EQONEX

EQONEX Review

What is EQONEX?

EQONEX (formerly EQUOS Exchange) is an exchange registered in Singapore that opened up shop on 26 May 2020. The parent company of the platform is Diginex, which is listed on Nasdaq (trading under the ticker EQOS).

Supported Cryptocurrencies

On the date of first writing this review (15 June 2021), EQONEX supports trading in the following cryptocurrencies:

Trading Volume

For an exchange that has only been active for a year, the trading volume is OK. On 15 June 2021, the 24 hour trading volume was approx. USD 180 million. On the date of last updating this review (2 December 2021), however, the trading volume was USD 85 million, which is not a good sign. 

EQONEX 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 concerning 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 EQONEX:

It is up to you – and only you – to decide if the above trading view is suitable for 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 we have received, US-investors are indeed permitted to trade at EQONEX. Any US-investors should however also form their own opinion on this, as various state rules could also be an obstacle in their cryptocurrency trading.

EQONEX Fees

EQONEX 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. Normally, exchanges distinguishes 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.

At EQONEX, the standard trading fees for takers are 0.09%, and for makers 0.08%. Both 0.09% in taker fees and 0.08% in maker fees are substantially below the global industry averages for centralized exchanges. Industry averages have historically been around 0.20-0.25% but we now see new industry averages emerging around 0.10%-0.15%. According to the latest empirical study on the subject, the industry average taker fees were 0.215% and the industry average maker fees were 0.162% (for spot trading).

Consequently, EQONEX's fees are well below both of these industry averages.

Furthermore, you can receive discounts on your trading fees if you achieve a certain trading volume during the preceding 30-day period. Discounts go as low as 0.02% for crypto trading takers and 0.01% for crypto trading makers. That, however, requires that you trade for an aggregate value exceeding USD 500 million during the preceding 30-day period, which we believe that a very low number of people actually does. The full table with all different levels in the spot trading market is displayed below:

EQONEX Withdrawal fees

Withdrawal fees are usually fixed and vary from crypto-to-crypto. If you withdraw BTC, you pay a small amount of BTC for the withdrawal. If you withdraw ETH, you pay ETH. The last time we did an empirical study of the BTC-withdrawal fees in the crypto exchange market, we found that the average BTC-withdrawal fee was 0.00053 BTC per BTC-withdrawal.

The platform charges a withdrawal fee amounting to 0.0004 BTC when you withdraw BTC. This fee is accordingly slightly below the industry average, thus being quite competitive.

Deposit Methods

In addition to depositing cryptocurrency to the platform, EQONEX also lets you deposit fiat currency. However, only through wire transfer (not credit or debit card).

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.