Quick-Take: BTC Markets is Australia's oldest and most liquid cryptocurrency exchange, the platform was founded in 2013 when Bitcoin was just $100 AUD. The exchange has been tailored for Aussie investors and offers free AUD deposits.
BTC Markets is one of the oldest cryptocurrency exchanges in Australia, it was launched four years after the inception of the first-ever cryptocurrency. It is a privately held cryptocurrency investing platform, based in Melbourne. The platform is exclusive to Australians and allows its users to trade cryptocurrencies with AUD (Australian Dollars) instead of USD (United States Dollars).
They offer free and instant AUD deposits and withdrawals, spot trading, futures trading, cryptocurrency staking, OTC trading, and the ability to invest in digital assets with your SMSF. Users can invest in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and other cryptocurrencies using their SMSF with a tiered fee structure.
Yes, the platform is considered to be a fairly secure cryptocurrency exchange. BTC Markets was the first ever exchange in Australia to get Blockchain Australia's Gold Certification. The company, BTC Markets Pty Ltd (ACN 164 093 887, ABN 45 164 093 887) is an AUSTRAC-registered digital currency exchange and abides by their rules and regulations.
They also use two-factor authentication and rate limits to protect against cyber attacks. Additional to this, 98% of users assets are stored in off-site cold wallet storage. The exchange has never been subjected to a cyber attack or any form of hacking incident. It is yet to obtain the ISO 27001 standard security certificate, CoinSpot is the only high security exchange to obtain this certification.
For market pairs the exchange charges a -0.05% Maker Fee and a 0.2% Taker Fee. For Spot trading, fees start from 0.85% but can get as low as 0.1% when trading over $5,000,000 in a 30 day volume period.
All deposits on BTC markets are completely free (both AUD and crypto deposits). Withdrawals are free when withdrawing fiat currencies (AUD) however, cryptocurrency withdrawals do incur a small fee. You can refer to the photo below for a breakdown of the costs.
BTC Markets currently offers staking on one token - Algorand for 0.06% APY*. However, the APY is extremely low when comparing with other exchanges like eToro and CoinSpot who offer 6% APY when staking Algorand. If you wish to earn yields on your crypto assets, we recommend using eToro or CoinSpot.
They also allow their users to invest in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and other cryptocurrencies using their SMSF with a tiered fee structure. There are currently no prohibitions on SMSF investment in digital assets. However, it must meet the investment strategy and risk as per 52B of the SISA and reg 4.09 of the SISR.
The mobile app version of BTC markets is supported on both iOS and Android. For apple users, the app is available for both iPhone and iPad. The mobile app has similar functionality to their website. You can access your portfolio, check markets and make trades on the go.
If you would like to invest in Bitcoin or any cryptocurrencies on BTC Markets, follow the below steps to get started.
Step One: Sign up to BTC Markets
Step Two: Complete your KYC (verification of identity)
Step Three: Deposit the amount of AUD you wish to invest
Step Four: Go to Buy/Sell and find the token you want to buy
Step Five: Input the dollar amount you want to purchase and click 'Buy'!
If you would like to use USD to buy crypto, we recommend using eToro Australia. It offers over 50 cryptocurrencies to invest in and have free/instant deposit methods such as BPAY, POLi, PayID and more. Additional to this, they are the only cryptocurrency exchange in the world that offers investing in traditional financial markets such as stocks, commodities, indices, currencies, ETFs and more.
If you're an Australian investor who wants to trade with AUD but find that BTC Markets lacks cryptocurrencies, tokens or has high fees, we recommend using CoinSpot. CoinSpot is Australia's largest and most secure cryptocurrency exchange with over 350 cryptocurrencies to invest in. The platform offers low trading fees, multiple cryptocurrency staking options, an NFT marketplace and Bundles (similar to ETF's).
To learn more about CoinSpot we recommend reading our CoinSpot review page.
BTC Markets is best suited for institutional investors and not for cryptocurrency beginners. The UI is hard to navigate and the platform does not offer an 'Instant Buy' feature making it hard for crypto newbies to use. The staking APY is the lowest APY you can receive in crypto.
As mentioned in the above paragraph, there are better Australian-based exchanges with higher staking returns and larger selection of cryptocurrencies.
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