Bitbuy Review

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Bottom line:

Bitbuy is a fully regulated Canadian cryptocurrency exchange that lets users buy and sell crypto with CAD. While the platform is beginner-friendly, it lacks features meaning it's unlikely to appeal to traders looking for advanced tools. Moreover, they have increased the trading fees from 1.5% to 2% in the last 12 months which drastically reduces Bitbuy's appeal. Despite this, Bitbuy is not a bad first exchange for Canadian investors but anyone looking for low fees or advanced features like leverage and automation tools must look elsewhere.

Pros Explained

• Regulated Canadian exchange. Cryptocurrency regulation in Canada is strict, meaning few platforms can operate within the region. However, Bitbuy is perfect for Canadian citizens as it's headquartered in Canada and regulated by FINTRAC.
• Suitable for beginners. Bitbuy is extremely simple to use, making it perfect for new investors. Furthermore, the Pro Trade feature offers an excellent way to expand your trading knowledge and get comfortable with an order-book-style interface.
• Offers insurance and Proof of Reserves. Bitbuy is one of the few platforms boasting 1:1 insurance on its assets. As such, the platform is far more secure than most exchanges, making it ideal for security-focused traders.

Cons Explained

• High Fees. While Bitbuy utilizes a volume-based fee schedule, most users will transact less than $250,000, meaning they'll be charged a 2% trading fee. Over time, high costs can quickly eat into profits, making it hard to recommend Bitbuy to smaller investors.
• Limited number of supported assets. Bitbuy only offers the most popular cryptos and not many smaller-cap altcoins. As a result, the platform is only suitable if you want to trade a few large coins.
• Spot-only platform. Although the Pro Trade platform grants users access to a few extra tools, Bitbuy still lacks leverage or margin options. As such, traders looking to take advantage of small price movements must find another exchange.

Bitbuy Compared and Alternatives

EXCHANGE	CRYPTO ASSETS	TRADING FEES	RATING	PROMOTION	WEBSITE	REVIEW
Kraken	222	0.16% (maker) and 0.26% (taker)	Rating We provide an overall weighted average rating out of 5 stars. Our ratings are based on objective criteria like the ease of use, fees, deposit methods, customer support and availability. Our reviews are not influenced by 3rd parties. Click here for further information about our rating methodology and a full list of categories we review against. 4.8 / 5	None available at this time	Visit Kraken	Kraken Review
NDAX	13	0.2%	Rating We provide an overall weighted average rating out of 5 stars. Our ratings are based on objective criteria like the ease of use, fees, deposit methods, customer support and availability. Our reviews are not influenced by 3rd parties. Click here for further information about our rating methodology and a full list of categories we review against. 4.0 / 5	None available at this time	Visit NDAX	NDAX Review
VirgoCX	60+	Included in spread	Rating We provide an overall weighted average rating out of 5 stars. Our ratings are based on objective criteria like the ease of use, fees, deposit methods, customer support and availability. Our reviews are not influenced by 3rd parties. Click here for further information about our rating methodology and a full list of categories we review against. 4.0 / 5	None available at this time	Visit VirgoCX	VirgoCX Review

Bitbuy At A Glance

Bitbuy is a Canadian-owned and operated cryptocurrency exchange established in 2016 to provide a reliable, convenient, and secure way to buy Bitcoin and other digital assets. It is one of the best Canadian cryptocurrency exchanges and was ranked among 2020's fastest-growing companies in Canada. The company is a registered Money Service Business (MSB) regulated by FINTRAC, a Federal Government of Canada entity. The company also recently acquired the exchange Coinberry to strengthen its presence in Canada.

Exchange Name	BitBuy
Features	Advanced Trading Platform, Staking, Insurance, Express Trade User-Friendly, Tax Reports,
Accepted Fiat Currency	CAD
Deposit Methods	Wire Transfer, Interac e-Transfer, Crypto
Supported Cryptocurrencies	24
Number of Trading Pairs	30
Trading Fees	2%
Customer Support	Help Center, Ticket System, Chatbot
Security Measures	2FA, Cold Storage Insurance, Proof of Reserves
Mobile App	Yes (IOS and Android)

Review of the Top Features on Bitbuy

Bitbuy is a cryptocurrency exchange that offers a full suite of digital currency services to individuals, businesses, and institutional investors via an OTC desk. The exchange allows buying and selling the most popular cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP. Here are a few other notable features and benefits.

