Coinhako Review: Is the Singapore-Based Exchange Any Good?

Established in 2014, Coinhako is a Singapore-based Cryptocurrency company that offers crypto trading and wallet services in Singapore and Vietnam.

Coinhako is extremely popular for its affordable fees and beginner-friendly user interface and has quickly become the crypto exchange platform of choice.

But how well does Coinhako compare to other well-established players in the market?

What features does it offer to differentiate itself from other crypto exchange platforms?

These are 2 important questions that we are going to answer in our in-depth article by looking at Coinhako’s main features and some of its pros and cons to find out if it’s right for you.

We have a lot to cover, so let’s get started.

Coinhako Features

Coinhako SuperWallet

The Coinhako SuperWallet is designed to allow Coinhako users to deposit and withdraw cryptocurrencies in a secure and trusted manner 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

You can also take advantage of Coinhako’s intuitive user interface that will allow anyone, even with no experience with crypto, to get started.

There are no fees that Coinhako charges to keep crypto deposited in their wallet, but you will incur a fee of $2 when you try to make a withdrawal in local fiat currency.

Coinhako mobile apps

The world of crypto changes every second, so relying on the Coinhako web application may not always be the smartest move as you may need to trade crypto on the go.

That is why Coinhako comes with a mobile app using which you can trade crypto in real-time and access your Coinhako wallet.

The mobile app was designed to be beginner-friendly and has an intuitive user interface that most people will be comfortable using.

Coinhako also emphasises the security of its mobile app and ensures to protect user information from online data breaches.

More on security in the “Coinhako security features” section later.

Coinhako Earn

Coinhako offers to put your crypto to work for you and earn interest on your holdings passively.

Coinhako is offering up to 8.0% APY as of June 2022, which is significantly higher than most high saving accounts in Singapore offer on fiat currencies.

It’s also simple to get started in Coinhako’s Earn program.

To begin, create a Coinhako account and purchase any amount of cryptocurrency, which you can then transfer to your wallet.

You will earn interest based on how long you keep your money in this account.

Currently, only 6 cryptos are eligible to earn interest, and their rates vary drastically between 2% to 8%.

Here is a detailed list of current Coinhako Earn offerings:

To start earning interest, log in to your Coinhako account from either web or mobile app and press on the “Earn” tab. Select the crypto you want to invest in and press on “Earn Now.”

Put how much you want to invest and the duration you want to hold the coin. You will see a detailed breakdown of how much you will earn and all the fees associated with it.

Cryptocurrencies available on Coinhako

One of the first things to consider when considering a new Cryptocurrency Exchange platform is the number of cryptocurrencies it supports.

As of June 2022, Coinhako supports 64 crypto coins, with most of the popular options like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and Dogecoin making the list.

When compared with other platforms, Coinhako’s crypto offerings are a bit limited. But for beginners who are most likely to invest in popular currencies only, it is not a huge deal-breaker.

There are still plenty of options to choose from. But for experienced traders who want a variety of choices, Coinhako can be a bottleneck.

Coinhako also supports 3 fiat currencies in which you can deposit or withdraw your holdings.

• USD
• SGD
• VNDT

How to fund your Coinhako account?

Because Coinhako is based in Singapore, depositing money is a relatively simple process, and you can directly deposit SGD to your account. You have a total of two options you can choose to fund your account, which is as follows:

• Xfers
• Debit/credit card
• FAST Transfer
• GrabPay

Xfers: Xfers is a one-stop solution for transferring payments between your bank and Coinhako accounts.

To use Xfers to transfer funds, you must first deposit SGD into your Xfers account through bank transfer or debit card.

Once the funds are in your Xfers account, you’ll need to mint it for XSGD, an SGD stablecoin, before you can transfer the amount to Coinhako.

Fast Transfer: FAST (Fast And Secure Transfers) is a new electronic money transferring protocol in Singapore that enables banks to move funds immediately between different financial organisations.

Coinhako supports FAST transfer, and you can add Coinhako as a payee on the online banking platform and, importantly, add the Unique Deposit Code in reference to deposit money instantly.

Debit/credit card: Coinhako supports debit and credit cards only if they are authorised to be used in Singapore. Any foreign issued card can not be used within the Coinhako platform.

As of January 2021, only Visa and Mastercard are supported, so if you have a card from a different company, it may not be compatible with Coinhako.

GrabPay: By enabling Grabpay on Coinhako, you can purchase digital assets instantly on Coinhako.

