Coinsquare.io Review – Another Canadian Crypto Exchange

Available in English and French, Coinsquare.io is a cryptocurrency exchange which currently supports the buying and selling of various cryptos, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash, Litecoin, Dogecoin and more. The operation is 100% Canadian built and operated, though the services that it provides are apparently available to a global user-base. The operation is focused on its “Canadian” nature however, and on the multiple funding options as well as the easy verification process it touts. The safety of user funds is another top-priority matter.

Apparently, the exchange is built on the same technology as the New York Stock Exchange. The system is 100% in-house built, and it has been stress-tested under various hypothetical scenarios, such as DDoS attacks. The exchange’s record in this regard is rather impressive as well: since 2015, it has not lost a single coin.

coinsquare.io
Coinsquare.io

Coinsquare.io Funding Options

Those looking to open a trading account with Coinsquare.io can make use of a multitude of deposit options to get money deposited to this account. Many of these options are only available to Canadians, underlining the Canadian-focused nature of the operation.

The deposit methods entailing the lowest fees are bank draft and money order. The fees are 0.25% on both of these, while they can be as high as 5% with Interac e-transfer. Interac online, Flexepin vouchers and bank wire are also available. Bank wires carry an 0.5% fee.

For CAD withdrawals, Interac e-transfer, direct bank deposit and wire transfer can be used. The fees incurred upon withdrawal span the 0.5% (in the case of bank wires) to 5% (Interac) range.

Coinsquare Trading Fees

The trading fees offered by Coinsquare are extremely attractive. The Bitmarket fees start from 0.1% for market makers (those providing liquidity) and 0.2% for takers.

The Quicktrade fees run the 0.2% (makers) to 0.4% (takers) range.

How Exactly Does Coinsquare Work?

The operation takes great pride in being extremely straightforward and simple to figure out – even for beginners.

The first step is to register an account. The sign-up process takes but a few seconds, and all it requires from registrants is an email address, which has to be verified. Following the actual account creation, users need to undergo additional verification. They are required to provide a phone number (non-Canadian numbers are apparently accepted too), as well as a number of documents, such as utility bills, bank statements and government-issued IDs.

The funding of the account is the next step. Once money lands in users’ accounts, they can get down to the actual trading. Some have complained that the way some of the limit orders are set up is confusing. Overall though, the community feedback is great in this regard.

What definitely has to be pointed out about Coinsquare is that above and beyond simply letting users trade various cryptos, it is a full-fledged trading platform, which offers charting features, as well as a customizable trading interface. The QuickTrade trading feature – already mentioned above – lets users trade any coin to any coin easily and quickly.

Should I Trust Coinsquare.io?

Judging by the community feedback available through forums such as bitcointalk and various reddit threads, Coinsquare.io is indeed trustworthy. Obviously, there are user complaints out there, quite a few of them in fact, but there is nothing pointing to fraud on the part of the operator, in any shape or form.

Red Flags and Question Marks

The operation does not raise any such issues. By red flags and question marks, we obviously mean proof of fraud, or some kind of blatantly obvious indication that we are indeed dealing with fraudsters. Coinsquare are not fraudsters, though the quality of the services they offer may fall short of some of their users’ standards here and there.

Complaints

As said above, complaints are indeed plentiful. Reddit is the main scene for Coinsquare detractors and complainers, and while the majority of issues raised through these complaints are indeed legitimate, none of them seem to call into question to legitimacy of the operation.

Some people have complained about the operator holding their money hostage, and the support staff being rude. Withdrawal processing times seem to be way too long in some cases too. At least one user took 7 days to withdraw his CAD, while another was hit with massive withdrawal fees on a BTC withdrawal. Some have suggested that withdrawals should be made in LTC rather than BTC, and the funds should then be converted back to BTC at a different exchange.

Downtimes sometimes struck the site too. In at least one instance, user access was denied to the platform, due to what was later revealed to have been a successfully fended-off DDoS attack.

