Exmo

Anyone who’s ever looked into cryptocurrency exchanges—even just for a few minutes—knows there are a huge number of choices out there. That’s one of the reasons why I write articles like this Exmo review, after all—to help you narrow some of them down!

The owners of those cryptocurrency exchanges basically have two options.

The first is to specialize and target a niche market, where they have a better chance of making a name for themselves. LocalBitcoins—a BTC-only peer-to-peer service—is a good example of this. The second is to truly try to take on the titans of the industry, like Binance, by offering a wide variety of services.

Exmo falls into the second camp. This UK-based exchange offers a sizeable variety of cryptos to trade, along with plenty of payment methods.

Can Exmo really compete with the biggest fish in the crypto exchange sea? It’s time to find out.

Exmo Key Features

Exmo.com really wants to be all things to all people. It positions itself as a safe and easy-to-use service that offers flexible crypto trading to people around the world.

Here are some of the key features to be aware of:

Markets

Exchanges like Exmo want to make it so that you never need to use another trading website. One of the best ways to do this is by offering plenty of markets.

Exmo definitely ticks this box. There are plenty of cryptos on offer at the Exmo exchange, from the usual suspects to less-heralded altcoins. You’ll also find a greater variety of fiats than usual too. Between these two types of currency, there are enough pairs to offer users excellent trading flexibility.

Security

Needless to say, security is one of the most important factors for any crypto exchange, if not the most. Exmo provides a few security measures, as you’d expect. Alongside two-factor authentication, it offers SSL and cold wallet storage for users’ cryptos.

With that said, I do have some reservations about Exmo’s general approach to security. I’ll explain those in more detail later on.

Cashback Program

This is one of the more eye-catching features on offer here. It’s essentially a way for Exmo to finance more trading on your part, courtesy of returned commissions on your dealings.

The specific amount you get back depends on whether you’ve made maker or taker trades. Best case, you can get a hefty 70% of your commissions returned to you. Exmo claims to have paid over 278 BTC so far as part of this scheme, which is certainly nothing to sniff at!

Support

This exchange doesn’t shy away from offering customer support to its users, as so many of its competitors do. The Exmo trading support agents are available 24/7 via a couple different channels, including live chat (in theory) and a traditional ticketing system. If you’ve ever encountered a problem on Exmo, then help should always be at hand.

API

Offering out your API is a great way to cater to experienced, tech-savvy traders. Kudos to Exmo’s developers for doing exactly that.

There are four different APIs in all, each of which offers different functions. The most basic is on offer to everyone, but subsequent APIs are only available to authorized users. I’ll explain more about what these APIs entail later in my Exmo review.

Supported Currencies

If you’re going to be a flexible exchange, which offers a widespread appeal, then you have to cater to a flexible range of currencies. Exmo actually makes an impressive showing here—for a cryptocurrency exchange, at least.

In general, this is an exchange with an eastern European slant, which is displayed in the fiats on offer. In addition to the usual USD and EUR, Exmo also supports Russian rubles, Ukranian hryvnia, Polish złoty, and Turkish lira.

Exmo is no less impressive when it comes to cryptos. Along with the heavy hitters like BTC, ETH, and XRP, you can also trade a high number of altcoins.

The exchange was also planning to launch its very own crypto token—Exmo Coin. You can read about that in detail in this excellent explanatory Medium article.

In short, the ICO was an (actually exciting-sounding) way of crowdfunding. It was supposed to help Exmo’s management scale their product offerings, with a particular focus on introducing margin loans.

It seemed as if everything was ready to go, with the launch being planned for October 2018, only for management to abruptly cancel the Exmo ICO in mid-June. Where does that leave Exmo coin? I honestly couldn’t tell you. There have been no recent mentions of it in the news section of Exmo’s website.

Despite this hiccup, Exmo still offers an excellent range of supported currencies. Pleasingly, more are being incorporated all the time (Turkish lira were only just added in September 2018), so the offering should only grow with time.

Interface

The user interface is another element that any ambitious platform has to nail. Given that most wide-ranging exchanges offering similar trading capabilities, half the battle is simply making yours the easiest to use.

I’m pleased to report, therefore, that the Exmo interface is very good indeed.

The homepage is extremely well designed for first-time visitors. It conveys what Exmo is—an “International Cryptocurrency Exchange.” It makes it clear that Exmo is a company you can trust, by showing how many other active traders are using it right then. Scroll down a little, and it gives you plenty more information—including price charts for a variety of pairs—to show its suitability for serious traders.

The homepage really does serve as a perfect introduction, and things manage to stay at a high level from there.

The top bar is stripped back to its absolute basics. When you’re logged in, there are only three main sections to head to: “Buy & Sell,” “Exchange,” and “Finance.” The first is the full-on trading section, Exchange is where you simply buy and sell cryptos straight-up, and Finance shows an overview of your Exmo wallet.

Literally, my only criticism of the Exmo interface is that there’s no single-page user area. Perhaps I’m just being difficult, because all the options you’d find there—Trade History, Settings, and so on—are displayed in a drop-down box. I just like having all the information I need regarding my account on a single screen.

That aside, I have nothing but praise for the layout. It’s simple, it looks great, and I could easily see myself spending many a happy month using it without complaint.

Exmo Signup and Login

Nothing can turn off a potential user faster than a tedious, overcomplicated registration process.

For this Exmo review, I’ll say it’s my firm belief that newcomers should be able to access the full platform as quickly as possible, so that they can evaluate it. Then, if they actually want to start trading, the exchange can ask for more details.

Fortunately, Exmo satisfies this requirement. They only ask for the absolute basics from you—username, email address, password—in order to create an account.

After inputting these few pieces of information, the website allows you to access your user area straight away and generally explore the platform. All told, it barely takes thirty seconds to sign up.

The Exmo sign-in process is equally easy. Just type in your email address and password, tick a reCAPTCHA box, and that’s it.

Markets

If you’re trying to mix it with the likes of Binance, you’d better have an impressive range of markets available. Again, Exmo satisfies this requirement in style.

There are an impressive 104 trading pairs available at the time of writing. You can trade all the major pairs on Exmo—ETH/RUB, BTC/USD, LTC/EUR, and so on. As I mentioned earlier, there’s also a nice number of less common altcoins here, plus some fiats that don’t tend to be included. Not everything can be traded against each other, of course, but you can easily see a full list of the available trading pairs here.

Most intriguing, Exmo actually allows you to trade some fiats against each other too. If you like to dabble in forex alongside your crypto trading, or vice versa, then this could prove extremely useful.

A quick glance at the Exmo news section will show you that new currencies—both crypto and fiat—are still being added regularly. That means that the already impressive range of trading pairs is only going to get stronger.

Trading Tools

Exmo’s trading tools are solid. This is—at least in part—thanks to them being unafraid to ask for a helping hand.

For my money, the most important tool in any crypto exchange is its price charts. If you haven’t got these to guide your trade, then you either need to visit another website (a minor annoyance) or simply trade without guidance (which is far too unpredictable).

This is where the aforementioned “helping hand” (although I’m pretty sure there’s money involved, too) comes in. The Exmo price charts come directly from TradingView, which is perhaps the most famous provider of free charts for traders.

I absolutely love TradingView’s charts. I’ve actually used them to guide my own equities trading in the past, even when the exchange I was using offered its own charts. They’re super clear, incredibly easy to manipulate and offer all the indicators you could wish for. Integrating these into their platform was an excellent choice by Exmo’s developers.

The other noteworthy trading tools come courtesy of the APIs.

There are four of these in total—Public, Authenticated, Excode, and Wallet. Public is the only one you can use straight away—all the others require an Exmo verification.

I won’t list all the features of each API here (you can check out this webpage for those). In short, however, you can use APIs for everything, from getting price information to cross-platform trading—if you’ve got the technical skills, of course.

How to Make a Deposit

Exmo offers a lovely large selection of deposit methods. It really is an exchange in the truest sense of the world. You can deposit an extremely wide range of cryptos—from BTC down to GAS—straight into your wallet from elsewhere. After that, you can immediately trade them against each other.

