CoinSquare is a cryptocurrency exchange that is based in Canada. The exchange offers its customers trading services for a variety of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Dash, and Ethereum. Purpose built and geared towards Canadian cryptocurrency investors, the exchange is available in English and French. Nevertheless, CoinSquare has also made its platform services available to investors from the global cryptocurrency market. CoinSquare offers its customers multiple funding option types and accepts fiat currency deposits. Another key feature of CoinSquare is the fact that the exchange has made security one of its topmost priorities. It has been said that the exchange uses the same kind of technology that the New York Stock Exchange uses. Since 2015, CoinSquare has claimed no loss of even a single coin.
6.6
Score6.6
Score Android
Score iPhone
LocationCanada
CurrenciesCAD
LanguagesEN, FR
Buy withCAD
FeesMaker 0.1% - Taker 0.2%
AltcoinsYes
Margin tradingNo (Exchange does not support margin trading)
Trust scoreB
Beginner friendlyNo (Exchange is complex and difficult for beginners)
Stability2. Most (Exchange has occasional outages)
FiatYes (The Exchange supports Fiat currency as USD, EUR, etc.)
APIYes (API is available for public to use)
Rest APIYes (The Exchange has Rest API support)
WebsocketNo (The Exchange does not have Websocket)
Mobile appYes (Exchange has a mobile app)
Credit cardYes (Credit card support)
ReferralNo (Exchange does not offer an affiliate program)
Two factor authentificationYes (The Exchange supports two factor authentication)
LendingNo (Exchange does not support lending)
Stop limitNo (Exchange does not support stop limit)
US licenceNo (Exchange don't have US licence for Money transmitter)
PGP supportNo (Exchange does not have PGP encryption)Coinsquare is based in Toronto. This is heavily advertised as a positive factor, as Canada is obviously a developed country with a sound financial and regulatory environment.
The focus on Canadian customers is further underlined by the fact the company offers trading against the CAD. While this is a major currency, followed closely by a lot of forex traders, it is by no means widely used out of the country, as the US dollar for instance. That being said the Base currency of your Coinsquare account can be: CAD, USD, EUR, GBP, AUD or BTC.
Trading in some exotic forms of metals trading is also available at Coinsquare. We will cover them later on in the review.
A 95% cold storage policy is implied at Coinsquare. This is a solid measure, which guarantees a very high level of security. While we are on the topic, Coinsquare has not been involved in a major hacking scandal.
There are relatively few reviews on Coinsquare, but a decent portion of them are negative. While the service is easy to use, some users apparently didn’t understand the fee structure completely. Furthermore, there are some very serious claims regarding price manipulation.
Another interesting, but not crucial point is that this is one of the few exchanges, which exclusively states it doesn’t provide services to residents of New York. Of course, this is due to the 2015 BitLicence, which attempts to regulate cryptocurrency exchanges in the Big Apple.
Coinsquare has also started offering “Wealth” services to those who place very big orders. There are three “account types”, based on the size of each transfer you make, starting from $25,000. The benefits gained feature lower bank transfer fees, OTC trading and more.
Manuals for Coinsquare
Trading instruments (cryptocurrencies)
When building a portfolio at Coinsquare one can include several assets, including some which are even more unusual than cryptocurrencies.
The digital assets include: Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Dash, Dogecoin, Litecoin.
The fiat currencies available are: CAD, USD, EUR, GBP, AUD.
Additionally they allow trading in gold and silver Bars, as well as silver coins. These are traded differently than the spot pairs XAU/USD and XAG/USD, which forex traders are probably familiar with. We are not certain if the instruments offered by Coinsquare are only financial or feature physical delivery of the coins and bars upon request.
Minimum initial deposit
The minimum initial deposit at Coinsquare is $100. Given the Canadian focus of this company, we are not sure if this is measured in USD or CAD. This is a reasonable level of an initial investment, which is also required by a lot of forex brokers, like FxPro.
While one of the payment methods at Coinsquare has a lower minimum deposit, $100 is needed in order to confirm your bank account, which you will need in order to make a withdrawal. These details will be covered below.
Leverage
Coinsquare does not currently support margin trading. This is expected, as the company is targeting beginners and allowing the creation of a more long-term portfolio. Other crypto-exchanges do offer margin trading for some coins.
That being said, some forex brokers, like FXTM offer another way of trading cryptocurrencies. They support CFDs on cryptocurrencies (most commonly Bitcoin), which are used as a speculative instrument. These derivatives carry a few specifics, like the ability to use leverage and the fact you don’t actually own the coins you speculate on.
Fees
The fee structure at Coinsquare Is transparent. The costs of making transaction on Coinsquare are in-line with the rest of the industry. They charge 0.10% for market makers (the traders who passively provide liquidity to the exchange) and 0.20% for market takers – the ones buying or selling directly at the best possible price. Nowadays some exchanges, like GDAX charge 0.25%.
Additionally a QuickTrade feature is available. It has slightly higher fees, which can go up to 0.4%, depending on the asset class.
Security rating of Coinsquare
In terms of verification, the process is open to all Canadian residents. Verification will allow the account holder to access various banking options when it comes to deposits and withdrawals. According to CoinSquare, they are unable to verify those who are non-residents at the present moment.
With security as their number one priority, the exchange has ensured that it has several layers of protection in place:
- 2FA Authentication
- 95% of the funds are kept in cold storage
- Encrypted and Distributed backups daily
- SSL Encryption
Review of Coinsquare
Though Coinsquare is indeed legitimate, it seems like many of its operational aspects need further streamlining. The number of complainers is just too big for comfort. Remember though: the operator is transparent regarding most of the issues users complain about. If you plan on trading with Coinsquare, make sure to read the fine-print as well as the not-so-fine print attached to the description of every service.
It also has to be pointed out that Coinsquare have a number of special offers in place for those looking to trade large volumes of cryptos. The Coinsquare Concierge program is aimed at those trading more than $25,000, while Coinsquare Diamond is for users trading over $100,000 at a time. The Diamond feature offers free wire funding and access to a concierge trading desk.