Other users aren’t shy about pointing out alternatives (such as Quadriga) to the service, due to the withdrawal limits and other inconveniences.

Coinsquare Review Conclusion

Though Coinsquare is indeed legitimate, it seems like many of its operational aspects need further streamlining. The number of complainers is just too big for comfort. Remember though: the operator is transparent regarding most of the issues users complain about. If you plan on trading with Coinsquare, make sure to read the fine-print as well as the not-so-fine print attached to the description of every service.

It also has to be pointed out that Coinsquare have a number of special offers in place for those looking to trade large volumes of cryptos. The Coinsquare Concierge program is aimed at those trading more than $25,000, while Coinsquare Diamond is for users trading over $100,000 at a time. The Diamond feature offers free wire funding and access to a concierge trading desk.

What’s your opinion on Coinsquare? Share it with us by commenting below this review!

Read other Crypto Exchange reviews.

40 Comments

  1. shinymusic

    I have nothing with great success with coinsquare.io

    I have made hundreds of trades, deposited, and withdrew without any issues.

    I once had a bitcoin deposit get “stuck” over the weekend but it was released monday.

    Great interface with low fees. 5 stars for me.

  2. Karla

    For the exchange being around since 2015 to not even have a decent download of all transactions and having a joke of 3 tabs to download transactions separately, not to mention all in different formats, this is the worst crypto exchange experience! Provide API to connect and download our transactions! Plus they do not show the actual transaction fees anymore on their transactions page. I have been asking for a report for a year now with no resolution. Regret using the exchange! Stay away.

  3. David Smith

    Brutal scam! Will not let me have my own money, FUCK YOU SHIT FUCKS

  4. steven

    What are the alternatives for canadians to trade coins rather than coinsquare?

  5. Ed

    I cannot login to my account coinsquare.com does not open.

  6. Not Too Happy

    CoinSquare is probably the worst company you could ever use. Whole host of problems and in my opinion is committing fraud behind the scenes locking certain users out when the price dips.
    The first thing I noticed using Coinsquare is the atrocious spread % between buys and sells while the coins value was calculated as confusingly as possible in BTC per CAD, not CAD per BTC. If BTC’s price drops off a cliff the site is unable to be reached, users receive an “error” message in the top left of their screen. Later talking to real people in real life, they had complete access to the site, because they are major holders, so in other words if your account has something like less than $100k-$200k they shut your account down so their “premium” members, employees and CoinSquare themselves can sell before you have the chance to react to a price crash. They call this a “Customer Success Program” .
    Other issues are very long wait times for FIAT withdrawals, No ETH deposits, High Fees, Support ticket system that barely works and is hard to locate for some users. Rude customer support and tickets closed without a solution being found (I have experienced this myself), edited support tickets (original question or statement edited to be shorter changing the premise of the ticket), reports of customers having issues proving to the tax man or any other interested party where the FIAT deposit came from as CoinSquare supplies no Invoice, Receipt or Proof of sale. If asked for Proof of sale, the runaround starts, and you will be waiting months at best, the whole while they tell you “soon”. You have no access to visually see if your personal info is correct on the site, such as name, address, phone number, etc, leaving you exposed to potential account hijacking and you would never be able to see.
    They have no office where you can visit to confirm they are legit, no phone # to call, just a ticket and email system they can ignore as long as they like, while publicly responding to reviews like this with polite “please contact our support here” as if they are actively caring in solving your issue, but when you do contact them as they offered your response will be “I see you already have an active ticket so you will just have to be patient and wait”. How patient do you think customers will be waiting for weeks to months on end?

    I think you can see why CoinSquare has no accessible public office or Phone #…

  7. Coinsquare Support

    Hello,

    Coinsquare here. We have made multiple updates to our platform and encourage you to check them out. Anytime you have an issue we always recommend filing a ticket or emailing us support@coinsquare.io We love to hear user feedback and try to make changes based of of this feedback.

    Thanks,
    Coinsquare

  8. Stevie Raymond

    I’ve had nothing but great experiences on Coinsquare.