Grabpay allows users to bypass the long waiting queue and deposit money directly into their Coinhako account.

Coinhako Fees

When choosing the right Crypto exchange platform, it is crucial to understand all the fees associated with the platform.

Coinhako offers a simple and transparent fee structure that is pretty simple to understand.

Here is a detailed overview of all the fees associated with the platform.

Deposit fees

There are several ways to deposit money into your Coinhako account, and each has its own separate fee structure.

Using the Xfers platform, which instantly deposits money into your Coinhako account, you will be charged a 0.55% transfer fee + 1% platform fee.

This is charged by Xfers and not Coinhako, so although on the website, you may see a 0% fee, in truth, 1.55% will be charged on your account.

Coinhako also supports Grabpay, which has a 2.5% flat fee charged on every deposit.

When depositing your account with a debit or credit card, Coinhako has no fees, but the corresponding bank may charge a 1.5% flat rate.

If you use the FAST Transfer platform, you will be charged a 1% platform fee again by the corresponding financial provider.

Although Coinhako itself does not charge any deposit fees, corresponding providers may charge a fee between 1% to 2.5%.

Withdrawal fees

For fiat currencies: Coinhako has a flat S$2 fee for every transaction you make.

This translates to larger fees for those who withdraw small amounts or make frequent withdrawals, but it’s a bargain price for folks withdrawing higher amounts.

For Crypto: For withdrawals in crypto, Coinhako does not officially state their rates as transfer fee varies depending on the cryptocurrency.

The fee is always displayed on the confirmation pages and confirmation emails once you make a transaction to send crypto from the platform.

Before you confirm your transaction, double-check everything.

Coinhako does not charge any fees when receiving cryptocurrency.

To initiate a withdrawal, you first need to verify your account by providing a copy of your photo ID.

Without verifying your identity, you will not be able to make any withdrawals on the platform.

And the verification process can take up to 7 working days to complete.

Withdrawals usually take 2-3 business days to be transferred to your account, but the waiting time can increase to up to 7 days on weekends and the holiday season.

If you have not received withdrawals by then, contact the local bank.

Trading fees

For every trade, you make on Coinhako’s platform, you will be charged a flat 0.6% trading fee. This fee has been reduced from 1% on 24 May 2022 to better price themselves against other exchanges.

Unlike other crypto exchanges, which use a maker-taker fee system that incentivises large volume trading, Coinhako offers a much simpler fee structure.

There are no benefits of high trading volume with regards to fees which many users may not like, but it’s good news for beginners who wants something simpler to calculate.

The minimum trade amount on Coinhako is $0.50. This is a very low minimum amount, perfect for beginners.

Convert USD to SGD on Coinhako

Many users want to know if they can convert USD to SGD using the Coinhako platform for various reasons.

In short, technically, it is not possible to convert your USD to SGD directly on Coinhako, but one trick you can use is to buy crypto using USD and then sell it in SGD.

Your withdrawals will be directly deposited in SGD, but this will result in you incurring a substantial amount of unnecessary trading fees.

However, if you wish to withdraw USD from your USD wallet, you can do it by buying either USDC or USDT.

From there, you can withdraw your USDC/USDT into your multicurrency bank account.

How good is Coinhako’s customer support?

Good customer support should be at the epicentre of any cryptocurrency exchange, and Coinhako has a mixed bag of reviews.

Many users praised Coinhako’s fast reply and how Coinhako’s customer support helped them address their issues.

But on the flip side, there are also a significant number of people who are not happy with the support they are getting, which is reflected in Coinhako’s Trustpilot review, where 62 people reviewed the platform and over 82% shared the bad experience they had in the platform.

Most of the complaints users had been with ID verification, many had issues with their card, or the Coinhako team rejected it because they were not able to verify them.

Another recurring complaint we saw was with withdrawal; many customers did not like the idea of Coinhako seeking IDs when they were trying to make a withdrawal.

But Coinhako argues that due to Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) requirements, they have to verify each customer, which may require some time.

But apart from that, Coinhako does a decent job of addressing customer issues.

They also have many online resources that you can follow to address common problems, and if you are willing to do some basic research, you should not have much trouble getting support.

How secure is the Coinhako platform?

Security is a crucial factor for the success of any crypto exchange platform, and Coinhako recognises the importance of security and offers some of the best features in the industry.

Coinhako’s multi-layered protection protects users’ digital assets, which is detailed on the company’s website.

