UpCoin is one of the many exchanges coming down the pipe this year and it launches today at 7:00 PM EST. It's currently in Beta but plans to open its doors for trading completely in March 2018. In anticipation of this let's look at what we know about the exchange.
What's so special about UpCoin?
UpCoin is an exchange that will allow traders to trade different cryptocurrency pairs as well as altcoins for fiat ( at this time it is not said what fiat currencies will be supported). On their medium article posted here, they lay out their plans for world domination the future in their mission statement "Our mission is to become world’s #1 exchange and become the fastest, safest and most convenient for traders from all over the world." Ambitious? Very. But that's not a bad thing. If they live up to their promise they very well would be the #1 exchange.
Benefits of UpCoin
UpCoin claims to have polled 400 traders of varying experience in order to find the "needs and problems typically experienced at other exchanges" Which is a great start if true. Even the best exchanges have their problems and to see an exchange trying to build a platform with the traders in mind from the ground up is refreshing.
Speed
UpCoin promises fast transaction speeds from their robust server structure. Due to their servers located around the world, transactions should be fast and near instant. No matter what country you are trading from UpCoin should always operate at peak performance. They even claim that they can process up to 5 million transactions a second. Color me impressed, considering it's supposed to be 10x faster than other exchanges on the market now.
Security
UpCoin takes safety seriously (so they claim) and that's why they will hold 97% of funds in cold storage. A welcome measure considering the recent loss of nearly $534 million from Coincheck after a hacking attack. In addition to this, they are working with security experts to test their systems against attacks and even offer a bounty program for security.
Simple Interface
A big complaint for many new traders is complicated layouts. The interface on most exchanges is not what one would call "beginner friendly" but UpCoin is looking to change that and from the looks of their screenshots they seem to be delivering on that promise.
Trading Pairs
UpCoin is also supposed to launch with the top 100 coins, with a goal of 1000 trading pairs at the beginning! This would leapfrog it over big players like Binance when it comes to different trading pairs. Still, we would have to wait to see what the exchange rates of those coins would be but there are definitely more opportunities for trade.
Fees
Fees are important to trade and can seriously eat into your profits. UpCoin is promising no fees on withdrawals of funds and a 0.2% fee on internal trades. They promise to keep the fees the same for at least 10 years. With 0.5% being some of the best fees of other exchanges, the trade fee looks mighty tempting for UpCoin.
Paypal integration?
Something that seems very promising but highly skeptical is the Paypal integration. Paypal has been vocal about their opinion on bitcoin and other altcoins and has been banned on nearly every other exchange. So if they are able to pull this off it could be a great entry point for new traders and PayPal customers to get in.
A Promising Exchange
As of now, not much is known about the team behind the ambitious project. Yet one thing is for sure, at the time of this writing, UpCoin has almost 700,000 registered users. So clearly people are excited about it. whether it will live up to all the hype is still to be seen but definitely one to keep your eye on. You can sign up for a free account here
Let me know what you think about UpCoin in the comments below or any other exchanges you are looking forward to seeing.