Why Review Coinmama in 2023?
Choosing among hundreds of cryptocurrency exchanges to use can be a difficult task to do. There are plenty of popular ones out there on the market. That is why we believe you have made the right choice today by reading this article. When there are so many choices, the best thing to do is to look into the popular ones and what they have to offer.
Coinmama is definitely one of the most famous cryptocurrency exchanges available. In this Coinmama review, we will dive a little deeper and share what you need to know about this platform so that you can make an informed decision about whether it is the right pick for you.
Introduction to Coinmama
Let’s start off this Coinmama review none other than by giving you an introduction to Coinmama! Coinmama is a famous cryptocurrency exchange used by people all over the world. Although registered in Slovakia, Coinmama is owned by New Bit Ventures Ltd which is headquartered in Israel. Basically, Coinmama is a property of NBV International which is a daughter company of New Bit Ventures Ltd.
Established in 2013, the official website of Coinmama explains that they offer a “fast, safe and fun way” to buy cryptocurrencies from anywhere around the globe.
Over the years, the company has expanded and worked towards improving the financial services and customer experience that Coinmama offers to their customers. Today, Coinmama operates across 188 countries all over the world and in the US itself, is available in 24 states.
Something to note about the Coinmama platform is that it is tailored for those who want to buy cryptocurrencies rather than trading cryptocurrencies. The reason why we say this is because Coinmama sells cryptocurrency to you out of their own personal inventory. So when you use Coinmama, you are actually buying from and selling to Coinmama directly instead of trading with other users.
Coinmama is more like an onboarding platform which allows you to purchase crypto, rather than a trading platform where you buy coins from other people. Hence, Coinmama stands out as a fast and easy way to buy Bitcoin, Ethereum or other cryptocurrencies such as Qtum, Ethereum classic, Litecoin and more.
Who Can Be a Coinmama User?
When you are looking around for the best crypto exchanges, you should always make sure that you can use it in the first place! Although this seems like common sense, it can be easy to slip your mind when you are excited at reading all about the different exchanges on the market.
Unfortunately, due to laws and regulations regarding cryptocurrency, certain countries are restricted and thus their people cannot use the Coinmama platform at all. Therefore, it is your responsibility to make sure that you follow the laws set by your country.
The restricted countries include: Syria, Sudan, South Sudan, Cuba, Crimea, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, North Korea and Palestinian Territories.
People from some of the US states are also not allowed to access Coinmama. These include Vermont, Hawaii, New Mexico, Florida and Oregon. The same goes for people from some American territories including the Virgin Islands, the minor outlying islands of the US, Northern Mariana islands, Puerto Rico, Guam and American Samoa.
Overall, Coinmama is widely available across Europe except for the restricted areas as mentioned. If you do not reside in any of the aforementioned places, then you will be eligible to be a Coinmama user!
Coins that Coinmama Support
You are probably curious to know what are some of the coins available on the Coinmama platform. Well, coins supported by Coinmama include the famous ones, such as:
- Bitcoin
- Bitcoin Cash
- Cardano
- Ethereum
- Ethereum Classic
- Litecoin
- Ripple
- Qtum
- Tezos
- Eos
Coinmama would like everyone to know that if there are cryptocurrencies that you would like to buy but are not on the list above, know that they are working on expanding their services to suit the needs of their customers the best.
You are welcome to let their Happiness Heroes know which cryptocurrencies you want to see on the list, and they will let you know if and hopefully when Coinmama can offer that cryptocurrency to you.
Guide to Buy Crypto on Coinmama
The process of buying cryptocurrencies on the Coinmama platform is simple and straightforward, following these steps:
- Sign up on the official website
- You need to upload your ID verification documents
- Select “buy” and choose the type and amount of crypto you wish to buy
- Submit all relevant payment info
- Receive your coins instantly!
It is worth mentioning that Coinmama will lock in the price for your bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies once you submit your buy order. This is a great feature because it ensures that the price you pay will reflect the amount you originally intended to pay.
This means that in the event of any delay in receiving your coins, your payment will not be affected by any price fluctuations in the market for that particular coin price.
Order Status
When you log into your account, you will be able to view your transaction history with your order status. In case you may be confused at what the statuses mean, here is a breakdown of the 5 possible order statuses you may see:
- Completed – this means that your order is successful and your coins can be viewed in your wallet!
- Expired – this means that your payment process was not complete. If you do not complete the payment form, your orders will expire after 30 minutes
- Pending – this means that your payment and order are in the midst of processing
- Canceled – this means that you manually cancelled an order from your account page or credit card payment page, or that you requested for the support team to cancel it for you
- Failed – this means that your order did not go through. It could be due to various reasons such as, insufficient funds, your issuing bank did not permit the card by which you can try again with a different card
KYC Requirement by Coinmama
The Know Your Customer (KYC) requirement is a verification process of customers when they open their Coinmama account. This is not only applicable to Coinmama, but other legitimate exchanges will also have mandatory KYC requirements to ensure that customers are actually who they claim to be.
