Cobinhood Review – Is It A Reliable Exchange?
In this article we will take a look at the exciting new exchange Cobinhood. This article will look at how Cobinhood compares with other exchanges, and will also take you through how to set up an account and start trading. Read on for our Cobinhood review.
The First Zero Fee Crypto Exchange
Perhaps the biggest selling point of Cobinhood, and the reason they stand out in the highly competitive market of crypto exchanges is that Cobinhood charges no fee on all trades. On most exchanges, there is a small fee that you pay each time you exchange one crypto for another. Cobinhood is different, offering unlimited free exchanges.
This is a huge plus point for Cobinhood. Not only will this mean you get more crypto in each exchange, but it also means that if you make a mistake trading, you can swap back and won’t have lost money on fees (of course, you might still lose out due to the volatility of cryptos). This makes Cobinhood a great choice for people just starting out in the world of crypto trading and also a good choice for more advanced traders who are making a large number of transactions and are sick and tired of paying out in fees.
It really is a huge coup for Cobinhood, and at the time of writing, they are the only exchange out there that have a zero fee model.
Of course, Cobinhood still has to make money somehow, so you will still pay fees for withdrawing cryptos from Cobinhood wallets to your other wallets outside of the exchange.
A Wide Selection of Altcoins
As well as offering staple coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum, Cobinhood offers lots of interesting altcoin to ETH or BTC pairings. This means if you are looking to diversify your portfolio, Cobinhood is certainly worth a look. Also, the number of tokens and pairings it offers are constantly expanding as the company is looking to grow its crypto base.
So, Cobinhood offers more altcoins than Coinbase does. However, it is still not as expansive as Binance, which is still the market leader when it comes to altcoins. Also, you may be surprised to see some standard pairings that are missing, like Litecoin and Bitcoin or Dash and Bitcoin.
Saying this, overall Cobinhood has a wealth of pairings to choose from. However, if there is a particular altcoin you are interested in investing in, do not assume that Cobinhood has it. In this sense, they might not be the ideal exchange for the more adventurous altcoin explorers out there.
USD Fiat Currency Pairings
If you have access to US dollars, then Cobinhood has got you covered when it comes to fiat currency trading. You can deposit and withdraw up to fifteen thousand dollars a day and then exchange these for various cryptos. At the time of writing, there are four US Dollar pairings available: USD and Ethereum, USD and Bitcoin, USD and Tether and USD and COB (COB is Cobinhood’s own token).
So, this is great news if you are American, or have access to dollars because Cobinhood is essentially a one-stop shop for your crypto needs.
However, for those of us living on the other side of the Atlantic, the lack of support for Euros or Pounds Sterling is a hindrance. If you want to trade crypto and your primary fiat currency is not dollars, then you are going to need to buy your Bitcoin or Ether elsewhere and deposit it into your Cobinhood wallet. Furthermore, you will not be able to buy COB without buying Bitcoin or Ether and trading for it. This is annoying, as certain services on Cobinhood, like margin trading, require that a user has an amount of COB. Hopefully, as Cobinhood grows, they will be able to expand their international presence and include more fiat currencies in the future.
Even more drastically, if you are Japanese or have Japanese citizenship, then you cannot use Cobinhood at all, due to legal issues with Cobinhood’s licensing. This is a common problem for exchanges though, as Japanese financial regulators are particularly tough on crypto in general.
ICOs and Airdrops
For those more experienced in the world of crypto trading, perhaps one of the most exciting features of Cobinhood is the fact that it includes within its ecosystem a dedicated system for handling Initial Coin Offerings and Airdrops. They boast the only end to end ICO service in the market, meaning that it is easier for developers to list their new tokens on Cobinhood.
This means if you are looking for new projects to invest in, Cobinhood is bound to host some interesting tokens in the near future. Furthermore, the fact that the entire ICO takes place within the Cobinhood ecosystem means that all you need to take part is COB tokens and an account.
Many novice investors are put off ICOs by the complexity of the process of buying new coins, so Cobinhood could be a real game changer here, opening up a new wave of investors to initial coin offerings.
Cobinhood iOS & Android Apps
As well as being available through your browser, the Cobinhood exchange is accessible on smartphone and tablet too. Their free app is available on both the Apple Store and Google Play, so you can trade on Cobinhood anywhere.
