The Complete Guide to the Bitstamp Exchange

• History
• Founders
• What is the Bitstamp exchange?
• Advantages
• Registration
• Verification
• Depositing & Withdrawing Funds
• Transaction Fees
• Trading Interface
• Order
• Security
• Customer Support
• Regulations
• Why Bitstamp?
• Conclusion

Bitstamp is proud to be the longest-lasting cryptocurrency exchange in crypto history. When we think about historical European companies, we think of centenarian-type institutions. Bitstamp, however, only started in 2011 and yet, it is the world’s oldest-standing cryptocurrency exchange. This is an indication of the complexity of the sector and its vulnerability to security issues.

History

Nejc Kodrič and Damijan Merlak founded Bitstamp in 2011, in their home country Slovenia with the goal to provide a secure and regulated option for the cryptocurrency traders.

At that time, another company, Mt. Gox, a Japanese-based platform, was dominating the market as the largest Bitcoin intermediary and exchange platform. The issue was that Mt. Gox had a very poor user experience and was not considered secure enough, as it had encountered major hacks in June 2011 which it was not able to control. The result was more than 478 hacked and robbed accounts, resulting in the loss of 25,000 BTC. By 2014, Mt. Gox was bankrupt.

Nejc and Damijan wanted to create a platform where security and reliability were at the core of every single transaction. They wanted to operate in a regulated environment and earn the trust of their users. This platform offered a safer alternative and acted as the major European based crypto-trading platform.

In April 2013, Bitstamp’s team realised that they had to outsource some of its operations in the United Kingdom, as there were not sufficient legal and financial services to support the company in Slovenia at that time. Their goal was to become officially regulated as a payment institution, but after approaching the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, the response was that Bitcoin is not classed as a currency, therefore their exchange platform cannot be subjected to regulations.

Bitstamp tried to mitigate the risks of not having an official regulation system, with the self-regulation of its operations. The exchange achieved this by authenticating the customers and following best practices to deter money laundering.

In April 2016, Bitstamp managed to receive a license from the Luxembourg government. With this license, the exchange platform is now a fully regulated payment institution in the European Union and is allowed to operate in all the 28 EU member states.

In October 2018, pan-European investment firm NXMH acquired Bitstamp. The financial terms of this deal were not published, but it is rumored that Bitstamp was acquired at $400 million.

Founders

Nejc Kodrič (CEO and Co-Founder)

Nejc is from Slovenia. He has a degree in Organization and Management of Information Systems from Faculty of Organizational Sciences in Kranj and a degree in Economics from Ekonomska gimnazija in Kranj.

His entrepreneurial career started at a very young age. When he was only 20 years old, he co-founded and became the Marketing Director of GSračunalniki, a computer hardware and IT consulting firm. This is also the place where he met Damijan Merlak, his soon to be co-founder in Bitstamp. In 2011, Damijan came to Nejc’s computer store and asked for a very strange computer. He wanted one with almost no RAM, with the worst CPU, but with the best GPU. Nejc became really intrigued by this computer and when Damijan introduced him to the crypto mining concept, he was instantly captivated.

They started their cryptocurrency exchange in their garage, with one server, two laptops, and €1,000. The goal was not the money, but the satisfaction of making their vision a reality and the exploration of their love for technology.

Nejc became and is still the CEO of Bitstamp. Under his leadership, Bitstamp has been profitable and his responsibilities are the strategic direction, the business planning, the overall risk management, modelling and setting the company’s culture, the financial performance, and allocating capital to the company’s priorities.

Nejc is very active in promoting economic empowerment and technology. He is responsible for raising awareness about Bitcoin and blockchain technology, and he has participated in several conferences as a speaker. Some of those are the Bitcoin Foundation, MoneyConf, Techcrunch, ICT Spring Europe, FundForum International, and Deloitte Conference: Future Challenges.

He has a strict rule to not give any investment advice. Nejc Kodrič is 29th in Forbes 40 under 40. He currently lives in Luxembourg.

Damijan Merlak (Co-Founder)

Damjan is also from Slovenia. He was involved in software development since he was 13 years old and started working professionally with it during his college years. After creating his own Bitcoin mine in 2011 and experiencing the bad service Mt. Gox of the then-dominant Bitcoin exchange platform, he decided to create an easy-to-use platform that’s accessible by users who are not technically inclined. After receiving $10 million USD in startup funding to develop his vision, Bitstamp came to fruition.

Damijan’s entrepreneurial spirit could not keep him in only one company, though. In 2018, he resigned from his executive position in Bitstamp to create and grow more companies. He founded two more companies, Tokens in the United Kingdom and Ngen d.o.o. in Slovenia. Tokens.net is a c exchange, and he managed to raise $15 million USD through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO). Ngen d.o.o. is an energy system solutions provider.

