WazirX

WazirX Review

What is WazirX?

WazirX is an Indian crypto exchange, launched on 8 March 2018. It is run by Nischal Shetty, Sameer Mhatre and Siddharth Menon. In late 2019 (21 November 2019), WazirX announced in an email to its users that it had been acquired by Binance. This made WazirX the first Indian crypto trading platform to ever be acquired by an international trading platform, further erasing national boundaries between players in the crypto world.

On the date of last updating this review (19 January 2023), the 24 hour spot trading volume of WazirX was USD 4.3 million. This is not very much, and it only placed WazirX on place no. 159 in Coinmarketcap.com's list of the exchanges in the world with the highest 24 hour spot trading volumes. There is definitely room for improvement here for WazirX... 

How does it work?

This review page is more than a 1,000 words. We get it. Sometimes you don't want to read, just watch and listen. In that case, it's our honor to present a 2 minute and 31 seconds long tutorial on how to use WazirX (audio in English):

WazirX Affiliate Program

If you're interested in passive income, you'll be pleased to know that WazirX also has an affiliate program. Through this program, you will earn 50% (not up to 50%, but actually 50%) of all your friends' generated trading fees. 50% is a very competitive level relative to the industry standards. Payouts are made every 24 hours and there is no cap on how many referrals you can refer or how much money you can make. 

You can become a part of the program here.

Advantages

WazirX proudly states the following six factors as their main advantages. First, they claim that they have "best in class security". Second, they mean that they have "super fast KYC" with top of the line identity verification processes. Third, lightning speed transactions. The science nerd will be delighted to learn, or at least have us repeat, that the actual speed of lightning is 3 million kilometers per hour, but we get it, transactions are fast here. Fourth, WazirX has a platform that's compatible with most devices you might have. Fifth, they state that they have a simple and efficient design. Sixth and finally, the platform states that it has been built by blockchain believers. Not bad.

WazirX Fees

Wazir X Trading Fees

Many exchanges charge what we call taker fees, from the takers (people grabbing deals from the order book), and what we call maker fees, from the makers (people creating orders in the order book that are not immediately matched with a corresponding order). The main alternative to this is to simply charge “flat” fees. Flat fees mean that the exchange charges the taker and the maker the same fee.

WazirX charges a flat fee of 0.20% per trade. This is slightly above the global industry average for takers and slightly below for makers. The global industry average spot trading fees are 0.2294% for takers and 0.1854% for makers according to this empirical study.

WazirX Withdrawal Fees

What about withdrawal fees then? Withdrawal fees vary depending upon which crypto asset you are withdrawing, but they are normally a fixed amount of the relevant crypto asset and not percentage-based as the trading fees. The industry average BTC-withdrawal fee is 0.0004599 BTC according to the abovementioned empirical study.

WazirX charges a withdrawal fee amounting to 0.0006 BTC per BTC withdrawal, so slightly above average on this. 

WazirX Trading View

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.

This is the standard trading view at WazirX, obtained on 19 January 2023:

It is up to you – and only you – to decide if the above trading view is suitable to you. Finally, there are usually many different ways in which you can change the settings to tailor the trading view after your very own preferences.

NFT Marketplace

WazirX has an NFT marketplace available on its platform. You can buy and sell NFTs here. This marketplace is also integrated with Metamask, where you can store your NFTs.

The platform also offers frequent NFT airdrops. Holders of certain cryptos automatically receive NFTs during these events.

WazirX Mobile Support

The WazirX platform is not only available for desktops, but also for Android and Apple mobile phones. Most traders in the crypto world today carry out their trades via desktop (around 70% or so). However, there are naturally people out there that want to do it from their smartphones as well. If you’re one of those people, then this platform can still be for you, seeing as it has a native mobile application.

Security

This is a large and trusted exchange. Plus, they are owned by Binance, perhaps the world’s most trusted and known cryptocurrency exchange. In terms of security, this name goes a long way. Plus, you can keep your account safe by activating two-factor authentication (2FA). This way only someone with access to your password, and your mobile phone or email would be able to access your account.

Deposit Methods

When it comes to deposit methods, WazirX allows wire transfer deposits but not credit card deposits. Allowing fiat currency deposits at all makes WazirX a so called "entry-level exchange", meaning an exchange where new crypotcurrency investors can take their first trembling steps into the thrilling crypto world.

Who Can Sign Up Here?

According to the platform itself, they are "for everyone". And we guess that could potentially be true. The platform allows 8 different fiat currencies as currency preferences in the platform's interface: INR (Indian Rupee), IDR (Indonesian Rupiah), RUB (Russian Ruble), UAH (Ukrainian Hryvnia), NGN (Nigerian Naira), SAR (Saudi Riyal), EUR (Euro) and TRY (Turkish Lira). The observant reader will note that the US dollar is not a reference currency, and this is because US investors are not allowed.