    • Coinsquare Support

      Thanks Stevie,

      Glad to hear you are enjoying the platform.

      Coinsquare

  9. Cory Lewis

    I was going to buy 300.00 Canadian of litecoin using a credit card. The current price is 152.00 American and a site is showing that is 190.00 Canadian or 1.56 litecoin. Coinsquare is going to give it to me at 216.00 Canadian and 1.36 litecoin. Crazy ripoff. What a spread. Going to convert all my coins to Canadian and withdraw it all.

    • Coinsquare Support

      Thank you for the feedback Cody. Feel free to send any feedback to support@coinsquare.io We always want to hear from our users on how we can improve.

  10. Jason Poirier

    100 % agree, coinsquare is run by scammers. they prey on unsuspecting users. they falsely inflate the spreads to milk all your earnings. Here is a real world example Market rate was at $9870. I go on to buy btc from 2 platforms. coinsquare was trying to charge me $11,135.61 meanwhile, I was buying on another platform for $9879 at the exact same time. In other words they were literally trying to pocket $1256 from one single transaction by falsely inflating the spread by astronomical proportions. I was actually on the other platform watching the buys and sells, and their prices were not even on the board……they were totally lying about the rates, over inflating HUGE. When I email them, they sent me back an absolutely ludicrous excuse.

    • Coinsquare Support

      Thank you for the feedback Cody. Feel free to send any feedback to support@coinsquare.io We always want to hear from our users on how we can improve.

  11. Joe

    Wanted to use Coinsquare because they are Canadian. Wanted to buy Bitcoins, deposited money trough debit card. Next day I was advised of a phishing attempt and the bank canceled my debit card. Coinsquare compliance team contacted me that they would return my deposit after I submitted various documents. After that I was told my money would be back in my bank account within days, or the next 2 days, or again, etc. The money never showed up. They do not reply to my emails. My advice: do not use Coinsquare.

  12. Ivan

    Awful company. Wouldn’t ever deal with them again. Took too long to withdraw funds. Staff unhelpful. Fees excessive. Go elsewhere…

    • Coinsquare Support

      Hello Ivan,

      Sorry that you may have had a bad experience. We appreciate the feedback and will look into it.

      Thanks,
      Coinsquare

  13. John C

    This is a disgraceful and scam site that nobody should ever use. I was floored when I read the fees they charge but even worse the terms to withdraw your money. Places like this need to be wiped off the planet, not reviewed and supported. I’m dissapointed that the author leaves out thes crucial info about withdrawing and requirements.. It’s a 7 step process that nobody in their right mind would complete, sending photos of yourself, agreeing to a withdrawal contract and tying your chequeing account to it. No thanks, these all can’t be explained without any good reason, except to put the exchange in full control of your finanaces, now that’s scary because they are not any form of authority with proven track record of honest and good decisions, they can do anything they want with your finances and you agree to it. Their meager contacts appears to be very poorly worded and replied to by lacking social skills. Maybe I found them on a day BTC was down but they appear to scummy and one place to clearly avoid.

    Someone asked about the best place to store long term, The answer is offline, there is absolutely no reason to use an exchange if you just want to store.

    • Coinsquare Support

      Hello John,

      We are sorry that you did not have a good experience, but we are not a scam. We advertise all of our withholding restrictions on multiple pages on our platform. These polices are in place to help protect our users from fraud. We would love to hear more of your feedback and how you think we can improve. Please feel free to email us support@coinsquare.io

      Thanks,
      Coinsquare

  14. Matt

    In my opinion, Coinsquare is really nothing but a scam. I think it extremely unlikely that you will ever see much (if any) of your investment back, especially when their fees are so outrageous.

    • Coinsquare Support

      Hello Matt,

      We are sorry that you feel this way. We currently have multiple fee structures in place and some are higher then others. Are trading fees are as low as 0.1% and you can fund your account for as low as 2.5% (digital currency funding is free). We would love to hear more of your feedback on how we can improve support@coinsquare.io

      Thanks
      Coinsquare

  15. Jonathan Mcdonald

    I just made an account with Coinsquare, after reading these reviews I’m deciding to close my account. What’s the best option for Canadians to buy Bit Coin long term?

