Trading from Singapore

BEGINNERS & HELP
#1

Hi, I want to do crypto trading from Singapore. Currency I will be using is Singapore dollar (SGD) and I would like to prioritize speed of trade. I am aware that Gemini and Coinbase are usable in Singapore, but the former requires me to wire money (expensive) and the latter has high transaction costs.

I am currently considering Coinhako. Does anyone have any opinions to share?

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#2

If you are looking to wire in SGD, the most reliable choices are indeed Coinhako, Coinbase and Gemini.

I personally haven’t use Gemini but can give you a quick overview of the other 2.

Coinhako:

  • Used to have their own bank transfer mechanism which was a huge plus given that Xfers is almost always down
  • Coinhako prices used to be a tad lower than coinbase, so it always made more sense to buy on coinhako. I believe this is still the case, but the difference is pretty small now. (Transfers in and out of exchanges always took awhile, so little to no arb opportunity there)
  • Secured with BitGo (a very popular Bitcoin security / multi-sig wallet provider)
  • Appears to be insured
  • Traditionally had a higher availability than Coinbase

Coinbase:

  • Probably one of the largest exchanges around
  • Operates their own exchange called GDAX
  • Well funded startup
  • Tends to list higher prices but in practice they work out to be the same
  • They say they store parts of your currency in cold storage (which means not connected to the internet)
  • Has a credit card option (can sometimes work out)
  • Used to have a bad reputation for being down / unavailable quite a bit
  • Only has xfers as an option if you want to deposit fiat currency

Overall, both are solid, I ended up buying most of my stuff on Coinhako because xfers was always down. However, now that they both use xfers exclusively. I don’t see much difference. I think it just boils down to whichever you can finish their KYC steps faster. I think coinbase might technically be safer if they really store your currency on cold wallets. However, the long term goal is to move your currency offline (I hope).

Hope that helps.

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#3

Thanks for the reply! Do you trade frequently? I’m concerned about transaction costs and speed.

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#4

I don’t trade fiat <> crypto regularly. I don’t see a point in doing that, way too easy to miss a spike in crypto. Instead I acquire crypto and use a small portion to trade alt coins. Theres a lot of trash, got to steer clear away from those. But there are some gems.