CoinSmart Review: Complete Exchange Overview

Editors Note: In 2023, CoinSmart merged with Wonderfi in an attempt to create a better trading experience for Canadians. You can read about the merger here and check out our picks for the Top Crypto Exchanges to find a suitable alternative.

CoinSmart is a popular Canadian cryptocurrency exchange that opened its doors in July 2018.

They are trying to break into the market by providing an exchange solution that will address many of the challenges that traders face in Canada. These include things like antiquated account funding solutions and complicated trading platforms.

However, is CoinSmart a good crypto exchange and worth your attention?

In this CoinSmart review, we will attempt to answer that question. With many exchanges, such as Binance, OKX, and SwissBorg offering industry-leading crypto products and advanced trading features, the competition is fierce in the industry.

We will give you everything that you need to know about the crypto exchange, including their security protocols, funding, fees, trading technology and customer support.

CoinSmart Overview

CoinSmart is another Toronto-based exchange and they have offices in the city. It was founded by Justin Hartzman and Jeremy Koven. They both worked at Needls and WeSellYourSite.

WeSellYourSite was a website brokering service, and Needls is a digital marketing agency. The CoinSmart team has also tapped the brains of Edmund Lau as a technical advisor. He was the CTO of DealTap and WorldGaming.

The concept of CoinSmart was a result of difficulties faced by the founders when they were trading cryptocurrencies on other exchanges. As other exchanges struggled with issues surrounding functions like fiat funding and slow verification times, the founders of CoinSmart felt they could run a more efficient cryptocurrency exchange.

They also found that the other crypto exchange options were quite complicated and not well suited to those new to cryptocurrency trading. Hence, they embarked on developing a user-friendly exchange that had a “personal touch.”

Is CoinSmart Safe?

This is perhaps one of the most important questions that Canadian crypto investors are asking themselves. After QuadrigaCX (previously Canada's largest exchange) went under due to a lack of liquidity and a number of other questionable factors, not to mention the collapse of shamed exchange FTX, this is an important consideration.

Moreover, recent history is littered with examples of exchanges that have been hacked and had customers' coins/data stolen. When you are choosing an exchange, you have to make sure that they have the right security protocols in place.

So, how does CoinSmart stack up?

Banking and Regulation

CoinSmart has a Money Service Business (MSB) licence that was issued by FINTRAC. FINTRAC is the Canadian government agency that gathers, analyzes, assesses, and discloses financial intelligence. The CoinSmart licence number is M18755033.

This is beneficial for a number of reasons.

Firstly, in order to get this licence, CoinSmart will have had to have completed a number of compliance steps that are required by FINTRAC. This means that they will have had to disclose to the regulator numerous aspects of their business, which would then have to be signed off.

Secondly, it means that there is a standard of ongoing reporting that CoinSmart will have to adhere to if they want to keep their licence. These include things like consistent KYC checks and financial reporting.

Lastly, it means that CoinSmart is able to secure important relationships with the likes of banks and payment processors. With an MSB licence, these partners are way more likely to work with a cryptocurrency exchange.

Along with its Canadian regulation, CoinSmart is also registered with FinCEN in the United States and is licensed as a Europe Estonian Digital Assets & Wallet Provider, making it the first major Canadian crypto exchange to become globally available in over 40 countries.

Coin Storage

As is standard with most exchanges these days, CoinSmart operates a coin cold storage protocol. This means that the majority of their coins are kept in offline storage, keeping them well outside the reach of hackers.

In order to facilitate daily business on the exchange, they will keep a minimum amount of coins in their “hot wallets”. They will probably also use multi-signature technology to move coins from their cold storage to their hot wallets and back.

Irrespective of the coin management protocol at CoinSmart, it is not advisable to keep large holdings of coins on any exchange. The optimal solution is to be in control of your own private keys.