Therefore, according to KYC, you will need to:
- Create your Coinmama account
- Submit a scanned copy of a valid government issued ID (passport/ driver’s license/ national ID card)
- Take a picture of yourself with a paper including the current date and “Coinmama” written big enough to be legible
The Coinmama verification process usually only takes 10-15 minutes to complete. However, in some cases it may take slightly longer depending on how busy the verification team is. But generally, it is pretty fast to verify your account with Coinmama compared to other platforms.
Coinmama Benefits
Coinmama advertises its many benefits on its official website, as seen in the icons below.
Many Payment Options
Coinmama provides multiple payment methods so you will not be confined to one. You can take your pick from the options available. Coinmama currently accepts credit card, debit cards, SEPA bank transfer and even Apple Pay. Both Visa and Mastercard are accepted if you choose to use card payment methods.
High Spending Limits
Coinmama is known to offer among the highest daily limits in the industry! The limits will also increase as your verification level increases. The limits come in 3 tiers and differ based on whether you use bankcard or wire transfer. To read more about the limits, check out the “Coinmama buying limits” segment of this Coinmama review.
Fast-track Verification
When it comes to setting up your Coinmama account, you can get it all settled in a matter of minutes to start purchasing cryptocurrency. You will simply need to upload a valid government issued ID and other documents to be approved.
While many other exchanges take a few days, it will only take an average of 10 minutes for you to verify your account under the level one verification, allowing you to start buying coins with Coinmama in no time. Levels 2 and 3 will take a little longer with an average of 6 hours, but it is still considerably faster to verify your account with Coinmama among competitors.
Famous Cryptocurrencies
Although Coinmama does not support a whole long list of cryptocurrencies, the ones they do support are the famous ones. This is a great place for beginners who want to buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and more which you can read about in the “Coins that Coinmama Support” segment of this review.
Instant Delivery
There will be no deposit required for your Coinmama account in order for you to start buying cryptocurrencies. Once you have verified your account and gotten all your documents approved, you can instantly start buying bitcoin up to 15,000 USD with your debit or credit card. Simply place your order, and get your coins delivered instantly.
Instant delivery is an important feature because if you wait a day or two, price fluctuations could take place and you may end up purchasing coins for a different amount than you wanted to in the first place. Therefore, it is great that Coinmama will lock in the price of bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies for you once you submit your order.
Great Customer Support
Customer support is one of the important things that the company emphasizes on. After all, being customer-centric is part of what they call the “Coinmama DNA” which is basically the core values of the company.
If you have any queries or encounter any issues, you can submit a request here. Or, you can even contact them through live chat during their business hours (Sunday to Thursday at 9:00 to 18:00 GMT+3).
Alternatively, for specific questions regarding privacy or general support inquiries, you can drop the support team an email. They are dedicated to answer all your questions 7 days a week and requests are usually answered within 24 hours!
Privacy Questions: privacy@coinmama.com
Privacy Questions (EU Customers): dpo@coinmama.com
General Support: support@coinmama.com
Coinmama Buying Limits
Something to take note of when using Coinmama for buying and selling cryptocurrency is that there are limits according to three levels. Coinmama is known to offer among the highest daily buying limits in the industry! The limits will also increase with your increasing verification level.
Level 1 limits
Overall account spending limit: 15,000 USD
Daily Limits
Bankcard (buy only): 5,000 USD or 5 orders
Wire transfer (buy and sell): 15,000 USD or 10 orders
Monthly Limits
Bankcard (buy only): 15,000 USD or 20 orders
Wire transfer (buy and sell): 15,000 USD or 50 orders
Level 2 limits
Overall account spending limit: 50,000 USD
Daily Limits
Bankcard (buy only): 5,000 USD or 5 orders
Wire transfer (buy and sell): 35,000 USD or 10 orders
Monthly Limits
Bankcard (buy only): 30,000 USD or 30 orders
Wire transfer (buy and sell): 50,000 USD or 50 orders
Level 3 limits
Overall account spending limit: 1,000, 000 USD
Daily Limits
Bankcard (buy only): 7,500 USD or 5 orders
Wire transfer (buy and sell): 50,000 USD or 10 orders
Monthly Limits
Bankcard (buy only): 40,000 USD or 30 orders
Wire transfer (buy and sell): 100,000 USD or 50 orders
Coinmama Fees
What’s a review without this section? Here we will review Coinmama fees to figure out how much it costs to buy and sell on this platform.
Buying Fees
Buying cryptocurrency with your Coinmama account is not too complicated. You simply decide the amount you want to buy, then you will be provided a quote on that amount. A fee will be calculated as a percentage of the spot price, which will be affected by payment methods too.
The prices seen on the Coinmama official website are based on a XBX + 2% standard deviation. It also includes the Coinmama commission of about 3.9%.
Virtual/ Prepaid/ Debit/ Credit Card
If you choose to use a virtual/ prepaid/ credit/ debit card for payment, there will be an additional express fee of 5% which will be incurred on top of your order amount.
Bank Transfer
If you wish to use bank transfer instead, orders placed with SWIFT transfer (non-UK) will have a minimum order worth 1,000 USD. Below that, a flat fee of £20 will be added to your order price. The good news is that this “below the minimum fee” only applies to SWIFT transfer, but not SEPA bank transfer or SWIFT Faster Payment transfer.