Two-factor authentication and a device whitelisting feature, which allows only specific devices to withdraw funds, are among other security features.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has also granted Coinhako, a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license to offer Digital Payment Token (DPT) Services under the Payment Services Act (PSA) in May 2022.

Coinhako is 1 of only 5 crypto exchanges to receive a DPT license from the MAS in the last year, demonstrating Singapore’s desire to improve its global reputation as a regulated cryptocurrency services destination.

What this means is that Coinhako can now provide payment services in Singapore without having to meet any specific thresholds, thanks to the MPI license.

Despite the security measures, as with any online platform, Coinhako’s security features were compromised in February 2020, and hackers could access at least 20 accounts.

Coinhako initially claimed it was undergoing network maintenance, but a spokesperson later confirmed that a coordinated and sophisticated attack indeed hacked Coinhako.

But the company reassured us that no private keys were compromised, and thus any holdings held in the Coinhako wallet were entirely safe.

It reached out to the affected users for personal follow-ups as part of its recovery efforts. It had also reset all of the other users’ passwords and enabled two-factor authentication to improve security.

In addition, the exchange is collaborating with law enforcement to track down the criminals.

Security features Coinhako implemented

Following the cyberattacks, Coinhako released a brief overview of the security features it has in place to protect itself in the future.

Some of these features are as follows:

Keeping most of the crypto holdings in cold storage

When it comes to storing your crypto, there are 2 types of wallets, one being an easily accessible hot wallet and the other being a much safer but not so easily accessible cold wallet.

Each of these wallets has its own pros and cons, but Coinhako confirms that it keeps most of the crypto holdings in a cold wallet, which is kept offline, thus reducing any chance of data breaches.

Two-factor authentication is mandatory

Every account on Coinhako now has a two-factor authentication, ensuring multi-layer security.

Experienced consultants

Coinhako employs some of Singapore’s top cybersecurity consultants, who use their expertise to keep the service and its users safe.

There are other security measures under the hood that are not explicitly mentioned, but overall, despite some data breaches in the past, Coinhako is extremely serious about security and is an overall safe platform.

Coinhako User interface

Coinhako has an excellent user interface that is really easy to navigate around with a clear and well-defined dashboard with a navigation bar on top.

Here you will find all the necessary tabs and can access your wallet, engage in trade or see your progress in daily rewards right from the home page.

Coinhako also emphasizes accessibility, and here are some of the steps that the company takes to improve the overall user experience.

1. All Coinhako, cryptocurrency trading features, are clearly laid out (Buy, Sell, and Swap)
2. Cryptocurrency prices are updated in real-time for all supported cryptocurrencies.
3. Use asset filters to find your preferred cryptocurrencies.
4. Favouriting assets.
5. A consistent appearance.

Coinhako also has an intuitive wallet design that anyone can use even with no prior experience.

You can quickly see the live asset value, send, or receive crypto in just a few clicks.

Total available funds and wallet deposits and withdrawals are also clearly labelled.

Overall, the emphasis on creating a simple interface that is easy to navigate for complete beginners is apparent throughout the platform.

But advanced users will appreciate the charts and detailed breakdown of crypto prices.

Pros of Coinhako

Decent selection of popular crypto tokens

Coinhako does not offer the largest selection of coins, and many other platforms offer more than the 64 coins provided by the platform.

But in the context of the Singapore market, you will find the most popular coins, and it is highly unlikely that you will feel bottlenecked by the platform’s limitations.

You get the most popular tokens like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, Doge, and Solana, so trading for beginners will be a total breeze.

These coins are known as trade-only coins, and if you do invest in such coins, you can only swap them for other crypto coins like Bitcoin and proceed with the withdrawal.

(Debatably) Affordable fees

Coinhako offers a much simpler fee structure that is simple to understand even for beginners compared to other trading platforms.

Coinhako does not charge any deposit fees (but your bank may charge a fee) and a S$2 flat fee for each withdrawal.

This makes them a great platform for you to make large withdrawals at low fees.

If you want to save even more on fees, you can send your crypto to Gemini and make 10 free withdrawals every month.

Offer good security

No trading platform can claim to be 100% safe because of the rate at which cyberattacks are coordinated, but overall, Coinhako offers good security with integration to two-factor authentication apps.

Most of the crypto holdings are also held in cold storage, keeping them safe from data breaches and hacking.

Receive fiat deposits

Coinhako supports fiat deposits in USD and SGD from your bank account. This makes depositing money, especially for beginners, really simple and intuitive.

