We already earned the trust of the Bitcoin community by rising to become the largest mining pool in the world with GHash.IO in 2012 – 2013. Since then, we have adapted our business but kept the same goal to bring the benefits of cryptocurrency to the world. Already operational in over 200 countries and territories, committing ourselves to the US market is our next challenge.
CEX.IO’s United States initiative is built on a simple vision; that regulation, security and innovative trading products will win the trust of US customers.
Regulation
Before the ₿ symbol even existed, or the first BitLicense was issued, CEX.IO had already been registered with FinCEN as a Money Services Business. Why? Because at CEX.IO, we know the road to mass adoption and trust was through proper controls and embracing regulation. Years before the establishment of Customer Due Diligence Rule, we had become a regulated financial institution. With rules come trust. Creating a trustworthy marketplace, meant accountability and preventing bad actors. We enacted strict compliance procedures long before the law was even developed. We believe in bringing traditional financial controls from other regulated asset classes markets and adapting them to fit the digital economy.
As clarity into the patchwork of state Money Transmitter statutes is developing, we believe it is time that CEX.IO fully commit ourselves to become a challenger exchange. Since our launch on America’s birthday, July 4th 2019, we have already received 17 Money Transmitter Licenses. We are able to operate in 34 states currently.
In an effort to serve customers throughout America, we have filed applications in every regulated state and anticipate approval by the end of the year. If we are not in your state yet, we’ll be there soon.
Unlike many of our competitors, we never ignored the law by serving US customers without a license in states where a license was required. As we may continue to see, these transgressions by others may not go overlooked. It may even prevent some of the largest exchanges in the world from ever obtaining US licensing. Or more importantly, gaining the trust of US consumers and regulators.
Customer Service
We are pleased and grateful that our public perception is more favourable than many of our competitors. The popular review platform Trustpilot has rated us 3.5 out of 5 stars, through careful consideration of over 2000 customer reviews. In fact, 42% of all reviews for CEX.IO were with excellent rate! We pride ourselves on having the most comprehensive customer service in the industry. It’s a pleasure to see that our customers have noticed that. We offer customer support through all possible mediums. They include all social media platforms and we’ll even get on the phone with our customers to troubleshoot. If that wasn’t enough, we have a 24/7 live chat on our website where you can directly speak with our customer support team. None of our competitors offers this level of care and personalization.
Security
Security is paramount. As CEX.IO continues to grow and enter new markets, we want to assure you that safeguarding customer funds and data remains our top priority. We pride ourselves on being a tech-heavy exchange.
Some of our security features include:
- Hot multi-signature wallets encrypted according to specific Hardware Secure Modules. Each private key is created by an unauthorized person using a hardware wallet combined with proprietary firmware developed by CEX.IO.
- Distribution of private keys across multiple individuals in multiple jurisdictions in separate geographic locations.
- Our hot wallet design supports the “Dual Control” principle, that through our multi-signature wallet requires 2-of-2 signatures to carry out a transaction.
- Multi-signature transactions require several encrypted private keys from different isolated subsystems to sign customers’ withdrawals.
- Redundancy of matching engine and all customer balances at two of the most secure data centers in the world. It’s complete with fingerprint entry scans, 24/7 CCTV and armed security personnel. Our matching engine is housed in the same facility as the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ.
- We enabled whitelisted addresses for user accounts. This feature allows for transferring funds from the cold wallets only to the whitelisted addresses of the CEX.IO hot wallets and only after the reconciliation of all balances. The CEX.IO system has control systems for sending only to proper destination addresses when transactions are created and signed, even by all fully authorized parties.
- PCI DSS (the highest standard for credit card providers) is applied and audited regularly on all hot wallet accounts. In practice, we encrypt and anonymize all credit card data during its analysis.
- We have also built a proprietary rules monitoring program “Expert System” that evolves with the needs of our platform. Expert System smart rules trigger alerts to the Compliance and Finance teams about irregular behaviour of digital asset transactions. Certainly, integration of Expert System for verification of identity, digital asset transactions is crucial to providing an extra layer of security for our customers. Expert Systems utilizes some of the most advanced algorithmic machine learning and AI technologies to further secure our platform.
