Uphold exchange review
Cryptocurrencies:
Fees:
Security system:
Deposit methods:
Cryptocurrencies
Uphold offers an excellent range of over 250 cryptos, including some of the biggest ones on the market such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple.
| Bitcoin (BTC) | Available |
| Bitcoin Cash (BCH) | Available |
| Ethereum (ETH) | Available |
| Ripple (XRP) | Available |
| Solana (SOL) | Available |
| Dogecoin (DOGE) | Available |
| Polkadot (DOT) | Available |
| Polygon (MATIC) | Available |
| Cardano (ADA) | Available |
| Litecoin (LTC) | Available |
| Tether (USDT) | Available |
In contrast, Kraken lists over 210 cryptos on its platform, while Binance offers more than 350. However, compared to its competitors, Uphold has a low minimum deposit of $10 required to begin trading.
Payment methods
You can deposit and withdraw in CAD.
| Payment method | Limits |
|---|---|
| VISA daily limit (buying in FIAT) | $500 requires KYC verification, proof of address and a selfie. |
| MasterCard daily limit (buying in FIAT) | $500 requires KYC verification, proof of address and a selfie. |
| Bank transfer daily limit (buying in FIAT) | $2,500 requires KYC verification, proof of address and a selfie. |
| Wire transfer daily limit (buying in FIAT) | No limits |
| Apple Pay daily limit (buying in FIAT) | $500 requires KYC verification, proof of address and a selfie. |
| Google Pay daily limit (buying in FIAT) | $500 requires KYC verification, proof of address and a selfie. |
Similarly, Kraken requires KYC checks to buy, sell and trade cryptos but your country of residence must match your ID documents. The company asks you for a selfie, proof of identity, which can be a drivers license, government-issued ID or passport, as well as proof of address, which can be a utility bill, correspondence from a government department or bank account statement.
Binance requires KYC verification to buy, sell and trade cryptos but your country of residence must match your ID documents. Instead of a selfie, you need to complete their face verification process and this can be done on your desktop computer or via a QR code on the Binance mobile app.The company asks you for proof of identity, which can be a drivers license, government-issued ID or passport, as well as proof of address, which can be a utility bill, correspondence from a government department or bank account statement.
CashtoCode eVoucher
You can’t fund your account with a CashtoCode eVoucher as this isn’t offered at Uphold.
Trading fees
While there are no trading, deposit or withdrawal fees, the platform charges relatively high service fees and a price protection fee of 0.75% whenever you buy or convert between FIAT currencies, so there’s a difference between the buy and sell price quote for the same currency pair. You also need to pay network fees when moving funds off-platform via crypto or bank transfer. However all customer-to-customer transfers on the Uphold platform are completely free regardless of currency or amount transferred.
| Assets | Service fee |
| Cryptocurrencies | 1.4%-1.95% |
| Equities | 1.4%-1.95% |
| Bitcoin and Universal Bitcoin | 1.05% |
| Dash | 1.25% |
| Stablecoins UPUSD, UPEUR, TUSD, USDT, USDC and DAI | 0.65% |
| Currencies USD, EUR and GBP | 0.65% |
| Currencies AUD, CAD, DKK, HKD, JPY, MXN, NZD, NOK, SGD, SEK and CHF | 0.95% |
| Philadelphia Gold and Silver Index, Universal Gold | 2.05% |
| Palladium | 3.05% |
| Silver | 3.65% |
| Platinum | 3.95% |
| Withdrawal | Network fee |
|---|---|
| Moving funds off-platform via crypto | $2.99 |
| Moving funds off-platform via bank transfer | $3.99 |
Staking
Uphold offers a program that allows users to stake any of the 32 eligible cryptos in order to validate transactions and secure the blockchain network. The rewards you earn depends on the amount staked, with annual percentage yields (APYs) of up to 13%. For instance, you can earn up to 4.25% on your Ethereum.
