FTX is a professional trading exchange designed by traders for traders. It was established in 2019 by a quant trading firm named Alameda Research and is based in Hong Kong. FTX has since witnessed an explosive user and trading volume growth which also saw its native token (FTT) skyrocket to the Top 50.

How to Sign-Up for FTX

Signing-up for FTX is blazing fast and seamless. There are different levels of account verifications each unlocking more features and more permissive trading limits. The first account level is unlocked right away after entering your email address and password.

In the next step, FTX recommends creating a 2-Factor-Authentication with the Google Authenticator app, essentially an additional layer of security to protect your account from being accessed by someone else. If you just want to deposit cryptocurrencies you're now good to go and your account is sufficiently secured. However if you want to extend your withdrawal limits or deposit fiat currency ($, €) and unlock all trading functions further ID verification is required.

Fiat Deposits on FTX

FTX offers free fiat deposits. For regulatory reasons this requires a level 2 ID verification which should take around 5 minutes.

Euro deposits are being handled through a third party (OTC desk). Depositing is free but withdrawing any amount below 10.000USD back to your bank account incurs a 75 USD fee.

For your EUR deposit to be confirmed you need to submit the amount sent and upload a proof-of-transfer. It's by far not as smooth as fiat deposits on some other crypto wallets like Crypto.com or Blockchain.com where you get a personalized IBAN that supports SEPA Instant Credit Transfers and allows you to fund your account within 1-2 hours, but it still works well, it’s free and will usually arrive the next day. USD transfers work similarly according to the support center.

Buying crypto with PayPal on FTX

This March FTX added a new way to fund your account with fiat. It now accepts instant fiat deposits through PayPal in most of their supported fiat currencies (details to follow) which makes them one of the first crypto exchanges to do so. However, PayPal charges their (rather) high currency conversion fees (from your PayPal account currency into USD) so if you want to add fiat for free wire transfers might still be the way to go.

Using PayID for AUD deposits on FTX

If you live in Australia you’re in luck! Not only because it’s a magnificent place to live but also because FTX recently added the PayID deposit function for Australian Dollars. This means that everyone with a bank account at a PayID participating bank can transfer funds to their FTX wallet instantly instead of a conventional transfer that in Australia can take up days.

All in all, FTX is adding local payment methods at a fast pace to improve the speed and cost at which users can covert their fiat funds into crypto. Hopefully they will add instant SEPA transfers for Europe soon.

We're also looking forward to the recently announced FTX crypto card allowing users to spend the crypto funds they store in their FTX account at any store or online merchant.

Crypto Deposits

Crypto deposits from external wallets or exchanges to your FTX accounts are free of charge and usually take a couple of minutes to be confirmed. Depositing DOGE for example took 1 minute to arrive on FTX and 5 minutes until it was confirmed and ready to be traded inside FTX. The confirmation time varies depending on the Blockchain that you're using. For example, an ETH or ERC-20 token transfer generally happens faster than a bitcoin transfer. A link to the Blockchain explorer Blockchair is shown with every transaction and once the transaction is fully confirmed you receive a confirmation email from FTX.

A useful feature is the possibility to create sub accounts in the trading wallet. This makes organising a portfolio more convenient. You can easily move funds in between these sub accounts with just a click.

KYC (Account Verification)

In order to deposit fiat and extend your withdrawal limits you have to complete some level of ID verification. As mentioned, Level 1 barely takes three seconds as it just asks you for your name and country of residence. Level 2 identification requires your ID, passport or driver's license and is completed via jumio. It took less than 5 minutes and afterwards you can use FTX to its full extent.

FTX Trading Fees

One of the greatest strengths of FTX are their trading fee policies. They are absolutely unbeatable. Even with the lowest trading volume you're paying next to nothing. Coinbase Pro charges 0.25% for example and their retail app a staggering 2.5%. Even Binance charges significantly more with the base 0.1% maker and taker fee. The FTX fee you would pay if you're a very small trader and do market orders (instant buys) is merely 0.07%! You can lower these fees even more by holding their native token FTT or by trading more on the exchange. In any case if you chose to stick to FTX as your default crypto exchange you might consider adding some FTT for long term savings. Besides the fee discount there are other benefits of holding FTT like higher referral rates if you refer a friend as well as participation in weekly token airdrops.

The chart below shows you how much more you save on trading fees depending on the amount of FTT you hold.

Crypto Withdrawals

There are no deposit & withdrawal fees on crypto except for ETH & ERC20. This is quite a standout feature as most crypto exchanges charge withdrawals fees which can add up to substantial amounts if you withdraw crypto to your external crypto wallet regularly.

For Ethereum, withdrawal fees have been added as it's the most popular Blockchain which has led to a surge in transaction fees and FTX could no longer bear the costs for them. However, here again, the fees are waived if users stake a minimum of 150 FTT.

“FTX users will pay the blockchain fees for all ETH and ERC20 token withdrawals, unless they have 150 FTT staked.”

FTX Security & Regulation

Unlike other large exchanges including Binance, FTX has never been hacked. It prides itself for using cutting-edge technology to custody the crypto funds of its users. In terms of up-time, FTX has one of the best track records in the industry which is important to active traders. as not being able to access your exchange account during a bull run as happened regularly on Coinbase and Binance can be very irritating.

In terms of regulations, FTX.US does operate in the United States, and maintains a variety of US regulatory licenses, including an MSB, MTLs, and potentially an upcoming Broker Dealer license. As a regulated exchange FTX adheres to sanction lists and restricts access to citizens of Cuba, Crimea and Sevastopol, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Antigua and Barbuda.

FTX Mobile App

FTX offers a mobile App for both iOS and Android devices. It's basically the web version as a mobile app but which makes it possible to manage your portfolio on-the-go. In terms of UI/UX it seems as if FTX has not put much work into the app. One reason could be recently acquired the portfolio tracking app Blockfolio and are focusing on making There are four different tabs:

• Market: shows you all the pairs and options to trade Spot, Futures, Leveraged, Prediction, etc.
• Trade: this is the tab where you execute trades and see your order book and an adjustable graph. The graph can also be viewed in landscape mode which makes viewing and zooming pretty handy.
• Wallet: this tab shows your funds and the options to deposit, withdraw and convert crypto as well as fiat. It also features your total balance and a neat pie chart with your total allocation in different assets.
• User: this tab is your account tab. Here you can change settings and create or delete sub-accounts. It also shows you your current fee tier at a glance including your total 30 day trading volume.

Other FTX Features

• Up to 100x leverage – FTX provides generous leverage
• Stock trading - FTX offers a range of tokenized stock trading in partnership with CM-Equity utilizing a German license
• Prediction markets - FTX lets users bet on the outcomes of specific events like the US presidential elections, whether the Olympics will take place etc.
• Advanced trading features - FTX offers Futures, Perpetuals and Leveraged token for users who want to more sophisticated trading tools
• Institutional Grade Services – Deep liquidity and order books, unlimited withdrawals, a liquidation fund, and an OTC desk
• 1% of all net fees will be donated to the world’s most effective charities

Conclusion

FTX has all the tools to take Binance's spot as the world's leading centralized exchange. In 2020 it acquired the beloved crypto tracker Blockfolio for $150 million. Blockfolio now offers in-app crypto purchases since February thus paving the way to even more mainstream adoption.

If you’re looking for the cheapest and one of the fastest growing exchanges out there you will find it in FTX. Their trading and withdrawal fee pricing puts them in an unbeatable position compared to other centralized exchanges. While being a relatively young exchange might give them a disadvantage, their rate of growth, and speed of adding new features makes them even more impressive.