CEX.IO was founded in 2013 by entrepreneur Oleksandr Lutskevych. Initially, CEX.IO operated as a Bitcoin mining pool and cloud mining services platform.
Founded | 2013 |
Headquarters | United Kingdom |
Website | https://cex.io/?c=4&a=262&o=2&affprov=scaleo |
Daily volume trading | ~$11,127,011 |
Number of cryptocurrencies | +160 |
Crypto licences | The USA (+35 states), Lithuania |
Cryptocurrency Fees | 0% - 0.25% |
Minimum deposit | 20$ |
Digital Wallet | Yes |
Promotion | - |
Currency | USD, EUR, and GBP |
Deposit Method | Debit/credit cards, Google/Apple Pay, SWIFT, SEPA and other domestic transfers, E-wallets (Skrill, Neteller, PayPal, Epay, MoneyGram), Multichain cryptocurrencies. |
CEX.IO is one of the first cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. Founded in 2013 by entrepreneur Oleksandr Lutskevych, it initially operated as a Bitcoin mining pool and cloud mining services platform known as GHash.IO. It owned the notorious GHash.io pool, which was the only mining pool in history to control over 50% of the Bitcoin network. Theoretically, they could have pulled off a 51% attack, which would have radically changed Bitcoin’s trajectory.
The exchange currently has 15+ million users, and offers a diverse array of financial services in addition to cryptocurrency trading. CEX.IO added card deposits in 2014, and have processed over USD $1 billion in payments since. Sure, this is chump change compared to big players like Coinbase, but it’s nothing to sneeze at either.
CEX.IO has repeatedly taken the path of most regulation. They attained their MSB (Money Service Business) license in 2015 from FinCEN, the US financial watchdog. They opened a US office in 2019, and have attained Money Transmitter Licenses (MTLs) in 35 US states.
Enhanced Liquidity
Quick Buy/Sell Services
Earn Crypto Rewards Daily
As far as we know, CEX.IO has not been hacked (yet). Crypto exchanges are a tempting target for cybercriminals, mostly because of the amount of assets they have. A multimillion-dollar hack can be carried off with a little luck, a lot of skill, and a misstep on the behalf of the exchange. Even giants like Binance, Mt. Gox, and Gate.io have all fallen victim to hacks in the past. That’s why it’s always important to see what kind of security protocols a given exchange has in place.
CEX.IO gets points for being relatively transparent about its security measures. It loses more because many of those measures are inadequate compared to industry standards. For the sake of fairness, we’ll start with what CEX.IO does right.
CEX.IO has comprehensive insurance for some users. All United States residents’ USD funds are covered by FDIC insurance, up to a maximum of $250,000 per person. Hot wallets hold a small percentage of funds and only hold company funds. Exposure to risk is entirely borne by CEX.IO. 100% of client funds are stored in cold wallets, and client funds are moved to cold wallets daily. Cold wallets are protected by multi-signature wallets, which means that transactions require multiple confirmations. There’s also some serious security for those cold wallets, including armed security personnel protecting physical access to Hardware Security Modules.
Unfortunately, there are no dogs guarding the exchange – not that cyber hackers care about them anyway.
Now we get to the not so good aspects of CEX.IO’s security. One major issue is that the security measures they list are either word salad, or the absolute bare minimum polished to a shine and presented as groundbreaking.
One of the big points of contention is CEX.IO’s self-proclaimed use of TLS 1.2 encryption of personal data, which is not the highest level of encryption. TLS 1.3 is currently industry standard. In an industry that lives and dies by encryption, this is a big misstep.
According to them, they “apply the top standard adopted by credit and debit card providers, PCI DSS Level 1, to our hot wallets and regularly audit the compliance elements associated with this process.” While PCI Level 1 is the highest achievable level, it only means that they get a third-party audit every year.
There have also been user complaints about 2FA resets taking over a week to go through. To add to that, there’s many users who get their funds locked for months because of “suspicious activity”.
Wondering how to open a CEX account? It’s easy and straightforward. Keep reading for a step-by-step explanation of the onboarding process.
1. Visit the official CEX site – follow our onboarding link to open your new account. Click on the ‘Get Started’ button in the center of the page.
2. Choose whether you want to create an individual account or a business account by clicking one of the respective buttons.
3. Enter your personal details, agree to the Terms of Use, and voila! You’ve made your CEX.IO account.
4. Unfortunately, unless you cough up some documentation your trading limit will be a whopping $0.00 – amazing. CEX.IO has verification requirements in place for any amount of trading. You can update your verification by choosing a deposit method, or by navigating to the dropdown menu in the upper right-hand corner and choosing “Verification.”
Choose “Increase Limit” to navigate to the Identity Verification page
5. Once you’ve entered the required information and provided sufficient documentation, you’ll have to wait for up to 24 hours for your account to be verified, but normally it should be automatic/instant for lower-level verification levels. There are up to four verification stages: identity verification, address verification, enhanced verification, and corporate verification, with different limits depending on the amount of information provided.
The most basic verification allows users to deposit up to $1,000 USD and $3,000 USD monthly for the first 3 months. After that, it depends on the region of the user and the level of verification. For example, US residents have a minimum daily deposit/withdrawal limit of $5,000 after the first 3 months. The highest level of verification is reserved for corporate accounts and has no deposit or withdrawal limits.
CEX.IO supports four fiat currencies: Euros (EUR), British Pounds (GBP), Russian Rubles (RUB) and US Dollars (USD).
CEX.IO does have a wallet, details can be found here. They do also have a mobile app which is available on the App Store and Google Play.
CEX.IO supports over 150 cryptocurrencies. Find the full list of available coins on CEX.IO here: https://cex.io/prices
The minimum deposit for CEX.IO depends on the region, fiat currency, or crypto you are depositing. In general, $20 is minimum for fiat deposit, for crypto – we don’t have any, it just depends on the cryptocurrency and network.
Until the time of writing, CEX.IO has not been hacked or fallen victim to any cyber attack.
Complaints can be sent to [email protected]. Their correspondence address is 33 St. James’s Square, London, SW1Y 4JS, United Kingdom, and support phone is +44 20 3966 1272.
There is also a support center with articles on common problems written by members of staff.
Users can contact customer support via the Live Chat on CEX.IO site and support center.
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