CEX.IO? Review

What is CEX.IO?

CEX.IO is a cryptocurrency exchange that has been registered as Money Services Business (MSB) with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the US Department of the Treasury. They have been active since 2013, which is almost an eternity in the crypto world, and they proudly state that they have more than 15 million users registered globally.

Here's an overview that the platform has posted on its website, showing the development 2012-2024:

On the date of last updating this review (14 November 2025), CEX.IO had a 24-hour spot trading volume of USD 54.916 million. 

CEX.IO Services

CEX.IO has built a reputation for reliability and security, maintaining a flawless track record with no hacks and storing nearly 100% of customer funds in cold wallets. The platform supports 200+ cryptocurrencies with 900+ markets and offers a robust ecosystem of services:

• Spot and Margin Trading with deep liquidity and customizable leverage up to 20x.
• Instant Buy/Sell and Convert for fast crypto purchases and “anything-to-anything” swaps. Convert service features zero fees for fiat-to-stablecoin and stablecoin-to-stablecoin conversions.
• Earn products, including staking and savings, with rewards up to 12% APY.
• CEX.IO Card for spending crypto globally (EEA only).
• Mobile Apps and APIs for trading on the go or automated strategies.

CEX.IO Advantages

The exchange lists the following 9 factors as reasons to choose CEX.IO as your trading platform.

US-investors

This exchange is open to US-investors from 48 states in America. They have Money Transmitter Licenses (MTLs) in 36 US states, and they are allegedly constantly working on covering more.

Mobile Support

This platform is not only available from your desktop, you can also access it via your mobile browser. Most traders in the crypto world today carry out their trades via desktop (around 70% or so). However, there are of course people out there who want to do it from their smartphone as well. If you’re one of those people, then this platform can still be for you.

Leveraged Trading

CEX.IO offers leveraged trading on its trading platform. This means that you can receive a higher exposure towards a certain cryptocurrency’s price increase or decrease, without having the assets necessary. You do this by “leveraging” your trade, which in simple terms essentially means that you borrow from the exchange to bet more. Users can access leveraged trading through the platform called CEX.IO Margin Trading, which offers flexible multi-collateral options with up to 20x leverage and hourly rollover fees, suitable for dynamic and short-term strategies.

For instance, let’s say that you have 10,000 USD on your trading account and bet 100 USD on BTC going long (i.e., increasing in value). You do so with 10x leverage. If BTC then increases in value by 10%, if you had only bet 100 USD, you would have earned 10 USD. As you bet 100 USD with 10x leverage, you have instead earned an additional 100 USD (90 USD more than if you had not leveraged your deal). On the other hand, if BTC decreases in value by 10%, you have lost 100 USD (90 USD more than if you had not leveraged your deal). So, as you might imagine, the balance between risk and reward in leveraged deals is quite fine-tuned (there are no risk-free profits).

CEX.IO Trading View

Different exchanges have different trading views. And there is no “this overview is the best”-view. You should determine for yourself which trading view suits you the best. What the views normally have in common is that they all show the order book. Or, at least part of the order book. They also show a price chart of the chosen cryptocurrency and order history. They normally also have buy and sell boxes. Before you choose an exchange, try to have a look at the trading view so that you can ascertain that it feels right to you. Below is a picture of the trading view at CEX.IO:

CEX.IO Fees

CEX.IO Trading fees

The one thing we can’t stress enough is that you must always ascertain the trading fees at any exchange you are interested in. Every trade occurs between two parties: the maker, whose order exists on the order book before the trade, and the taker, who places the order that matches (or “takes”) the maker’s order. Makers make the liquidity in a market and takers remove this liquidity by matching makers’ orders with their own.

CEX.IO’s trading fees for takers and makers are the same 0.1%-0.25%. According to the most extensive industry report on trading fees, the industry average taker fee was 0.2294% during the second quarter of 2022, and the industry average maker fee was 0.1854%. This means that CEX.io's fees are slightly below average. 

Finally, the trading fees are reduced as the trader increases trading volumes. They can go down to as low as 0.1% for both takers and makers (if your 30-day trading volume is 20 million USD or more). This is the full table of trading fee discounts

CEX.IO Withdrawal fees

CEX.IO charges a withdrawal fee amounting to 0.0005 BTC when you withdraw BTC. This is a bit higher than the industry average, as the industry average is 0.0004599 BTC per BTC-withdrawal.

All in all, the fees charged by CEX.IO are quite in line with the global industry averages.

Deposit Methods

At CEX.IO, you can deposit in many different ways, including wire transfer and debit card. This can be helpful, especially for newer crypto investors putting in their first funds in the crypto world. As a matter of fact, CEX.IO was actually one of the first cryptocurrency exchanges in the world offering the choice to buy crypto via credit card. Here's an overview of some of the available methods, including minimum and maximum deposit limits and the fees involved with each deposit method:

There are a lot of people using the credit card deposit alternative. According to CEX.IO, it is actually one of the most popular ways. Please be advised, though, that on the date of last updating this review (14 November 2025), card payments were not available to individuals from the following countries:

Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, British Virgin Islands, Burundi, Cambodia, Central African Republic, China, Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Guam, Guinea Bissau, Guyana, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, Puerto Rico, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Uganda, United States Virgin Islands, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Yemen, Zimbabwe, among many others - check on their company site for the complete list.