Bitbuy Pro Trade

Bitbuy Pro Trade is an advanced trading platform offering features comparable to Binance. In contrast to Express Trade, Pro Trade features trading pairs denominated in CAD and BTC, as well as TradingView integration, making it a good place for beginners to sharpen their skills with a typical order book-based trading interface.

Trading pairs are on the left side, with a search bar making it simple to find a specific asset or quickly compare several pairs to locate the best opportunity. However, there is no way to set up multi-screen charting, which we're beginning to see implemented more commonly in exchanges we've reviewed.

The order book and market depth chart mean technical traders can easily compare the available liquidity at particular price points, helping people to implement tailored strategies. Overall, Pro Trade is a versatile trading platform with ample analysis tools. However, its high 2% transaction fee could eat into profits.

Cryptocurrency Staking

In recent years, a trend called crypto staking, which enables users to earn passive rewards by locking their crypto holdings for a period of time, has become very popular. Bitbuy supports staking for four assets; Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, and Polkadot. However, support for Avalance will also release soon.

While the number of supported assets is lackluster, the rates offered range from 4.28% to 10% APY, which is relatively competitive compared to the rate provided on the same cryptos by other staking platforms. Therefore, Bitbuy could be a good option for Canadian investors who want to stake their holdings but lack access to any dedicated platforms to do so.

However, while Bitbuy offers staking on a few assets, we were unimpressed to see that the company takes a 25% commission from its users' earnings. Not many mainstream exchanges we've reviewed take this approach, and with staking already limited, this charge is a significant hit to the feature's usability.

Although the options for staking crypto in Canada are limited, Bitbuy's service still needs to catch up to NDAX, one of its main competitors, which only takes 20% of your earnings and offers five staking assets with increased yields. So although Bitbuy seems to be working to develop its staking service, as it stands, there are better options for Canadian investors.

Bitcoin Insurance

Bitbuy is one of the few crypto exchanges offering insurance on crypto holdings. Funds stored on Bitbuy are secured in offline cold storage with insurance up to the total value. This feature is made possible through a partnership with BitGo, a world-class institutional custody provider with a comprehensive insurance policy that extends to customer funds.

On top of Bitbuy's policy with BitGo (which includes crime coverage), the company has partnered with Coincover to 100% protect any operational funds stored in hot wallets. Additionally, all fiat funds managed by Bitbuy are secured by custodians with a Financial Insurence Bond, adding further protection.

Although some exchanges have begun to roll out funds designed to protect users in case the worst happens (think Binance's SAFU Fund), it's rare to see a company offering true 1:1 insurance. As such, Bitbuy is an excellent option for Canadian investors wishing to hold their assets on a platform benefiting from regulatory protection. But the best place to store crypto is always your own crypto wallet.

Bitbuy Express Trade

Bitbuy has included a beginner-centric feature called Express Trade, enabling users to buy and sell crypto without hassle. While the Express Trade platform lacks analytical tools, its simplicity makes it excellent for new investors making their first foray into the crypto space.

Although Bitbuy Express Trade is great for beginners wishing to make their first purchase, there is no way to swap one crypto for another, which most exchanges offer. Instead, you must sell an asset for CAD, which will trigger a taxable event. Additionally, Express Trade's fees are 2% per transaction, which makes it an expensive way of cashing out your crypto for CAD.

Due to its focus on simplicity, Express Trade is a good option for beginners looking to buy or sell cryptocurrency. However, as it could cause issues around tax season and the fees are identical, exchanging crypto via the Pro Trade platform is more cost-effective and versatile, making it the better option if the reduced ease of use isn't an issue.

User friendly

Bitbuy is designed for novice and advanced traders, with products and services for everyone. For example, beginners can use the Express Trade feature, a fast, simple, and easy way to purchase digital currencies. In contrast, the Bitbuy Pro Trade Platform caters to customers who want to perform analysis and trade crypto more seriously.

Because Bitbuy offers features tailored to most investors, the platform is an excellent entry point to the cryptocurrency space. Additionally, the inclusion of simple and advanced trading interfaces means that Bitbuy is a great place to practice trading at your own pace before moving on to another exchange with a more diverse set of features.

Tax Reports

Monitoring financial transactions and reports to calculate cryptocurrency profits and losses for capital gains tax can be a complex and lengthy process. However, Bitbuy makes it easy by allowing its customers to generate and download comprehensive reports for the financial year.

The reports itemize all the transactions associated with a Bitbuy account which investors can give to a tax professional. Alternatively, Bitbuy can be integrated into several reputable crypto tax software programs, such as Koinly and CoinTracker. With the Canada Revenue Agency actively tracking crypto transactions, this feature is a must-have for Canadian investors.

