PrimeXBT Exchange Review 2019: Is It Safe?

Although there are hundreds of cryptocurrency exchange platforms to choose from, most typically offer outdated features, lack significant volume, or charge unreasonably high fees. With this in mind, this article is a continuation in our series of cryptocurrency exchange reviews. In this series, we take a deep dive into the most prominent exchange platforms in operation, helping you quickly identify those that work best for you. In this piece, we examine PrimeXBT under the microscope.

What is PrimeXBT?

PrimeXBT is a relatively new cryptocurrency trading platform that offers leveraged trading for a wide range of digital assets, as well as a variety of other financial instruments. Since its launch in 2018, PrimeXBT has gathered a significant following among cryptocurrency traders, thanks to its low trading fees, high leverage margin trading, and forward-thinking approach to customer security. Beyond this, the platform is one of the few cryptocurrency derivatives trading platforms to automatically enforce the privacy of its users. In line with this ethos, PrimeXBT users are not required to provide any personal information to use the platform — completely forgoing any KYC requirements. Today, PrimeXBT serves customers in over 150 countries, providing traders with access to highly accurate market data and a high-speed order execution engine while still managing to keep fees low. A simple breakdown of PrimeXBT features follows;

Mobile Options	Yes
Exchange Type	Centralized
Company Country	Seychelles
Exchange Launch	2018
Deposit Methods	Cryptocurrency
Withdrawal Methods	Cryptocurrency
Withdrawal Limits	None
KYC	None
Number of Assets	9+ cryptocurrencies, plus additional forex, commodities, and indices markets
Blocked Countries	The United States of America, the province of Québec in Canada, Algeria, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Cuba, Crimea and Sevastopol, Iran, Syria, North Korea or Sudan
Security	Excellent
Reputation	Excellent
Fiat Payments	No
Website	PrimeXBT

What Trading Features Does PrimeXBT Offer?

When it comes to trading features, PrimeXBT is certainly no slouch. The exchange offers four different order types including market, limit, stop, and one-cancels-the-other orders. Beyond this, PrimeXBT gives users the ability to change the complexity of the trading interface to best suit their needs with regular trading and one-click trading options available. The user interface is extremely intuitive to use, and shouldn’t require much of a learning curve if migrating from another similar exchange. Similarly, the interface is accessible to less experienced traders, since only the basic trading tools are immediately presented to users. In terms of charting features, PrimeXBT features attractive charts with a huge number of tools and a wide variety of available indicators. Users also have the ability to customize the look and feel of the interface — ideal for producing sleek and beautiful charts. Recently, PrimeXBT added the ‘Covesting Module’ to its site. As of writing, this feature is only available as a live preview, but will eventually allow users to copy the trades of elite traders. PrimeXBT also features a trading preview feature, allowing users to quickly gauge the feel of the platform, without needing to register first.

What Are the Fees Like?

When selecting an ideal trading platform, most cryptocurrency traders consider low trading fees to be one of the most important criteria. Because of this, PrimeXBT, like many cryptocurrency exchanges does what it can to offer competitive fees. PrimeXBT keeps is fee schedule extremely simple. The cost of opening a position is a fixed 0.05%, regardless of which cryptocurrency trading pair you choose. Beyond this, PrimeXBT also charges a financing fee which does differ depending on the trading pairs. This fee schedule is outlined below:

Symbol	Trading fee	Financing/day Long	Financing/day Short
BTC/USD	0.05%	-$8.0 per 1 BTC	-$8.0 per 1 BTC
ETH/USD	0.05%	-$0.15 per 1 ETH	-$0.15 per 1 ETH
ETH/BTC	0.05%	-₿0.000015 per 1 ETH	-₿0.000015 per 1 ETH
LTC/USD	0.05%	-$0.05 per 1 LTC	-$0.05 per 1 LTC
LTC/BTC	0.05%	-₿0.000005 per 1 LTC	-₿0.000005 per 1 LTC
XRP/USD	0.05%	-$0.0003 per 1 XRP	-$0.0003 per 1 XRP
XRP/BTC	0.05%	-₿0.00000001 per 1 XRP	-₿0.00000001 per 1 XRP
EOS/USD	0.05%	-$0.003 per 1 EOS	-$0.003 per 1 EOS
EOS/BTC	0.05%	-₿0.0000003 per 1 EOS	-₿0.0000003 per 1 EOS

Lastly, PrimeXBT does not charge a deposit fee, though there is a relatively low 0.0005 BTC withdrawal fee which is automatically deducted from the withdrawal amount. Overall, PrimeXBT trading fees are on the low side, while overnight financing fees can quickly rack up to a significant sum, making PrimeXBT best for short-term positions.

