Uphold Review
Uphold claims you can trade "anything to anything" - from crypto to gold to stocks and forex. But are they legit? Read this review to learn more.
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Trade from "Anything to Anything" in Just 10 Seconds | |||
Overall Score | 4.0 | ||
Cryptocurrency Trading | 4.0 | ||
Minimum Deposit | 5.0 | ||
Customer Service | 3.0 | ||
Commissions and Fees | 3.5 | ||
Ease of Use | 4.5 | ||
Pros and Cons
- Trade between assets classes
- $10 minimum
- 184 countries
- Trading fees can be higher
- Equities not available in US
Bottom Line
Unique platform that lets you trade directly across a wide variety of assets
Conversions and transfers are a standard, yet annoying, part of trading.
Whether you want to sell, send, or transfer your assets to another platform, the process is tedious.
Enter: Uphold, whose motto is "Anything to Anything." You can trade Bitcoin to gold to 37 national currencies and send it all over the world.
So can Uphold really deliver? Read this review to find out the pros and cons, fees to watch out for, and more.
What Is Uphold?
Founded in 2015 and based in the UK, Uphold is an exchange and remittance service. Or, as they call themselves, "a multi-asset digital money platform."
Their goal is to make exchanging money cheaper, easier, and more flexible than doing it at a bank.
Uphold is also commission-free. However, they do acknowledge that they charge a variable spread on transactions, meaning using their service isn't truly free. (This is usually the case for similar services, but kudos to them for transparency.)
What sets them apart from competitors is the range of assets and currencies they support. This includes a variety of traditional investments, fiat currencies, and crypto.
Uphold also offers:
- Trading accounts
- A rewards debit card that lets you spend your assets
- An automated trading system called AutoPilot
- The ability to send funds to people all over the world, including employees and businesses
What Securities Does Uphold Support?
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Uphold supports the exchange of an impressively wide range of securities. Let's take a look at what they offer.
Fiat Currencies:
- EUR, GBP, USD, AED, ARS, AUD, BRL, CAD, CHF, CNY CZK, DKK, HKD, HRK, HUF, ILS, INR, JPY, KES, MXN, NOK, NZD, PHP, PLN, RON, SEK, SGD,
Cryptocurrencies
Uphold supports a fair range of cryptocurrencies, including the following:
- Aave, Algorand, Avalanche, Axie Infinity, Balancer, Basic Attention Token, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, Compound, Curve Dao Token, Dash, Elrond, Enjin, Ethereum, The Graph, Chainlink, Litecoin, Polygon, Maker, OMG Network, Orchid, Ren, The Sandbox, Synthetix, SushiSwap, UMA, Uniswap, Universal Protocol Token, VCOIN, Wrapped Bitcoin, Ripple, 0x, Cardano, Cosmos, Casper, Decred, Digibyte, Dogecoin, Polkadot, EOS, Fantom, Filecoin, Flow, Hedera HashGraph, Helium, IOTA, Terra, Nano, NEO, Thorchain, Solana, Serum, Theta, TRON, VeChain, Chia, NEM, Stellar Lumens, Tezos, Zilliqa, Universal Bitcoin, Dai, TrueUSD, Universal Euro, Universal US Dollar, USD Coin, Tether
Equities:
Equities aren't available for trade in the U.S. or Europe, but for those who do have access, they support a range of stocks including:
- Apple, Adobe, AMD, Amazon, Boeing, Alibaba, Bank of America, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Berkshire Hathaway, Citigroup, Comcast, Cisco, Danaher, Disney, and many more
Precious Metals:
You can trade precious metals and minerals, including:
- Universal Gold, Silver, Gold (Legacy), Palladium, and Platinum
Environmental Assets:
Support the environment with these dedicated tokens:
- Bitcoin Zero, Universal Carbon
Where is Uphold Available?
Uphold is available in over 184 countries worldwide. Their services vary by country due to a number of reasons, including national regulations. They don't support equities trading in the U.S. or Europe.
Their fees also differ depending on region. Take your location into consideration when choosing whether or not to use the platform.[1]
Uphold Features
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Review Uphold's features below to decide whether the platform is a good fit for what you need.
Trading
What makes Uphold remarkable is that you can trade seamlessly between different asset classes, like from USD to Bitcoin, or from Bitcoin to gold.
There aren't many platforms that offer such a wide range of assets. Most focus on traditional investments or cryptocurrency, but rarely both.
Of those that do offer multiple asset classes, they usually lack the ability to trade between them directly. In most cases, you'll have to convert to a fiat currency or stablecoin to complete your transaction.
With Uphold, trading directly between asset classes comes with two big perks:
- Convenience. Having to exchange your gold for USD to buy Ethereum, or even having to transfer it off of one platform and onto another, can be tedious and time-consuming.
