A Brief History of CEX.IO
As of 2021, the international cryptocurrency exchange CEX IO is almost 8 years old, and few industries have been as dynamic or active in the crypto space during that time period, prompting many finance magnates to seek out Oleksandr Lutskevych- founder and CEO at CEX.IO- for his perspective on all matters crypto-related.
Established in London in 2013 (as the cloud mining provider that owned the GHash.io mining pool), CEX.io allowed users to buy Bitcoins using their credit cards, wire transfers or SEPA transfers basically from its inception- advertising themselves to potential users as one of the first platforms to make fiat-to-crypto transactions accessible (offering card payments and bank transfers to their clients).
By early-2015, the decision was made internally by CEX.io to stop providing cloud mining services.
This was partially based on the low Bitcoin price at the time, coupled with the fact that the company didn’t actually own any mining hardware itself, leading the GHash.io mining pool to be terminated.
However, CEX.io would live on, though it has existed since 2016 solely as a cryptocurrency exchange platform.
Currently, they provide a wide variety of trading tools for Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ripple, Stellar, Litecoin, Tron, and other types of crypto-asset, allowing their clients to trade these cryptocurrencies for USD, EUR, GBP, and RUB.
Check out CEX.io here.
The Pros
CEX IO boasts one of the most diverse trading platforms for its users, with speedy transactional usage and rapid crypto-purchasing power often being cited as just some of the major advantages it can offer.
It gives clients several different trading pairs and multiple fiat currencies to choose from, which means you can buy and sell different cryptos using your chosen currency on CEX IO, with no need to go back to Bitcoin first. Fewer trades means fewer fees!
If you’re struggling to understand how to do anything on CEX.io, there is probably a page in somewhere in its well-laid out support section that explains your issue in a greater detail than on many competitor sites.
If not, the platform offers an easy-to-use email support form too. Even the advanced trading windows are clean and clutter-free, making browsing the CEX.io website great for beginners, and even a less-hair wrenching experience for (us) technophobes out there.
On top of the extremely useful fact that CEX IO accepts a lot of different fiat currencies, they also accept various other payment methods to fund your account, either with fiat currencies or various cryptocurrencies: and those options include VISA, MASTERCARD, S.W.I.F.T., ACH, Faster Payments, Sepa, QIWI, and Skrill just to name a few.
There are various levels of account on CEX.io. They are: Basic, Verified, Verified Plus, and Corporate. With each account-tier comes different advantages; these include additional payment options as well as higher limits on transactions and withdrawals. The corporate and verified plus accounts are for more advanced users, however, so I won’t be going into too much detail about them.
Even fairly new users will likely want to reach the “verified” account tier, as the only payment method accepted for fiat deposits using a basic account is a Visa or Mastercard, and only clients with a verified account can use more payment methods and have higher deposit and withdrawal limits. Additionally, it is imperative that users have a verified account if they want to withdraw in fiat currencies.
With an account on a higher tier than basic (verified, verified plus, or corporate) you can deposit and withdraw with bank transfers and any of the cryptocurrencies listed at CEX.io, and all these higher-tier accounts are unlimited (but there are some recommended deposit and withdrawal limits associated with each payment method). I’ve not listed these limits, because they’re almost unrealistically huge!
The Cons
This is not to say that CEX.io does not have a down-side to its functionality. It doesn’t have a very long list of available bitcoins to choose from, and if a cryptocurrency has never been in the top ten by market cap, you can be sure you won’t be able to buy it at CEX.io.
CEX.io also provides users with protection under a level two DSS certificate. This means it has proved itself as having a certain level of security to store, process, and transmit payment card data. That said, CEX.io should not be considered as completely secure: it is a cryptocurrency exchange, after all. The fact that they store vast amounts of different currencies makes it a big target for hackers.
The history of digital currency is full of examples of exchanges being hacked and there is nothing to suggest the future will be any different, despite promises being made by almost all industry-leading providers.
This is why you should never store your cryptocurrency on an exchange and instead should consider using a secure wallet, such as MyEtherWallet or Exodus, or some other third-party application.
As with all crypto-asset marketplaces, it is important to not put too much trust in its security; any exchange runs the very real possibility of being hacked by savvy (b*stard) cyber criminals. This applies to both fiat currencies and cryptocurrency itself, and should hopefully serve as a warning to any and all early adopters of the future of digital-transaction/investment.
Check out CEX.io here.