Like most great investors, his asset portfolio is very diverse, and full of tangible assets. Among these investments are real estate properties, a veterinary clinic, a retail store, and a farm with 1,100 animals.

Damijan is the eighth-richest person and the youngest millionaire in Slovenia. He lives in Malta, and helps the local financial companies in projects to create regulations and licensing with cryptocurrencies.

What is the Bitstamp exchange?

Bitstamp exchange is an online trading platform that allows its users to exchange cryptocurrencies safely. The cryptocurrencies that can be traded in Bitstamp are Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Ripple (XRP). Just recently (August 2020), two more coins were added to their repertoire, Stellar Lumens (XLM)--which is one of the oldest active cryptocurrencies--and Paxos Standard (PAX), a stablecoin approved by the New York State Department of Financial Services. The fiat currencies that traders can use in Bitstamp are US Dollars (USD), Euros (EUR), and British Pounds (GBP).

The trading pairs available in the Bitstamp exchange platform include:

Bitstamp is a platform that is trusted by more than 4 million customers and as the founders support, it can act as the stepping stone between traditional financial institutions and the market of cryptocurrencies. Individuals and institutions from all over the world can use the service. Professional entities like brokers, neo banks, fintech companies, and traditional banks have the opportunity to expand their capabilities and services by using the Bitstamp exchange platform and incorporating it into their products.

Advantages

Bitstamp is a company with very distinct advantages over the other players of the exchanging cryptocurrency market. Bitstamp’s key advantages include the company’s focus on the highest levels of security, its collaboration with regulatory administrations, and the inexhaustible liquidity of the cryptocurrencies traded in this platform.

Bitstamp, as the oldest active trading platform, has the advantage of being able to provide a proven track record on its quality and its commitment to security. In October 2019, Bitstamp partnered up with BitGo, an institutional digital asset trust and security company, to further secure its customers' funds. With BitGo custody, Bitstamp’s assets can now be stored using cold storage technology in bank-grade Class III vaults, providing one of the safest storage methods for cryptocurrencies. The assets are also protected by BitGo’s insurance policy of $100 million (USD).

Bitstamp takes a more conservative approach when it comes to the available variety of cryptocurrencies, because it wants to provide cryptocurrencies that can be regulated by official administrations, but also because liquidity is highly valued in the company. By focusing on providing excellent service on only the most popular crypto coins, Bitstamp is able to carry out every registered order, making its liquidity inexhaustible. At the same time, the API connectivity is industry-leading. Professional traders and institutions have consistently rated Bitstamp’s FIX, HTTP, and WebSocket APIs as the fastest and most stable among the crypto exchange platforms. Bitstamp’s real-time data streams are available 24/7.

Recently, Bitstamp incorporated to the platform a new matching engine, which was created by Nasdaq. A matching engine basically matches orders between sellers and buyers. This new matching engine allows Bitstamp to match the orders 1,250 times faster and to increase the maximum number of orders that can be processed by up to 400 times than it used to. This high level of performance had only been achieved by traditional financial markets, but with the Nasdaq engine, Bitstamp has now the capability for sub-millisecond executions. Such an efficient performance can satisfy even the most demanding trader.

The Bitstamp platform is available both as a desktop application and a mobile application and it offers 24/7 customer support globally. More specifically, high-volume traders get support from a dedicated account manager.

Registration

In order to start using the Bitstamp exchange platform, new users have to register and create an account, by going to Bitstamp’s official website.

The user has to press either Register from the top-right corner of the dashboard, or the green button Get started on the middle-left side of the screen. The Get started button is distributed throughout the Bitstamp’s home page.

In this screen, the customer has to select if the account is going to be for personal use or if it is a corporate account, used by a company or an organisation.

For personal use:

The user has to fill in his or her first name, last name, and to enter his or her email. In order to continue the registration process, the user has to agree with Bitstamp’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. As Terms of Use can vary from country to country, Bitstamp offers the opportunity for the user to select the suitable residency and read the specific terms that apply to the country of interest. All users must read carefully the provided information and comply with those. To move on with the registration process, the new trader should click Continue. As the site is supported with Recaptcha, a small verification task has to be completed, and the user will need to follow the instructions to verify that he or she is not a robot.

After successfully completing the Recaptcha, an email will be sent to the registered address with the instructions of the next steps.

The user has to click the button Complete your registration to confirm the email and to create a password. It is important to know that the confirmation link expires within two hours. If the user does not confirm the registration in less than two hours, then the current registration is invalid and a new one will have to be attempted.

After confirming the registration, the user is redirected to the password creation webpage. Bitstamp suggests that the user’s password should be unique, meaning that it is used only on this platform. It should also be at least 12 characters long and should include both capital and lower-case letters, along with numbers and symbols. After this, the user should click Continue.