The staking feature, which is available on the web or in-app, only works with blockchains that use a Proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism for validating and processing transactions. Notably, rewards received for staking Ethereum are not re-staked but while market conditions allow, Uphold credits your account as if they were.
| Cryptocurrency | APY |
|---|---|
| Cosmos | 13% |
| Mina | 13% |
| Polkadot | 12% |
| Flare | 11% |
| Audius | 10% |
| Injective | 10% |
| Songbird | 10% |
| Band Protocol | 9% |
| Zilliqa | 8.5% |
| Livepeer | 8% |
| Near Protocol | 8% |
| Casper | 7% |
| Kusama | 7% |
| Harmony | 6% |
| Flow | 6% |
| Fetch.ai | 5.5% |
| Solana | 5.5% |
| Avalanche | 5% |
| Hedera | 5% |
| Kava | 5% |
| Oasis Network | 5% |
| Polygon | 5% |
| Skale Network | 5% |
| Threshold | 5% |
| Ethereum | 4.25% |
| Algorand | 4% |
| Tezos | 4% |
| Celer Network | 3.5% |
| The Graph | 3.5% |
| Cardano | 3% |
| Fantom | 3% |
| Tron | 2.5% |
Is Uphold exchange safe?
As a regulated Over-the-Counter (OTC) exchange, Uphold has been in operation since 2015 and amassed over 10 million users. The company has an array of industry-standard security measures in place that offer a high level of security for users, from running a bug bounty program to their very own Uphold Security Operations Centre with an internal security team in place.
A relatively low percentage of users (36%) rate Uphold with five stars on Trustpilot, which is a low indicator of safety. In addition, a class-action lawsuit was filed against the company last year by crypto lender Cred which was seeking $783 million in damages for Uphold’s hedging and yield earning programs that allegedly carried regulatory risk.
| Trustpilot | 3 star |
The most common issues raised are related to the fact that there’s no phone line to contact Uphold and instead users have to fill out a form on the website and many point to account, deposit and withdrawal concerns. However, people praise them for zero trading fees, a modern interface, as well the ability to earn cashback via the Uphold crypto rewards debit card.
Security
Uphold has an extensive range of security and technical measures in place such as annual audits for its web network, third-party financial and compliance audits, as well as Anti-Money Laundering (AML) controls. The company is also registered as a Money Service Business (MSB) with the United States Treasury Department regulator FinCEN and adheres to Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) standards.
| Safe coins storage | An undisclosed amount of deposits are held in cold storage. |
| Two-factor authentication | Two-factor authentication via SMS verification is required at Uphold. |
| Information security | Uphold uses procedural safeguards to keep your data safe including firewalls and data encryption. |
| Platform security | The Uphold Security Operations Centre monitors platform systems year-round. |
| Network security | A security team is in place to test network systems by running bug bounty programs, conducting penetration testing and security audits. |
In comparison, Kraken’s comprehensive security measures have earnt it an ICO rating as one of the most secure exchanges in the world. The company has a number of legal, compliance and security measures in place including maintenance of currency reserves with cryptographically verifiable proof-of-reserve audits. Staff use PGP/GPG encryption for emails and all crypto wallets are encrypted in data centers. What’s more, a vast bulk of new deposits are transferred directly to offline wallets, with only coins required to maintain Kraken’s liquidity being kept in online wallets.
Similarly, Binance stores 10% of all trading funds in a secure asset fund and advanced end-to-end data encryption ensures that your transaction information is secured. You can also activate access controls on your account that limits withdrawals to only certain IP addresses or wallets. Binance notes that it algorithmically tracks all accounts and can implement 24-to-48 freezes as part of security measures.
How to start trading at Uphold exchange?
Registration
You need to create an account in order to register with Uphold and this can be done by:
- Visiting the homepage and inputting your email address so you can create a password and start the process.
- You then need to enter your country of residence and citizenship.
- After accepting the Terms and Conditions, you have to submit personal details such as your name, date of birth and residential address.
- You then need to enter your phone number to receive an SMS verification text message.
- After verifying your phone number, you have to complete KYC verification.
- Upon successful registration and passing verification, access to all functions of the site including higher limits are available to you.
KYC
After filling in your account details, you need to go through KYC verification. This process is required for anyone who wants to buy, sell or exchange cryptos, fiat currencies, equities and precious metals, regardless of the amount you wish to buy. Passing KYC checks also unlocks functionalities such as free customer-to-customer transfers on the Uphold platform.
