Uphold Review 2024 - Crypto Exchange Worth Considering?

Uphold Trading Platform Overview

Uphold’s unique ‘Anything-to-Anything’ trading experience enables customers to trade directly between asset classes with embedded payments facilitating a future where everyone has access to financial services.

Uphold created a cloud computing-based financial services platform that allows people to buy and convert any type of currency, including cryptocurrencies, and serves 184+ countries, 80+ currencies (traditional and crypto) and commodities with frictionless foreign exchange and cross-border remittance for members around the world. Since its launch in 2015, it has powered more than 4+ billion USD in transactions. Uphold is a multi-asset digital money platform offering financial services to a global market.

Table of Contents

• Uphold History
• Features of the Uphold Exchange Platform
• Uphold Mobile App for Registered Accounts
• Uphold Fees – Crypto, Service, Deposit, and Withdrawal Fees
• Supported Cryptocurrencies and Countries
• Payment Methods
• Is Uphold safe and legit?
• How User-Friendly Is Uphold?
• Customer Support
• Why do People Use Uphold? The Pros of the Exchange
• Uphold Review Summary – Is it really worth considering?
• Uphold Overall Rating
• Uphold Alternatives

Uphold History

Uphold (previously Bitreserve), was founded by Halsey Minor in 2013. In 2015 the company was renamed and former Nike CIO, Anthony Watson, was appointed CEO. By 2016 Uphold revolutionised its business by introducing Open API, a platform that integrates services for Businesses and can be directly used for payment flow or any other service of the platform.

Features of the Uphold Exchange Platform

Built on a core of proprietary technologies and e-money apps, Uphold embraces a future where people and businesses around the world have access to safe, transparent, fair, verifiable, and affordable financial services.

Major features include:

• Crypto: Majors, altcoins, emerging tokens, and stable coins – they’re all there!
• Precious Metals: There are some precious metals available on uphold for trading – gold, silver, platinum, and palladium – with instant liquidity into 27 national currencies.
• Equities: Uphold also offers its users the possibility to buy stocks. It provides the feature for users to buy even expensive U.S. stocks for a price starting from $1. The service gives users proportional ownership and pays the dividends in cash.
• Environmental Assets: It offers the world’s first tradable carbon credit token – UPCO2 and the cleanest form of Bitcoin Zero.
• Debit Card: Uphold provides the world’s first debit card to pay with crypto, metals, and currencies. It can be a physical or virtual card for online payments with the additional benefit of earning crypto rewards.
• Limit Orders: Uphold also allows users to place multiple limits orders with one pool of capital. A limit can be placed up to 50 orders.
• Staking: Feature currently under development, crypto traders can join a waitlist at uphold.com.
• Automated Trading: Uphold also supports automated trading – a trader can schedule regular transactions using AutoPilot which allows to set up a recurring buy or sell orders and reduce the impact of price volatility.
• Daily Newsletter: It keeps crypto investors informed in real-time on the situation on the market of crypto and other assets such as precious metals, equities and more.
• API Integration: Among the features of the Uphold there is also an open API, an interface that can be used by businesses for payment flows.

Uphold Mobile App for Registered Accounts

Uphold mobile application was launched in 2018 and is available for iOS and Android. The app makes it easier for users to manage their portfolio and conduct seamless transactions on the move. It allows registered members to earn a return of 2-5% on their digital holdings, as well as access cheap, crypto-secured loans.

Key benefits of the app:

• Portfolio view: instant view of the total balances.
• Asset tracking: monitoring the value, market rate, and performance of each of user’s holdings at a glance.
• Greater transparency: view of the limits and crypto trading fees at the beginning of any transaction.
• App-specific passcode options such as FaceID and fingerprint recognition.
• Two-factor authentication and location-based security for account login.

Users with the trading account can buy, sell and trade between more than 30 currencies, deposit and withdraw value to and from an account, and send value to anyone with an email address – all from a smartphone.

