Changelly is among the favorite cryptocurrency Exchanges on the market -- but has Changelly gained recognition due to a satisfactory service or is the Exchange losing its glory? You can find out all that in this comprehensive Changelly exchange review.
First, let’s look at the key information the article covers.
Key Information:
- Overview of Changelly Cryptocurrency Exchange
- How Changelly works
- Website Interface (How friendly is it?)
- Customer reputation
- Security & Privacy
- Available cryptocurrencies
- Countries supported
- Fees charged
- Credit card fees:
- Deposit and withdraw methods
- Trading Volume
- How to get started and trade
- Changelly App review
- Customer support
- The pros
- The cons
- Final thoughts
Overview of Changelly Cryptocurrency Exchange
Changelly is more of a platform to Exchange digital currencies and less of a trading avenue. It is a non-custodial platform that enables you to exchange various digital assets, using other Exchanges as a Gateway.
The company was co-founded by some team members involved with the MinerGate project. Changelly started business operations in 2015. Since July 2017, Ilya Bere was the CEO. However, just recently, the baton was passed to one of the co-founders – Konstantin Gladych. Gladych happens to an advisor on various projects including, MinerGate, CoinPayments Coin, and Genesis Vision. {about Changelly being affiliated MinerGate developers}
With a change of CEO, also comes a change in location. Changelly is relocating its head office headquarters. Before the changes, Changelly had set up an office in Prague, Czech Republic. It was not until late 2018, the cryptocurrency Exchange announced that it would be shifting base to Malta.
However, there is controversy out there that the team behind Changelly are using fake aliases. I’m not sure if the claims are legit. The conspiracy goes deeper -- there are unverified claims that the private Exchange is not based in the European Union as Changelly claims. That Changelly is operated off-shore by a team currently based in St. Petersburg, Russia. Now, that’s interesting.
How Changelly works
You can exchange digital coins without necessarily depositing them into Changelly’s account. Changelly uses a robot that relies on AI technology to fetch the best rates across different crypto markets. This algorithm or robot is integrated with various cryptocurrency Exchanges like Bittrex, HitBTC, Binance, and Poloniex. Let’s say you want to buy 0.005 Ethereum; the bot will scan the various platforms for the most-friendly price -- all this happens lightning fast.
This infographic gives a simple explanation.
Website Interface (How friendly is it?)
Every website user loves a gorgeous UI that easy to navigate. If it is clunky, that user might never come back. As for Changelly, it has a lovely, simple UI -- you will have no trouble navigating around whatsoever even if is your first time to use Changelly. Anyone, including beginners and veterans, will find Changelly user-friendly. Everything you need is organized neatly: From My Account tab, How it Works, to the FAQ section.
When you login into your account, you get to see your trading history as well as your account profile section. Buying or exchanging digital currencies on their platform is straightforward.
Although with a simplistic UI, a first-time user may get confused -- When you land on the website, you get the impression that the platform is a place to swap digital currencies. Changelly does not give many details regarding their AI trading algorithm, which I think users should know about right from the start.
Customer reputation
It seems with these centralized cryptocurrency Exchanges, you can always find some dirt to dig up if you do your due diligence -- Changelly is not any different. Let me start by mentioning that there was a time Changelly was the crypto spot for most enthusiasts. However, of late, things seem to have taken a different turn. Some people have a wonderful experience -- for others, it is a nightmare.
The market is flooded with numerous negative reviews on about this private company. There was a time Changelly was in the spotlight, facing that they are minting millions from customers. Okay, let’s somehow shake that off -- there are too many negative reviews on Changelly to let it slip away.
Some customers, including the Monero community, are calling for a boycott of Changelly due to what they are calling “selective scamming”. Some customers claim Changelly is confiscating users’ coins through dubious strategies.
Many users are grumpy because of Changelly’s new-found habit of putting on hold users’ funds, claiming it a working principle to “freeze suspicious account”. While some people praise the Exchange for swift transactions (about 30 minutes waiting time), it is not the case for everyone.
For some customers – even though they had no past issues with Changelly – report that Changelly puts your payment on hold, terming it is “a suspicious transaction, before demanding that you fully comply with their KYC terms.
Major complaints about the stealing of users’ funds seem to revolve around the cryptocurrency Monero. According to some customers, “Changelly questions where you got your asset, an if they are not satisfied with the initial response, they may put your funds on hold. That’s on top of forcing you to go through KYC procedures”. Even if you decide not to go through with the transaction, and ask them for a refund, Changelly still demands that you complete their multi-step KYC process. If you are unable to provide the documents they need, you might as well kiss your coins goodbye.