Communication Encryption

As is standard with most financial websites these days, CoinSmart has full SSL encryption on their site. This means that the communication that you submit on their site, as well as your password information cannot be intercepted by online snoops.

Moreover, this can be quite a helpful tool for the user when they are logging into sites that are susceptible to hacking and phishing attacks. Full SSL encryption means that you will be presented with a padlock in the browser.

If you happen to log onto a site that has the same domain as CoinSmart but there is no SSL padlock, it means that a hacker may be trying to dupe you into providing information to a phishing site. So be aware of this indicator.

User Side Security

Of course, most of the security that one can hope for starts with your own account management and ensuring you keep your CoinSmart account safe. You will want to get yourself a strong password for which CoinSmart has a handy generator. If you are going to use this, it is wise to generate the password in an offline state.

However, even if your password is somehow leaked or phished from you, two-factor authentications will stop unauthorized access. This makes use of the Google Authenticator app, which you can download from the iOS store as well as Google Play.

2FA is an additional security feature that is offered and it is not enabled by default. We advise you to enable this the moment that you have created an account and trade with peace of mind.

CoinSmart Assets

Currently, there are only 16 cryptocurrencies available on CoinSmart, a somewhat disappointing and lacklustre selection considering exchanges such as Binance offer 400+ tradeable assets.

CoinSmart is a good exchange to buy assets like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and some harder-to-find cryptocurrencies like Polkadot (DOT) and Dash (DASH) A couple notable exclusions that used to be offered but were removed are the likes of Ripple (XRP) due to the regulatory issues and Monero (XMR) due to the unfortunate crackdown on privacy coins.

CoinSmart Fees

Fees are greatly important to the crypto trader. Not only is it those headline fees that can impact their long-term profitability, but it is those hidden types that you are not immediately aware of. Fee transparency is nice to see with any exchange.

Let's take a deeper dive into the fee schedule at CoinSmart.

Trading Fees

CoinSmart charges a commission of 0.20% on single trades and 0.30% on double trades. 

• A single trade occurs when you trade between Canadian Dollars and any cryptocurrency or when trading between two cryptocurrencies when one of the cryptocurrencies is Bitcoin(BTC).
• A double trade occurs when you trade between two cryptocurrencies that are NOT Bitcoin(BTC) eg: Litecoin(LTC) to Ethereum(ETH).

The crypto withdrawal fees vary depending on the asset being withdrawn. For Bitcoin, there is a 0.00025 BTC withdrawal fee, and Ethereum has a 0.003 ETH withdrawal fee. You can find withdrawal fees for other cryptocurrencies on the Coinsmart Fees Page. 

These fees appear pretty reasonable compared to the other Canadian crypto exchanges. While it is slightly higher than Coinsquare's advanced trade fees, it is less than the flat-rated fees on exchanges such as BitBuy.

Funding Fees

The deposit fees are contingent on the type of funding that you use. If you are funding your account in cryptocurrencies, you will not be charged any fees for the inward transaction.

If you are going to be funding with CAD, the fees vary depending on if the user selects Interac e-Transfer, bank wire, or credit/debit cards. Here is a look at the funding options and fees:

Withdrawal Fees

When it comes to withdrawing your crypto, CoinSmart will charge you a small fee. This is not a fee that is taken by the exchange but is used in order to pay network miners and validators through a transaction fee. 

If you are going to be withdrawing CAD, then you will pay a 1% fee. This is irrespective of which withdrawal option you choose (EFT or Bank Wire). The supported withdrawal methods are:

• Interac e-Transfer
• Electronic Funds Transfer
• Bank Wire

Smart Guarantee

Something that we found quite interesting on offer from CoinSmart was their “Smart Guarantee.” This is essentially a promise by the exchange to process your CoinSmart account deposits and verification within a certain period of time. These are below:

• Credit Account same day as funds received
• If sending Fiat to their bank, to process your deposit in 5 business days
• Verify Account the same day

The guarantee is compelling because if they are unable to meet it, they will refund you the transaction fees. Of course, there are certain caveats to this. You have to make sure that you meet a number of other requirements, such as providing the correct information and documents. You can read all the terms on their Smart Guarantee Page.

