Let me start by saying that if you haven't registered for UPcoin yet, you can do so here: http://upcoin.com/?ID=f4c89a77
UPcoin announced in January that it would be opening it's doors as a brand new cryptocurrency exchange. This is quite an undertaking, but I've been following it closely. I'm based in the US. Exchanges like Bitfinex and Bitmex have closed their doors to us. Bitfinex in particular is one that offers many great tools. Margin trading and visual trading (the ability to move your order up and down on a chart rather than manually cancel and re-place an order). These are tools that are necessary for those who are trading on the fly especially. As well as advanced charting and being able to draw on the charts.
Additionally, I've found myself moving funds into multiple exchanges. Binance, Poloniex, Cryptopia and others, simply because I couldn't get all of the coins I wanted in one place. Things get really difficult to track when you start doing this!
All of the exchanges have had customer service issues as the growth became exponential. They've also had server issues and downtime. In the fast moving world of crypto, these things can cost you time and money.
All of these being said, I can break down what's important to me in an exchange in just a few categories.
- Security
- Reliability
- Advanced trading features
- Coin Availability
- Responsiveness
If my funds aren't secure on the exchange, I'd never deposit any funds to know if these other items are worth anything at all. UPcoin will be keeping the vast majority of your holdings in cold storage. They state that their exchange security is tested by hackers, but we have to admit that nothing is hack proof. If the hackers get in, only what's kept in hot storage is at risk with any exchange or wallet. By keeping funds in cold storage, UPcoin protects your capital better than many of the exchanges.
To ensure that you're always receiving good speeds and consistent service, UPcoin is working with servers spread globally. Their servers are confirmed in Asia, Europe and the US. This will limit downtime as well during upgrades or other maintenance.
When it comes to advanced trading features, they are pretty limited in the cryptocurrency realm. One of the most exciting features for me is a trailing stop loss. It is not completely clear if this will be available immediately upon open of the exchange. Crypto can move so quickly. You could hit a new high while you're sleeping and wake up to the value being below your stop loss. You've now lost money even though a new high was hit. The trailing stop loss fixes this problem by moving your stop up as the value of the coin increases. You may not get the high, but you'll lock in profits as it becomes profitable.
They have also been very responsive to requests for visual trading features and they will be offering the ability to set a target sale and a stop loss at the same time. If your target hits then that order is filled and your stop limit order is canceled. This seems so simple, but most of the exchanges will not allow you to set an order on each side unless you're margin trading. This system allows for profit taking and loss prevention at the same time.
We are quickly closing in on 2000 cryptocurrencies available. UPcoin is dedicated to adding as many as possible so that you no longer have to spread so thin across multiple exchanges. Don't get me wrong, it's good to protect your assets in more than one place, but you also shouldn't be going to low security exchanges simply because they are the only one that offer a particular coin. This will help avoid that situation.
I've reached out to the UPcoin team throughout their launch process. Both prior to beta testing and during beta testing. I've reached out to them via Facebook, Telegram and e-mail. In all situations, I had a response within a day. Honestly, I typically had a response within an hour. They've had 750,000 registrants and are working on finalizing the exchange, yet they've still been responsive. I've been very impressed.
I hope you'll join me in moving to UPcoin. Their public beta will be opening very soon followed by live trades. THIS should be your go to exchange. Join here and in the meantime check out this short vid of the beta in action. http://upcoin.com/?ID=f4c89a77