Uphold Fees – Crypto, Service, Deposit, and Withdrawal Fees

General notes

Uphold is not a free platform and charges a spread every time users trade crypto asset. The pricing model is all-inclusive – the price displayed before the trade is the one to be paid when the transaction is being conducted. Unlike many platforms, Uphold prices are locked in pre-trade. Uphold doesn’t charge any additional fees between the preview and transact step. Like most trading venues, Uphold displays the current mid-market price on charts; when trading, a user receives the current bid or ask price depending on whether buying or selling. There is always a small difference between the mid-market and the bid/ask prices: it’s how order books on exchanges work. Network Fees – charged when a trader withdraws to external crypto wallets – are passed on at cost and may vary depending on network congestion.

Service Fees: Personal accounts

Cryptocurrencies

• In the U.S. and Europe, the spread is typically 0.8 to 1.2% on BTC and ETH. In other parts of the world, the spread of the Majors is typically around 1.8%.
• Spreads can be significantly higher for low-liquidity cryptos and tokens including XRP, ZIL, OXT, UPT, DOGE and others.
• It is always recommended to check the rates before trading on the crypto market. On the company website, a user can find the Uphold disclaimer on the fees – e.g. that Wall Street activities can distort markets and that spreads might widen during times of acute market stress.

Others

• Precious metals spread is typically 3% on top of the bid-ask prices at our supplier.
• Fiat currencies spread is typically 0.2% between major national currencies such as EUR, USD, and GBP.
• U.S. Equities: spread is typically 1.0%. For trading outside market hours (U.S. market hours are 9.30 am to 4 pm ET on business days), a small spread based on the stock’s volatility is added.

Deposit Fees and Withdrawal Fees

For individual accounts the deposit fees and withdrawal fees are at the level of 0% (the spread is charged).

Uphold Fees: Business accounts

Web Wallet

• It is free to open an account and hold value. Uphold accounts are free to customers who maintain active accounts.
• Fund the account: It is free when funded by a bank account, using bitcoin, or from another internal account. If using a Debit/Credit Card, a fee of 3.99% applies.
• Sending and receiving money: The service is between registered customers. All customer-to-customer transfers are completely free of all fees, costs or limitations regardless of the amounts transferred, currency or frequency.

Convert & Buy

• Uphold charge an exchange fee when a customer buys/converts between different currencies. This is based upon a percentage of the transaction value (see the full list of fees below).
• Withdraw funds from Uphold: For business accounts the withdrawal fee is $2.99 via crypto and $3.99 via bank transfer. Some additional third-party fees might apply in some countries and banks.

Currencies & Commodities

• 0.65% USD, EUR, GBP, UPUSD, UPEUR, TUSD, USDT, USDC, DAI
• 0.95% AUD, CAD, DKK, HKD, JPY, MXN, NZD, NOK, SGD, SEK, CHF
• 1.05% BTC, UPBTC
• 1.15% ARS, BRL, ILS, KES, PHP, PLN, AED, CZK, HUF, RON, HRK
• 1.25% DASH
• 1.4% – 1.95% Cryptocurrencies, Environmental Assets & Equities
• 2.05% XAU, UPXAU
• 3.05% XPD
• 3.65% XAG
• 3.95% XPT

Supported Cryptocurrencies and Countries

The company supports 80+ digital currencies, including majors, alt-coins, emerging tokens, and stable coins. In addition, a user can trade in four precious metals (gold, silver, platinum, and palladium) and two carbon credit tokens, Universal Carbon (UPCO2) and Bitcoin Zero (BTC0). It is also possible to purchase fractional equities in about 40 enterprises, like Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Apple.

Countries Available

Uphold is available globally – it offers its services in 184+ countries around the world. However, the scope of services differs from country to country, e.g. due to U.S. laws, Uphold cannot provide the services to residents of the following locations*:

The list of supported cryptocurrencies is long and includes:

For more information please visit the company site.

