If you’re not into mining, trading, or receiving your salary in cryptocurrency, you’re unlikely to remember crypto exchanges. When buying cryptocurrency, you’ll probably look for the service with the most favourable rate.
Exchanges set different minimum transaction sizes: one will swap $5 from a card, another will require $5,000 in cash. We checked whether there is a difference between them: we swapped crypto in seven exchanges and spoke with the support team.
We explain how the service differs across price tiers and whether there is any point in using “expensive” exchanges. At the end of the article — a table comparing exchange rates and processing times.
How the review is structured
We carried out transactions on the exchanges, and then evaluated them according to:
- the performance of customer support;
- the difference between the exchange’s rate and the spot market rate;
- the time to send funds after payment confirmation.
We took the bitcoin price in hryvnia from the crypto exchange Kuna, and the bitcoin price in rubles from EXMO.
24Bestex.com
Direction of exchange: bought bitcoins for 10 000 hryvnias.
When submitting the order, the last character of the wallet address was removed: sometimes the client does not fully select and copy the address. We submitted the request and found two features:
- On the payment screen there is no address of our bitcoin wallet — you cannot verify if there are errors. This can be checked in the email that the exchange sends after confirming the request.
- 24Bestex asks to photograph a bank card against the exchange page to verify the user. This is a one-off procedure: the exchange remembers the card and works with it without verification.
Payment of the order on 24Bestex: recipient details cannot be verified
We verified the card and asked the consultant to fix the address. He explained that a new order had to be created.
Consultant at 24Bestex checked the address and asked to recreate the request
We re-filled the application again and successfully completed the exchange. 24Bestex sent bitcoins five minutes after payment confirmation. The rate difference with Kuna was 3.27%.
Excoin.in
Direction: sold 0.1 BTC for rubles.
At the stage of creating the request Excoin.in asked to provide the recipient account number. We, without thinking, entered a 20-digit bank account number and submitted the request.
Field “On account”. At the time of publication Excoin corrected its name
It turned out that Excoin.in requires a 16-digit card number. The site did not warn about the error during order creation, but the consultant noticed it. He requested the number and the cardholder’s full name to edit the order.
Consultant at Excoin noticed the error and requested the correct details
After correcting the order, the exchange accepted the cryptocurrency and sent the funds. We received rubles two minutes after transaction confirmation. The rate difference with EXMO was 0.4%.
Mine.exchange
Direction: bought bitcoins for 200 hryvnias (0.0006 BTC).
When creating the application, we made mistakes in the card number and the wallet address. Mine.exchange asked to correct the details, and then to confirm them on a separate page. This is the only exchange that automatically checks the validity of a bitcoin address.
Mine.exchange highlights the fields with errors in the payment details
We could not fault the service’s performance, so we decided to test the support. We asked trivial questions: how to store bitcoins and which wallet to use. The consultant politely replied that he was not allowed to give such advice.
Trying to ask support where to store bitcoins
Mine.exchange sent bitcoins five minutes after payment. The rate difference with Kuna was 2.7%.
VIP|BTC
Direction: bought bitcoins for 66 000 rubles.
Submitting a request to VIP|BTC can be done in two ways:
- enter contact details and the exchange amount in a dedicated form;
- contact a consultant via chat, messenger, or phone.
We left a request on the site. An email arrived, but we decided to continue the conversation on Telegram. The consultant said that on VIP|BTC you can exchange from $5,000 online or come with a smaller amount to the office.
Manager rejected the request but told where an offline exchange can take place
We asked to lower the minimum amount to test the exchange. VIP|BTC conceded and completed the deal, even though we wrote outside business hours.
The exchange did not send the transaction hash, but the consultant provided it on request
VIP|BTC sent bitcoins eleven minutes after payment. The rate difference with EXMO was 2.4%.
Privat.cash
Direction: sold 0.002 BTC for hryvnias.
First, Privat.cash’s application is no different from others. The user enters full name, card, and phone number. But then the exchange asks for the transaction hash (Txid) to confirm payment.
Submitting bitcoins via Privat.cash: specify the transaction hash and confirm payment
At the moment of the exchange, the mempool was congested — our transaction stalled. We asked support whether it could be sped up. The consultant said no. We believed him and waited for the transfer at 4 a.m.
Privat.cash sent funds one minute after payment confirmation — the fastest among the exchanges in the review. The rate difference with Kuna was 3.4%.
ChangeCoins
Direction: sold 0.01 BTC for hryvnias.
In the application we entered a 20-digit card number, and ChangeCoins highlighted this field. We corrected the number to 16 digits, but deliberately left an error in it. On the payment page ChangeCoins did not show recipient details — if you enter an incorrect card number, you won’t be able to verify.
On the payment page, recipient details are not shown
We submitted an order with a card number error, and then decided to cancel it. We learned that this cannot be done: you must wait for automatic cancellation after 45 minutes or create a new order.
We asked the consultant what would happen if you sent coins and canceled the order. The support staff did not answer our question. The ChangeCoins FAQ states: in such cases the service completes the exchange or returns funds to the specified details manually.
Asking how to cancel the exchange if you already sent bitcoins
We created a new order and carried out the exchange. ChangeCoins sent funds four minutes after transaction confirmation. The rate difference with Kuna was 0.9%.
Vilkov.com
Direction: sold 0.033 BTC for hryvnias.
The exchange hosted on Vilkov.com turned out to be on a list of blocked sites in Ukraine. In talking to support, it emerged that the service has two sites:
- vilCov.com — accessible everywhere;
- vilKov.com — blocked by some Ukrainian providers.
We learned that Vilkov.com and Vilcov.com are official exchange sites
We could not create an order for several minutes due to the interface. It turned out that entering details required clicking a barely noticeable button “To card.”
Buttons in the Vilkov.com order form look more like decor than controls
Yet Vilkov.com has an informative payment page: it includes recipient details, a mempool congestion chart, and recommended transaction fees.
On the page of payment you can learn the optimal transaction fee
Vilkov.com sent hryvnias twelve minutes after transaction confirmation. The rate difference with Kuna was 0.9%.
Conclusion
Before the review, we thought that exchanges with higher minimums would offer better rates than services with a minimum up to $100.
As it turned out, a favourable rate and commission can be found at an exchange in any price tier, and the quality of support is equally high across all the services presented in this review.
Comparison of exchanges in the review: rate differences, order execution speed, and minimum exchange amount
We note Mine.exchange for exchanging small sums — from 1,000 rubles — in the Qiwi-BTC direction.
Additionally, we liked Vilkov.com’s mempool chart. It helps set the optimal fee to avoid waiting for hours for an exchange.
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