Here is the ironic bit: Monero transactions are untraceable; that means you can’t specifically tell where the money came from or to whom it goes to for outgoing transactions. Another tricky part is: what if you mined the coins or you won them from a gambling site, and you have no mining proof whatsoever? I guess your coins are gone, forever – unfortunately.
On the other hand, when confronted regarding this dubious strategies, Changelly claims some users are laundering money using Monero. Although there is that possibility, Changelly should disclose the specific criteria they employ to flag accounts/freeze funds -- of which they don’t, claiming it is a security measure. While this seems to be happening with assets like Monero, Changelly should come clean regarding what they do with funds they have confiscated -- do they burn the coins or send them to their wallets?
Having known this, it is up to you to judge for yourself if you will use Changelly, or another Exchange.
Security & Privacy
So, what security measures does Changelly employ to safeguard customers’ funds or shield off attackers? Unfortunately, Changelly does not disclose the exact security measures it undertakes to safeguard your funds.
With most Exchanges, they use Cold storages to safeguard customers’ funds. As for Changelly, it does not hold on to the user’s funds. Changelly holds yours for milliseconds when you are initiating a trade. For this reason, it is unlikely a hacker will target customers’ funds on Changelly’s trading interface.
Besides the basic security measures, you would expect a cryptocurrency Exchange to have, such as use 2FA and HTTPS protocol, you don’t exactly get to know what steps are undertaken to keep your fund & information safe.
On the bright side – which is a pain for others – Changelly requires every person to verify the origin of their funds. While this is a huge step in preventing fraud, it is a nightmare to those customers who somehow are unable to verify the source of their funds.
This does not call for an alarm but if you scan the website with the observatory tool by Mozilla, Changelly scores an F.
Privacy
Changelly safeguards the personal information it collects about you. To ensure the info they collect is secure, they never rent, sell or trade it with other third parties. Changelly employs several (or this) security measures to safeguard your personal information – the do not disclose their security measures. However, not even Changelly guarantees the security of your information – because, who knows, an unforeseen security breach may happen.
Still, you can choose how Changelly uses your personal information. You may ask them to delete your data; you may revoke Changelly the right to process your data; and, you may change or ask for your data any time.
Just like most other Exchanges out there, Changelly collects and stores your information. Fintechvision LTD, a legal entity based in Hong Kong, controls and processes all information that Changelly collects through their website.
Here is the kind of information Changelly collects:
- Registration information: Your legal names, email address, password, and any third party app you may use.
- Transaction details.
- Changelly monitors/tracks information related to their website usage. Such information includes details like the operating system you are using, your IP address, browser type, device information, data and time you accessed the website, and so on. Changelly can collect this information itself, or they can use third party means.
- KYC/AML details: For transactions that involve large amounts of money changelly will ask you to verify your Identity. You may have to submit documents like your ID, driving license, along with your selfie.
- Your Google analytics information.
Although Changelly will never sell your personal information to third parties, it can provide your information to law enforcement upon request.
Available cryptocurrencies
Changelly offers a wide selection of altcoins (over 100 crypto assets). Among the top cryptocurrencies you can buy/swap include:
- Bitcoin.
- Litecoin.
- Ethereum.
- Bytecoin.
- Dash.
- Dogecoin.
- Monero.
- EOS.
- NEO.
- Ripple.
- Tron.
- NEM.
- OmiseGo.
- Basic Attention Token.
- Stable coins: USDC, USDT, EURS, DAI, TrueUSD, MKR, GUSD.
- See more listed cryptocurrencies.
Countries supported
Changelly has not put any location barriers. Anybody from around the globe can use Changelly unless trading of cryptocurrencies banned in your country.
Fees charged
For every trade you execute at Changelly, you will pay a flat fee of 0.5% per trade. Mainly, the fee you will pay will also depend on the prevailing Exchange rate (keeping in mind the cryptocurrency market is increasingly volatile), and the time and date of the transaction. Always research the current exchange rates for different crypto markets before you buy your preferred cryptocurrency – the fees can vary significantly.
On top of paying the flat fee, you will also have to factor in the network fee. Every transaction that happens on the blockchain requires that you pay a particular fee that goes to the miners. The network fee varies depending on the type of currency you are exchanging.