Signup & Verification

If you have decided that you would like to sign up for a CoinSmart account, you will need to signup and create an account. They will need your full name, email, and password, as well as any promo code (more on this in the referral section).

Once you have signed up, they will ask you to confirm your account with a link that they sent to your email. Once that is confirmed, you are free to log back into your account and complete the verification steps.

Account Verification

Given that CoinSmart is a MSB that is regulated by FINTRAC, they are required to complete compulsory KYC on their users. This means that they need to confirm your identity and address in order to let you start trading.

The first step for verification is to confirm your phone number. They will send you a text message with a verification code. Once this is done, you can move on to the identity verification.

In order to speed up the verification, CoinSmart uses the third-party services provided by Equifax. Equifax is a credit reporting company that may have financial information about you that they can use in order to verify your identity.

If they are unable to pull your identity from the Equifax database, then they will require you to submit your identity documents manually. They will need some form of government-issued ID as well as a proof of address (utility bill).

In order to confirm that it is indeed you that is trying to submit these documents, they will also need you to take a selfie with you holding it up next to your face with a piece of paper saying “CoinSmart”. It must also be signed with your signature and have today's date.

CoinSmart Funding & Withdrawal

Once you have an account ready to go, you will probably want to fund it. Funding can be initiated in the wallet section of your account. You will select the wallet depending on how you would like to fund the account.

Crypto Payments

The quickest and easiest way to do this is through crypto funding. This is probably also the cheapest if you happen to have crypto on hand. Assuming that you are funding in Bitcoin, you will hit the Bitcoin wallet and then select the Deposit button.

It will generate the applicable address as well as the QR code that you can use to fund the account. Once you have sent the transaction to the wallet then you can monitor it on the blockchain. CoinSmart will credit your account the moment that they have 6 confirmations.

Withdrawals are just as easy except this time it will request the applicable address to send your coins to. Once you have placed that in the withdrawal form then they will request confirmation through both the 2FA (if enabled) and email.

Fiat Payments

If you wanted to deposit in fiat, then it is just as simple. First, you will need to navigate to the “deposit” section:

The current funding options are:

• Interac Money Request (Min $100 Max $10,000)
• Debit/Credit card (Min $50 Max $10,000
• Wire Transfer (Min $10,000 Max $5m)
• SEPA Transfer (Eur only)

Once you have chosen one of the above, they will ask for the amount that you would like to deposit and then either give you their bank details or take you through to a payment processing page. Fiat withdrawals are available via Interac e-Transfer, Electronic Funds Transfer, or Bank Transfer. 

CoinSmart Trading Platform

Let's jump right into the most important piece of technology at CoinSmart – their trading platform.

There are two interfaces with which you can trade on. These include the simple Buy/Sell/Trade which is where you can do your quick transactions at the current market rate. This is perhaps the best option for those that are just starting out and want to get their hands on some crypto quickly.

Then, for those traders who would like a great deal more functionality with their trading, you have the advanced trading platform.

Advanced Trading Platform

This is perhaps what most seasoned cryptocurrency traders are used to. It is a standard trading platform with market books, charting, live positions and more bespoke order form functionality.

Below we have the user interface of the platform with your main chart in the centre. In the middle you have the market order books and below that, you have the most recent trades. To the right are your positions as well as the order form. Unfortunately, the interface is not “widgetised,” which means that you cannot move the layout around.

In terms of charting, CoinSmart uses tradingview technology. This is a well-known charting package that has been used by a number of other exchanges as well. It is also a favourite for those traders who employ a great deal of technical analysis in their trading.

