Nowadays, there are more than 600 cryptocurrency exchanges enabling investors to trade digital currencies. In our latest report, we have considered the Trust Score Index prepared by the two largest data aggregators, CoinGecko and Coinmarketcap, which allow the ranking and comparison of cryptocurrency exchanges based on different criteria, such as liquidity, cybersecurity, scale of operations, API coverage, past incidents, and team presence.
But what about customer experience? Are users satisfied with the services and customer support provided by centralized cryptocurrency exchanges? In this report, we have summarized reviews and comments that people have submitted on the discussion website Reddit and review website Trustpilot, and highlighted the main problems users encounter while trading on CEXs. At the same time, we will examine what market participants appreciate on crypto platforms and what can make people trust crypto providers.
As a matter of fact, no cryptocurrency exchanges are identical, and they all try to compete for users by providing more friendly interfaces, sophisticated trading instruments, liquidity, crypto pairs, and other features. However, we won’t concentrate on the strengths and weaknesses of specific digital platforms. Instead, we will generalize feedback and opinions that could be attributed to the majority of crypto providers. Let’s get into it.
Acknowledgment & Appreciation
As a new NBC News poll found, one in five adult Americans has invested in, traded, or used cryptocurrency, which is another sign that digital assets continue to get more popular even as lawmakers warn of market risks and work to regulate the industry. Many market participants have extensive experience in interacting with cryptocurrency exchanges, and they are quite satisfied with the level of services and customer support provided.
There is a list of advantages that users frequently mention when providing feedback about their experiences on CEXs.
- Simple interface and clear functionality
- Good reputation and security
- Deep liquidity
- Low fees with discounts provided
- Wide range of supported cryptocurrencies
- Other benefits
Below we share a detailed examination of each factor.
1. Simple interface and clear functionality
- Easy-to-use interfaces, which are straightforward even for beginners
- Clear functionality for trading, exchanging, and storing cryptocurrency
- Convenient charts and analytics
- A mobile app that is supported on Android and iOS devices
2. Good reputation and security
- Popularity and trust among users
- Fast and efficient customer support
- Offline storage to protect from hacks and thefts of digital currency
3. Deep liquidity
- High trading volumes with fast order execution
In accordance with Coinmarketcap data, as of 27 May 2022, around 35 spot cryptocurrency exchanges out of 500 have more than $1 billion of Daily Volume, where Binance is a top performer with $19 billion of Daily Trading Volume.
4. Low and transparent fees, availability of discounts
According to CoinTracker, taker trading fees across the largest cryptocurrency exchanges vary from 0.07% to 1.5%, while maker fees range from -0.025% (rebate) to 0.6%.
Some cryptocurrency exchanges offer trading fee discounts for holding native tokens of an exchange (e.g., Coinbase, FTX, HitBTC) or using these native tokens to pay trading fees (e.g., Binance, Gate.io).
5. Wide range of supported cryptocurrencies
- Permanent listing of trending digital currencies, delisting of inactive ones
- A huge number of altcoins, fiat currency support
- High speed of operations
6. Other benefits
- Educational platform about digital currency
- Solutions for receiving passive income from coin storage, such as staking, yield farming, and dual investments
- Simple registration of new users, without restrictions
- Margin and Futures trading
- Availability of Lite (best for beginners) and Professional (suits for advanced users) modes
- Peer-to-peer trading
- Price alerts
One of the users on Reddit points out that the main reasons why they trust CEXs are:
- Well-known and public CEO
- Large number of employees
- Willingness to make IPO
- Cooperation with third parties and participation in crypto deals
Another user proclaims that an exchange can be trusted if it:
- Has an extensive social media community
- Is constantly recruiting new employees, which also indicates broad development plans
Complaints & Criticism
It is not surprising that users tend to provide more negative feedback compared to positive one. And, as a rule, negative comments are much more detailed and personal than positive feedback. From what we found, some crypto providers become more sensitive to comments and feedback on popular public social platforms and do their best to resolve users’ issues right away.
Reddit users frequently compare centralized cryptocurrency exchanges with traditional banks, where users have to confirm their identity, pass a KYC procedure to operate on an exchange and, in case of suspicious operations, can be blocked by an exchange. That is, in users’ opinion, one of the main drawbacks of CEXs.
Here are the major problems that users mention while operating on cryptocurrency exchanges:
- Poor customer support
- Complex security and verification process
- Inconvenient user interface
- Violation of referral program and marketing campaigns
- High trading and withdrawal fees
Below we will consider what exactly users say about each of the listed problems.
1. Poor customer support
- Client service responds slowly, which restrains users’ activity
- Customer support answers are non-related or confusing
- Tech support can’t resolve an issue
- Fulfilling the requirements
- Customer support has a template email support, with no human involved
- Endless technical work
2. Complex security and verification process
- Long examination of transactions’ validity, which keeps a user from trading with the best prices
- A сentralized cryptocurrency exchange is vulnerable to confiscation or freezes of accounts without an explanation, and as a result, a user can’t reach or withdraw their funds
- ID verification takes a long time
- Difficult to pass the KYC procedure
- An exchange asks for another round of verification, and a user can’t withdraw the money
3. Inconvenient user interface
- Complicated interface, difficult to navigate between tabs
- Struggling to figure out how to deposit and withdraw currency
4. Violation of referral program and marketing campaigns
- An exchange violated the rules of its campaign, users didn’t receive promised rewards for the referral programs after
- Cryptocurrency exchange announced that it will not pay the promotion reward and canceled the promotion
5. High trading and withdrawal fees
- Along with high fees in general, an exchange can charge extra percentage, which is higher than the one reflected on the exchange’s website
Conclusion
Ease of use, low fees, good reputation, security level and high trading volume, as well as a wide selection of coins make up the best cryptocurrency exchanges, according to users’ experience.
Low-quality customer support, problems with KYC, high trading and withdrawal fees, and the inability to execute referral program conditions are the main problems that people complain about while operating on spot cryptocurrency exchanges.
Overall, users’ experience with cryptocurrency exchanges is highly correlated with their expertise and knowledge of the exchanges’ procedures and policies.