Provides crypto news gathered from various sources

Coinhako also provides a curated list of the most recent cryptocurrency news from major news outlets, allowing you to learn at your own pace.

However, one criticism is that the crypto news articles are not displayed on the front page.

Instead, you’ll need to go to a cryptocurrency listing’s dedicated page, and then scroll down to see a list of relevant news.

Quicker verification

Anyone wishing to start a crypto exchange in Singapore must adhere to the Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations in order to ensure that the identification of the user is genuine and transparent.

But the verification process in international crypto exchanges usually takes longer than Coinhako, which has a comparative advantage of being a Singapore-based company.

Earn reward points

Another feature we love is how you can earn reward points by logging into Coinhako daily or through different trading activities.

You can then redeem these points for discounts on trading and withdrawal.

Cons of Coinhako

Coinhako is not perfect; it has a number of things we do not like, which are described below.

Higher fees than their competitors

For trading, Coinhako charges 0.6% of the total amount, which is on the higher end of most crypto exchanges.

If you’re trading or investing frequently, the fees can add up pretty quickly.

No Deposit Protection

Coinhako offers no deposit protection schemes unless you get separate third-party insurance.

This is a deal-breaker for advanced traders who would not like the idea that all their holdings in the Coinhako wallet can disappear, and Coinhako will not be liable for the loss.

Coinhako will also not be liable for any unauthorised access, meaning if your account is hacked, Coinhako is not obligated to issue a refund.

You can learn more about risks associated with Coinhako by clicking here.

Customer support

With just 1.6 stars on Trustpilot, Coinhako, like most other crypto platforms, does not offer the best customer service.

Most complaints users have are concerned with slow replies and the generic answer probably via chatting bots instead of an actual human.

Limited fiat currency and availability

Coinhako only supports three fiat currencies, USD, SGD, and VND.

Coinhako is also very limited and currently only available in Singapore and Vietnam.

No option to place a limit order

Coinhako only allows you to purchase cryptocurrencies through market orders and does not allow you to place a limit order.

On Coinhako’s platform, you can only buy cryptocurrencies at the current market rate.

The market price set by Coinhako will be the price at which you purchase your cryptocurrencies on Coinhako.

Unlike other crypto exchanges, they do not allow you to place a limit order. This means that you’re potentially paying more for your cryptos due to the spread.

Is Coinhako for you?

When making this review, one thing that was really apparent to us was Coinhako’s emphasis on catering its platform to beginners.

From the UI design choices to the pricing model, the whole platform makes it simple and intuitive for beginners to get started.

It also has some features like advanced charts to attract advanced users, but as a whole, Coinhako’s central target demographic is beginners who are just getting their feet wet in the world of crypto.

So, for beginners, Coinhako might be the exchange for you. However, we personally prefer Crypto.com if you’re a beginner as it has lower fees and provides features for you to spend your crypto easily.

But advanced users who want to make large trades will benefit from the lower trading fees than other crypto exchanges in Singapore.

Furthermore, Coinhako only provides spot trading, so if you’re looking for more advanced features like margin and futures, you’ll need to consider others like KuCoin and FTX.

How do you open your Coinhako account?

Here is a simple step by step process of opening an account on Coinhako

• Go to www.coinhako.com and click the top right ‘Sign up free’ button.
• Follow the instructions on the screen.
• Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements must be met, so make sure you have your identification documents on hand.
• Allow for the verification of your account.
• After you’ve been verified, you can log in and begin trading.

FAQs

How do I withdraw USD from Coinhako?

No, just like conversion, you cannot withdraw USD from Coinhako. However, there is a workaround; you can use the money to trade it for a currency that can be withdrawn in SGD or a cryptocurrency that can be sent to an external wallet.

How to send BNB or ADA on Coinhako?

Coinhako does not currently support the sending or receiving of BNB or ADA on their platform. These currencies can only be bought, sold, or swapped on Coinhako.

Does Coinhako support staking on their platform?

No, staking is not supported on Coinhako’s platform. Only USD and SGD can be used to trade cryptocurrencies, or they can be sent to another platform.

Can I earn interest on my holdings on Coinhako?

Yes, you can earn anywhere between 2% to 8% depending on your holding coin via Coinhako Earn.

Does Coinhako support ERC20 tokens?

Yes, Coinhako supports ERC20 tokens which include USDT, BNB, LINK, and VET.

Does MAS regulate Coinhako?

Coinhako is not regulated by MAS but they have received the Major Payment Institution licence to operate as a provider of Digital Payment Tokens.