Bitbuy Account and Verification Requirements

Creating a Bitbuy account is a simple process that anyone can complete within a few minutes. Initially, you must input and confirm your email address and phone number. However, before it's possible to trade or deposit on Bitbuy, any customer must complete Know-Your-Customer (KYC) verification.

We went through the verification process to ensure our Bitbuy review was as accurate as possible. Users must input details regarding their employment status, source of income, and address. After which, the customer must provide a Canadian photo ID (passport, driving license). Once KYC is complete, all Bitbuy features will be unlocked.

Supported Fiat Currency and Deposit Methods

As Bitbuy is exclusively available to customers who reside in Canada, the exchange is limited to deposits in Canadian dollars (CAD) from Canadian banks or financial institutions via two deposit methods; bank account transfer and Interac e-Transfers. Unfortunately, credit/debit card payments are unsupported, although crypto can be deposited to Bitbuy.

For significant investments, using a bank or wire transfer is best. There is a minimum deposit of $10,00 and no maximum. Conversely, Interac e-Transfers, have a minimum spend of $50 and a maximum of $10,000 per day. While wire transfer deposits can take between 1 to 5 business days to reach Bitbuy, Interac e-Transfers complete near-instantly.

Supported Crypto Assets and Trading Pairs

Bitbuy supports buying and selling 24 cryptocurrency assets on the exchange. However, the Pro Trade platform offers six additional trading pairs denominated in CAD and BTC, The tradable digital currencies include Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin, and 20 others.

While the selection of cryptos on Bitbuy is limited, the available assets are some of the most liquid and popular digital currencies by market capitalization. However, before Bitbuy can compete with the other platforms available in Canada that we have reviewed, like Coinbase and Gemini, the team must add additional cryptocurrencies to the fiat-to-crypto exchange.

Bitbuy Fees

Trading fees

The fee structure on Bitbuy is trading volume-based, meaning frequent traders can earn significant discounts when using the platform. Trade costs start at 2% for taker and maker fees, up from the 1.5% Bitbuy charged previously. However, with a high enough trading volume, users can reduce trading fees on Bitbuy to 0% (maker) and 0.1% (taker).

In contrast to other popular cryptocurrency exchanges, fees on Bitbuy Pro Trade are the same as its Express Trade platform. As such, users will be charged between 1.5% and 0% regardless of their chosen platform. With many exchanges, like KuCoin and ByBit, offering zero-fee crypto trading, Bitbuy is one of the more expensive options on the market.

90-Day Trading Volume	Trading Fee (Maker / Taker)
Under $250,000	2.00% / 2.00%
$250,000 to $1 Million	0.50% / 0.75%
$1 Million +	0.15% / 0.25%

Deposit and Withdrawl Fees

Bitbuy offers two ways to deposit Canadian dollars; bank wire transfer and Interac e-Transfer. While withdrawals will incur a 1.5% fee, no depositing costs exist. While there are cheaper options, such as Kraken, for smaller amounts, the withdrawal fees on Bitbuy can be more affordable than the local exchange NDAX, which charges a flat CAD 25 fee based on our review.

While there are no fees to deposit crypto or fiat to Bitbuy, the company does charge a variable cryptocurrency withdrawal fee. The costs for withdrawing are asset-dependent, but a few examples include 0.0005 BTC for Bitcoin (CAD 21.61), 0.007 ETH for Ethereum (CAD 16.93), and 1.5 ADA for Cardano (CAD 0.74).

Bitbuy Fees Compared

Although Bitbuy offers low trading fees for high-volume investors, these lowered costs will be inaccessible to most users. For the platform's prices to be even remotely comparable to Binance, a customer must transact over CAD 1 million within 90 days.

However, as most users are unlikely to spend more than CAD 250,000 within 90 days, they will be stuck paying the extremely high 2% base trading fee. Below, we've compared the default costs for transacting on Bitbuy with a few popular altcoin trading exchanges such as Binance, Kraken, and NDAX.

Exchange Name	Trading Fee (Maker / Taker)
Binance	0.1% / 0.1%
Kraken	0.16% / 0.26%
NDAX	0.2% / 0.2%
BitBuy	2% / 2%

Bitbuy Ease of Use

Bitbuy is designed to be accessible to beginners and experienced traders alike. To achieve this, Bitbuy is divided into Express Trade (simple swaps) and Pro Trade (TradingView-powered), meaning users can access specific features without feeling overwhelmed. Additionally, all critical pages can be accessed via the header menu, making the site easy to navigate.

