Where's a legit crypto exchange online?

Spoiler alert! The short answer because you’re busy and I’m busy is... Uphold.

Let me explain. I’ve been in crypto since 2017. I bought in just a few months before the (now famous) holiday season bull run of 2017 that lasted until January of 2018.

I was new to the whole scene and I didn’t want to sell anything (plus, I was making "sick gains") so I decided to just watch, listen, and learn.

It was mayhem. People were buying in at all-time highs not knowing what they were doing. As a crypto newbie, even I knew NOT to start buying everything I could get my hands on at sudden skyrocketing prices.

More seasoned investors were upset because their preferred exchanges were crashing; suddenly bogged down by online traffic. They couldn’t sell for profit and they were angry.

My takeaway (after the dust settled) was that even if I had wanted to sell, I had exactly one exchange to use. And that would have been detrimental.

So lesson #1 for me was get verified on several different exchanges. I got right to work researching the variety of exchanges available. There weren’t many choices back then but I made damn sure they were legitimate before sending them my personal info. Today, I'm verified on several different exchanges so that if another bull run comes along and I'm ready to sell, I have plenty of options.

These days and with a lot of crypto exchange experience under my belt, again, Uphold is the one exchange that I keep going back to for the following reasons.

Easy onboarding experience. As a newcomer, I appreciated how simple it was for me to sign up to the exchange. Getting verified was a snap, and the website was easy for me to navigate. Uphold has a bright and clean looking web interface without a lot of confusing or intimidating charts to navigate. Although there is a lot of info on the site, (including market charts), its well organized and you can click around the charts without fear of any accidental purchases, or mishaps.

The phone app was (and still is) very user-friendly and looks similar to the website. So it was an easy transition for me once I learned where everything was located on the web. These were simple but effective traits for a newcomer like me, and I’m sure the same 'ease of use' is still important to people just getting started today.

Fast and diverse purchases. When I first started buying crypto the only way to buy an altcoin like XRP for example, was first to exchange my fiat (USD) to Bitcoin and then after that I could buy XRP using my Bitcoin. And since I wanted to diversify into other altcoins, I had to keep buying Bitcoin first and then exchange that into my desired altcoin(s).

Yuck. So much money was wasted on conversion fees alone. Not to mention the time it took to even buy Bitcoin. We’re talking hours, if not days for the transactions to be verified on the blockchain.

That was not the case at Uphold. Uphold’s slogan is “Anything to Anything” which includes national fiat currencies, and precious metals. You can exchange your fiat/national currency for gold, or your gold for crypto, or vice versa. Mix it up. Skies the limit. No more buying Bitcoin first and then suffering through the loopholes to buy what you actually want to hold.

By the way, I wish I could say their fees are non-existent but the truth is they aren’t the best but they’re not the worst. Every exchange has fees! There's no getting around it so be mindful, no matter which exchange you use. But at least on Uphold you can get what you want (at the price you want it) instead of wasting time with the "first buy something else" type of loopholes some exchanges still (may or may not) have.

Spend your crypto like cash. When it comes to my finances, I like options and I don’t like my money tied up in traditional banking’s red tape. That said, Uphold was one of the first exchanges to offer a debit Mastercard so that you can spend the crypto (that is in your Uphold account) just like cash. No more fiat withdrawals to your bank account first, and not being able to spend it until days later. The debit card was a serious game changer for me.

With the Uphold card you can quickly select whatever crypto you already own as the funding source. (via the Uphold Card app) and then take your physical card to make purchases in real life. If you like to hold your crypto and don't want to spend it, than you can simply load USD (or your preferred local currency) onto your Uphold card, and spend that instead. Its just nice to know that you can easily choose your funding sources in case of an emergency, for example.

Great customer service. Another reason I'm still using Uphold is because they have really great customer service. It doesn’t matter how careful you are about a purchase, a transfer, a withdrawal, or whatever the case, there will come a time when you need help from your exchange.

Uphold has a pretty fast customer service turn around. They use great communication (whether you email them or tag them on Twitter) they will respond and try to remedy the situation. If you work with them, they will work for you.

Speaking of working with them. Let me be very clear. Uphold is all about KYC. If you don’t get verified first, then yes, you may run into issues. People have complained about getting locked out of their accounts, or a transaction taking weeks to clear. I’ve never had any of these issues but I’m also 100% verified. So take the necessary steps to get verified first. And If you don’t do anything "shady" than you shouldn’t have any issues. It’s common sense.

The truth is I could go on and on about Uphold. I've only scratched the surface in this blog so I will write more in depth blogs about them in the future. In the meantime, you can go directly to Uphold's website to learn more.

If you'd like to learn more about how to buy, sell, or trade crypto check out the Crypto Wealth Academy 

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NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE.