Swyftx vs Coinbase: Which is the Better Crypto Platform for Australians?

News | June 09, 2022, 9:41 AM | The content is supplied by a Guest author

Australia has fully embraced cryptocurrency, becoming the third-largest country to adopt the technology, and even appointing a Minister of Digital Economy. While the government itself expects the domestic cryptocurrency industry to increase up to 30 times by 2030, consumer adoption is still a minority - only 18.4% of Australians reportedly own crypto, according to research by Statista.

With that said, the market is ripe for a lot of competitors in the crypto exchange industry to pop up, and Australian citizens need to decide on the best platform for them to trade. Today we’ll discuss the case for Swyftx and Coinbase, two crypto exchanges, as well as compare the competitive advantages and weaknesses of each.

The Case for Swyftx

Swyftx is an Australian-based cryptocurrency exchange with a wide selection of cryptocurrencies, currently over 320 available for buying and trading. The company is fully licensed and regulated by AUSTRAC (Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre), and the ATO (Australian Taxation Office) announced recently that monitoring cryptocurrency taxation laws is amongst its top priorities in the year 2022.

Thus, Swyftx (https://swyftx.com/) strictly abides by Australian laws and guidelines for crypto exchanges, and is therefore highly trustworthy. It holds a 4.7 star rating out of 3,765 TrustPilot reviews. Swyftx’s max trading fees are 0.6% with no trading limits, meaning that large amounts of cryptocurrency can be bought and sold for very little.

Another important thing to know is that Swyftx automatically optimizes each cryptocurrency across multiple exchanges and order books to deliver the best prices and liquidity - this means that the liquidity on trading pairs such as altcoins is significantly higher in comparison to other platforms, and results in lower spreads between asking and bidding prices. In fact, Swyftx claims spreads as low as 0.41%.

The platform also has a fairly rapid verification process, especially for Australian citizens. All you need to do is upload your driver’s license and/or your passport, and you are typically verified within a day. There’s no need to take a selfie and wait for the middleman to get back to you. The platform is praised for its user-friendliness, offering mobile platforms for both iPhone and Android, as well as a web-based platform for desktop browsers. The dashboard is incredibly convenient, giving you quick insights into all of your activity, as well as announcements on new altcoins added to the platform.

New users are recommended to search for coupon codes and promotions before signing up, as it’s quite easy to find vouchers for up to $20 free Bitcoin just for signing up, and other referral codes that can earn you more crypto for signing up friends.

The Case for Coinbase

Coinbase offers a significantly smaller selection of altcoins than Swyftx, though this seems to be rapidly changing. While last year, Coinbase reportedly only offered 59 coins, they have aggressively expanded their selection to over 160, as well as thousands of tokens (which are similar but different from coins) supported by token exchanges, such as BNB Chain and Avalanche. User reviews of Coinbase aren’t very favorable - it currently holds 1.7 stars on TrustPilot out of 7,063 user reviews.

The fees on Coinbase are also a bit higher, charging up to 4.49% on direct crypto purchases, and only allows purchases to be made with debit cards for Australians - it does not support selling, adding cash, or cashing out in AUD. This is a significant disadvantage for Australian consumers. If you’re highly conscious of security, however, Coinbase slightly edges out Swyftx in this department. Coinbase stores 98% of all customer funds offline, and offers insurance for online stored assets - although insurance is a rather tricky web to navigate, shrouded in legalese.

When comparing both Swyftx’s and Coinbase’s user agreements, we find these passages related to insurance:

• Swyftx: Crypto assets made available via the Swyftx services are uninsured unless you specifically obtain private insurance to insure them. In the event of loss or loss of utility value, there is no public insurer or private insurance arranged by Swyftx, to offer recourse to you.

• Coinbase: Coinbase carries crime insurance that protects a portion of digital assets held across our storage systems against losses from theft, including cybersecurity breaches. However, our policy does not cover any losses resulting from unauthorized access to your personal Coinbase or Coinbase Pro account(s) due to a breach or loss of your credentials. It is your responsibility to use a strong password and maintain control of all login credentials you use to access Coinbase and Coinbase Pro. Digital currency is not legal tender and is not backed by the government. Digital currency, (including but not limited to tokens such as bitcoin, litecoin, and ethereum and stablecoins such as USDC), is not subject to Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) or Securities Investor Protection Corporation protections. In case of a covered security event, we will endeavor to make you whole; however, total losses may exceed insurance recoveries so funds may still be at risk.

So while Swyftx almost definitely won’t replace your losses as a result of a breach, Coinbase might - at their discretion, and the legal jargon they throw at you.

Conclusion: Swyftx vs Coinbase for Australian consumers

Overall, we have to give the nod to Swyftx for specifically catering to Australian consumers and Australian regulations. While Coinbase has more global reach, its higher fees and limited payment / withdrawal methods for Australian users makes Swfytx the more convenient, user-friendly platform in this comparison.