BaseFEX Review
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BaseFEX is a futures trading platform that offers high-leveraged trading contracts for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies with profits and losses settled in Bitcoin or USDT. But is it safe to use? We will review BaseFEX in detail in this article and assess important aspects such as its features, trading pairs, fees, security and customer support.
https://www.basefex.com/
Our BaseFEX Review - Quick Verdict
BaseFEX is a futures trading platform with margin trading up to 100 times. The exchange supports Bitcoin deposits and withdrawals which is ideal for individuals looking to increase their BTC holdings by speculating with leverage on the cryptocurrency market. However, the overall user experience, trading tools, features, and liquidity on BaseFEX are lacking. Traders that want a crypto exchange for leverage trading will find better alternatives in the market like Binance, ByBit and PrimeXBT.
What Is BaseFEX?
BaseFEX is a cryptocurrency leverage exchange where traders can successfully place orders under any market condition. The exchange has been developed by professionals using cutting-edge technologies from the ever-evolving internet industry, which outperforms decades-old technical solutions commonly used in the financial industry.
According to the website, BaseFEX’s mission is "to be the most reliable, transparent and advanced cryptocurrency derivative exchange, and make trading smooth, secure and accessible for traders worldwide."
BaseFEX is backed by InBlockchain, China’s most eminent venture capital fund in the cryptocurrency space, and Big.ONE, one of the largest spot exchanges that has over $500 million daily volume. BaseFEX has been in operation since Oct. 2018. The CEO of BaseFEX is Jesse Wu and the CTO is Issac Zeng.
BaseFEX Compared
| Exchange | Crypto Assets | Trading Fees | Rating | Promotion | Website | Review |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Binance | 600+ | 0% to 0.1% | Rating | Up to $100 welcome bonus | Visit Binance | Binance Review |
 ByBit | 331 (608 trading pairs) | 0% (spot), 0.06% / 0.01% (futures) | Rating | Deposit bonus up to $30,000 USDT | Visit ByBit | ByBit Review |
 Kraken | 222 | 0.16% (maker) and 0.26% (taker) | Rating | None available at this time | Visit Kraken | Kraken Review |
Benefits of BaseFEX
You should trade with BaseFEX if:
- You want fair and competitive trading fees
- You want to trade perpetual contract with leverage up to 100x
- You like an easy-to-use, beginner friendly leverage trading platform
- You are familiar with using TradingView charts and advanced tools
- You like an exchange that keeps 100% of client funds in cold storage
Is BaseFEX Safe?
There have been no reports of major security breaches or hacks on the exchange since its launch in October, 2018. This a positive sign early on. According to BaseFEX, they have obtained the highest security rating from Mozilla. Only 4 exchanges have scored A+ in Mozilla’s Observatory Test, out of over 400 cryptocurrency exchanges examined. This in itself is a testament to the inherent security features that will provide comfort to new traders that wish to join BaseFEX.
Depositing Funds on BaseFEX
BaseFEX does not accept deposit of fiat currency. It is a cryptocurrency trading exchange only. This means new cryptocurrency traders will need to make a Bitcoin purchase first and deposit BTC into the exchange. To do this, you will need to find a reputable fiat-to-crypto exchange that accepts deposits of fiat currency in exchange for Bitcoin. Once you have registered an account and signed in, you will need to make a Bitcoin deposit on BaseFEX to start trading.
Next, click on 'Deposit BTC' to show the deposit screen with the Bitcoin address. This is the BTC address to send Bitcoin to. Copy the address and paste it in your hardware wallet or wherever you are making a withdrawal from. If you are using a mobile web wallet, then you can scan the barcode to get the deposit address.
User Interface
For cryptocurrency traders, the interface is one of the most important considerations. When selecting a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange, make sure you are happy with the trading interface. It must feel right as this is where most of your time will be spent!
When you first login to BaseFEX, you will see that the trading interface is well laid out and intuitive. On the left, the cryptocurrency trading pairs are listed with the chart on the right. Traders will be glad to see BaseFEX uses the TradingView charting system, which are renowned for smooth, intuitive and responsive charts.
TradingView provides advanced trading tools to assist trades to visualize their trading edge. The charts offer a wide range of time frames and tools to draw trend lines, add indicators and draw chart patterns to perfectly time a trade order using a market, limit or stop order.
Active positions are displayed at the bottom and can be easily monitored. The asset, position size, entry price, margin, and unrealized P&L are all displayed and update in real time. More experienced traders will benefit from the market depth chart and order book on the right.
Order Types
BaseFEX ordering system allows traders to set up their take profit and stop loss using limit orders such as:
- Limit Order - an order is fulfilled if the specified price is reached
- Market Order - an order is executed at current market price
- Stop Limit Order - an order is filled once the Stop Price is triggered
- Stop Market Order - an order that is not visible in the order book until the market reaches a specified price
- Trailing Stop Order - an order that has a specified trailing value that is used to trigger a market order
- Take Profit Limit Order - an order is fulfilled if the specified take profit price is reached
- Take Profit Market Order - an order is fulfilled if the specified take profit at market price is reached
Leverage
As BaseFEX is a cryptocurrency only service, so you can only use cryptocurrency as collateral to trade with. This means that if you have a leverage of 100x you will need to put up a margin of 1% of the initial notional amount of the trade. So, if the notional on a 10 Bitcoin contract is $10,000, you will have to put up $100 in initial margin. The amount of leverage varies for the product. Basically, users can trade leverage up to 100x for Bitcoin and up to 20x for the other coins available below.