To make things simple, we would just assume that we will need to pay about 5% on the spot price. Overall, Coinmama offers considerably high fees when it comes to buying with cards like credit cards or debit cards.
Selling Fees
The selling rates are calculated by Coinmama based on a XBX index average + 2% standard deviation + selling fee of 0.1 to 0.9%.
The fee will be automatically calculated when you enter the amount (in fiat currency or Bitcoin) you want to sell. This will vary depending on your crypto loyalty level.
- Curious – 2.9%
- Enthusiast – 2.5%
- Believer – 2.1%
To understand more, read below about the Loyalty Program by Coinmama.
Loyalty Program for Reduced Fees
To enjoy lower fees, you can join the loyalty program offered! The concept is simple – the more cryptocurrencies you buy or sell, the more you will be able to save. How it works is that there are three levels of savings. The great part is that the enrollment to this program is automatic! So as long as you have met the certain requirements, you will be eligible for lower fees.
Level 1 – Crypto Curious
Every new customer is eligible to be “Crypto Curious”. Coinmama welcomes these users to approach their Happiness Heroes for any help to start buying or selling cryptocurrency.
Level 2 – Crypto Enthusiast
When you have reached this level, you get to enjoy 12.5% savings on fees! These users are able to view their savings appear as a crypto bonus whenever they check out. However, maintaining this loyalty level would require a cumulative purchase amount of 5,000 USD over a rolling 90-day period.
Level 3 – Crypto Believer
When you have reached the third level, you are given the title of Crypto believer! Coinmama deems that you believe that cryptocurrency is the way forward. Hence, you are eligible to enjoy 25% savings on fees! Crypto Believers even get to enjoy queueless customer service from the Happiness Heroes.
In order to maintain this loyalty level, you must have been purchasing cryptocurrency for at least 30 days, and you need to either maintain 18,000 USD as a cumulative purchase amount over a rolling 90-day period, or maintain a lifetime purchase amount above 50.000 USD.
Is Coinmama Safe?
Coinmama is a reputable company overall which has never experienced any cryptocurrency stolen from their platform over the years. However, it is true that hackers have stolen personal details of many customers in 2019.
This breach of data affected about 450,000 accounts in total. Fortunately, no credit card information of customers was stolen, but rather email addresses and passwords of accounts.
To provide the right context, this data theft was not specific to the Coinmama company, but rather it was a large attack that affected over 20 websites with over half a billion records, whereby they were one of the victims that fell prey.
Since Coinmama will deliver cryptocurrency straight into your wallet, it is unlikely for their platform to get hacked and lose customers’ funds in the process. Furthermore, Coinmama is in fact registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) so that if there are any suspicious or fraudulent activities detected on the site, they will be investigated accordingly.
Our Final Thoughts
Pros
- Helpful customer support
- User-friendly platform
- Accepts credit card and debit card
Cons
- High fees for credit card usage
- Can expand to have more cryptocurrencies
Overall, the quality of support offered is definitely one of the best selling points. Besides, the user-friendliness of the exchange also makes buying cryptocurrencies quick and simple. Essentially, this is especially a good starting point for beginners to reach out for help from the team and to get used to buying cryptocurrencies through the simplicity of the platform.
Furthermore, debit and credit cards are accepted as payment methods, which is a bonus.
No exchange is perfect. Hence, there is room for improvement. One of it being to lower their fees for credit card usage. However, although the transaction fees may be higher, at least the option to use these cards are available which many platforms do not offer.
Another con they can work on, however, is increasing the amount of coins made available. This will make the platform open to many more users.
To wrap things up, we hope you enjoyed this review. We sincerely wish that this review gave you a better understanding of how Coinmama works and all the pros and cons that come with it. It is not a perfect exchange but it is certainly on the positive side!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Can I use my Credit Card on Coinmama?
As mentioned in the review above – yes, if you wish to buy cryptocurrencies by using your credit or debit card, you can do so as long as it is a Visa or Mastercard.
2. Why does Coinmama need my personal details?
Coinmama requests some personal details from customers because they need to verify your trustworthiness. As a financial service, the company needs to be committed to the highest standards of security and privacy.
This verification is not only required by Coinmama but also exchanges everywhere. There is nothing to worry about as Coinmama verification is completed usually within the hour, and Coinmama will not share your details with anyone, it will be kept under high security.
3. What currencies do Coinmama accept?
All currencies are accepted. Currently, their rates are displayed in USD, GBP, EUR, AUD, CAD and JPY but all others are also acceptable. However, take note that you may be charged an additional exchange fee if you decide to pay with another currency.
4. Can I sell Bitcoin (BTC) on Coinmama?
Yes, you can sell Bitcoin. However, take note that the transactions will always be between you and Coinmama directly and not with other traders.
With over 10 years of experience working as a financial analyst, Eric is highly aware of the potential of cryptocurrency, particularly Bitcoin, and the impact it will bring towards the global economy. He is committed to share everything he knows about crypto here at Crypto Digest News.