Phemex Review 2023: Features, Fees, Pros & Cons
Phemex is an unregulated crypto exchange enabling users to trade hundreds of assets with up to 100x leverage. While great for experienced traders, Phemex could be difficult for a beginner to get to grips with. This Phemex review will examine the ins and outs of the exchange while drawing comparisons to other popular crypto platforms, making it simple for a trader to decide if Phemex best matches their needs.
https://phemex.com/
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Our Phemex Review: Quick Verdict
Phemex is a full-fledged financial asset management platform that has grown beyond the niche of a crypto perpetual contract platform. Exchange users can trade hundreds of assets with some of the lowest fees available. Furthermore, thanks to its strong security, fast order execution, and impressive 100x leverage, Phemex has grown popular among professional traders.
While the platform could be overwhelming for less experienced users, the additions of a demo account and a treasure trove of informational articles significantly improve the ease of use for beginners. As such, while unregulated and primarily recommended for experienced traders, Phemex is also an excellent platform for beginners looking to get into the derivatives market.
Phemex Pros:
- It does not require KYC to begin trading
- Stable and reliable platform with reasonable liquidity
- Phemex Earn products to earn a yield on crypto deposits
Phemex Cons:
- Does not offer crypto staking services
- Phemex is not available to US residents
Pros Explained
- No KYC Required. Not everyone wants to provide a copy of their ID to access an exchange. While fiat-centric options require verification, Phemex enables users to trade crypto without ID, something likely to appeal to privacy-focused investors looking for a no-KYC exchange for crypto.
- Reliable Platform. There's nothing worse than an exchange going down for maintenance during a crucial point in a trade. Phemex offers 24/7 uptime, providing additional peace of mind for anyone using the platform.
- Phemex Earn. Crypto investors commonly hold a portion of their funds in stablecoins, so they're prepared when an opportunity arises. Phemex Earn enables users to earn passive rewards on their crypto holdings with fixed and flexible terms.
Cons Explained
- No Staking. While Phemex offers similar products, no dedicated staking platform is available. As such, crypto enthusiasts that like to stake their assets would be better suited using another exchange.
- Not Available in the US. Although Phemex is available in most countries, there are a few notable exceptions. Residents of the US and UK are prohibited from Phemex per the platform's terms.
Phemex At A Glance
| Exchange Name | Phemex |
|---|---|
| Features | Sub Accounts, Launchpad. Learn and Earn, Prediction Markets, Derivatives Trading, Earn, Launchpool. P2P Marketplace, Copy Trading, Demo Account |
| Accepted Fiat Currencies | BTC, ETH, XRP, and 330 Others |
| Deposit Methods | Cryptocurrency, Wire Transfer, Credit/Debit Card |
| Supported Cryptocurrencies | BTC, ETH, XRP, and 334 Others |
| Number of Trading Pairs | 437 |
| Trading Fee | 0.1% (spot), 0.06% / 0.01% (futures) |
| Customer Support | Ticket System, Live Chat, Email |
| Mobile App | Yes (IOS and Android) |
Phemex Exchange Overview
Founded in 2019, Phemex is a cryptocurrency trading platform located in Singapore. The company behind Phemex is led by former Morgan Stanley executives and is one of the most efficient cryptocurrency trading and investment platforms. According to CoinMarketCap, Phemex consistently ranks among the world’s top 20 crypto derivative exchanges and has amassed more than 5 million users across 200 countries.
The exchange is best known for its lightning-fast trade execution speeds of 300,000 transactions per second and order response times of less than one millisecond. Phemex is also a leading margin exchange that allows individuals to trade perpetual contracts such as BTCUSD, ETHUSD, XRPUSD, LTCUSD, XTZUSD, and LINKUSD with up to 100x leverage.
Phemex Comparisons & Alternatives
| 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 | 81 | 0.06% / 0.01% (leverage), 0.1% (spot) | Rating | Deposit bonus up to $30,000 | Visit Bybit | Bybit Review |
 KuCoin | 700+ | 0.1% | Rating | Up to 500 USDT in bonuses | Visit KuCoin | KuCoin Review |
Review of the Top Features on Phemex
Phemex Derivatives Trading
Phemex is primarily a derivatives trading exchange that offers a large selection of perpetual futures markets. Known as “contract trading,” Phemex provides access to hundreds of assets, with most contracts equaling $1. For lower-price coins, contracts may represent a more significant number of coins (such as 10,000 SHIB).
Users can place orders and utilize up to 100x leverage on contract trades with both LONG and SHORT positions available. In addition, market, Limit, and Conditional orders are usable, and traders can customize orders as needed.