Credit card fees:
Changelly takes 5% as fee while Simple – the company that processes Changelly credit transactions – takes a fee of 5%. However, this can be far from the truth as we all know credit card purchases can be expensive. It is not uncommon to pay unbelievably high fees if you opt for this alternative. The exchange rate can be Crypto-to-crypto trades fees: 0.01% to 10%.
Deposit and withdraw methods
At Changelly, accepts only two payments methods: cryptocurrencies, and credit/debit cards.
Purchase Limits
Changelly sets transfers limits for first transactions you do with them. The limits will depend on your payment method and your location. If you are buying with a credit card, such as Visa, you get the following limits.
- For the first transaction, the limit is set between $50 and $10,000.
- Otherwise, the daily purchase limit is capped at $20,000.
- You get a monthly limit of $50,000. As for the fees, see section on fees.
Trading Volume
How to get started and trade
Head over to Changelly’s homepage, and sign in. On the right side of the Homepage, you will see the section for exchanging digital coins.
First, pick the currencies you want to swap. Next, So, key in the amount you wish to exchange for the asset you are holding, and changelly will give you an estimate of the figure you will get for the swapped digital currency.
For instance, if you are a BTC holder who wants some ETH, select BTC and ETH as your pairs, set the amount, and then hit the Exchange button. When you tap on the Exchange button, a page will pop up showing the current Exchange rate, the fee due and estimated time it will take to get the coins.
Tap on the ‘Next’ button. From there, the next step is to submit your wallet details; that is, the destination address where you want the coins delivered.
After this step, Changelly will provide you with a deposit wallet address. This is the address that you will send the coins you want to swap. If you are holding BTC, you will be sending the coins to this specific address. You will have to confirm all the details are correct before you get the deposit address.
Once your deposit has reflected on the designated address, you will get your desired coins. This should take 5 to 30 minutes, but with Changelly freezing accounts or delaying accounts, I can’t say for sure that’s the exact waiting time.
Changelly App review
The app has a neat, simplistic UI. Unfortunately, you don’t get to login in the app using your Changelly account details. Instead, they ask you login with your Gmail account. Many people are unhappy with this, and Changelly says it will add that feature in next release of the app. Hopefully, it will be soon.
So far, the app only lists crypto assets; there is no option to buy coins fiat currencies like CAD, EUR, and USD. Again Changelly promises to include that feature in the next app release. Perhaps, while it is at it, Changelly ought to include a “cancel button’ incase one does not want to through with a transaction.
Although it falls short in some areas, many users seem to be satisfied with how straightforward it is to use. On Google Play, the App has attained 4.1 stars.
Customer support
Changelly has active customer support. While they do respond to customers’ queries sometimes, they can be unhelpful – providing the same copy-pasted response to customers. For some cases, the support can take you in circles, or they take time to respond to you. Still, Changelly’s support is not utterly useless. Some people have got sorted in the past. While it has no phone support, there is a live chat, and a detailed FAQ. Also, the team at Changelly seems quite active in forums like Reddit. If you post a query on their subreddit forum, Changelly will most likely respond. Follow this conversation on Reddit; you’ll see how Changelly engages its customers.
The pros
- Affiliate program; 50%.
- A mobile app.
- User-friendly interface.
- Fast transactions (at times).
- An API for web developers.
- Real-time statistics.
- Friendly trading fees.
- A wide range of altcoins.
The cons
- It lacks advanced traders features for the experienced crypto trader.
- Many negative reviews on Changelly in online forums like Reddit and Bitcointalk channels.
- Day traders lose money when Changelly freezes funds.
- Limited customer support options.
- Changelly’s team need to come clear regarding the complaints lodged.
Final thoughts
Although Changelly is being accused of doing “selective scamming”, perhaps, it is one of their strategies to protect their business. As you know, when hackers steal crypto funds in some marketplaces, they often use Exchanges to launder the funds.
Like when hackers hit Coincheck, and made away with over $500 million worth of NEM, the hackers created an Exchange in the dark web, where it is selling the stolen NEM exchange of BTC or LTC.
To back this up, Changelly once helped Bithumb, a South Korean Exchange, recover XRP coins worth $585,000, which is part of the $30 million worth of XRP stolen from Bithumb in June 2018. Probably, if the hackers had tried to launder the money using Changelly, they would have been caught before all the money was laundered.
If you are going to use Changelly, then start with with small amounts -- to be safe.
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Published: 03/13/2019
