QuadrigaCX is a Vancouver, Canada-based Bitcoin exchange that boasts greater liquidity and security than current centralized exchange offerings.
“In order for an exchange marketplace to function efficiently, both liquidity and volume are vital,” according to the QuadrigaCX homepage. “All funds in the QuadrigaCX system are highly liquid, and can be withdrawn at anytime. Unlike our competitors, which often require weeks to process withdrawals, QuadrigaCX initiates all withdrawals within 24 hours.”
The exchange notes that its account funding and withdrawal options are more comprehensive than any comparable Canadian exchange, and all account funding and withdrawal actions are handled free of charge.
Additionally, QuadrigaCX has the capability to handle Ether trading, with the same variety of easy funding and withdrawal options. The mechanisms for Ether and Bitcoin handling are streamlined in the exchange’s front-end trading window, providing an excellent user interface and interoperability.
QuadrigaCX Team
The co-founder and current CEO of QuadrigaCX is Gerald Cotten. Cotten formerly served as the director of The Bitcoin Co-Op, the birthplaces of the point-of-sale system CoinOS.
“It was just so hard to buy Bitcoin in Canada,” Cotten said on a Decentral Talk Live podcast. “You couldn’t hook up your bank account anywhere. It was just such a challenge.”
This challenge prompted Cotten and his colleagues to found QuadrigaCX, with the overall goal of creating an exchange that offered fast, easy funding – equally fast and easy withdrawals – and an eye toward propriety and security in a Wild West cryptocurrency market.
QuadrigaCX Account Signup
To get started with QuadrigaCX, you must first go through the registration process. There is a button that leads to the registration page in the upper-right-hand corner of the screen.
First, select which account type you are interested in opening. QuadrigaCX offers the options of a personal account or a business account.
Next, you’ll be required to enter your identifying information. For a personal account, this means a relevant email address, your first and last name, your date of birth, and your country of residence. A business account holder must enter the aforementioned identifying information, plus the name of the business.
It’s vital that the names you register exactly match the names on the legal documents you’ll be required to submit as part of the identity verification process. This streamlines the verification process for the user and helps prevent fraud on the exchange’s business end.
Upon registering your account, you’ll be prompted to select a password and/or a transaction PIN.
Once your account is registered and your identity verified, you’re ready to fund your account and begin trading.
Account Verification
QuadrigaCX’s comparatively stringent and thorough identification procedures are a breath of fresh air in the cryptocurrency arena. While anonymity is slightly compromised, QuadrigaCX’s identity verification process ensures that fraud or possible infringements of Canadian law are excluded from the exchange.
This is also the reasoning behind QuadrigaCX’s refusal to accept third-party funding for accounts, eliminating the possibility or appearance of fraud is vital to the exchange’s smooth operation. Canadian QuadrigaCX users can employ two different verification methods. One of the options must be completed to use QuadrigaCX.
The first method involves securely uploading a digital copy of your identification and proof of address. Instant verification can also be done through Equifax. In this method, QuadrigaCX will ask you to verify information from your credit file in a multiple-choice format.
How to Fund Your Account
Funding your account directly with Canadian dollars can be accomplished via a variety of methods. A full list of the methods available – along with detailed instructions – is available after your identity has been verified and an account set up.
QuadrigaCX also offers its users the option to fund directly from Coinbase, one of the most well-known fiat-to-cryptocurrency portals and general exchanges in the cryptosphere.
Interac e-Transfers can also be used to fund a QuadrigaCX account, provided you already have an Interac account. Although QuadrigaCX will instantly notify you that the funds have been received, it can take up to 24 hours for the funds to become available in your account.
To fund your account in Crypto, simply visit the dashboard and you will see the options available.
Clicking the “Fund” button next to your desired coin will give you the wallet address and a QR code to send your funds to.
Choosing a fiat option will bring up a page with various options, you will need to carry out the verification steps before using these options.
How to Withdraw Funds
The options for withdrawing funds fairly mirror the options for funding a QuadrigaCX account. There’s one caveat that should be noted, however. To provide the highest standards of user security and fraud protection, QuadrigaCX does not allow any withdrawals for 24 hours after a major account settings change. This is to prevent unauthorized access or withdrawal of funds from user accounts.
“As noted on the profile setting page, ‘For your protection, withdrawals will be disabled on your account for 24 hours after any Email, Password, PGP, PIN or 2FA change is complete,’” QuadrigaCX stressed. “This cannot be lifted. You must wait the 24hrs before withdrawals become enabled – anyone harassing support risks having their account closed indefinitely.”