You must provide a clear and visible picture of the front and back side of your documents such as proof of address and passport. In addition, you need to submit a selfie.
Customer support
Despite being a globally well-known and prominent crypto exchange, customer service options are limited at Uphold, with a live chat function that’s only available in two languages.
| Live chat | 24/7 live chat available in English and Spanish. |
| Phone support | No customer phone line available. |
| No customer service email available. | |
| FAQs | Available |
Uphold uses a ticketing system where users need to fill in an online form with a subject, description and optional attachment in order to contact the company. For users who are dealing with emergency account issues, there’s no way to speak with customer service on the phone. However, this is compensated for by the 24/7 live chat function.
Conclusion
Uphold is recommended to users who are looking to earn rewards for spending through a rewards debit card, which gives 4% crypto rewards in XRP on all purchases, or those looking to earn rewards on crypto via staking. However, there are relatively high service fees and a price protection fee, making the service less accessible for active traders.
But if you don’t mind this, Uphold can still be a great option if you’re looking for a versatile product suite that offers fiat currencies, equities and even precious metals such as gold, silver, palladium and platinum, which is a major differentiating factor and unique selling point (USP) for the platform. Uphold could improve its service by providing customer phone support or offering fee discounts.
Alternatives of Uphold
- AAA security rating by CER
- Educational resources for traders through online Learn Centre
- 24/7 customer phone support
- Modern interface
- Wide range of cryptos available at over 210
- High trading fees
- Limited payment method options
- Low number of cryptos available to stake
- Low trading fees
- Modern interface
- Wide selection of cryptos available at over 350
- Ability to stake 27 different cryptos
- Variety of payment methods available
- Regulatory issues and lawsuits
- Security concerns related to hacks
- VISA debit card with spending rewards in crypto
- Staking program available for 22 different cryptos
- Online Crypto.com University with educational resources for traders
- Trading fee discounts
- Top-rated mobile app
- High fees unless you use CRO in trades
- Limited payment method options
- No customer phone support
Kraken is one of the only crypto exchanges in the world to offer 24/7 customer support via phone, while most others tend to only offer an online form system combined with a 24/7 live chat service. The company charges low fees of 1.5% to buy or sell crypto, 0.9% for stablecoins and you can pay even less (0.16% maker fee and 0.26% taker fee) if you opt for the Kraken Pro service which is marketed more to high-volume traders.
Despite being one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world according to trading volume, Binance doesn’t offer its users the option of customer phone support and instead provides an online form. However, there’s a 24/7 live chat function available in over 17 languages. In addition, Binance charges a low fee of 0.10% for trading on the platform, as well as a 0.50% fee for instant buy/sell. Last year, the company introduced zero maker and taker fees for all 13 Bitcoin spot trading pairs and when you use BNB in trades, you get a 25% discount on trading fees.
Crypto.com offers more crypto coins and their capacity can cater to more customers, guaranteeing access to support in case you get into trouble. In addition, by using Crypto.com exchange, you can get access to a Crypto.com card which you can use in Canada and around the world.
FAQs
Yes, because Uphold has been in operation since 2015 and they have a comprehensive range of security measures in place, as well as being regulated by FinCEN as a Money Service Business (MSB) provider.
50 million merchants in total accept the card via the MasterCard network and you have the ability to convert any asset held with Uphold into FIAT to spend on the card. You can also earn 4% crypto rewards in XRP on all purchases.
The platform offers commissions of 2.5%-13% depending on the crypto being staked and there are 32 available within the staking program.
Yes, you can generate a transaction report by clicking the document icon on your web wallet or mobile app screen.
They accept MasterCard and VISA but it’s not apparent whether they are currently working to enlarge the choice of cards available for users.
Yes, Uphold allows the creation of accounts for commercial purposes and such accounts come with higher transaction limits.
Yes, Uphold uses procedural safeguards to keep your data safe including firewalls and data encryption.
Uphold doesn’t charge deposit or withdrawal fees but you need to pay network fees when moving funds off-platform via crypto or bank transfer, as well as service fees and a price protection fee when you buy or convert between different FIAT currencies.
Specification: Uphold exchange review
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