I understand the concept of diversification, especially when it comes to a highly volatile asset class like cryptocurrencies. Don't put all my eggs in one basket, for I never know when one crypto exchange will fall foul of regulatory guidelines and be restricted or even banned from operating in my country. Using a few crypto exchanges also enables me to benefit from the assorted advantages and alleviate the disadvantages. After all, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
On the other hand, I am attuned to the benefits of minimalism and feel compelled to keep my life as simple as possible. So while I wish to have skin in the game for several exchanges, I don't wish to have an account with every crypto exchange out there. Currently, I have accounts with 3 exchanges: Kucoin, to collect AMP and DeFi tokens; Coinbase, to benefit from its Learn and Earn program; and Gemini, to convert my crypto to fiat easily. So I was wondering whether these 3 exchanges would be sufficient. Or should I open up accounts with more exchanges?
Hence, I asked the users of a personal finance site the following question:
If you had to practise minimalism and use only ONE crypto exchange, which would be your chosen one and why? There is a multitude of crypto exchanges out there, each with its pros and cons. I’m using Gemini, Coinbase and Kucoin and wondering if I need to expand my usage. It can be mentally taxing to keep track of all these platforms!
A total of 6 people replied. 2 of them voted for FTX; one person elaborated that he thinks that FTX is best for people who just want to trade the few top coins/tokens by market cap.
1 user voted for Coinhako, a Singapore-based exchange because he found it to be the most user-friendly among all the exchanges. He also pointed out that Gemini only offers BTC-SGD and ETH-SGD pairings, which makes it less appealing than Coinhako.
1 user voted for crypto.com and offered a multitude of reasons. He was not only enticed by the crypto visa card program, but also gravitated towards the fact that crypto.com offered investors a whopping number of coins and tokens (160). He also felt assured that crypto.com - which is based in Singapore incidentally - has been granted exemption by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Last but not least, the fact that crypto.com does not incur any trading fees was icing on the cake for him.
The remaining 2 users went along with our beloved Kucoin. One pointed out that Kucoin offers a competitive margin system while the other mentioned Kucoin's wide selection of coins and tokens.
Reflections
I think it's a pity that the users who nominated for FTX did not share in detail why they had made their choice. I have heard FTX being casually dropped in conversations a couple of times, so the fact that two people voted for it as their favourite exchange piqued my curiosity. I will have to find out more about FTX. Incidentally, are you a user of FTX here? Perhaps you will like to share your user experience with FTX!
As for crypto.com, as strange as it might sound, I like the idea of the crypto visa card but am reluctant to shift my spending habits just to get my hands on more crypto. I think it stemmed from an unpleasant experience I had with one of the local banks in Singapore. You would think that in this age of fintech disrupting traditional banks' services, traditional banks would be kept on their toes and fall over themselves to offer their consumers good services. But nope, I was actually charged the annual fee by this bank. I made two phone calls to their call service centre in a bid to have this annual fee waived, but to no avail. Hence, I eventually cancelled my credit card. I'm not sure if the crypto visa card will put me through similar agony in the future.