This should be viewed as a major exchange feature rather than an inconvenience. The majority of funds lost to exchanges are lost because of user error. Clicking on an unsafe link, unknowingly downloading malware, or practicing poor password hygiene are the leading user-end ways of losing valuable cryptocurrency. QuadrigaCX’s simple but powerful internal controls should prevent most user mistakes from becoming overly costly.
QuadrigaCX Fees
If you decide to make deposits or withdrawals in Cryptocurrency then these are free to make, funding or withdrawals by Wire Transfer in Canadian Dollars are subject to a 1% fee. If you use $USD then these are also free.
Trades are subject to a 0.5% fee on all completed trades on the following order books BTC/CAD, BTC/USD, ETH/CAD, LTC/CAD, BCH/CAD & BTG/CAD. The fee on the ETH/BTC, LTC/BTC, BCH/BTC & BTG/BTC order books is 0.2%.
Note that the fee does not apply to open orders, and is only charged after a trade is executed.
Supported Cryptocurrencies
QuadrigaCX supports the following Cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, Ethereum and Litecoin. They offer the following trading pairs:
- xbt/cad
- XɃT/USD
- eth/cad
- eth/xbt
- ltc/cad
- ltc/xbt
- bch/cad
- bch/xbt
- btg/cad
- btg/xbt
How to Trade on Quadriga CX
The main trading screen on Quadriga is very basic, it does not contain charts or candlestick views that most traders will be familiar with. On visiting the trading screen you will see two boxes for placing Buy and Sell orders and a dropdown box top right for selecting your trading pairs. Underneath you will see the Top 10 Buy and Sell orders – the page doesn’t update automatically, you need to refresh it to see updates.
Next to the Buy orders or sell orders is a “More” link which takes you to a market Data page, this page shows you a chart of the price of the asset over the last 60 days. Underneath this you can view the order book showing the current buy and sell orders.
Scrolling down under the current orders you will see the latest trades made on the platform. As you can see, there are not a huge amount of trades and Bitcoin seems to be trading at a premium on the platform when compared to the latest Bitcoin prices.
There is one more area you will want to look at, their “Live Trades” page, contains much the same information:
QuadrigaCX provides a comprehensive and transparent listing of the outstanding buy and sell orders available. It also has a running tally of the most recent trades made on the platform. The market page itself is headlined by a large, easy-to-read price graph that can be customized by currency and date range.
Is QuadrigaCX Safe?
Security is one of QuadrigaCX’s core concerns, and the exchange features multiple layers of security features designed to keep user funds safe from both attacks on the system itself and phishing attempts on individual users. As listed on the site, they provide the following:
- Encrypted Cold Storage
- Two-Factor Authentication
- Collaborative Security with Cloudflare
- Collective Intelligent Threat Detection
- Global Load Balanced Network
“When it comes to Bitcoin, security is one of the most important issues,” the company stated. “QuadrigaCX employs some of the most advances security measures in the Bitcoin industry, including the use of cold storage for the majority of the Bitcoins within our system. Our user accounts are secured with encryption that exceeds industry standards, and our servers employ the use of custom operating systems and software.”
Cold storage is a form of cryptocurrency storage in which digital assets are moved to machines without an active internet connection. This is in contrast to a so-called “hot wallet,” where funds are exposed to an internet connection either continuously or on a regular basis.
Cold storage comes with some drawbacks for individuals. Namely, it is cumbersome to move cryptocurrencies from cold storage to a hot wallet for trading purposes. However, QuadrigaCX manages the proportions of its Bitcoins held in cold storage effectively to guarantee fast and easy liquidity on the hot wallet end of the exchange.
QuadrigaCX’s security is further bolstered by the company’s partnership with internet security firm CloudFlare.
Quadriga have also posted on Reddit, a number of security tips for keeping your account safe with them. These include things like :
- Enabling Google Two-factor Authentication
- Always navigate to https://www.quadrigacx.com by typing it in your address bar
- If you receive an email from what looks to be “QuadrigaCX” as the sender’s name, please take a moment to ensure the email domain address is actually ours
- Please be cautious when clicking on paid search ads as scammers have been known to run campaigns with similar but false QuadrigaCX domain URLs
- Enable Activity Notifications on your account to receive an email from us every time there is a Successful Login, Failed Login or Withdrawal Request.
- We will never call you and ask for sensitive login or withdrawal information like passwords or transactions PINs over the phone, nor will we ask you to click on a link to give us remote access to your computer
- Do not mark/report any emails from us as spam because if you do you will not be able to receive any of these important emails, activity notifications or responses from our Support Centre ticketing system
QuadrigaCX Referral Program
To expand its reach in the cryptosphere, QuadrigaCX maintains a user referral program.