- Cost. On other platforms, you'd be charged for the sale of your gold, on transferring your funds to a crypto exchange, and for purchasing Ethereum.
Since Uphold only charges a variable spread on each transaction, you aren't getting gouged in the process.
It's easy to get your money onto the platform too. You can make deposits directly from your bank, card, or crypto wallet.
And remember, this service works for several national currencies as well. While you might pay as much as 13% on round-trip fees for foreign currency exchange at a bank, the spread between major fiat currencies like EUR, USD, and GBP on Uphold is typically 0.2%.[2] (Even PayPal reportedly charges from 3% - 9%.)
Debit Card
Thanks to Uphold's partnership with Mastercard, you can pay real-time with assets other than cash, including crypto, precious metals, even foreign currencies—without costly foreign transaction fees.
Uphold's debit card is accepted all over the world, wherever Mastercard is, and you can use it in stores and at ATMs, as well as online.
Plus there's an additional 2% cash back whenever you spend crypto, and 1% when you spend cash.[3]
It works with over 200 cryptocurrencies, 37 national currencies, and precious metals including gold, silver, palladium, and platinum.
Automated Trading
Uphold's AutoPilot system makes it easy to employ the investing strategy known as dollar cost averaging.
The idea is that it's nearly impossible to beat the market, so it's better not to try. Instead, you schedule purchases of your favored investment at regular intervals to remove the human element from your trading patterns.
Fees to Look out for
Uphold is refreshingly upfront about their fees.
They offer a commission-free exchange, but charge a variable spread on transactions, which varies depending on which asset you're trading, location, as well as market conditions.
The spread will increase proportionately in times of increased market volatility.
Here's a look at the spreads for various tradable assets.[4]
Crypto
- Normally 0.8% to 1.2% on BTC and ETH in the U.S. and Europe
- 1.8% in other countries
- Higher spreads may be charged for lower-liquidity coins like XRP, ZIL, OXT, UPT, and DOGE
Precious Metals
- Normally 3% over spot
Fiat Currencies
- Normally 0.2% for major currencies
U.S. Equities
- 1% during market hours, with an additional fee for after-hours trades
There are No:
- Deposit Fees
- Withdrawal Fees
- Trading Commissions
They charge separate fees for their business accounts, which are listed in detail here.
Security
You'll be happy to know that Uphold uses a variety of security measures to ensure the safety of your assets and information.
Uphold is a FinCEN Registered Money Services Business (MSB) in the U.S. and an EMD Agent of an Electronic Money Issuer regulated by the FCA in the United Kingdom.
- KYC and AML compliance: identity verification helps ensure the safety of your money
- Two-Factor Authentication: keeps unwanted visitors out of your account
- Encryption: to protect your data
- 24/7 Security: to monitor for threats at all times
- Bug Bounty: if they miss something, they find out before it's exploited
Additionally, their Transparency page gives detailed, up-to-date information on the assets in their reserve, their obligations, and transaction volume.
Uphold vs Coinbase
Coinbase is one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges. How does it compare to Uphold?
There are a number of differences worth considering between Uphold and Coinbase, though they offer similar services. The biggest is the ability Uphold offers to trade between asset classes.
If you are only interested in trading crypto, then this may not appeal to you; but if you've got some of your investments in stocks, some in gold, and some in cryptocurrency for example, you can likely save money on Uphold by reducing the number of transactions it would take to trade from one to the other.
For example, on Coinbase, if you wanted to take advantage of a particularly good price on Bitcoin, but your money was tied up in stocks, you'd have to first sell the stocks on another platform, transfer that money into your bank account, then from your bank to Coinbase in order to make the purchase.
On Uphold it would be a single step, saving you the time and expense of that process.
And what about the cost of similar transactions on each platform, say from dollars to Bitcoin?
There are two factors that will affect how much you pay. The first is the fees charged by each platform, which we've broken down.
On Uphold, Crypto traders will just pay the Spread for their transaction, which ranges between 0.8% to 1.2% on Bitcoin.
On Coinbase you'll pay a Transaction Fee (a flat fee or 1.49%), a Spread (.50%), and a potential third fee depending on the purchase method you choose (1.49% - 3.99%). Since the first two fees add up to roughly 2%, even at the lowest rates you'll be paying higher fees on Coinbase than Uphold.
The second factor is the difference between markets.
Since most exchanges are not connected, they act as their own, siloed marketplace. Because the buyers and sellers on each are different, there will be differences (usually small) in price from one exchange to the other.
After monitoring the prices on both Uphold and Coinbase, we found that both had the potential to be higher or lower than the other at times. Sometimes the prices were roughly the same, others there was as much as a $20 difference, but the price differences did not clearly favor either platform.
