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Exchange Review
This exchange has been flagged as inactive. There are many reasons for being flagged as inactive. We recommend you read the text below to understand why AltcoinSwap has received the inactive flag.

AltcoinSwap


Exchange Fees

BTC Withdrawal Fee 0.000079 Taker Fee 2.83% Maker Fee 2.83%

Deposit Methods

No Wire Transfer No Credit Card

UPDATE 23 March 2023: When trying to access the website of AltcoinSwap today, we were unsuccessful. As far as we know, there have been no preceding messages on system maintenance or new websites or anything similar. 

Accordingly, we believe that this exchange has closed down and we have marked it as "dead" in our Exchange Graveyard. If the exchange's website would become accessible again and the error is just temporary, we will "revive" it and bring it back to our Exchange List.

To find a reliable exchange where you can start an account, just use our Exchange Filters and we'll help you find the right platform for you.

AltcoinSwap is a cryptocurrency exchange registered in the Seychelles. It launched in 2021, so it's quite fresh addition to the list of crypto exchanges in the world. This particular platform is more a cryptocurrency store than a cryptocurrency exchange. They sell cryptocurrency from their own inventory, and do not facilitate transfers from one AltcoinSwap-user to another.

The core values of this platform seems to be that it is easy to use, and that it is fast. Another feather in the hat for this platform is that you can swap over 150 different cryptos here, all of the bigger ones and then some...

Here's an overview from the platform's website of how it works:

AltcoinSwap How it Works

Why do so many exchanges not allow US citizens to open accounts with them? The answer has only three letters. S, E and C (the Securities Exchange Commission). The reason the SEC is so scary is because the US does not allow foreign companies to solicit US investors, unless those foreign companies are also registered in the US (with the SEC). If foreign companies solicit US investors anyway, the SEC can sue them. There are many examples of when the SEC has sued crypto exchanges, one of which being when they sued EtherDelta for operating an unregistered exchange. Another example was when they sued Bitfinex and claimed that the stablecoin Tether (USDT) was misleading investors. It is very likely that more cases will follow.

According to information from AltcoinSwap to us here at Cryptowisser.com, the platform does indeed allow US-investors on its exchange. So if you're from the US and looking for a platform to do some quick and easy crypto swapping, this platform could be the one for you!

Every trading platform has a trading view. The trading view is the part of the exchange’s website where you can see the price chart of a certain cryptocurrency and what its current price is. There are normally also buy and sell boxes, where you can place orders with respect to the relevant crypto, and, at most platforms, you will also be able to see the order history (i.e., previous transactions involving the relevant crypto). Everything in the same view on your desktop. There are of course also variations to what we have now described. For instance, at AltcoinSwap, they focus more on simplicity and speed than on availability of different trading tools. Here's the swap interface at AltcoinSwap:

AltcoinSwap Swap Interface

It is up to you – and only you – to decide if the above trading view is suitable to you.

When you initiate a swap at AltcoinSwap, you "send" crypto. In return, you "get" crypto. When sending at the platform, the purchase price offered by AltcoinSwap will be higher than the market price. Conversely, when selling to the platform, the purchase price offered will be lower than the market price. The mark-up or mark-down is not specified anywhere.

On the date of first writing this review (14 May 2021), we made a calculation by comparing the prices offered by AltcoinSwap to the market prices listed by Coinmarketcap.com. Unfortunately, we were not able to obtain any rates from AltcoinSwap when choosing "Fixed Rate", only the default mode which is the floating rate. We found that the mark-up/mark-down compared to the prices listed by Coinmarketcap were 2.83%.

For comparison purposes in our Exchange List, we have used 2.83% as the taker and maker fee in our database. 

It is difficult to compare the fees charged by AltcoinSwap with the industry average trading fee at a regular centralized exchange, seeing as they offer another type of service than most centralized exchanges do. According to the most extensive industry report ever prepared on contract trading average fees, the global average spot trading taker fee and maker fee was 0.2151% for takers and 0.1621% for makers.

But to conclude on the trading fees, there are cheaper ways to swap crypto than through using the AltcoinSwap's platform. This platform's advantages are speed and convenience, rather than price.

To our understanding, AltcoinSwap does not charge any fees of their own when you withdraw crypto from your account at the platform. Accordingly, the only fee you have to think about when withdrawing are the network fees. The network fees are fees paid to the miners of the relevant crypto/blockchain, and not fees paid to the exchange itself. Network fees vary from day to day depending on the network pressure.

Generally speaking, to only have to pay the network fees should be considered as below global industry average when it comes to fee levels for crypto withdrawals.

In order to trade here, you must have cryptocurrency to begin with. The only asset class you can use for swapping at AltcoinSwap is cryptocurrency. However, if you really like AltcoinSwap but you don’t have any crypto yet, you can easily start an account with an exchange that has “fiat on-ramps” (an exchange where you can deposit regular cash), buy crypto there, and then transfer it from such exchange to this exchange. Use our Exchange Filters to easily see which platforms that allow wire transfer or credit card deposits.