal fees for SGD with local banks.
• Can trade 250 plus different cryptocurrencies.
• You can stake your cryptocurrency to earn interest.
• Has a Crypto.com Visa card with cashback rewards.

Cons

• Taking advantage of lower Crypto.com Exchange Fees requires extra steps to cash out into fiat.

Is Crypto.com Safe?

Crypto.com is rather secure and claims to be the first cryptocurrency company in the world to have these security certifications:

• ISO/IEC 27701:2019
• CCSS Level 3
• ISO27001:2013
• PCI:DSS 3.2.1, Level 1 compliance.

The company was also independently audited by world-renowned audit firm Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS). This audit led to the company being awarded a Tier 4 certification, the highest level for both NIST Cybersecurity and Privacy Frameworks.

Crypto.com has also announced that it has increased its total cryptocurrency insurance coverage to US$750M.

Although the company is headquartered in Hong Kong, it has an office in Singapore located at:

111 North Bridge Road #08-19 Pennisula Plaza Singapore 179098

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Independent Reserve

Established in 2013, Independent Reserve is an Australian institutional-grade cryptocurrency exchange with an order book enabling Australian New Zealand and Singapore clients to securely trade, invest and hold digital currencies.

The exchange has been operating in Singapore since 2019, providing Cryptocurrency exchange and over-the-counter trading services for its users.

In October 2021, Independent Reserve announced that they have received the license from MAS to offer DPT services in Singapore, living up to their mission of becoming a pro-regulation platform with the highest security to access cryptocurrencies.

Independent Reserve Fees

Pros

• Affordable fees based on trade volume

Cons

• Only 19 cryptocurrencies are available for trade.
• Independent Reserve charges fees for depositing fiat under S$1,000 into your account.
• Limited app features.

Is Independent Reserve Safe?

Like Crypto.com, Independent Reserve has the ISO 27001 security certification. It also states that:

• We do not ever lend, trade or reinvest your assets.
• We maintain 1:1 reserves of all client assets and keep the vast majority of these in offline cold storage vaults.
• We maintain complete segregation of our customers’ holdings for both fiat and crypto.
• Our books are balanced, and our business has sufficient liquidity to meet our operational needs.
• We engage independent external auditors to undertake an annual audit of our financial statements in accordance with our regulatory requirements as a licensed financial institution under the purview of the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The audit includes an independent assessment of the controls and compliance pertaining to our treatment of client assets in both fiat and crypto.

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Coinhako Review

Coinhako is a cryptocurrency exchange platform for consumers to buy, sell and secure their digital assets.

The company was founded back in 2014 by Singaporean entrepreneurs Yusho Liu and Gerry Eng and is headquartered in Singapore.

Their office is located at:

Far East Finance Building, 14 Robinson Road, #08-01A, Singapore, Singapore 048545

Coinhako Fees

Coinhako charges a flat 0.60% fee on buy, sell, and swap orders

Pros

• Affordable fees.
• Can easily deposit and withdraw SGD using Xfers to your bank accounts.
• Supports 67 different cryptocurrencies.
• Easy to use platform.

Cons

• Withdrawals cost S$2.

Is Coinhako Safe?

Coinhako has an ISO27001 security certification.

You can read more about Conhako’s security features here.

Also, Coinhako has not been hacked before.

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Coinbase Review

Coinbase was founded in San Francisco in 2012 by Brian Armstrong, a former Airbnb engineer. The company allows people and companies to buy and sell various digital currencies, including Bitcoin and Ether.

Coinbase now supports over 200 crypto assets for trading, and is the second largest cryptocurrency spot exchange in the world, second only to Binance.

Coinbase Fees

Pros

• Affordable fees based on trade volume.
• Easy to use and clean UI.
• Can trade 200 plus different cryptocurrencies.
• No deposit or withdrawal fees for SGD with local banks.
• You can stake your cryptocurrency to earn interest.

Cons

• Fees are a bit high.

Is Coinbase Safe?

In October this year, Coinbase received a full license in Singapore to expand the range of digital asset payment services available in the region.

The company was granted a complete major payment institution license in accordance with the Payment Services Act approximately one year following the preliminary approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). This approval places the company among over twelve other firms that have been licensed to provide digital payment token (DPT) services in Singapore.

Moreover, it is trusted by US regulators as the company went through scrutiny under the traditional initial public offering (IPO) route to be listed on the NASDAQ.

For more on Coinbase’s security, you can read this independent review, which states:

As most sources say, yes. – it has 40 different licenses to operate in 30 states of the US alone and can be used in many countries to send, receive or store funds.
To buy and sell features, though, Coinbase can be used only in 32 countries – you can consult the list here. – when talking about how safe is Coinbase, we must also mention that Coinbase stores the vast majority of the digital assets in secure offline storage and the cryptocurrency stored in their servers is covered by their insurance policy:
“Coinbase prioritizes the security of our customer’s funds, all digital currency that Coinbase holds online is insured. If Coinbase were to suffer a breach of its online storage, the insurance policy would payout to cover any customer funds lost as a result.”
Another important aspect is that Coinbase adheres to strict KYC (Know Your Customer) rules and closely respects them. It also cannot be used anonymously – “due to the KYC rules, users must submit a government-issued piece of ID and, in some cases, address verification in order to use the platforms BUY and SELL features.”

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