Download The iOS App Now!
Get The Android App!
Trading on Cobinhood
Key Facts
- Zero trading fees
- USD fiat to crypto trading
- Access over 20 cryptos including BTC, ETH, LTC,TRX, IOTA, Monero, 0x & more.
- Deposit methods: Crypto & fiat using Epay via bank transfer, Payeer, Perfect Money, Advcash & Fasapay.
Navigate to the homepage and then click sign up in the top right hand corner. This brings up a box prompting you to enter your email address and a strong password. You should select a password that is at least 10 characters long, and combines numbers, upper and lowercase letters and wildcards (!, £, $, % etc.). It also highly recommended that you use a unique password here, one that you have never used for any other internet service.
If you take a look at the screenshot of the sign-up screen, you will notice a second checkbox after the usual terms and conditions checkbox, where you must confirm that you do not reside in New York State or Japan. This is to do with Cobinhood negotiating to make sure they are 100% legal everywhere that they are used. Cobinhood has stated that they are trying their best to negotiate a deal with the particular governments, so if you do live in either of these places then stay tuned as these rules may be relaxed in the future.
Once you have signed up, you will receive a verification email immediately. Click the link in the email to verify your email address, and after a short wait you’ll be brought directly to the main trading screen. If you have any experience with other exchanges, you may be surprised how quick it is to get set up compared to say Binance or Coinbase. However, although you can now see the trading screen, there are more steps required if you want to start trading between crypto and fiat currencies.
Although at this point you can already begin trading, it is highly recommended that at this stage you go on to set up two factor authentication (2FA).
How To Set Up Two-factor Authentication On Cobinhood?
Two Factor Authentication is a security measure that adds an extra level of identity checking to your login. It is common in many online services where password protection alone is a little too flimsy. Often this means that you also enter a phone number, and upon login, you will be prompted to enter a code you receive by text.
Cobinhood offers two factor authentication to protect your account. You provide a mobile phone number that they can send a pin number to when you log in. This ensures that even if hackers could steal your password, they would still need your phone as well before they could access your account.
However, Cobinhood goes further than this, requiring that you also provide proof of identity. This is common with crypto exchanges and is part of the ongoing battle to ensure that cryptocurrencies are not used in money laundering and tax evasion.
If you do both of these things, your account will be upgraded to level 2, which lifts your daily withdrawal limit to 100 BTC.
To deposit fiat currencies with Cobinhood, you are required to upgrade your account to level 3. This means that you need to complete all the checks associated with level 2, but then also must provide proof of residence and proof of income or source of funds.
To get started trading, you will need to deposit some funds into Cobinhood. Head over to the Wallet section to do this. There are two ways to start trading from here depending on whether or not you already have some cryptocurrency.
Getting Started: If You Already Have Crypto
If you have crypto already, search the name of the crypto in the search bar down at the bottom of the wallet screen. This will bring up the wallet for that particular crypto, provided that Cobinhood supports it. Now, hit the deposit button.
Pressing the deposit button will bring up the deposit address as well as a QR code. You can use either to deposit, depending on what wallet you are sending the crypto from. If you are not using the QR code, you should definitely press “Copy the Address” – DO NOT try to retype the address as this can lead to errors. Any mistake you make in the wallet address can possibly lead to losing the crypto you send for good. For this reason, it is also a really good idea to double check the address before you send. To be extra cautious, you can also send a small amount of crypto first to test that the address works. Then, once this is successful, you can go on to send a larger amount.
Also, make sure you are sending the right type of crypto to the right wallet – if you send anything else to that address it will not work and may be lost.
Getting Started: If You Only Have Fiat
If you do not have any crypto to trade with yet, then you will need to deposit a fiat currency into Cobinhood and then swap this for whichever crypto you would like. At this moment in time, the only fiat currency that Cobinhood supports is US dollars (USD), so if you don’t have access to dollars you will need to buy your crypto elsewhere and transfer it in (take a look at all our guides on how to buy cryptocurrency).
To deposit US dollars into your Cobinhood account, you will need you to have your account verified at level three, as I mentioned above. However, once you have achieved that, you can send a bank transfer to your US dollar wallet.