Payment Methods

The platform offers different payment methods for different types of transactions:

• Credit or debit cards: Users can link their cards with Uphold account and start transferring the funds, to users other than US, their bank will charge oversea/international fees. Credit card facility in UK is not available at the moment.
• PayPal: mostly used for withdrawal and deposit.
• ACH (Automated Clearing House) in the United States: recommended for small and large investments.
• SEPA transfer (for transfers in euro within 36 countries, 27 of which are members of the European Union, all being members of the Single Euro Payments Area) – suggested for large amount of euro transactions and withdrawals (important to note is that it might take up to 7 days for the transaction to be processed).
• Instant card withdrawal: direct withdrawal to user’s bank account by any funding source (crypto, national currencies, utility tokens, stable coins or metals).

Is Uphold safe and legit?

Uphold security features are in-line with today’s highly volatile and unpredictable security postures. It keep its customer assets and information with the highest level of security. The mobile app also comprises with the highest security standards, securing users’ wallets with two-factor authentication and location-based security for account login.

Uphold uses State-of-the-art Security features like:

• Access and Encryption
• 3rd Party Due Diligence: All Uphold providers undergo appropriate due diligence checks. Special attention is paid to integrations incorporating sensitive data.
• 24/7 Overwatch: Security Operations Centre monitors systems year-round and responds immediately to any detected threat.
• Auditing & Testing: Security professionals routinely conduct security audits and penetration testing of Uphold systems.
• Personnel Standards: The Uphold team are background checked by an accredited vendor. Mandatory security and privacy training are conducted regularly.
• Bug Bounty Program: To make the cryptocurrency exchange even more secure, Uphold uses the Integrity platform. It is used by users who has found a security vulnerability in the platform and want to report it.

How User-Friendly Is Uphold?

Uphold provides the most diligent user-oriented trading experience, and provides a simple easy to use interface both on desktop platforms and mobile apps, available both on Android and iOS. The user interface is intuitive for those who are new to making trades, which could make it a good option for those just getting started with cryptocurrencies.

Customer Support

The cryptocurrency exchange has dedicated team to provide its users with the best customer experience. On the company’s website, traders can find FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions). This source of information covers most of the topics. However, for users who couldn’t find the answers there (and in our review), there is a customer support that can be reached via email, live-chat and a request submitted on-site.

Why do People Use Uphold? The Pros of the Exchange

As a multi-asset digital money platform, Uphold offers financial services to a global market. It is not only a crypto exchange, but it includes more services like trading fiat currencies, precious metals, US stocks, and an Open API interface. The trade possibility is available for both individual users and businesses.

Uphold has a customer education program that can help new customers to familiarize themselves with threats around the cyber world. Because of that it is easier for non-experienced traders to start their adventure with cryptos and other tradable assets.

Uphold Review Summary – Is it really worth considering?

Uphold is an excellent cryptocurrency exchange. It has a lot of pros – from wide range of assets available on the Uphold platform (not only cryptos and fiats, but also precious metals, equities, etc.), perfect customer service and educational library that helps un-experienced users to enter the crypto market, to the clear fee scheme and real-time transaction transparency.

• Uphold allows its users – both individual and business ones – to use the mobile app to better manage their wallets.
• The independently verified (audited quarterly) transparency system provides real-time proof of Uphold’s reserve’s solvency and makes the platform the safe place to hold money in any form.
• Platform’s availability (that enables users to trade globally) and dynamic development also should not be ignored.

Uphold Overall Rating

Uphold Overall Rating is Excellent. However, each exchange review is valued. Hence, please share your experience with Uphold in the User Review section below!

Uphold Alternatives

There are plenty of platforms available for traders. For alternatives (and the reviews of them) please visit our crypto exchange reviews page where you can find lots of reviews done by our experts and see our users’ comments.