Innovation
Our innovative and evolving nature has sustained CEX.IO since 2013. We have a whole host of products to contribute to the digital asset ecosystem:
Mobile App
Our technologically advanced app is available for both iOS and Android. Some of the features include:
- Protect your balance with facial recognition. We offer an opt in security feature where transactions can only be enabled on the app using facial recognition. Just like how you would unlock your smartphone.
- Link all your credit cards and store them securely. We’ll save up to 3 of credit cards to your account. You can fund your account with all the credit cards in your wallet and do not have to re-enter all the details every time. We also add ACH deposits so you can directly link your bank account for smooth deposits and withdrawals. We have integrated 2FA for all deposits with your financial institution, to ensure your security.
- Price security – we’ll honour a quoted digital asset price for 120 seconds. It gives you security and protection from price fluctuations.
- Price alerts – you can opt into customized price alerts. They will notify you of optimal buy and sell opportunities.
Frictionless Onboarding
Through our Mobile App, you become a customer and can buy or sell cryptocurrency in under 3 minutes. No burdensome process of entering in unnecessary details like most of our competitors. Through our streamlined and advanced technology, we’ll have you transacting in the digital asset ecosystem in minutes, while still meeting all of our obligations in the Bank Secrecy Act and the USA PATRIOT Act.
Instant Buy
Want cryptocurrency ASAP but no need for a trading account? All we need is your name, valid photo ID and credit card. It can be scanned using your mobile phone on our mobile app. From the moment you download the app, you can have your cryptocurrency in your wallet in less than 3 minutes. The digital economy is here and we can bring it to you quicker than anyone else.
Fiat Access 24/7/365
We joined Silvergate Bank’s SEN Network. It allows our customers access to fiat currency. Also, it is available all day everyday and never closes. Our customers will no longer be bound by traditional banking hours limiting their fiat access. Customer’s of CEX.IO can access greater liquidity seamlessly with all major exchanges on the Silvergate network.
Grow the community and earn
Invite your friends to CEX.IO and earn 30% of their fees on their exchange direct to you. Simply have them scan the QR code on the app and register an account and you begin earning! No competitor is offering an incentive like this.
CEX BROKER
We have built a derivatives platform allowing customers to leverage their position both long or short. This innovative platform allows users to overlay countless charting indicators over the orderbook in real time. We have built in triggers that the user can adjust for stop-loss or take-profit and much more. Currently, the platform is available in Demo mode for US residents, however, we are working with regulators to bring this platform to US customers as soon as possible.
Multi-Exchange Liquidity
We have built a proprietary function where we can effectively execute orders across several exchanges. It assures you the best price in the market. This is a standard feature in FX and equities markets and very useful to traders, so we bought it to the digital asset space. On the front end, the customer just sees a great market price and confirms the order and we’ll do the rest. Better price discovery and access to the best possible order is your right as a user, and we want to bring it to you.
Competitive commissions
Through regulation, security and innovation, we believe we can win the trust of American consumers and challenge the competition. We offer some of the lowest fees worldwide. In fact, our highest trading fee (0.25%) is effectively 8 times less than the fee of our most well-known domestic competitors[efn_note]Buy order transaction: Gemini (0.50% plus 1.49% = 1.99% fee) versus (0.25%) on CEX.IO[/efn_note]. The actual average trading fee paid by our customers (0.12%), is more than 24 times less than our domestic competitors[efn_note]Buy order transaction: Gemini (0.50% plus 1.49% = 1.99% fee) versus (0.12%) on CEX.IO[/efn_note]! We don’t bury a bunch of hidden fees in our User Agreement, like our competitors. Our fee schedule hasn’t changed in several years. It’s straightforward and always available to our customers.
We believe you have the right to get as much cryptocurrency as you purchased. We’re here for the long haul, not for a quick buck on some hidden fees.
We invite you to register and see for yourself. You’ll be impressed.