In the order form section, you can toggle between the different markets in the top left. Below that you can select the type of order that you would like to place. These are pretty standard erring on the basic side. You have the following:

• Market Order: This order will execute your trade at the most recent prevailing market rate. This is the order that you place if you would like to get your trade executed the most quickly.
• Limit Order: This is an order that you will place at a chosen level above / below the market rate. It will remain in the order books until you manually cancel it. If the market moves to this level then it should execute your trade
• Stop Order: Stop orders are generally protection orders that are used as a risk management technique. They are placed somewhere below your entry level and supplement any current orders. Once the market hits the stop level it will “stop” you out and limit any more losses from that

Customer Support

CoinSmart places a strong emphasis on high-quality customer service, and positive reviews from users highlight that the support offered by CoinSmart is pretty good.

The customer support team can be reached via live chat or email support, 24/7. There is also a comprehensive FAQ section and a GetSmart Hub that features plenty of educational blogs to level up your crypto knowledge.

CoinSmart Referral Program

If you have found your CoinSmart trading experience to be a pleasant one then you could refer them to friends, family or anyone really. This can be done through their relatively attractive referral program.

Essentially, for every new trader who signs up with your referral code and funds their account, both of you will get $15 credited to your accounts. It will take 5 business days from the date of funding for the commission to show up in your account. This also only counts for fiat deposits and not those that are made with crypto.

If you would like to take advantage of this program then you will need to get yourself your referral code. You can access this in the referral section of your account.

There you will be given a referral link which you can then share online or send to your potential referees. You can also navigate to the commission tab if you wanted to monitor the number of referrals that have successfully created accounts.

CoinSmart Review: Areas for Improvement

While there were a lot of things that we liked about CoinSmart, there are a few things that we think warrant improvement.

Firstly, there is no API functionality, which could turn away some advanced traders. This means that you will have to do all of your trading through the web-based platform. Some traders may like to develop their own bots and algorithms which interact with a crypto exchange API. Others may be away from their desk and would like to trade on a mobile app.

Secondly, the advanced trading platform still requires some improvement, especially as it pertains to the order form functionality. There are only three types of orders that you can place and none of these have options around order life. Traders looking for advanced trading functionality will be better suited to an exchange like Binance or OKX.

Lastly, CoinSmart could benefit from better asset support. Only offering a handful of cryptocurrencies makes the exchange not suitable for altcoin gem hunters, and the lack of options trading will also deter some users.

CoinSmart Review: Conclusion

CoinSmart is a pretty good exchange as far as Canadian crypto exchanges go and the mobile app provides a solid trading experience. The CoinSmart team has managed to build an efficient and easy-to-use platform that delivers exactly on what it promises.

Their “smart guarantee” together with their transparent operations will no doubt smooth over a great deal of Canadian crypto users. They may be able to instil a certain level of trust back into a sometimes opaque market.

We also liked their advanced trading platform and, unlike many other new exchanges, they seem to have decent levels of liquidity in all of their markets. This means that you can safely execute larger trades without worrying about order slippage.

While there were a few things that we thought warranted improvement, and still encourage our readers to check out SwissBorg, or our Binance vs OKX review, CoinSmart will be capable of meeting the needs of traders looking for a basic and beginner-friendly platform for trading cryptocurrencies.

CoinSmart Review FAQs

Is CoinSmart Safe?

Yes, CoinSmart follows industry best practices and keeps the majority of assets in cold storage and utilizes satisfactory security protocols. Being regulated and licensed in Canada, the US, and Europe also provides customers with additional peace of mind.

Is CoinSmart a Good Exchange?

CoinSmart is a good exchange for crypto users who are interested in a secure crypto platform that is simple to use. Traders with advanced needs or those looking for better asset support should consider Binance or OKX as an alternative.

What Coins does CoinSmart Support?

CoinSmart supports over 15 cryptocurrencies including the majors like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin, along with smaller-cap digital assets like Uniswap, Polkadot, and Cardano.  

Featured Image via CoinSmart