FTX Review for Canada 2023

The FTX exchange is a futures market that strives to solve the shortcomings of existing crypto trading platforms. It provides safe and streamlined trading instruments for crypto investors from all over the globe to make the best out of their trading strategies.

Our analysis of FTX will cover topics such as how this cryptocurrency initiative came to be, what services FTX provides to its clients, is it a secure and cost-effective platform, and much more. Keep reading!

About the FTX Exchange

The FTX Trading LTD was formed in Antigua and Barbuda and is headquartered in the Bahamas. This corporation has two trading platforms under its umbrella: FTX International, which caters to international traders, and FTX.US, which only serves American citizens due to the specific US regulatory restrictions governing crypto trading.

Sam Bankman-Fried, an American entrepreneur who started Alameda Research, a crypto trading business, is the mastermind behind the FTX crypto initiative. Owing to these two crypto endeavours, Bankman-Fried has risen to the top of Forbes’ list of the world’s wealthiest crypto CEOs.

Gary Wang and Nishad Singh, together with Sam Bankman-Fried, are the co-founders of the FTX exchange. The trio of tech veterans who have worked in some of the largest tech companies like Wall Street and Google felt that the crypto sphere lacks a trading platform that would address the need of professional crypto investors.

Therefore, they launched FTX in 2019 as an advanced crypto exchange developed “by traders, for traders.”

FTX.US 

Residents of the United States have restricted access to the FTX platform’s functionalities due to this country’s stringent crypto trading laws. Therefore, the FTX exchange partnered with a US platform that complies with the financial US regulations and carries the same name. However, the offered financial products on the FTX.US platform are far less extensive than those on the original platform.

The FTX (FTT) Token

The FTX token is the native cryptocurrency that powers the FTT ecosystem. In most cases, FTX customers use the exchange of FTX tokens to gain extra trading advantages, such as a 3% to 60% rebate on the trading costs, free ETH and ERC20 withdrawals when staking the FTX token, the ability to vote on the future development plans of the platform, etc.

Supported Cryptocurrencies

Over 300 of the most prominent coins are available for trading on the FTX exchange. Among the tradable digital assets are some of the most popular cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB), Tether (USDT), Ripple (XRP), Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC), and other altcoins and stablecoins, matched in a vast number of trading pairs.

In addition, FTX accepts 11 fiat currencies, including the US Dollar (USD), the Canadian Dollar (CAD), the Australian Dollar (AUD), the Euro (EUR), and the Pound Sterling (GBP), among the others.

Payment Methods

Credit card/debit card deposits, cryptocurrencies, wire transfers, and bank transfers are some of the payment methods for FTX customers to fill their trading accounts or buy cryptos directly from their wallets. 

Traders of cryptocurrencies also can make deposits to their FTX accounts by using the services of a third-party payment provider, such as Silvergate SEN or Signature SIGNET, for reference.

Trading Fees and Limits

A maker/taker fee structure applies to both the spot and the futures markets. Based on how much 30-day trading volume each trader has made in the past 30 days, each trader falls into one of six tiers of the exchange’s fee model.

The charges for market makers range from 0.000% to 0.020%, while the expenses for liquidity takers are between 0.040% and 0.070% per trade.

Deposits and Withdrawal Fees

A long-term objective of the FTX exchange is to process wire transfer deposits and withdrawals of up to $1 million without charging fees, maintaining narrow spreads, and providing appropriate settlements.

Therefore, FTX does not charge any fees for deposits or withdrawals, except for ETH and ERC20 tokens, whose withdrawal incurs gas fees on the Ethereum blockchain. Except in the case when the users have staked their FTX tokens, they will be required to pay the blockchain fees associated with all ETH and ERC20 tokens.

Features

FTX is a cryptocurrency exchange primarily concerned with volatile trading products. It offers a diverse selection of goods, including derivatives trading, futures trading, NFTs, OTC market, and leveraged tokens. 

Although the platform features many products that seasoned traders and professional trading companies will find essential, the platform also provides spot trading, an option that newbies to the crypto space will find helpful.

This platform also provides numerous passive income-generating opportunities, the most prominent of which is staking, i.e. a tool that enables you to earn interest on your idle coins. 

Is FTX Safe to Use?

FTX adheres to the industry’s stringent financial regulations as a fully licensed exchange. All registered users must undergo KYC verification as part of this process. Furthermore, the platform incorporates some of the industry’s top online security practices to ensure the safety of users’ data and funds.

These security features include: hot and cold wallet storage for the funds, two-factor authentication (2FA) protocol as an extra layer of safety for each trading account, 2FA and password-protected crypto withdrawals to safeguard users from fraud, and so on.

Customer Support

By creating a support ticket, you can get in touch with the FTX support team if you have a problem with some of the exchange’s functionality that requires a trained expert’s attention. You can also contact the exchange via email or a private message on their social media pages, like Telegram, Twitter, or Instagram.

Pros and Cons

The following is a condensed version of our opinion about the FTX exchange:

Pros

• A user-friendly platform focused on advanced trading options;
• A fully-regulated trading platform;
• Credit card/debit card purchases and fiat withdrawals in 11 fiat currencies;
• Low trading fees;
• Customizable user interface with TradingView graphs;
• Margin trading;
• Two trading platforms – one for the US residents and one for the international users to comply with the respective crypto trading regulations.

Cons

• In comparison with its competitors, FTX provides fewer cryptos for trading;
• FTX.US offers limited trading features;
• The sophisticated trading products could somewhat faze beginner crypto traders;
• The customer support could be improved with a live chat feature. 

The Bottom Line

When it comes to providing trading solutions that professional traders developed, FTX was one of the first companies in the crypto industry to implement them in a crypto exchange platform. To be more specific, the FTX exchange was the first trading platform to introduce leveraged digital assets to the crypto market.

Even though it provides trading instruments for crypto investors of all levels of trading proficiency, the FTX exchange is designed for more experienced traders because most of the financial products traded on this exchange are highly volatile. 

But there’s no need to worry about your assets because the visionaries behind this crypto venture have learnt from the greatest in the IT industry. Bankman-Fried and his co-developers have accomplished the seemingly impossible by investing all of their experience working at the world’s best and most successful companies like Wall Street and Google.

Ultimately, they have managed to do the seemingly impossible thing – to offer the most volatile crypto products to active traders while also making them feel safe.

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