After the password creation, Bitstamp assigns a random User ID to the user’s account, which functions as a username. The User ID is useful when logging in to the account. Alternatively, the new trader can use their email address.

Bitstamp also informs, at this point, about the next steps, which is the verification process.

Verification

There are three steps involved in the verification process. The new trader has to:

1. Enter his or her personal information and upload the necessary documents to prove this
2. Provide basic financial information
3. Enable the extra security

The user can start the verification process by pressing the Start Your Verification button.

Once here, the user must first provide his or her address, by selecting the Country, and writing the Home Address, City, and Postal Code. The address that should be provided is the user’s permanent address, because later in the process they may be asked to upload a utility bill, bank statement, or any other similar document that proves residency. If the user holds the nationality of the specified country, he or she should tick the box and click Continue to continue the process.

Secondly, the user has to provide his or her phone number. When the user clicks Continue, Bitstamp sends a message to verify the phone number.

A four-digit code is sent as a message to the registered phone number, which the user has to enter into the platform within two minutes. If two minutes were not sufficient, the user can click Resend message, receive a new code, and then, click Continue.

Thirdly, the new trader has to provide to the exchange platform a photo of an identification document. The document can either be a passport, a driver’s license, or an identity card. For the passport, the user will need to upload the page with the user’s personal details and face photo. For the driver’s license and identity card, the user has to upload a photo with both the front and the back of the document.

If the user already has photos of one of these documents in his or her computer, they can simply click the Upload file and upload the documents. Otherwise, Bitstamp provides the option to take the photos with the mobile phone and easily incorporate them into the verification system. The new trader should click Continue on phone to begin this process.

The next screen provides a summary of the steps that are going to follow in order to upload the ID documents. The new user should click Get secure link to begin the process.

The secure link is provided with a QR code, or alternatively by getting a link via SMS or copying the link. The alternative options can be found at the bottom of the desktop. The user has to scan the QR code with his or her phone.

Bitstamp collaborates with ONFIDO. ONFIDO is a software company that provides documents and biometric verification for its online customers. After scanning the QR code, the Bitstamp user is redirected to an ONFIDO webpage and he or she has to follow the instructions as they appear on the screen.

To take a photo of the passport, driver’s license, or ID document, the user has to click Take photo.

After taking the photo, the new customer is prompted to check the readability of the photo. The user can click Enlarge Image and make sure that there is not any blur or glare and that it is clear to read the document. If the quality is not sufficient, the user can click Redo to take a new photo and, when the image meets the requirements, can click Confirm.

If the back of the document is also required, the user has to click Take photo and follow the same procedure as he or she did for the front page.

While uploading an identification is sufficient for most exchange platforms, Bitstamp and ONFIDO take it one step further and they prompt the new customers to upload a video of themselves, as proof that no one is impersonating them. The instructions mention that the user will be asked to film himself or herself doing two simple actions. One of the actions will involve speaking out loud. The user has to click Continue and give access to his or her camera by clicking Enable Camera.

Once the camera is enabled, a selfie video starts recording. The following instructions are part of the biometric verification of the user. In the first phase, the user needs to say the three numbers that appear on the screen out loud and then click Next. In the second phase, the recording continues and the user is asked to look to his or her left and then click Stop. The user has the option to redo the video or submit it as it is.

When the user submits the video, he or she gets a screen that says that the upload is successful and the verification process will continue on the user’s computer. The computer might take a few seconds to update.

Bitstamp asks the users, then, to declare some basic financial information. As a regulated business, Bitstamp is required to collect these kinds of user details. They also use it to adapt the way they process transactions to better fit the needs of each client and offer enhanced customer protection.

The user has to select their current occupation, among the options of Student, Employed, Self-Employed, Unemployed, and Retired. If the user is employed or self-employed, he or she will be asked to declare their current profession. In this category, they should select the profession that best describes their field of work. Then, the annual deposit estimation follows. The users have to select the range of money sum that they expect to deposit in Bitstamp. The declared funds should be in fiat money and not cryptocurrencies. If the user does not intend to deposit any money to the platform, he or she should select the lowest possible option, which is Up to $10,000. Finally, the user has to declare the source of the funds. The available options are Salary, Dividends, Inheritance, Savings, Investment proceeds, Gift, Mining, Real estate, and Loan. When the user fills in this information, they can click Continue to move along.

Then, questions for the new customers’ intended activities on the platform are requested. Many options can be selected, among Investing, Trading, Online gambling-related activities, Activities related to buying/selling goods or services, Arbitrage and Reselling-related activities(broker/dealer). Furthermore, if the user intends to deposit crypto from other sources, he or she has to declare where they obtained said crypto assets. The options to answer this question include Investment/trading proceeds, Mining proceeds, ICO proceeds, Salary/dividends received in crypto, Gambling proceeds and CS:GO proceeds.