Transfer Limits

Unlike most cryptocurrency trading platforms, PrimeXBT doesn’t require any KYC verification to increase your account trading limits or functionality. However, in order to manage risk, PrimeXBT sets both minimum and maximum position sizes on the platform. In absolute terms, BTC has the highest limits, with a maximum position size of 100 BTC. Other instruments have lower limits, as shown below;

Symbol	Min. order size	Min. order size change	Max. exposure
BTC/USD	0.01 BTC	0.01 BTC	100 BTC
ETH/USD	0.01 ETH	0.01 ETH	1000 ETH
ETH/BTC	0.01 ETH	0.01 ETH	1000 ETH
LTC/USD	0.01 LTC	0.01 LTC	1000 LTC
LTC/BTC	0.01 LTC	0.01 LTC	1000 LTC
XRP/USD	1 XRP	0.01 XRP	150000 XRP
XRP/BTC	1 XRP	0.01 XRP	150000 XRP
EOS/USD	1 EOS	0.01 EOS	15000 EOS
EOS/BTC	1 EOS	0.01 EOS	15000 EOS

In addition to this, since PrimeXBT is a margin trading platform, it needs to enforce certain margin requirements to ensure the platform stays solvent. For BTC/USD positions under 10 BTC, the minimum margin is set at 1%, increasing to 2% for orders between 10-60 BTC, and up to 10% for 60+ BTC orders. Other instruments have similar margin ratio requirements.

Which Assets are Available?

Although PrimeXBT is primarily a cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform, it also allows users to trade a variety of indices, forex, and commodities products using BTC. In total, PrimeXBT offers 39 markets to trade. Out of these, 9 are cryptocurrency markets, where users can trade BTC, ETH, EOS, LTC, XRP, and ETH against USD. The remaining 30 markets are comprised of commodities and indices, CFDs, and forex. This makes PrimeXBT one of the only platforms where you can trade both cryptocurrencies and traditional financial instruments in one place. Additionally, all instruments on the platform can be traded with leverage. Currently, all cryptocurrencies can be traded with up to 100x leverage, while other financial instruments can be traded with as much as 1,000x leverage. By offering leveraged trading, PrimeXBT allows traders to essentially magnify their exposure to market movements. For example, if a long position on BTC gains 10% while at 100x leverage, this will multiply your initial investment by 10x.

PrimeXBT Trading Volume

Unfortunately, PrimeXBT does not appear to report its trading volume to external trackers like CoinMarketCap or CoinGecko. Because of this, we are unable to report on the exact long-term liquidity of the platform. However, as the time of writing, the platform has a reported $445 million in 24-hour trade volume across all contracts, with its BTC/USD contract contributing around two-thirds of this. These numbers put PrimeXBT up there with some of the most liquid margin trading platforms. Since PrimeXBT offers up to 100x leverage on all cryptocurrency trading pairs, we can assume that the platform is handling a significant trading volume, otherwise, this would be unsustainable given the volatility of the cryptocurrency markets. Beyond this, PrimeXBT makes use of 12 different liquidity providers to ensure that positions can be filled instantly, no matter how large. Thanks to its liquidity aggregation feature, PrimeXBT is an ideal platform for both high-volume and high-frequency traders.

PrimeXBT Reputation

Although PrimeXBT is a relatively new entrant to the market, the platform’s impressive liquidity, coupled with its strong security features, make it an attractive place to trade. Similarly, despite launching barely over a year ago, it has already managed to serve customers in almost all major countries. Additionally, since the platform’s inception in 2018, PrimeXBT has managed to avoid being hacked and there are no reports of it mishandling user funds. Although these should be a given, these characteristics are surprisingly rare among cryptocurrency exchanges. PrimeXBT is also a registered business operating under the company name ‘Prime XBT Trading Services Ltd.,’ which is registered in the Republic of Seychelles (company number: 206865). Although not regulated, the transparency regarding its business establishment and legal jurisdiction does provide its users with some level of assurance that the company is operating legally. Similarly, partnerships with companies like Covesting further increase PrimeXBT’s brand value and trustworthiness in the public domain. In summary, PrimeXBT has maintained a relatively flawless public image and transparency when it comes to its business practices — indicating that PrimeXBT is a solid, reputable platform.

Is PrimeXBT Safe?

