Smart Valor

Smart Valor Review

What is Smart Valor?

Smart Valor is a centralized cryptocurrency exchange that was launched in 2019. It has its headquarters in Switzerland, but also has two corporate entities in Liechtenstein and Germany. Its stock trades on Nasdaq First North.

Supported Cryptos

This platform supports trading in around 30 different cryptocurrencies, so not relatively many, but not relatively few either. With the cryptocurrencies supported, together with a number of fiat currencies, there are roughly 180 trading pairs available for trading at the platform. 

Smart Valor Mobile Support

Most traders in the crypto world today carry out their trades via desktop (around 70% or so). However, there are naturally people out there that want to do it from their smart phone as well. If you’re one of those people, then this platform can still be for you as it does have a mobile friendly interface.

OTC-desk

Let’s say that you hold a very large amount of a certain cryptocurrency. You want to sell that amount. Should you do that on a regular trading platform like everyone else? Maybe not. One of many reasons for executing large trades outside of the normal marketplace is that large trades may affect the market price of the relevant crypto. Another reason, which is connected to the foregoing, is that the order book might be too thin to execute the relevant trade. A solution to these problems is what we call OTC-trading (Over The Counter).

Smart Valor offers OTC trading, which might be helpful to all the “whales” out there (and maybe also to all the “dolphins”). The minimum cost for using this service is 100 CHF (around 100 USD), and the platform therefore recommends users to only use it when the value of the order is equal to or exceeding 10,000 CHF (around 10,000 USD).

Smart Valor Trading Interface

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. 

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.

There is also a substantially easier interface called "Buy & Sell" that you can use if you don't need the more advanced trading tools available in the above interface to execute your trade. The simpler interface looks like this:

Smart Valor Fees

Smart Valor 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.

The fees are normally a certain percentage of fees. Smart Valor charges both takers and makers 0.29%, but in addition to that they also charge a fixed fee in CHF. The fixed fee varies depending upon the value of the trade. It ranges from 0.29% + 0.89 CHF, to 1.49%, as follows:

In the largest and most recent empirical study performed on industry average crypto trading fees, we found that the industry average spot trading taker fee was 0.221% and the corresponding spot trading maker fee was 0.178%. Here, as you recall, they are both set at 0.29% + a varying CHF-rate.

Consequently, Smart Valor's trading fees are way above average. 

Smart Valor Withdrawal fees

When withdrawing BTC from Smart Valor’s trading platform, you will have to pay 0.0005 BTC. According to the most recent empirical withdrawal fee study that has been made, the industry average BTC-withdrawal fee in Q2 2022 was 0.0004599 BTC per BTC-withdrawal. This means that Smart Valor's withdrawal fees are quite in line with (just slightly above) the industry average.

On the date of first writing this review (13 September 2022), 0.001 BTC corresponded to approx. 11.15 US dollars.

US-investors and Deposit Methods

US-investors

Smart Valor does not allow US-investors on its exchange. 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.

Deposit Methods

This platform is an entry-level exchange, meaning that it is an alternative for people who would like to enter the cryptocurrency market and does not have any cryptocurrency assets to begin with. You can purchase cryptocurrency both through credit cards and via wire transfer.