If you want to start off with a fiat instead, you’re covered there too. Every supported fiat can be deposited via credit card and/or wire transfer. Some, like USD and EUR, support plenty more deposit methods than that, such as Skrill and Neteller.

The only payment method conspicuous by its absence on Exmo is PayPal. An article in 2017 claimed it had been added for USD deposits, but it isn’t there now!

If you’re depositing cryptos, you’ll be given an address to which you must send the funds. Your account doesn’t need to be verified to do this. Processing times vary depending on which crypto you’re depositing, and how many confirmations it requires. You will, however, usually need to complete an Exmo ID verification before you can deposit fiats. There are some exceptions—like when you use AdvCash—but methods such as credit card will require it. If you’re okay with that, then depositing funds after your verification is extremely simple. Fiat deposits usually take a speedy 1–60 minutes to process.

How to Make a Trade

There are two ways to trade on Exmo. You can choose either the “Buy & Sell” or the “Exchange” section.

I’ll talk you through Exchange first because it’s easier. This option is intended for complete newcomers or those who simply want to buy and hold cryptos as a long-term investment.

This system is incredibly easy to operate. After funding your account, you simply choose your payment method and the currency you want to acquire. The Exmo rates will be calculated for you automatically. If you’re happy with everything, go ahead and click the Exchange button, and that’s it!

There are entire websites whose sole purpose is providing a service like this. They invariably have more complicated ways of doing things. Exmo strips the buying process down to its bare essentials and lets you acquire cryptocurrencies effortlessly.

The Buy & Sell section is intended for more experienced traders. Having said that, though, it’s still extremely easy to use. In large part, this is thanks to the excellent layout.

Choose the pair you want to trade from the big list, and the website will show you one of TradingView’s price charts. You can then either place a limit order or an “instant” order (a market order, essentially).

The website automaticaly shows you any commissions incurred. Once you’re happy with everything, just click on the buy or sell button, and the trade should go through immediately. It really is that simple.

I was impressed by several things during my Exmo review, but the platform’s approach to the trading process is right at the top of the list. The Exmo team have done a wonderful job here, and their flawless execution should be recognized.

They’ve stripped their trading of any unnecessary twaddle, and made the entire process an absolute breeze. It’s equally easy for beginners and veterans alike, while still offering all the functionality of a more “complicated” exchange.

Exmo Fees

Exmo’s fees are clearly displayed and easy to understand. The fees for depositing and withdrawing funds vary substantially, depending on the currency and method in question. In some cases, there are no fees at all. In others, particularly those involving withdrawals, there are fees you should certainly be aware of. The vast majority of the fees for deposits and withdrawals are low and/or fair. Still, the best thing to do—before you sign up—is check out this page, which outlines those fees in full.

Trading Fees

Just as with an Exmo withdrawal or deposit, the fees for trading are made crystal clear. They are displayed in an obvious manner in both the help section and right before you make a trade.

All completed deals incur a 0.2% charge. This is a flat fee, with no difference for makers or takers. In an ideal world, you obviously wouldn’t pay any commissions at all. Still, 0.2% is an extremely competitive rate and shouldn’t deter you from signing up.

At this point, I’d also like to touch on Exmo’s Cashback system.

In short, this is a way to actually reclaim some of the trading fees you pay. Every registered user is automatically eligible for it, regardless of ID verification, and the website fulfils payments on a daily basis. The amount you get back depends on a few factors, including the size of your deals, and whether they were maker or taker trades.

You can get a full explanation of Exmo’s innovative scheme here.

Trading Limits

Again, Exmo doesn’t mess around when outlining its trading limits. All of them are clearly displayed and are the same for every single user. There are no “account levels” with differing limits, or anything of that sort.

Every single trading pair has limits attached to it. There are limits for both minimum and maximum quantities. When trading BTC/USD, for example, you must exchange at least 0.001 BTC, and the most you can exchange is 1000 BTC.

To check out a full list of trading limits, head to this page on Exmo’s website.

Finally, there are a few minimum Exmo withdrawal limits in place for cryptos (including 0.001 for BTC), as well as deposit limits. Like everything else, these vary depending on the currency in question.