When selecting a cryptocurrency exchange, many would argue that security should be your top concern, since several cryptocurrency exchanges have been hacked in the last several years. Thankfully, PrimeXBT stands strong in this department, having clearly taken the necessary steps to ensure users feel safe while using the platform. By default, PrimeXBT does not enforce two-factor authentication (2FA), though Google Authenticator 2FA can be manually enabled in the settings. Beyond this, PrimeXBT is also one of the few exchange platforms to use withdrawal address whitelisting — ensuring that only authorized addresses can be used when withdrawing funds. Beyond this, PrimeXBT keeps the majority of user funds offline in cold storage, keeping the bare minimum in a hot wallet to fund withdrawals. This is complemented by a rigorous risk review process that sees orders checked for suspicious activity, ensuring PrimeXBT can react quickly should any issues arise. Not only this, but all traffic to and from the website is encrypted with SSL. All passwords are hashed with strong encryption, and regular security assessments are performed to ensure PrimeXBT maintains its unblemished security record. Overall, PrimeXBT is a security-conscious platform that does just about all it can to protect its users’ funds.

PrimeXBT Deposits and Withdrawals

As it stands, PrimeXBT does not currently enforce a maximum deposit amount, though the minimum is set to 0.001 BTC. Conversely, there are no minimum and maximum withdrawal limits. As previously mentioned, PrimeXBT keeps the great majority of users’ funds in cold storage. Although this massively improves safety, it does come at the compromise of increased withdrawal delays. All withdrawals on PrimeXBT are processed once per day, between 12:00 and 14:00 UTC. Withdrawals made before 12:00 will be processed the same day, whereas those made after will not be processed until the next withdrawal slot. Since all products on PrimeXBT are bought and sold in BTC, this is also the only cryptocurrency it accepts deposits and withdrawals for. However, the platform does feature Changelly integration, allowing you to purchase BTC with USD, EUR and a variety of other cryptocurrencies, which can be deposited to your PrimeXBT address.   Note: Although the PrimeXBT website mentions EUR and USD deposits are available, we were unable to locate this feature on the platform during our testing.

Who Does PrimeXBT Report To?

Operating out of Seychelles gives PrimeXBT some leniency when it comes to reporting requirements. Similarly, because the company is not registered as a financial money institution or money transmitter, it doesn’t appear to have any legal requirement to store or provide customer information to the tax authorities. The platform makes this very clear with the following statement on its website;

“You are solely responsible for withholding, collecting, reporting, paying, settling and/or remitting any and all taxes to the appropriate tax authorities […] Prime XBT shall not be responsible for withholding, collecting, reporting, paying, settling and/or remitting any taxes”

The platform also covers its own back by blocking users in the United States from using its services, while customers residing in any country sanctioned by the U.S. are also unable to use the platform. Although the platform doesn’t require any user provide personal data to use, and isn’t explicitly required to report users to authorities, by default it may be required to do so if mandated by a court order. In any case, PrimeXBT’s privacy policy clearly indicates the platform takes data privacy very seriously.

PrimeXBT Customer Support

PrimeXBT handles customer support issues in an industry-standard, using a robust GitBook-powered FAQ as the first line of support for customers. The PrimeXBT FAQ provides enough tutorials and template answers to resolve most basic issues, while also covering trading basics. To address more complex issues, PrimeXBT allows users to get in touch with the support team through the built-in chat support system. Alternatively, users can email their 24/7 support team at [email protected], though this is usually less responsive than the live chat. PrimeXBT also features a live status page, which provides updates on any incidents, downtime, and maintenance periods. In terms of social presence, PrimeXBT maintains a Medium business profile where they provide periodical updates several times per month, allowing customers to keep tabs on the latest news involving the platform. PrimeXBT also operates Twitter and Facebook profiles through which it provides support to customers that are looking for a quick response to their queries — although this is not something it does consistently.

Summing Things Up

In summary, PrimeXBT is a new entrant to the margin trading space but has already made quite the name for itself thanks to its uncompromising approach to security and privacy-oriented approach to margin trading. The platform is accessible to users of all experience levels, featuring a wide range of basic and advanced trading tools, while still managing to keep fees down to a very reasonable level. With just nine cryptocurrencies available on the platform, PrimeXBT has some room to grow in terms of variety, though this is more than made up for with the other financial instruments it allows users to trade. Although PrimeXBT is new, you wouldn’t know it from using the platform. With impressive liquidity, prompt customer support, and up to 100x leverage available, PrimeXBT manages to hold its ground with older and more established exchanges. If you would like to get started trading on PrimeXBT, click this link to get started!

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Disclaimer: The contents of this article are not intended as financial advice, and should not be taken as such. BeInCrypto and the author are not responsible for any financial gains or losses made after reading this article. Cryptocurrency exchanges are frequently compromised, and the cryptocurrency market is particularly volatile. Readers are encouraged to exercise any and all security options present when trading cryptocurrencies, and consult with a certified professional for financial advice. Full Disclosure: This review has been sponsored by PrimeXBT. However, our reviewers were given full independence in writing this article and it reflects the reviewer’s honest opinion.