      • Matt

        An exchange based in Hong Kong? You’re joking, right? You will never see a dime of your money.

    • SallySmith

      If you’re simply looking to buy and hold, then coinsquare appears to be the easiest choice for Canadians to deposit money. This seems to be the only exchange that accepts e transfers and i haven’t tried to withdraw any funds yet so can’t give any feedback on that but if you want to make frequent trades or choose other cryptos to buy, then open a poloniex account for that.

      • Matt

        “i haven’t tried to withdraw any funds yet so can’t give any feedback on that”

        Perhaps you should try to withdraw funds BEFORE you post a positive review of this, or any other such exchange. Sadly, you will find that the vast majority of them will never return you money…just like online casinos. Deposits only, but no withdrawals!

    • Jesse Sadja

      I have never had an issue with CS. I am surprised by all of this.

  16. B K

    Coinsqaure.io is a scam. Be aware. It is a scam. They are scamming people left and right in Canada. There is already calls action suit in work. Be aware!

  17. Joe Smith

    The biggest issue is how long it takes to withdraw cash. The trading platform works fine with occasional downtimes. Reasonable amount of liquidity for BTC and ETH.

    Can take a very long time for your cash withdrawal to go from “processing” to “processed” which delay is all in their end due to lack of staffing.

  18. Volker Forster

    They charge a ridiculous amount of 0.0025 BTC for every transfer to any address? This is today 35 Canadian Dollars for 1 simple transfer from Coinbase to any address. There should be regulations in place to stop scam like this.

    • SallySmith

      That’s just the tip of iceberg of what they charge. I captured a 10% move and still lost $100

  19. sallysmith

    I just got locked out after questioning them as to where they get the prices they display. they are no where near actual trading prices and they won’t accept any more of my e-transfers and simply locked me out. Thankfully I was able to get out the little bit of bitcoin I had left and transferred it to poloniex before they did this. I sent an email and was able to get on for a quick minute then they locked it again. They appear to be the only exchange that offers e-transfers at this point. I’ve never tried to take any money out since I lost most of it to bitconnect but wouldn’t expect it to be a pleasant experience either unfortunately.

  20. Jim

    Been using Coinsqure and haven’t been happy. Poor customer service, extremely slow, high fees and long waits to get your money out.

  21. Suhail

    Folks please stay away from Coinsquare, they are fucking scammers. First they take a heavy percentage when you deposit your money and then they deprive you of their own money. It is amazing that you create the account for the purpose of trading Cryptos and you pay heave fee as well but then you are like a beggar because you will never get to use it. They don’t have a phone number. They don’t reply to your emails or tickets. You will be lucky enough if you got a response in a week. I find Quadriga much better and efficient .

  22. Eason

    Open the account then submmited the ID and documents as required, verification status became “submitted”. Next day all the sudden they sent me an email says a ticket has been open and to have me review it, They open the ticket for me out of bule, yet you can’t even find the damn ticket in the account, open ticket for what?? Avoid this crappy website. I’d rather use Canadian Bitcoins.com with a bit higher fees. Totally nonsense and violation and waste of freaking time.

  23. kenny

    i live in the US and in the US you will never find anyplace as good as Coinbase.

  24. Randy

    I’m totally new to the crypto market and decided to go with Coinsquare as it is a Canadian company. My intention is to go ” long ” so at this point I’m not to worried about some of the issues I have read about after joining. What I will say though is that you definitely need to look closely at the spreads before you click confirm on your orders. Although the fees are quite reasonable, the spreads will eat your initial profits if your like me and don’t pay close enough attention to the price you buy at. Live and Learn

  25. Roi Angelo Nucum

    Is it for Canadian people only or available in any country like Philppines?

    • Admin

      I believe it’s available in the Philippines. However, if you’re in the Philippines, I’d recommend going with Coins.ph.

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