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Changelly Review 2023
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Sinead Burgess
With the surge in popularity and worldwide adoption of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and many more, came the need for cryptocurrency exchanges that would cater to an international clientele. One such platform that’s able to satisfy the demand for cryptocurrency trading worldwide, including Australia, is the European platform Changelly.
Today, we’ll share with you a full review of Changelly that will include an overview of the exchange, its features and ease of use, supported currencies, trading fees, safety measures, and more. Let’s get started!
About the Changelly Exchange
Changelly (changelly.com) is a cryptocurrency platform that’s ranked 144th on Coinmarketcap. Although this number doesn’t do the platform any justice, our research has proven that Changelly has many features to offer to both potential and existing customers.
What we have here is a non-custodial exchange service that’s based in Prague, Czech Republic, established as a company in 2016. The team behind the platform is best known for their other project called MinerGate, a cryptocurrency pool mining company. The company has directly contributed to the platform’s success as they have managed to bring over 1 million users to the exchange through their mining pool activities.
The Changelly platform offers users the possibility to purchase a wide variety of cryptocurrencies through a user-friendly and native user interface and differs from other exchange platforms by allowing both beginners and active traders to simply and quickly convert different cryptos thanks to the highly intuitive UI and trading engine.
All in all, Changelly has been able to provide its users with stable and fast crypto-to-crypto and fiat-to-crypto transactions, protected with top-notch safety measures. According to Hedgewithcrypto, Changelly is one of the best non-custodial exchanges in Australia.
Ease of Use
There are many interesting features on the Changelly platform and we’ll categorically list the most important ones below.
Changelly utilizes a trading algorithm that’s on par with bigger exchange platforms like Binance, Coinbase, Poloniex, and Bittrex in order to assemble the best exchange rates for users. When a user wants to choose a trading pair, the platform will automatically research through the liquidity partners in order to find the best exchange rates for the crypto pair.
The conversion rate for the pair is displayed for the user to see and locks the transaction until it’s confirmed on the blockchain. When the transaction is conducted, the digital assets are transferred to the user’s wallet through the provided wallet address. The platform provides the features for conversion and coin exchange but doesn’t directly store any assets within their database, instead, the assets are directly transferred into the private wallets of the user, hence Changelly’s non-custodial nature. This provides a safer environment for any assets, as the risk of losing private keys or any other credentials falls under user responsibilities instead of the platform.
As the exchange platform doesn’t store any crypto assets, we recommend potential users to invest in a Ledger or Trezor hardware wallet as they are one of the most sought-after devices due to their security features and affordable prices. The platform has formed a partnership with these wallet companies and users can use their devices with ease when trading on Changelly.
The platform supports both credit card and debit card deposits but the fees for them are more expensive and we’ll address that in the Fee section of our article.
Bitcoin and Other Supported Cryptocurrencies
Changelly supports a wide range of cryptocurrencies on their platform and some of those include Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Litecoin (LTC), Dash (DASH), Ripple (XRP), or a total of 196 different cryptocurrencies and tokens. Any one of these cryptocurrencies can be exchanged with each other in a quick and easy way. The main bread-earner of the platform is the almost-instant crypto-to-crypto conversions with low fees.
In terms of fiat currencies, Changelly recently added fiat currency support and those include the US dollar (USD), European Euro (EUR), and Global Pound Sterling (GBP). The fees differ between crypto conversions and fiat-to-crypto purchases.
Payment Methods
Aside from swapping crypto-for-crypto, Changelly recently offered users the possibility to purchase crypto with a credit and debit card through providers like Simplex, MoonPay, and Indacoin. The whole card-to-crypto process is new but rather simple and shouldn’t take more than 5 to 7 minutes given the functionality of the user interface but this also depends on the user. Here’s an example to make things clearer.
- Sign in to your Changelly account and select the Purchase prompt in the menu;
- Choose your fiat currency (USD, EUR, GBP);
- Enter the amount you wish to spend in the window;
- Select the cryptocurrency of your choice from the scrolling prompt;
- You will be presented with a rate and the amount of crypto your payment will procure;
- In the next step, you will be asked to provide bank account details;
- A verification number will be sent to your mobile phone which you will have to write in the next window;
- You will be asked to submit some ID information for an identity match;
- The last step is transaction completion. Don’t forget to check your wallet to see if the transaction was successful.
Changelly Fees
The Changelly crypto exchange platform utilizes static-rate fees as one of its prized features. The standard exchange rate is a fixed rate of 0.5% for any crypto-to-crypto pair. When compared to other exchanges, it really makes a difference when handling multiple currencies. The small fee is best utilized when users want to send multiple crypto-to-crypto transactions in smaller amounts.
For deposits and withdrawals, there are no fees as there are no fiat withdrawals, only crypto. The Change network applies only a minimum blockchain fee or a network fee that’s determined by the cryptocurrency in question and network congestion. This fee is paid to the miners on the blockchains instead of Changelly.