Security

For obvious reasons, security is of paramount importance when evaluating any cryptocurrency exchange. You want the exchange to have features that are so watertight you never have to think about whether or not your money is safe.

While I don’t exactly have any big concerns about the security here, it does still represent one of the weaker points of this Exmo review for 2019.

For starters, I don’t like how hard it is to find out what security measures are in place. There’s absolutely no link to information on Exmo’s security on the homepage. The only mention of it comes when it advertises “Secure Wallets,” but you can’t even click on that to find out what it means.

You have to head into the help section for any obvious mention of security. Even then, it’s restricted to the security of your specific account (“make sure you’re actually on the official Exmo website,” and so on), rather than the site as a whole.

With some effort, you can start to navigate different pages on the website and put together a picture of Exmo’s security measures. They have 2FA in place, for example, and cold wallet storage. Again, though, I shouldn’t need to go looking for this information!

This problem is exacerbated by a couple of negative news stories involving Exmo, which I’ll get into in the Exmo Reputation section.

Exmo’s sheer number of users, and longevity should help give you some peace of mind. If you’re asking me straight up, however, “Is Exmo safe?” then my answer is “yes … probably.”

Customer Service

Exmo offers 24/7 support to its users, which obviously sounds great. The avenues through which this is available, however, are a little confusing.

Exmo’s favorite method of communication is definitely a ticketing system. If you prefer to simply send them an email, you can do so. Regardless, replies to these messages usually come within 24 hours, and the customer service agents who deal with your enquiries are generally helpful.

On the Exmo support page, there’s also an option for “Online Chat.” This suggests that live chat is available, but it’s been greyed out every single time I’ve checked on it.

What is available is a good old-fashioned chat room, which you can easily open up once you’re logged in. It’s well populated, with several thousand people usually online. The admins on there seem to spend more time banning people than answering questions, but users are generally good at helping each other where possible.

There’s also a knowledge base in place, called EXMOWIKI. Most of your questions about how Exmo uses blockchain technology should be answered here, but—bizarrely—there’s no search function. That makes finding the information you’re actually looking for a frustrating task.

As with most cryptocurrency exchanges, customer support is not Exmo’s strong suit.

Exmo Reputation

It’s no stretch to say that Exmo has a mixed reputation online. The company started way back in 2013 and has its headquarters in London, England. As I briefly mentioned earlier, however, Exmo does have a decidedly eastern European feel to it. Exmo makes this obvious by the countries it supports via its currency choices (like Russia and Ukraine), its boast that it’s the “#1 exchange in Eastern Europe,” and its CEO, himself, being Russian.

The CEO, Pavel Lerner, was involved in a wild news story back in late 2017, when he was kidnapped in Ukraine. This represented a low point in Exmo’s history, as it coincided with the platform suffering a DDoS attack on the same day. With this happening so recently, I’m doubly surprised that Exmo doesn’t put more of an emphasis on its security measures to reassure users.

Other Exmo reviews (which are obviously far inferior to this one!) are also decidedly mixed in nature. Critics tend to focus on the lackluster customer service—which is fair enough—and there is the usual raft of user complaints about unfair account suspensions, slow withdrawals, and so on.

Conclusion

For the longest time, while doing my research for this Exmo review, I thought I might have found that rarest of things: a flawless cryptocurrency exchange. It’s the holy grail I’m seeking in these crypto exchange reviews, and, unfortunately, I haven’t found it here.

I don’t have many criticisms of Exmo. The ones I do have, though, regard two pretty darn important areas—security and customer service. The latter I can forgive somewhat, as most crypto exchanges struggle there. I find Exmo’s lack of emphasis on its security baffling, though, particularly after the DDoS attack in 2017.

That aside, I loved just about everything Exmo had to offer. Their interface is absolutely wonderful, with the actual trading process being brilliantly streamlined. There’s a nice wide range of trading pairs and payment methods, and the fees are extremely competitive. Innovative touches like the Cashback program are simply the icing on the cake.

Overall for my Exmo review, I can’t call it a “perfect” cryptocurrency exchange, but there’s a huge amount to like here.