Bitex.com

Bitex.com Review

What is Bitex.com?

Bitex.com is a cryptocurrency exchange registered in the United Arab Emirates, but it is originally from India. It has been up and running since May 2018.

Supported Cryptocurrencies

On the date of first writing this review (14 December 2020), the platform stated on its website that they supported only 5 of the biggest cryptocurrencies. This means that many of the attractive altcoins are not supported here. There are of course two sides of the same coin here. A large number of supported cryptos would have meant that the most exotic altcoin trader can stay at this platform and will not have to look elsewhere to cater for all his/her specific trading needs. On the flip side, however, this might also mean that there could be more scam coins available for trading here. Exchanges with a smaller number of supported cryptos, like Bitex.com, generally only support the bigger crypto projects, which have all been subject to numerous due diligence processes and that are – in most cases – properly vetted. A newly launched altcoin has not been subject to the same scrutiny.

Bitex.com Mobile Support

Most crypto traders feel that desktop give the best conditions for their trading. The computer has a bigger screen, and on bigger screens, more of the crucial information that most traders base their trading decisions on can be viewed at the same time. The trading chart will also be easier to display. However, not all crypto investors require desktops for their trading. Some prefer to do their crypto trading via their mobile phone. If you are one of those traders, you’ll be happy to learn that Bitex.com’s trading platform is also mobile compatible. You can download it to/from both the AppStore and Google Play:

Leveraged Trading

Bitex.com also offers leveraged trading to its users. They only offer non-perpetuals (i.e. futures with expiry dates). The maximum leverage level for their non-perpetuals is 10x (i.e., ten times the relevant amount). A word of caution might be useful for someone contemplating leveraged trading. Leveraged trading can lead to massive returns but – on the contrary – also to equally massive losses.

For instance, let’s say that you have 10,000 USD on your trading account and bet 100 USD on BTC going long (i.e., increasing in value). You do so with 100x leverage. If BTC then increases in value with 10%, if you had only bet 100 USD, you would have earned 10 USD if you simply held Bitcoin. Now, as you bet 100 USD with 100x leverage, you have instead earned an additional 1,000 USD (990 USD more than if you had not leveraged your deal). On the other hand, if BTC decreases in value with 10%, you have lost 1,000 USD (990 USD more than if you had not leveraged your deal). So, as you might imagine, there is potential for huge upside but also for huge downside…

Here are the various contracts you can trade at Bitex.com, together with some contract details:

Bitex.com Trading View

Every trading platform has a trading view. The trading view is the part of the exchange’s website where you can see the price chart of a certain cryptocurrency and what its current price is. There are normally also buy and sell boxes, where you can place orders with respect to the relevant crypto, and, at most platforms, you will also be able to see the order history (i.e., previous transactions involving the relevant crypto). Everything in the same view on your desktop. There are of course also variations to what we have now described. This is the trading view at Bitex.com:

It is up to you – and only you – to decide if the above trading view is suitable to you. Finally, there are usually many different ways in which you can change the settings to tailor the trading view after your very own preferences.

US-investors

Why do so many exchanges not allow US citizens to open accounts with them? The answer has only three letters. S, E and C (the Securities Exchange Commission). The reason the SEC is so scary is because the US does not allow foreign companies to solicit US investors, unless those foreign companies are also registered in the US (with the SEC). If foreign companies solicit US investors anyway, the SEC can sue them. There are many examples of when the SEC has sued crypto exchanges, one of which being when they sued EtherDelta for operating an unregistered exchange. Another example was when they sued Bitfinex and claimed that the stablecoin Tether (USDT) was misleading investors. It is very likely that more cases will follow.

According to information that we have received from the exchange itself, Bitex.com apparently permits US investors to buy crypto on its platform. However, if you are a US-investor, you should still always analyse whether your home state imposes any obstacles for your foreign crypto trading. Sometimes the exchange has opened its doors in spite of your own state prohibiting you from trading.

Bitex.com Fees

Bitex.com Trading fees

Every time you place an order, the exchange charges you a trading fee. The trading fee is normally a percentage of the value of the trade order. Many exchanges divide between takers and makers. Takers are the one who “take” an existing order from the order book. Makers are the ones who add orders to the order book, thereby making liquidity at the platform.

Bitex.com charges what we call flat fees, meaning that both the takers and the makers pay the same fee: 0.20%. These taker fees are somewhat above the global industry averages for centralized exchanges. Sure, industry averages have historically been around 0.20-0.25% but we now see new industry averages emerging around 0.10%-0.15%.

Bitex.com Withdrawal fees

This exchange charges a withdrawal fee amounting to 0.0005 BTC when you withdraw BTC. This fee is slightly below the industry average, which was 0.00064 BTC per BTC-withdrawal the last time we made an empirical study. Accordingly, the withdrawal fees here are a small edge against Bitex.com's competitors in the crypto exchange industry.

Deposit Methods

In addition to depositing cryptocurrency to the platform, Bitex.com also lets you deposit fiat currency. However, there are only three supported fiat currencies: the US dollar (USD), the Indian Rupee (INR) and the Arab Emirates Dirham (AED).

You can deposit through both wire transfer and credit/debit cards. Seeing as fiat currency deposits are possible at this trading platform, this platform qualifies as an “entry-level exchange”, making it an exchange where new crypto investors can start their journey into the exciting crypto world.