The trading platform feels similar to the spot platform, with built-in TradingView charting, live order books, and the ability to view active positions and order histories. While Phemex doesn’t offer anything out of the ordinary, it remains a solid platform for contract trading thanks to its swift order execution and suite of analytical tools.
Phemex Sub Accounts
Anyone trading on the Phemex exchange can create additional sub-accounts that act as separate trading accounts. As a result, users can divide their activities on the platform to better manage their finances. For example, it's possible to create dedicated accounts for spot trading and leverage trading, with each having its own wallet. The ability to create sub-accounts is absent on several industry-leading exchanges and will likely appeal to advanced traders looking for greater control over their holdings.
Prediction Markets
While the primary offering of Phemex is its trading features, the platform also offers users the opportunity to speculate on real-world events through its prediction markets platform. Each competition on the Prediction Markets platform requires a user to pledge USDT to enter and has only two outcomes, with those correctly predicting the outcome of an event receiving a reward paid in USDT. While an intriguing concept akin to sports betting, competitions appear fairly infrequent.
Phemex Earn
To compete with trading platforms such as Binance and Crypto.com, Phemex has introduced an Earn Program that allows its customers to earn up to 18.80% APY through a fixed and flexible savings account.
There are 13 assets to choose from, including ETH, SOL, or USDT, with payouts ranging from 0.3% to 18.8% APY. The higher-interest choices are for short-term investments only (such as 7 or 14 days), with the long-term investments offering less than 1% APY. Earn participants can withdraw the funds within a flexible term anytime.
Phemex Earn is a great way to accrue interest in crypto while waiting for a trade setup. However, support for more coins needs to be added to rival lending and borrowing sites such as BlockFi, Nexo, and Hodlnaut, which offer more choices and better rates. The Phemex Earn program offers decent short-term interest but quickly sells out and lacks a good selection, and the long-term fixed rates are very low.
Phemex Launchpool
Phemex has a cryptocurrency staking pool called LaunchPool. Traders on the platform can deposit tokens to earn on-chain staking rewards on several cryptocurrencies. However, the offering of supported staking assets is limited. Since June 2022, only five pools have opened, all of which have now finished. While it is a useful feature to earn staking rewards on some lesser-known tokens such as NEAR, SWP, VOLT, and WWY, it doesn't compare to the best crypto exchanges for staking that have been reviewed by HedgewithCrypto.
Phemex Launchpad
The Phemex Crypto Launchpad enables users to invest in new cryptocurrencies during their Initial Coin Offering (ICO) phase. A project can apply to be featured on Phemex's Launchpad and, if accepted, allocates a number of tokens for investors to purchase at reduced rates.
Unfortunately, the featured projects are few and far between and are only available temporally, meaning there are few opportunities for investors compared to better-known launchpad platforms like the Binance Launchpad. With that said, the Phemex Launchpad is still likely to appeal to risk-tolerant investors looking to get in early on an upcoming project.
Phemex Copy Trade
Phemex offers crypto copy trading, a system that enables users to mirror the traders executed by another user automatically. There are dozens of professional traders on the platform, with people able to view statistics on metrics like monthly earnings, total profit-and-loss, and the number of individuals copying them.
Followers pay a fee to mimic a trader's position, with the trader collecting a share of the profits earned by their followers. This is a great way to passively trade for users who are hesitant to try trading crypto. However, the community's size is much smaller than eToro, another crypto social platform, which in our experience, is a superior option.
Demo Account Trading
Phemex offers a testnet to allow users to practice crypto trading using a demo account without making a deposit. The simulated trading environment provides the same standard trading tools as the live exchange. Crypto traders can access the Phemex testnet account under 'Learn' along the top menu. Unfortunately, Phemex simulated trading is not 100% identical to the standard trading platform, but Phemex notes this at the top of the screen.
While the simulated trading platform sometimes experiences downtime, users can place orders, execute trades, and practice technical analysis with the tools offered by its TradingView integration. This is an excellent way for beginner traders to learn how to trade without risking their funds.
Phemex P2P Marketplace
Phemex users that want to trade crypto directly with another user can do so on the peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace. There is a minimal selection of supported assets, with only BTC, ETH, or USDT available. Phemex moderates these transactions, but the funds go directly to the seller, and the seller sends the crypto directly to the buyer. Although the user experience is subpar compared to other top crypto P2P platforms, it's a nice addition that improves the platform's accessibility.
Learn and Earn
Phemex has created a platform to help get its users engaged with learning about cryptocurrency. It enables people to watch videos and complete short quizzes to earn rewards - similar to Coinbase Learn.
The Learn and Earn platform is fairly basic in the topics covered and is primarily geared around explaining the core features of the platform. Furthermore, the rewards offered are fairly small, between $0.60 and $0.80. Nevertheless, it's good to see Phemex incentivizing users to improve their understanding of the platform in a way likely to appeal to those getting started in crypto.
Creating and Verifying a Phemex Account
The Phemex registration process is very straightforward and only takes a few minutes. Initially, the only requirements are entering an email address and password. However, without completing the Know Your Customer (KYC) process, users cannot access features like Launchpad and Launchpool.
Phemex users aren't required to complete KYC to begin trading. However, increased withdrawal limits and access to additional features are granted to users who opt to complete verification. A photo ID (passport, driving license) and facial recognition are required to complete KYC.
Supported Fiat Currencies and Deposit Methods
Phemex has enabled users to buy crypto using a credit/debit card by partnering with leading payment gateways, including Simplex, Coinify, and MoonPay. Additionally, users can buy crypto via wire transfer through the Phemex OTC service, which Legend Trading runs. Currently, the interface supports purchasing Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, and 30+ other coins. One area Phemex shines is its range of supported fiat currency support. Users can buy crypto with USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, AUD, CAD, HKD, NOK, RUB, and 84 others.
Supported Cryptos and Trading Pairs
Phemex supports 330+ spot crypto assets for buying and selling on the exchange, including BTC, ETH, XRP, LTC, LINK, XTZ, LTC, ADA, DOGE, and USDT. There are also nearly 100 derivatives markets available. All Trading pairs on the platform are denominated in USDT or USDC.
While the selection is decent compared to some exchanges, the list of accepted coins is quite limited compared to other crypto trading platforms such as Binance, Huobi, and Kucoin, which all have over 500 coins available to trade.
Phemex Fees
Spot Trading Fees
Phemex fees on the spot exchange utilize a Maker-Taker fee schedule, with discounts available to high-volume traders. Fees start at 0.1%, one of the lowest in the industry. Phemex trading fees are very competitive and are similar to other low-fee exchanges such as Binance. Moreover, high-volume traders can take advantage of zero fees on Maker orders. However, with a minimum volume of $150 million, this benefit will be inaccessible for most.
Contracts (Futures) Trading
For contract trading, Phemex follows a maker-and-taker structure. Traders that provide liquidity to the order book (e.g., limit orders) will pay a tiny 0.01% fee. Traders that remove liquidity from the order book (e.g., market orders) are charged a 0.06% fee on execution, which is also very low. These fees are some of the lowest in the industry and are a big part of why Phemex is such a popular derivatives exchange.
Deposit & Withdrawal Fees
Phemex does not charge additional fees for crypto deposits to a user trading account. Furthermore, A withdrawal from the Phemex wallet does incur the standard blockchain fee and varies based on the crypto asset and the network load. For example, for Bitcoin withdrawals, the network fee is 0.0004 BTC, which aligns with the industry standard.
While there are six options for buying crypto with a debit/credit card, the fees charged are set by the service providers rather than Phemex and are subject to change at any time.
Phemex Fees Compared
Below, we've created a table comparing Phemex to some other exchanges.
| Exchange Name | Trading Fee (Spot) |
|---|---|
| Crypto.com | 0.075% |
| Phemex | 0.1% |
| Binance | 0% - 0.1% |
| eToro | 1% |
Phemex Ease of Use
To ensure that our Phemex review is as comprehensive as possible, we thought it necessary to discuss one of the most important aspects of any platform, ease of use. Phemex was easy to use and ensured that vital site sections were accessible without hassle, something surprisingly uncommon in the industry. The Phemex trading interface was also impressive. TradingView integration was present on both Phemex trading platforms, making it possible to utilize different trading strategies without moving to another platform.
Phemex users have access to market and limit orders as well as conditional variants of both. The Phemex platform also makes viewing trading history simple. Additionally, it was easy to alter leverage and see any margin requirements on the derivatives trading platform.
The Phemex trading platform is a cut above most other cryptocurrency trading platforms regarding ease of use. The trading interface is intuitive and excellent for both spot and leverage trading. While some of the features present are designed for the more experienced trader, there is a plethora of informational articles, making it equally suitable for a beginner.
Phemex Mobile App Review
Phemex has a mobile app to allow users to buy, trade, and sell cryptocurrencies and derivatives from an iOS or Android device. The mobile trading app has over 1 million downloads on the Google Play Store and a 4.7 / 5 rating with over 18,000 reviews.
