CEX.IO Broker

CEX.IO Broker Review

What is CEX.IO Broker?

CEX.IO Broker is a margin trading platform owned by the company running the well established centralized crypto exchange CEX.IO. The platform is registered in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and has been up and running since 2019.

This exchange is a so called derivatives exchange, meaning that they focus on derivatives trading, or more specifically "CFDs". A derivative is an instrument priced based on the value of another asset (normally stocks, bonds, commodities etc). In the cryptocurrency world, derivatives accordingly derive its values from the prices of specific cryptocurrencies. At CEX.IO Broker, you can engage in CFD trading for all of the cryptos listed as supported above on this page together with: stocks, forex and precious metals. 

Main Priority: Users

The platform states on its website that their users are their main priority. We like this. As examples of why that is the case, the platform mentions a number of things, including that they focus on security and that their support is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and allegedly is of a "5 star quality".

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.

CEX.IO Broker does not allow US-investors to trade on the platform. So if you’re from the US and would like to engage in crypto trading, you will have to look elsewhere. Luckily for you, if you go to the Exchange List and use our exchange filters, you can sort the exchanges based on whether or not they accept US-investors.

CEX.IO Broker Trading View

Different exchanges have different trading views. And there is no “this overview is the best”-view. You should yourself determine which trading view that suits you the best. What the views normally have in common is that they all show the order book or at least part of the order book, a price chart of the chosen crypto and order history. They normally also have buy and sell-boxes. Before you choose an exchange, try to have a look at the trading view so that you can see that it feels right to you. The following is the trading view at CEX.IO Broker:

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.

Leveraged Trading

CEX.IO Broker also offers leveraged trading, up to 100x leverage on their cryptocurrency CFDs.

Leveraged derivatives trading can lead to massive returns but – on the contrary – also to 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. 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…

CEX.IO Broker Fees

CEX.IO Broker Trading fees

Every trade occurs between two parties: the maker, whose order exists on the order book prior to the trade, and the taker, who places the order that matches (or “takes”) the maker’s order. We call makers for “makers” as their orders make the liquidity in a market. Takers are the ones who “take” this liquidity by matching makers’ orders with their own.

At CEX.IO Broker, you are charged 0.05% every time you open an order, and everytime you close an order, regardless of whether you are a taker or a maker. There are also so called rollover fees which are fees charged when you keep a position open (and "roll it over" to the next time period). The rollover fee is 0.06% per 24 hour period and is currently charged every 4 hours. This means that if you open a position on Monday morning, and close it on Friday afternoon, you will need to pay 0.40% in fees (0.05% + 0.05% + 5 x 0.06%). Accordingly, the trading at this platform is not to recommend if you just want to do long term investments, it is more focused on day trading or investments for shorter time periods.

The fee structure described above is very difficult to compare to the global industry average taker fees for regular centralized exchanges, as the instruments traded at the different exchanges are also different from each other. 

CEX.IO Broker Withdrawal fees

This exchange does not charge any withdrawal fees themselves. However, as always, there are network fees involved when making a transaction. This means that the only fee you need to be concerned with when withdrawing from this platform, is the network fees paid to the miner. This withdrawal fee, or rather lack of withdrawal fee, is below the industry average and competitive.

Deposit Methods

At CEX.IO Broker, you can deposit fiat currency in a lot of different ways. The fiat deposits are processed via your CEX.IO Wallet. Users can deposit USD, GBP, EUR and RUB via cards, bank transfers or electronic wallets to CEX.IO, then convert it to USDT, BTC, or ETH. These, in turn, can be used to fund an account at CEX.IO Broker for free.