“To help spread the adoption of Bitcoin, and get rewarded for it, we have provided you with a referral link to share with family and friends or use within your blog or online marketing campaign,” QuadrigaCX explained. “10% of all trading fees from any user who has signed up from your referral link be will instantly credited to your QuadrigaCX account.”
The rules for using the QuadrigaCX referral program are straightforward and in line with similar rewards programs on other exchanges. You may not refer yourself, and only new signups are eligible to join the QuadrigaCX referral program. Only one account may participate in the program, and you are not allowed to keyword bid on any of QuadrigaCX’s keywords, brands, or variations thereof. Finally, QuadrigaCX reserves the right to change its referral program rules at any time to keep the system fair and efficient.
Helpfully, QuadrigaCX provides a list of media outlets for referral link posting, although it notes that the list is by no means exhaustive. QuadrigaCX encourages referral link posting on Google AdWords, Facebook, Reddit, and more.
QuadrigaCX Customer Support
There is a support section on the website which contains a detailed knowledge base of questions and answers for just about everything you will need to get started on the platform. It contains information about using the platform, funding and withdrawals, features and more indepth security questions.
They do not offer phone support at this time, but you can submit support requests via their ticketing system.
QuadrigaCX Online Reputation
QuadrigaCX appears to make every effort to address concerns from its user base or the market at large via a variety of different channels, including press releases, Reddit, and Twitter.
Most recently, QuadrigaCX issued a statement via its Reddit and Twitter accounts addressing its ongoing legal challenge to the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC).
“Over the past few months, we have experienced one of the most harsh banking environments in Canada that we have seen since launching in late 2013,” the company stated. “This week, more information regarding our issues with CIBC were made public. As a result of the issues with CIBC, EFT and wire withdrawals remain delayed. With that said, we continue to process hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of payments each day and the backlog has been shrinking.”
In addition to this blanket statement, QuadrigaCX addressed additional concerns point by point. That’s a level of detail in public communications not often seen in the cryptosphere.
“We have made great improvements to the speed of transfers over the past month and have greatly expanded our processing capabilities for payments,” QuadrigaCX said in bullet-point format. “Nevertheless, delays still persist for some payment types primarily due to the backlog of older payments. If your payment has not been processed it can be cancelled at any time and returned to your account. If you have any concerns, you can instantly withdraw cryptocurrency. CIBC continues to withhold millions of dollars as part of their attack on cryptocurrency. Our legal team is waiting for a judgement that will force them to transfer said funds as instructed. As soon as this occurs, transfer speeds will 100% return to normal.”
The ability to address sensitive issues in a direct and upfront manner is one of the primary things that sets QuadrigaCX apart from its competition. This is in addition to its in-house user services section, which provides detailed support on nearly every facet of using QuadrigaCX.
Conclusion
QuadrigaCX remains Canada’s largest cryptocurrency exchange for a reason. The company offers a large amount of funding and withdrawal options, making moving fiat cash both into and out of the cryptocurrency market simple.
This is a big boon in the cryptosphere. It’s been difficult to translate fiat into cryptocurrency from the earliest stages of the crypto boom, and easy fiat-to-crypto portals remain the holy grail of the exchange scene.
QuadrigaCX seems to have accomplished this rather seamlessly and with a variety of options, including wire transfers, bank transfers, and more.
A particular point of pride for the QuadrigaCX team should be the open and responsive customer service. At the business level, QuadrigaCX maintains an active Twitter account with almost 6,500 followers. Likewise, the QuadrigaCX forum on Reddit is actively curated and moderated by members of the QuadrigaCX team rather than volunteers or community enthusiasts. The forum itself boasts about 2,900 subscribers.
Unfortunately their trading screen needs some work, it’s very basic and lacks the tools that traders will need such as indepth charts, candlesticks, live updating and so on. As such, this exchange is more of a “buy or sell” option for beginner’s rather than experienced traders who wish to carry out day-trading.
Another point to consider is the lack of other cryptocurrencies outside Bitcoin (& forks), Litecoin and Ethereum – if you are looking for more coins to trade you will need to take your funds over to another exchange to make those trades. As such, QuadrigaCX seems to be more of a fiat on-ramp, than a fully featured crypto trading exchange.
Overall, QuadrigaCX fills a distinct niche in the Canadian market for a large, liquid exchange with a solid background and dependable interface. Moving funds from fiat to cryptocurrency is rarely easy, but QuadrigaCX has streamlined the entire process for Canadian users – and moreover, it has streamlined the process in a way that protects user’s funds with a multilayered approach to security.
As the cryptocurrency field grows in size and sophistication, the need for exchanges like QuadrigaCX will only grow. QuadrigaCX appears to have gotten ahead of that demand curve and to have done so in such a way that subsequent exchanges will be compared to it.