QuadrigaCX – Canada’s Best Bitcoin Exchange?

Proclaimed “Canada’s best Bitcoin exchange” in the promotional video on its official website, QuadrigaCX.com (Quadriga Coin Exchange) is indeed a proper exchange rather than a brokerage, meaning that it matches up the buy and sell orders of its users, rather than selling and purchasing cryptocurrency itself. Legitimacy is a delicate issue to establish in the case of this exchange. While no one has ever claimed that QuadrigaCX stole his/her money, or presented any proof in this regard, the service has many detractors on various forums (including bitcointalk.org and reddit) who decry the lengthy deposit/withdrawal processing times, and the lack of proper customer support.

What exactly does QuadrigaCX offer?

Unlike some of the Canadian crypto operations we have thus far reviewed, QuadrigaCX’s services are available to a global user-base, rather than just Canadians. Through the exchange, one can fund his/her account with various crypto currencies and fiats. The selection of supported currencies includes USD and CAD, as well as Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, Ethereum and Litecoin. Following the funding of their accounts, users can proceed to buy or sell cryptos, by posting their buy/sell offer in the order book.

Setting up an account and getting the minimum required verification out of the way, takes up but a minute or two. Creating a buy or sell order is a similarly lengthy affair. Once posted, the order shows up in the order book. Some people are out there looking to buy BTCs for $10 and to sell them for $50,000, so the order book is indeed home to some of the most extreme offers. The top ten in the buy- as well as the sell category though, is a good starting point.

The exchange also features a history-type list with the latest buy/sell operations that actually take place. These give users a decent idea of what’s reasonable price-wise on the currency pair they’re looking to transact.

The main selling point of the operation seems to be the fact that it supports same day deposits and withdrawals. To this end, a variety of funding methods are accepted. Interac Online Instant Funding is one of them, as is e-Transfer funding and Express Bank Transfer Withdrawal. Bank wire and EFT are supported as well. In order to access most of these deposit/withdrawal methods, users are required to undergo additional verification. The problem with this whole angle is that – even though same day deposits/withdrawals are advertised – some users have to wait for more than a week to fund their accounts/withdraw their funds, despite the fact that they are indeed verified and fully authorized.

The trading platform used by QuadrigaCX is simple and it does what it is supposed to do, mostly without hiccups (although some users claim to have spotted certain irregularities within their order book too). The trading fees are in the 0.2-0.5% range.

The operator is apparently very keen on security (hence the required verification procedures, some of which are indeed rather fussy). In addition to two-factor authentication, the site features Cloudfare Collaborative Security, Intelligent Threat Detection and Encrypted Cold storage, to protect users’ cryptos.

Should I Trust QuadrigaCX?

The operation is legitimate, in the sense that it will definitely not take your money and run away with it. Major delays in withdrawals and deposits have been registered though, prompting some of their users to scream “scam” before their problems were sorted out. While legitimacy has certainly been there thus far, the actual quality of the services offered by QuadrigaCX has increasingly left room for improvement.

Red Flags and Question Marks

While in the traditional sense of the expression, the operation doesn’t raise any red flags and question marks, there’s one thing about it that’s somewhat peculiar. The domain, which has indeed been first registered in 2013, has its registrant information kept under wraps. The address of the registrant is in Nassau, Bahamas though, which is a little weird. It is almost certain this fact carries no special significance in this case, but it is worth mentioning nonetheless.

Complaints

For an operation which looks legitimate and which no one has accused of fraud in a manner backed up by evidence, QuadrigaCX seems to attract a peculiarly high number of complaints. Most of the forum members who decided to chime in with their feedback at bitcointalk.org, have complained about the lengthy deposit and withdrawal times. The fact that these complainers failed to get proper support, did not really help in quelling their discontent.

Those who chose reddit as the platform to voice their displeasure with the service, were even more vehement: some of them posted entire stories of their ordeals trying to land a deposit or to grab a withdrawal.

QuadrigaCX Review Conclusion

Despite some of the negative feedback, QuadrigaCX is indeed a legitimate crypto trading destination, which features attractive fees and can be used from all over the world. Sure, the operation may have problems with deposits and withdrawals every now and then, but it never defrauded its clients in any shape or form.

What’s more, the exchange offers a referral scheme to its members too, through which traders can grab some more than welcome extra value: 10% of the trading fees generated by a user referred by another user, will be credited to the referrer. The QuadrigaCX website even gives would-be referrers some marketing ideas to get their recruitment drive going.

Long story short: QuadrigaCX works. It may not work the way some would expect it to at times, but it works nonetheless.

What are your thoughts about QuadrigaCX? Leave a comment below this review and let us know!

Read more Cryptocurrency Exchange Reviews.