Once you have dollars in your account you can trade them for either Ethereum or Bitcoin, which you will want to do to gain access to all the more interesting altcoins available on Cobinhood. I go over the trading process below in greater detail.
Buy Crypto On Cobinhood Using The Mobile App
Depositing using the Cobinhood app is very similar to what I have discussed above, with just some minor layout tweaks. You select wallets at the bottom of the screen and then navigate to the crypto of your choice.
Once you select the crypto you want, choose ‘deposit’ to bring up a screen with wallet address and the option to display the QR code. As always, be very careful when copying down the address as any mistake could possibly result in the loss of funds.
How To Trade On Cobinhood?
So, at this point you have some crypto, or US dollars, and you want to start trading. Here, I’ll take you step by step on how to find a pairing and then make the trade.
How To Find The Right Trading Pair
To find the available pairings for whatever currency you currently have, go to the top left of the trading screen and click “select product”. This brings up a table displaying all the current pairings available for the selected currency. You can choose to see pairings for Tether (UDST), US Dollars (USD), Bitcoin (BTC), Cobinhood’s own token COB and Ethereum (ETH).
There is also a search bar up there, so if there is a specific crypto you are looking for you can search for it here and see what pairings it is offered in.
Also, there is the option to ‘favourite’ certain pairings. These pairings will appear under the star icon on this dropdown table. A good tip here is to keep all the pairings that you regularly use here – mark them as favorites to avoid having to navigate to them each time you want to trade.
How To Buy & Sell On Cobinhood?
Once you have found the particular pairing that you want to trade on, select it and the trading screen will now display the pricing and market performance of that particular pairing. On the right hand side of the screen, under the exchange tab, is where you can buy or sell this particular pair.
For example, for the pairing ETH/BTC, you will enter the amount of ether you want to trade. If you hit BUY, then you trade this amount of ETH for its respective amount of BTC. If you hit SELL, the transaction is the opposite way around and you swap bitcoin to get that amount of ETH.
When you enter an amount, you will be displayed an estimate of how much that is in US dollars, which is useful for giving you a sense of the value of the numbers you are dealing with. It can be hard to have a feeling for the value of cryptocurrencies, so this is a nice touch that helps you understand better the decisions you are making.
Once you hit buy or sell, this places an order. You can keep track of all your active orders in the open orders section of the trading screen. After a short time, depending on current processing times and the size of your order, the transaction will be complete, and you will have the new crypto available for trading.
Withdraw From Cobinhood Exchange
You can only withdraw from Cobinhood once you have two-factor authentication. Check back to that part of the article for more information.
If you want to withdraw cryptos or US dollars from Cobinhood, you’ll want to head back over to the Wallet section. Withdrawing could not be simpler; you just use the search function to find the crypto you want to withdraw, and then click the withdraw button.
If it is the first time you have withdrawn, then you will need to supply the address of the wallet you want to move your crypto into. Once you have entered this the first time though, you can withdraw without needing to re-enter the address each time.
Make sure that you enter the address correctly, or your funds can be lost.
If you are using the mobile app for Cobinhood, you can scan the QR code for your withdrawal wallet, which is a good way to avoid the risk of making a mistake copying out your wallet address. All you need to do is select the QR code button at the side of the wallet address box. You will then be prompted to give the Cobinhood app access to your camera. Once you have done that, simply point your camera at the QR code and wait for it to be accepted.
Top Tip: If you do not plan to use them for trading, it is advisable as a precaution to remove large amounts of cryptocurrency from exchange wallets and move them to a secure, offline wallet – known as cold storage. This is far safer than having them stored on an exchange.
It should be noted that while there are no fees from Cobinhood for trading, there are fees for withdrawal. These fees are displayed on the withdrawal screen before you carry out a withdrawal.
Final Word
Cobinhood is a well thought out challenger to the major exchanges. The fact that there are no trading fees makes it a real standout in the marketplace, and a natural choice for traders who trade often and in large volumes. Furthermore, the end to end ICO offering is exciting for those who are looking to get in on the ground floor with new crypto projects.
However, the fact that it currently only supports US dollars as fiat currency is a major issue that could dissuade European investors from signing up. Also, although they do have an impressive portfolio of altcoins, the amount of trading pairings offered is still far lower than is available on Binance.
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