Coinsquare Review – A Look At This Canadian Cryptocurrency Exchange

About Coinsquare

Coinsquare, founded in 2014, is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Canada, with more than 100,000 users. The platform is also available in the US and in more than 25 countries across Europe. 

While Coinsquare makes it relatively easy to transition from traditional currency to cryptocurrency, the range of coins you can trade with this exchange is relatively limited. Currently, the platform only supports 10 of the most popular digital currencies:

• Bitcoin
• Ethereum
• Litecoin
• Bitcoin Cash ABC
• Bitcoin Cash SV
• Dogecoin
• Dash
• Ripple
• Ethereum Classic
• Stellar

With so many cryptocurrency platforms out there, though, such as 3Commas and Coinigy, how does Coinsquare really measure up? Let’s take a closer look at this cryptocurrency exchange in this review of Coinsquare.

Coinsquare Commissions, Fees, And Account Funding

Coinsquare offers two different ways to trade that carry different commission charges.

First, you can buy or sell any of the digital coins that Coinsquare offers using traditional currency. In this case, you are charged a fee of 0.2% of the trade value if you remove liquidity from the exchange or 0.1% of the trade value if you add liquidity.

Second, you can use the QuickTrade feature to instantly exchange one digital coin for another on the exchange. This carries a commission of 0.2% if you are converting to or from Bitcoin or 0.4% if you are converting between two other cryptocurrencies.

Coinsquare also charges some fees around deposits into your account that are important to know about. If you fund your account with Canadian dollars, the minimum deposit is $20 CAD, and there is no fee if you use an Interac e-transfer. If you want to use a wire transfer, the minimum deposit is $10,000 CAD. When you withdraw funds, you will be charged a 2% fee.

You can also fund your account with US dollars using a wire transfer, but the minimum deposit and withdrawal are $25,000 each. You will be charged a 0.5% fee for deposits and a 1% fee for withdrawals.

Coinsquare Platforms And Tools

The Coinsquare trading platform is available on the web or mobile (iOS and Android). It doesn’t offer a significant range of tools for analysis, but it does make it easy to get essential details about the exchange rates for coins and the exchange’s order book. 

The interface does offer technical charts from TradingView, which come with nearly 100 popular indicators you can overlay. Critically, though, price data is only available at a resolution of 15 minutes or less – you cannot access one-minute charts or tick-by-tick charts through the Coinsquare interface.

Coinsquare makes its order book available to all traders, and there is a depth chart so you can easily see what the current market price for a coin is. This is a particularly useful tool for placing large trades since the chart displays how much of a coin is available to buy or sell at a specific price and what the equivalent cost would be in CAD. Coinsquare also clearly displays the spread as a percentage of the trade price, so you know exactly how much you’ll be paying for your trade.

Unfortunately, Coinsquare doesn’t provide much of a range of other tools. There are no price alerts or social chats with other cryptocurrency traders. That said, Coinsquare does have a news feed that provides updates on the market and commentaries on the trajectory of specific coins. Stories are mostly drawn from an in-house team of writers and analysts rather than reposted from other crypto news sites.

Coinsquare Customer Service

You can get in touch with Coinsquare by email and live chat. If you use the live chat, though, there’s no way to get a human representative on the line – you are forced to interact with an automated bot for support. We received responses to a support email within a day, and the representative was relatively knowledgeable about the platform.

Coinsquare Executions And Routes

Executions on Coinsquare is extremely transparent thanks to the fact that the exchange’s order book is public. You can easily see not just the current bid/ask price for any coin that the exchange offers, but also how much volume is available at each bid/ask level.

If you are exchanging between two cryptocurrencies using the QuickTrade feature, it’s important to keep in mind that Coinsquare routes all conversions through Bitcoin. So, if you are changing from Ethereum to Litecoin, for example, the amount of Litecoin you receive will depend on the ETH-BTC and BTC-LTC bid/ask spreads. 

Wealth And OTC Accounts

Coinsquare offers two non-standard account types that it calls Wealth and OTC. The Wealth account requires a minimum account balance of $25,000 CAD and gives you access to a dedicated account manager. You may also receive reduced fees for deposits and withdrawals, depending on the transfer method you use.

The OTC account also requires a minimum $25,000 CAD balance, but you cannot apply for this account – Coinsquare will contact you if you are eligible based on the company’s internal requirements. With an OTC account, you can use Coinsquare’s trading desk to make block trades worth more than $25,000 CAD. Orders are arranged by phone with a dedicated account manager from Coinsquare.

Is Coinsquare Trustworthy?

Coinsquare boasts about its security and trustworthiness. However, the company has run into issues in the past. In 2019, the company was hacked, and the personal information of more than 5,000 users was stolen. Coinsquare responded quickly to the issue and alerted clients, but it demonstrated that the exchange may be less secure than it claims. 

That said, Coinsquare has never reported issues or theft from users’ wallets, which is critically important for keeping your funds safe.

What Type Of Trader Coinsquare Is Best For?

Coinsquare is a good option for first-time cryptocurrency traders looking to break into the digital market. The exchange provides a relatively straightforward onramp from CAD or USD to cryptocurrencies and gives traders access to 10 of the most popular coins. The exchange is transparent about fees and its order book, and the OTC desk makes it suitable for traders who want to move more than $25,000 CAD into cryptocurrency in a single trade.

Notably, Coinsquare isn’t optimized for advanced cryptocurrency traders. All conversions go through Bitcoin, even for popular conversions like Ethereum to Litecoin. You also only get access to a very small number of currencies that are generally less volatile than the bulk of modern cryptocurrencies.

Pros

• Easy onramp from traditional currencies to crypto
• Trading on 10 most popular cryptocurrencies
• Transparent fees and spreads
• Depth chart shows available pricing for every trade
• Supports block trades through OTC account

Cons

• Limited technical charts
• No one-minute or tick-level price data
• Charges deposit and withdrawal fees