After logging into the Phemex mobile crypto trading platform, the user is met with a well-designed homepage that provides easy access to core functionality, including deposit/withdrawals, the prediction market, and Phemex Earn. In addition, just below the quick links, cryptocurrency exchange users can view a series of trending assets.
Spot and contract trading are both available on the Phemex app and will be intuitive for anyone with previous experience using another exchange. They utilize the familiar order book interface, enabling users to see current orders, a price chart, and a few different order types.
Unfortunately, crypto analysis tools on the mobile app are limited compared to the desktop platform. While is a good variety of timeframes, leverage options, and a few basic crypto indicators for trading, the app lacks the majority of lesser-known indicators. Furthermore, it offers no actual charting capabilities, making it unsuitable for technical traders.
To round off our mobile Phemex review, the app is surprisingly fully featured and enables users to access every feature from the desktop platform. However, despite its responsiveness, the limited quantity of technical indicators and charting tools means that any analysis must be performed using a third-party platform like TradingView.
Customer Support
Phemex Exchange offers 24/7 live chat customer support and around-the-clock email support for users. Phemex also offers a comprehensive help center with guides, tutorials, and FAQs to help provide quick answers to simple queries. However, no phone support is available on Phemex, which could turn some users away from the exchange.
The live chat support was very responsive and helpful when we asked them a question, and the help center was well-organized. Overall, 24/7 support is a great feature that most crypto exchanges do not offer and makes Phemex a valuable trading platform for beginners that are likely to require a helping hand.
Phemex Security Measures
Phemex has bank-like security measures to ensure the safety of its customer's funds and personal information. To ensure the safety of its users, Phemex has opted to store 100% of client funds in storage, keeping every cent of customer funds matched 1:1 in their reserve. Furthermore, a multi-signature withdrawal process and Two Factor Authentication (2FA) options are available for all user accounts.
Since Phemex launched in 2019, the exchange has not been hacked or compromised. This is an excellent sign and shows how seriously the team takes the security of its users.
Frequently Asked Questions
Phemex is a legitimate company registered in BVI with employees and users located all over the globe. However, the exchange is not regulated and is restricted in countries with strict financial laws, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, which ban the use of cryptocurrency derivatives platforms at the time of writing.
Phemex does not support citizens from the United States to trade on its futures contract platform, as stated in the Phemex Terms and Conditions under section 36 Legal Compliance. This is due to strict regulations in the USA that effectively ban cryptocurrency derivatives platforms due to the volatile nature and the high risks involved.
Phemex is a worldwide cryptocurrency trading exchange available to users globally in countries such as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. But with that said, we were able to complete KYC using a UK ID, which will likely confuse users who haven't read through the terms. However, while writing our Phemex review, we found that the following countries are prohibited from using Phemex to trade crypto:
- Afghanistan
- Central African Republic Congo
- Côte d’Ivoire
- Cuba
- Eritrea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Iran
- Iraq
- North Korea
- Liberia
- Libya
- Panama
- Rwanda
- Somalia
- South Sudan
- Sudan
- Ukraine (Crimea)
- United Kingdom
- Yemen
- Zimbabwe
Phemex is a popular derivatives platform that processes over $1.5 billion daily trade volume. In addition, Phemex handles just under $120 million daily on the spot trading side. As for liquidity, Phemex has an average liquidity score of 466 (out of 1,000), which is somewhat low compared to other exchanges.
Higher liquidity means there is less risk of slippage and smaller spread fees when placing spot trades. While Bitcoin and Ethereum have sufficient liquidity on the exchange, smaller altcoins may not.
Final Verdict and Scores
Throughout this Phemex review, we awarded scores to key aspects of the platform. Below, we've summarized our findings.
| Review Criteria | HWC Score |
|---|---|
| Features | 4.6 / 5 |
| Supported Fiat and Deposit Methods | 4.2 / 5 |
| Supported Crypto & Trading Pairs | 4.4 / 5 |
| Fees | 4.6 / 5 |
| Ease of Use | 4.2 / 5 |
| Customer support | 4.1 / 5 |
| Security Measures | 4.25 / 5 |
| Mobile App | 4 / 5 |
To conclude our Phemex review, the crypto platform is packed with excellent features for traders looking to speculate on digital currencies with leverage on the derivatives exchange. The platform includes an advanced trading interface with various risk management tools available on desktop and mobile. Overall, Phemex is an excellent choice for leverage-based crypto trading. Furthermore, while aimed at advanced traders, the plethora of educational resources makes Phemex also suitable for beginners venturing into the space.
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