27 October 2021 

I started my crypto journey in July 2021 and I must admit that Binance.com app has been the holy grail of all apps that I open most of the time. Even if it meant I was going to see the market go up and down, or if I had just wanted to explore some other new coins. The Singapore government and governing bodies have recently announced that users in Singapore should cease trades and redeem tokens. Well, it was a period of chaos and I was frantically looking for new places to store and trade my crypto assets.

Until just a few minutes ago I decided to login to BInance.com app and was redirected to app store for this...

So if you are a user in Singapore and not sure where else to go, here are some of my favs right now:

1. FTX

IT IS THE WAY TO GO. KYC didn't take too long, but it still needed some time to have them verify to tier 2. For someone who has been spoilt by BInance.com in terms of the amount of derivative products, FTX is honestly my saviour. The fees are LOW. And by low, I meant:

Isn't this even lower than Binance.com!?! Fees aside, wide range of products and the ability to break up into various sub-accounts was my favourite.

I didn't manage to move all my assets from Binance.com over to FTX because I discovered this platform way later and had many of my coins moved into Crypto.com before my KYC was approved. 

As I was still relatively new into this whole staking and lending environment, I got curious with various margin lending abilities here in FTX so I tried my hand at it. I clicked on "Lend" and continued with my workday, and then came back to find that my 6.43usd was working hard to make money for me at different funding rates! Seriously talk about making your money work for you.

The other thing I love about FTX is the potential to get free ERC20 withdrawals based on the number of FTT (FTX's token) staked. I am on the camp of ETH > BTC, and ERC20 gas fees and the whole gwei model actually makes me slightly annoyed - especially with having game tokens that sit on the Ronin network with AXS and SLP from playing Axie Infinity. This news of having free withdrawal totally excited me!! 

Though at this point Ronin network doesn't exist with FTX yet, but I do think it's a great platform with lots of good things to be explored!

If you haven't joined FTX, use my link here so that you get 5% off fees on FTX!

2. Crypto.com

First of all, I love it. The idea of having an easy-to-use app, and even having a debit card to "tap-tap" with my profit was really a fabulous ecosystem. The only thing I wished I had known earlier with the Crypto.com app is that direct crypto purchases on the app itself has a high bid-offer spread, which meant that you probably are paying a little higher than the actual market rate, inclusive of fees.

Nonetheless, I love it that the Ruby card gives me cashback in terms of CRO, and I have been diligently collecting them and putting them for Supercharger events! I'm honestly not a fan of the free netflix or spotify (apple girl here) so those really weren't the points that attracted me to the platform for the metal card. 

All I wanted was a place for me to profit from crypto, and be able to spend it on things that makes me happy. 

(Note: in order to get any of these cards, you'll have to stake a certain amount of money for 180 days with the platform. Back when I staked, it was about 500usd.)

The Earn program on the app itself has been giving me a range of 4.5% to 5.5% P.A. of earnings on BTC and ETH on various term periods, paid out to my main wallet every 7 days - and if I wanted to cash out, I could just sell them off in the app.

Putting money into the system after your first 30 days is also quite simple. If you have a multi-currency account like DBS Multiplier, you can immediately convert your SGD into USD and submit a bank transfer for your monies to appear in Crypto.com. I tried it once and the money was in within 8 hours on a weekday - not bad for me, I was expecting it to take 2 days.

3. Crypto.com Exchange

You might argue it's the same thing, but I'd really say it's a "same same but different" thing. Here, you are able to use the Spot function and make orders for a specific amount that you want to purchase a coin for. There are also separate Earn and Staking programs that you can partake from the exchange.

The interface is friendly on website, not so much on the app. I'm more of a fan of seeing the graphs and figures on a bigger screen. 

What I absolutely adore is that assets from Crypto.com and Crypto.com Exchange can be transferred freely with almost no downtime and with no fees! That means I could sell some coins at a certain rate I wanted and then send it back to the App and have it loaded into my Ruby card for my next spending.

Use my referral link https://crypto.com/app/eedu3ty4s5 to sign up for Crypto.com and we both get $25 USD :)

4. Coinhako

Another interesting place, but more if you were someone who wanted to see coins in SGD equivalents, beginning in crypto, and simply just want to buy and sell coins.

There are no additional features like staking, lending and earning on this platform.

In general, it is an easy way for someone to get started on crypto because the banking instructions and transfer periods are relatively fast - local bank transfer took about 1 day for the fiat to appear in my wallet. Fees are at 1% every time you trade, and a flat fee of $2 per withdrawal from your fiat wallet back into your bank account.

Personally I just let my coins in coinhako run on its own. When it crosses a certain threshold, I take profit and use that profit to buy other coins while keeping my capital in the main coin.

As you can probably read from my tone, I'm not a super huge fan of this platform - but it works. Feel free to sign up for an account with my referral here: https://www.coinhako.com/affiliations/sign_up/306327_15027315

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And that's the end of my very first article written here! I hope you liked it! 

Let me know in the comments which is your fav platform!

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Maybe just a little bit on why I decided to start writing on this platform. When I started my crypto journey in Jul 2021, I was on a work break and really wanted a place that I could read relevant news about crypto. I have learnt a lot from here and found that the tipping model was so unique and I loved it. I came back everyday to read and learn new things and slowly built my portfolio from here.

From there on I have made mistakes, I have wasted on gwei, I have done dumb things. I guess there's this part of me that wants to help other people who really want to explore this other part of up&coming economies.

I'll be posting regularly, I hope! ❤️