BITBOX Exchange Review 2021 - Is It Safe?
BITBOX is a Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange launched in 2018. The team behind this platform is better known for a different project — messaging app LINE. So in contrast to many other cryptocurrency platforms, BITBOX is created by the company that already has resources and a solid experience in business and technology. Moreover, BITBOX is the only distributor of the digital currency named LINK (the native token of the LINE network). The exchange provides some benefits for traders using LINK token.
The exchange is not available for the American citizens and doesn't support fiat money yet, but allegedly these problems are going to be addressed in the future. The trading volume is relatively low on BITBOX. By all valuations, this exchange ranks below the 100th position.
- Basic Facts
- BITBOX Fees Review
- LINK Benefits
- Registration
- Setting the Security Features
- Identity Verification
- Is BITBOX Safe?
Basic Facts
BITBOX offers three markets: BTC, ETH, and USDT. There are 12 cryptocurrencies that can be traded against BTC on this platform. This list includes LINK (LN), Ripple (XRP), Stellar (XLM), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), and others. Only 7 assets can be traded against ETH, and the same number of currencies is available for trading against USDT.
The interface can seem quite familiar because one can see the same charts and info that can be met on many other exchanges. The interface includes a candlestick chart that can be configured. The user might opt to choose if he/she needs to see the chart as candles, hollow candles, Heikin Ashi, Line, Area, or Baseline. One can switch from the Price graph to a Market Depth graph. Also, the platform provides such tools of working with charts as Brush, Trend Line, Pitchfork, XABCD Pattern, etc. Above the charts there's a row of numbers including 24-hours change, 24-hours volume, 24-hours low, and 24-hours high.
On the right from graphs, one can find a Recent Trades tab. Under the charts, there are the Trades History section, Open Trades tab, and Balance.
In general. the interface is quite user-friendly. What's especially good, is that there are small information icons ("i" letter in the circle) that provide short tips if clicked. The exchange is working smoothly and the charts are updating in real-time.
Among the useful trading options that can save users a lot of money are such safety tools as stop-limit and limit orders. These orders set limitations that prevent huge losses in case if the market is behaving opposite to what the trader expected.
Advanced traders might opt to use API for automation of trading activity.
BITBOX Fees Review
BITBOX doesn't collect fees for deposits. This feature is not something extraordinary nowadays, as many other exchanges don't charge anything for money deposits, too.
Withdrawal fees are flat and different for each currency. For instance, Bitcoin withdrawal costs 0.001 BTC (the minimum withdrawal is set to 0.002 BTC), while the Ethereum withdrawal fee is 0.01 ETH (the minimum withdrawal amount of ETH is 0.02 ETH). Such fees rates are above average in comparison to other exchanges charging flat withdrawal fees.
Regarding the fact that BITBOX has low liquidity, it would be quite reasonable to expect that the platform will be encouraging market makers with lower trading fees compared to market takers, but that's not the case. Both makers (those who post new trade orders) and takers (those who decrease liquidity by taking orders from the order book) pay the same trading fee, quite a low one, 0.1%.
Instead of encouraging users to increase the liquidity on the platform, BITBOX exchange rather incentivizes them to buy LINK — native LINE ecosystem tokens. Many exchanges that have native tokens offer some discounts and other benefits associated with the use of the native tokens. In contrast to them, the BITBOX exchange provides benefits for the owners of tokens related to a different project — the LINE ecosystem.
LINK Benefits
Those who use LINK to pay fees have fee discounts. Moreover, the LINK holders are participating in airdrops on the BITBOX exchange. Another privilege of the LINK owners is an opportunity to take part in the discussions over the platform governance and initiate improvements. All these perks are supposed to increase the traction of the LINK token.
Registration
The registration process takes several steps. First, the potential user must provide a relevant email address, agree on terms of use, and set the password. Optionally one can add a referral code. The next step is checking the mail in order to open a verification link.
As soon as an email address is verified, the user may start trading. But before funding the account, it's better to set the security measures and go through the identity verification process.
Setting the Security Features
BITBOX exchange provides users with a few security tools. It's recommended to be set all of them right after the registration on the website.
One of the available protection measures is 2-factor authentication. In order to set this feature, one needs to download a Google Authenticator app (or some other authentication application) and scan a QR code on the BITBOX website using a mobile device. It will create a token generating time-based one-time passwords (or TOTPs) that can be used for access to the account on the exchange and confirmation of the most important actions (for example, withdrawals of funds). So without access to the user's mobile device, the hacker won't be able to perform these actions and steal the user's assets.
Another security measure is a verification via the phone. As the user provides a relevant phone number and confirms it, the feature turns on. It requests a one-time confirmation code each time when someone is trying to deposit money or trade using the account. The code is sent to the phone via text message.
Identity verification can be regarded as one more security measure. Without completing this step, the user cannot perform withdrawals. Some of the hackers without the knowledge of the user's personal data won't be able to perform withdrawals if their behavior seems suspicious for the platform security crew.
Identity Verification
The platform is fully compliant with Addendum for GDPR. BITBOX claims to value the privacy of their users. The company secures user data via SSL, HTTPS, and TLS and stores it encrypted. The data includes the name, address of residence, phone number, nationality, photos (with ID, face, and so on), the history of user's actions on the platform (withdrawals, transactions, deposits, trading activity, etc), occupation, device and browser information (the name and version of the user's operating system, device model, the Internet browser's name and version), the log of IP addresses associated with the account and the time of visits of the page, account balances, the wallet addresses, the log of messages sent by the user.
To avoid the situation when the user is going to withdraw the funds and all of a sudden he/she is required to do a KYC check that lasts for several days, it's better to provide this data before starting the trading activity. Unverified users can't withdraw funds from BITBOX anyway.
The verification can be conducted in the Account tab. The Personal Info section requests the following information: occupation, the purpose of trading, source of funding, country, state or province, city or district, postal code, street address.
The phone number should be provided in the Phone number verification section. Another step is sending the photos. It can be done in the ID verification section. For ID verification the user is required to send a photo clearly showing the user front face. The use of the photo taken from the photo is not accepted. Also, the platform requests a photo of the passport (ID). The photo and info content of the document should be seen clearly. It's important that the machine-readable zone of the passport should be clearly visible, too.
The review of this information by BITBOX might take up to several days.
Is BITBOX Safe?
There are some factors that make this platform seem trustworthy. Fist, BITBOX exchange has ties with LINE, and such a successful and big tech company won't risk its reputation creating a fraudulent or insecure platform as LINE has too many users and investors to lose. Second, LINE has an experienced team that was capable of providing security to the LINK ecosystem for years. Moreover, the company knows how to develop and promote tech products. It means that with a high probability the occurring problems will be addressed by the company. The good sign is the fact that the platform's officials are public and well-known. In the case of some serious troubles, the company may be sued.
Most of the user assets are kept in cold storage while 2-factor verification prevents hackers from trying to influence the trading volume on the exchange via the use of bots. Moreover, BITBOX secures the digital assets 24-hours via their surveillance system.
Nevertheless, problems exist. We can see some complaints in the BITBOX exchange reviews on the Internet. Some users on Twitter claim that they have to wait for verification for too long. In some cases, traders cannot withdraw their coins from the exchange, and it's not clear if these problems were addressed by the support team. Most of the complaints were submitted in 2018 so probably now the situation is getting better.
The platform is small and I think it's the main disadvantage. No players no game. It's got functional website and fiat currency, but the trading activities is not so high.