Express Trade best suits beginners wishing to purchase or sell crypto for CAD. The interface is straightforward, with no charts or analysis tools. However, you can view the price of an asset in CAD and its 24-hour price movements, providing some indication of its performance. That said, it would be nice if Bitbuy included a simple price chart so you can better time your trades.

However, if you're on the hunt for advanced features, like drawing and analysis tools, Bitbuy's Pro Trade platform could be ideal. Featuring an order book interface powered by TradingView, Pro Trade offers CAD and BTC-denominated trading pairs and 70+ technical indicators, which let you perform in-depth analysis when paired with the in-built drawing tools.

In addition to its trading-centric features, Bitbuy offers crypto staking on four assets, far lower than platforms we've reviewed, like Nexo, which provides 36 assets. Overall, Bitbuy is an accessible exchange offering tools for novice and advanced trades. However, the platform is surpassed by exchanges like Kraken and Crypto.com regarding feature-versatility.

Bitbuy Mobile App

Bitbuy offers an intuitive and responsive mobile application for users to buy and sell crypto markets anytime and anywhere. The Bitbuy app currently has an average rating of 4.6/5 based on over 6,500 reviews and is available for download on IOS/Android devices. However, the user must set their app store region to Canada to be able to download and access the app.

We looked through some of its most recent reviews to better understand how users find the Bitbuy mobile app. The consensus is that the app is simple and a solid choice for Canadian residents. However, several customers complained that Bitbuy had frozen their funds without notice which isn't ideal for those looking to trade without disruption.

After logging into the app, the user must register the device by entering a code sent to the email address linked to the account and then inputting an SMS code. After doing so, you will be shown a screen containing your balance and the list of assets available to buy and sell.

Through the Bitbuy app, you can access the basic exchange functionality, including market and limit orders (albeit no trading pairs are available), view the price of crypto assets in CAD, and stake your SOL, ETH, MATIC, or DOT holdings with up to 10% rewards.

Unfortunately, no advanced analysis or trading tools are available on the mobile app. While most companies, for example, Binance, ByBit, and KuCoin, offer charting tools provided by TradingView, Bitbuy customers can only execute simple swap orders. Therefore, the Bitbuy app is only suitable for quick purchases, not performing detailed analysis.

The Bitbuy mobile app is suitable for performing quick trades while on the go, but its lack of charting tools and trading pairs hinders its performance significantly. As such, users wishing to access technical indicators must use another crypto charting platform, like TradingView, or an all-in-one app like ByBit.

Bitbuy Customer Support

To ensure that users can get a prompt response to any query, Bitbuy has created a comprehensive help center with articles covering topics ranging from how to sign up, the basics of trading, and Bitbuy's trading fees. Unfortunately, there is no live chat or phone support team, but you can speak to an automated chatbot to get sent in the right direction.

For any less common questions, Bitbuy has an email-based direct customer support line, allowing users to create a ticket to receive assistance via email. While a few users reported long wait times, most Bitbuy reviews agreed that the support offered by Bitbuy was effective and fast, as evidenced by our testing, in which we received a reply within 3 hours.

Bitbuy Security Measures

Bitbuy is a safe and regulated money services business in Canada that uses industry-leading security systems and protocols such as Two Factor Authentication (2FA) and 95% cold storage for client funds. The company is fully transparent with its holdings and regularly updates its ‘proof of reserves' report with the number of funds held in cold storage.

The first registered Canadian marketplace for crypto, Bitbuy also offers 1-to-1 insurance provided by Bitgo for users to store their holdings in a secure offline vault. Additionally, Bitbuy's hot wallets are 100% backed by Coincover. As a result, customers can have peace of mind when using Bitbuy that their funds are protected by value-matched insurance.

As it stands, Bitbuy has never been hacked, and its reserve transparency, monthly security audits, and 1:1 insurance make it an incredibly secure platform to store crypto assets, particularly compared to no KYC crypto exchanges like KuCoin, which operate in a regulatory grey area.

Frequently Asked Questions

How We Rated It

Review Criteria	HWC Score
Features	4.2 / 5
Supported Fiat and Deposit Methods	3.5 / 5
Supported Crypto & Trading Pairs	3 / 5
Fees	2 / 5
Ease of Use	4 / 5
Customer support	4 / 5
Security Measures	4.5 / 5
Mobile App	4 / 5