For fiat currency trading on the platform, the fees are drastically higher. Changelly warns users before conducting a transaction about the higher fees, which is mighty fair on their side, even though the platform brands itself as a crypto exchange with a flat 0.5% fee. This is most probably as the fiat purchases option was only recently implemented.
The credit/debit card purchase fees incur a fixed 5% fee depending on which of the providers you use, plus a 2.5% Changelly fee. In total, the fiat purchase fee can reach up to 7.5% which is very steep and users might be tempted to choose another exchange for fiat-to-crypto purchases. Along with this fee, there is the standard blockchain fee for withdrawing your crypto but that depends on the cryptocurrency in question.
Purchase/Trading Limits
There are no trade limits for the crypto-to-crypto trading method but for fiat-to-crypto, the limits depend on the region and the limits are divided into three regions.
- European Union and other countries.
The first transaction incurs a $100 limit, with a 4-day waiting period for the second transaction that has a $200 limit. Then you need to wait 7 days to make the third purchase with a $500 limit. There are no monthly limits.
- Australia, the USA, and Canada.
For the first transaction, there is a $50 limit and for the next purchase, there is a 4-day waiting period with a $200 limit. Then there’s a 7-days waiting period for a third transaction with a $500 limit. Users cannot make more than 3 purchases within their first week on the platform. There are no monthly limits.
- CIS region (Eastern Europe).
For the first transaction, there is a $200 limit and for the next purchase, there is a 24-hours waiting period. The first week’s limit amounts to $2,000 and the first month is limited to $10,000.
The limits for purchases are implemented as a way to prevent new users from indulging in many purchases at once and getting overwhelmed by the variety of crypto choices available on the platform. As for the more experienced users who have mastered the basics on other platforms but are signing up for the first time, they can give Changelly Pro a try while they wait for the first month’s restrictions to pass.
Changelly Pro
There is an additional feature on the Changelly platform that’s called Changelly Pro. This is an advanced service on the platform and users can indulge in crypto orders that incur maker and taker fees along with some withdrawal and deposit fees. These fees are aligned with fees from other cryptocurrency platforms, as this type of trading isn’t a main feature of the regular Changelly platform.
Is Changelly Safe to Use?
When signing up on Changelly for the first time, users will be required to prove their identity in line with the KYC (Know Your Customer) industry standards. This verification process is nothing to be afraid of as it requires only half an hour of your time before you start trading on the platform. Documents that are considered valid for proving your identity include an international passport, driver’s license, or a government-issued ID card.
In terms of safety, as we stated, Changelly is a non-custodial cryptocurrency exchange and given that fact, they’re not storing any user assets on their database. All of the assets are in the hands of their users. To enhance user security, and to ease storage features, Changelly has partnered with device providers like Ledger, Exodus, Trezor, and Trust wallet.
Users can utilize these wallets to provide two-factor authentication (2FA) for further security but this remains on the user’s choice as wallets have other measures like additional PIN codes and backup seed phrases.
Other than that, cryptocurrencies are volatile by nature, and handling any coins brings investment risks in its own way.
Customer Support
The customer support section of the Changelly platform is mediocre at best. Customer support has never been the strongest suit of crypto platforms and Changelly isn’t an exception.
In terms of customer support, Changelly offers email support which users can reach at [email protected]. Aside from the email support, the Changelly website contains a FAQ page where users can read about the most common problems and issues along with informational questions regarding the platform.
A Few Words Before You Go...
To wrap up our review of the Changelly crypto exchange service platform, we’ll say that the platform offers transparent, secure, and easy features for exchanging cryptocurrencies. Also, their newly implemented bank card system for purchasing crypto is easy as the platform guides users through the whole process, step by step.
In terms of security, Changle is a non-custodial platform and doesn’t store any assets on their database, instead, users are enabled to store their assets in their own personal wallets. The platform has partnered up with several wallet providers that users can benefit from in terms of storing crypto directly from the platform. The high card-to-crypto fees might sound unfavourable to most users, so it’s not a bad thing to opt-out for another exchange with more suitable fees.
Other features like fast transactions, customer support, mobile app support, and low fees for crypto pairs trading make the Changelly platform an interesting choice for potential crypto investors. We recommend trying the platform for yourself in order to find out whether it’s the right choice for you.
frequently asked questions
Yes, Changelly provides users with a highly intuitive smartphone app. All of the features that are available on the web platform are also present on the mobile app that is available both for Android and iOS devices.
Although Changelly is not regulated in the US, the platform has over a million users worldwide and provides ample services for crypto-to-crypto exchanges along with fiat-to-crypto purchases, which definitely makes it trustworthy in our eyes..
Changelly is supported worldwide and allows the purchase of crypto with three different major currencies in the world including the US dollar, European Euro, and Global Pound Sterling.