Since the price of Bitcoin fluctuates so rapidly, it is very hard to lock in a specific price down to the dollar.
One way to do this is to use a limit buy, where you set the price you're willing to pay and wait for the platform to execute the trade automatically if it's reached.
Uphold offers this tool, but Coinbase does not; you can however find it on Coinbase Pro, which is a lower fee, more expert-oriented version of Coinbase.
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Uphold | Coinbase | |
---|---|---|
Trade from "Anything to Anything" in Just 10 Seconds - | Earn $5 in bitcoin on your first trade on Coinbase - | |
Benefits and Features | ||
Stock Trading | 50 U.S. stocks (equities trading not available in US and UK) | |
Options Trading | ||
Cryptocurrency Trading | ![]() | |
Minimum Deposit | ||
Cryptocurrencies Supported | ||
Countries Supported | ||
Fiat Currencies Supported | USD, EUR, GBP, AED, ARS, AUD, BRL, CAD, CHF, CNY CZK, DKK, HKD, HRK, HUF, ILS, INR, JPY, KES, MXN, NOK, NZD, PHP, PLN, RON, SEK, SGD | |
Digital Wallet | ||
Transaction Fee | None; only a spread when you trade | Greater of Minimum Flat Fees or Variable Fees (1.49%+) by Location and Payment Method. Minimum Flat Fees:
|
Copy Trading | ||
Limit Orders | ||
Margin Trading | ||
Spread | 0.8% - 1.8% for cryptocurrencies; 1.0% for U.S equities; 0.2% for fiat currencies; 3% for precious metals | |
Crypto Loans | Yes, through partner SALT Lending | |
Bank Account Purchase Fee | ||
Debit Card Purchase Fee | ||
Wallet Purchase Fee | ||
Credit Transaction Fee | ||
Mobile App | ||
ACH Transfer Fee | ||
Wire Transfer Fee | $20 (less than $5,000); $0 ($5,000 or more) | |
Crypto Conversion Fee | ||
SEPA Bank Transfer Fee | ||
Other Fees | Network fees when you withdraw to external crypto wallets (varies) | Instant Card Withdrawal: up to 1.5% + minimum fee of $0.55 |
Anonymity | ||
Biometric Login | ||
Cold Storage | ||
Maximum Trading Amount | $25,000 per trade with a daily limit of $100,000 USD | |
Two-Factor Authentication | ||
Withdrawal Limit | $10,000 / day for US ACH transfers; €50,000 / day for Euro SEPA bank transfers; £25,000 / day for British FPS transfers | |
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Coinbase: Pricing information from published website as of 04/13/2021. |
Bottom Line
While Uphold doesn't have the lowest prices of any exchange, they do provide a convenient service to those working with multiple asset classes. And especially for those trading between multiple national currencies.
One of the goals of crypto was to remove borders from money, and Uphold seems to be working toward that ideal, even rewarding you for spending crypto at merchants in real-time with their debit card.
You may find better options if you are planning to limit yourself to a specific set or type of investments, but if your needs are many and varied, Uphold may be what you're looking for.
References
- ^ "Non-Supported Geographies": Uphold, 2021.
- ^ Uphold. Service Fees: Personal accounts, Retrieved 8/08/2022
- ^ Uphold. What's special about the Uphold Card, Retrieved 8/08/2022
- ^ "Service Fees": Uphold, 2021.
Trade from "Anything to Anything" in Just 10 Seconds
Trade between cryptocurrencies, precious metals, U.S. equities, and national currencies.
Deposit $100 and Get $10
- Sign up for an eToro account
- Deposit $100
- Explore stocks, ETFs, and crypto
USD $10 Sign Up Bonus
You will need to stake in $1000 CRO to earn USD $10 worth of CRO. Only the first amount of CRO you stake is used to calculate the sign-up bonus.
Get Up to $250 in Bonus BTC
Deposit | Crypto Bonus |
---|---|
$100 - $1,499 | $15 |
$1,500 - $19,999 | $20 |
$20,000 - $39,999 | $40 |
$40,000 - $74,999 | $75 |
$75,000 - $99,999 | $100 |
$100,000+ | $250 |
Jeremy Harshman is a creative assistant at CreditDonkey, a crypto comparison and reviews website. Write to Jeremy Harshman at jeremy.harshman@creditdonkey.com. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for our latest posts.
Note: This website is made possible through financial relationships with some of the products and services mentioned on this site. We may receive compensation if you shop through links in our content. You do not have to use our links, but you help support CreditDonkey if you do.
Uphold Disclaimer: Assets available on Uphold are different per region. All investments and trading are risky and may result in the loss of capital. Cryptoassets are largely unregulated and are therefore not subject to protection
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