BaseFEX offers leveraged products for:
- Bitcoin (USD/USDT)
- Ethereum
- Ripple
- Litecoin
- Binance Coin
- Bitcoin Cash
Note: Be careful using leveraged trading. It can lead to massive profit returns but also big losses.
BaseFEX Fees
Trading Fees
BaseFEX trading fees are an important consideration when selecting a cryptocurrency trading exchange. It becomes even more critical when trading larger position sizes and on a futures exchange where you are paying fees on positions that are much larger than your margin.
BaseFEX exchange works on a maker vs taker fee system so the transaction costs are dependent on the type of order (e.g. futures or contracts) and the cryptocurrency coin as shown in the figure above. Users that place a traditional futures BTC order will earn a small compensation, as BaseFEX rebates the maker trader 0.02% and charges the taker 0.07%. Overall, BaseFEX fees are slightly cheaper compared to its main competitors such as BitMEX and Bybit.
Insurance Fund
To mitigate the inherent risk posed by shortfalls in futures contract settlement, BaseFEX crypto exchange maintains a contingency called the “Insurance Fund”. The Insurance Fund decreases the possibility of auto-deleveraging in the event of liquidation. Essentially, it is an insurance policy to protect traders as a fail safe mechanism in the event BaseFEX can not liquidate a position at bankruptcy price or better. The BaseFEX insurance fund will use the balance to cover the shortfall.
The crypto exchange shows the current balance of the Insurance Fund on the website. Anyone can view it at any time, ensuring a very transparent system.
Security Measures
BaseFEX includes a number of security features to protect its clients funds from compromise. According to the website, all assets on BaseFEX are stored in multi-signatured cold wallets.
BaseFEX addresses are multi-signatured and all storage is kept offline. This means, even in an event of system compromise, an attacker still will not have full access to all the required keys to steal funds. Bitcoin keys are not kept on an online server which greatly reduces cyber risks such as hackers.
All BaseFEX withdrawals are manually audited before sending and requires the coordinated actions of multiple BaseFEX employees. All deposit addresses are verified by an external service to ensure that they contain the keys that the founders control. If the public keys do not match, the system is immediately shut down and trading is stopped.
Customer Support
Being a fairly new exchange, there are not too many BaseFEX reviews online or on Reddit. The one thing that does stand out is the expansive suite of guides and articles in the 'FAQ section'. It covers absolutely everything such as:
- Beginners Q&A
- Getting Started on BaseFEX
- Deposit & Withdrawal
- Margin & Leverage
- Profit & Loss
- Liquidation
If you can't find the answer to a question here, there is the option to contact the customer support team using the live chat bot. It can be found the bottom left corner and available 24/7. We tested it out and got a response almost immediately. The BaseFEX customer support team can be contacted through Email, Telegram and Twitter.
BaseFEX Alternatives
BaseFEX vs. Binance
Binance is the largest cryptocurrency trading platform in the world. The two exchanges have traditionally focused on different cryptocurrency trading products.
However, Binance have recently introduced margin and futures trading to its exchange to compete with new competitors in the cryptocurrency trading space. As most will know, Binance offers a wide selection of altcoins and stablecoins to trade.
Where as BaseFEX only allows trading against Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, Binance Coin and Bitcoin Cash contracts. We do expect the competition to increase in the near future as Binance continues to innovate and introduce new trading experiences and products to attract new users.
BaseFEX vs. ByBit
Both exchanges are competing in the Bitcoin derivatives trading space. There are similarities between the two exchanges however ByBit has a larger daily volume to boast with and commands more users with an established reputation in the market.
Bybit entered into the space by offering unique features that are very attractive such as trading competitors, price manipulation control, fast trade speed and low latency, insurance fund and up to 100 times leverage on Etherium contracts. These features appear to be the norm now with BaseFEX offering many of these as standard on their platform.
Frequently Asked Questions
BaseFEX exchange offers its users the ability to trade Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency derivatives on a secure and reliable app with support for iOS and Android smart phones. The BaseFEX app can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play respectively. This allows its users to monitor trades and manage position risk while on the go.
US investors can not trade with BaseFEX. The exclusion of US investors is primarily due to regulatory reasons. The US regulatory bodies impose strict obligations on companies accepting funds from US investors.
Conclusion
To conclude this BaseFEX review, the exchange offers very low trading fees and has all the fruit expected for a derivatives crypto exchange today. The trading platform will suit beginners and professional traders who are familiar with trading volatile risk assets and exposure to margin trading. BaseFEX exchange has done a lot of things right to quickly become a well-respected and trusted cryptocurrency derivatives platform to speculate on the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency market.
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