By clicking Continue, the verification process is complete.

After the verification process is completed, the final step is to add one extra layer of protection to the account. The client should click Secure my account. This is an obligatory step for maximum security.

The instructions for the Two-Factor Authentication process appear on the screen and the user has to download on his or her phone the Google Authenticator or Duo Mobile app from the app store.

Once one of the apps is downloaded, the user has to open the app on his or her mobile phone and click I have the app on the desktop.

The authentication key, a 16-digit number which is used to connect Bitstamp with the security app, is provided and the user should print it or write it down and store it offline.

The QR code, which acts as the authentication key, is also given and the user has to click Scan a QR code in the app to scan it. If the user is unable to scan it, he or she can alternatively use the authentication key.

When the user scans the QR code, the security app will show the name of the company Bitstamp, the user’s registered email, and a six-digit number, which is the verification code, like this:

Bitstamp (usersemail@mail.com)

### ### <- The verification code

The numbers of the verification code change every 30 seconds, so the user has to quickly enter it at the designated area, at the bottom of the desktop screen and then click Enable extra security.

The verification process for the new trader is done and Bitstamp will take five to fifteen minutes to verify the account. An email will be sent to the registered email account when the process is finished. The user has to click Finish to finally be able to start buying and selling crypto.

Depositing & Withdrawing Funds

After completing the verification process, new traders need to deposit cryptocurrency or fiat currency in order to start using their account in the exchange platform. Bitstamp offers multiple options for depositing currencies, which include card purchasing, bank transfering, deposit to Bitstamp’s wallets, IOU Ripple Payment and auto-convert.

It also offers varied options for withdrawing funds, such as EU Bank SEPA, bank transfer (wire), cryptocurrency, and IOU (BTC, USD).

Deposits

In order to deposit fiat currency or cryptocurrency in the Bitstamp exchange platform, the user can simply click Deposit from the top-right corner of the dashboard. The options for depositing fiat money or cryptocurrency can be seen on the left menu.

Card Purchase

A Bitstamp exchange platform trader can use his or her Mastercard, Maestro or Visa card to buy Bitcoins, XRP, Litecoins, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and XLM. Using a credit or debit card to purchase Paxos is currently disabled. To access this option, the user should click Card Purchase on the left menu, select the cryptocurrency and the amount of money that he or she wants to spend on buying it and then click Buy. The registered amount should be more than 50 EUR/ USD/ GBP.

The following screen gives an overview of the fees and the amount of cryptocurrency that will be purchased after the fee deduction. The fees include the Instant Service Fee, which is 5% and the trading fee, which changes depending on the trading volume of the last 30 days. The user should then click Enter card info.

The Bitstamp user should fill in the boxes with his or her card information, as usual. The user has to write the card number, the cardholder’s name, the expiry date and the security code, which is the three digits at the back of the card. And then, they may click Buy now.

Bank Transfer

The trader who wants to deposit money into her Bitstamp account by using her personal bank, should click Bank Transfer on the left menu and fill in the form. The trader has to fill in his or her first and last name, the currency of the money being sent, the currency of the money in the Bitstamp account and the amount that the trader wants to send. The amount should be above 50 for all the available currencies (Euro, US Dollar, British Pound Australian Dollar, Swiss Franc). Then, the user should click Deposit.

The user, then, receives Bitstamp’s company and bank information and also a message number in an orange box. This message MUST BE INCLUDED in the bank deposit message, otherwise the account will not be credited. The user is allowed to deposit funds in Bitstamp only from a bank on his or her name. The deposit will not be handled if the bank account is held on another person's name or company.

Cryptocurrency Deposit

Depositing cryptocurrency is really easy on Bitstamp. The trader should click Cryptocurrency from the left menu and select the cryptocurrency he or she wants to deposit. The available options are Bitcoin, XRP, Litecoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar Lumens and Paxos Standard. The relevant address appears on the screen, which can be copied with one click or receive a QR code of it. The user should be careful to only send Bitcoins to the Bitcoin address, Ethereum to the Ethereum address, etc. Depending on which cryptocurrency is being deposited, different numbers of network confirmations are required, before the cryptocurrency registers in the user’s account.

IOU Ripple Payment

The IOU Ripple Payment supports only Bitcoins and US Dollar deposits. The trader must whitelist the specified address and add the unique destination tag for his or her personal account, so that the deposit is successful.

Withdrawals

In order to withdraw the funds from the Bitstamp account, the user can simply click Withdrawal from the top-right corner of the dashboard. The options for withdrawing the available money or cryptocurrency can be seen on the left menu.

EU Bank SEPA

If the trader possesses a European Bank account to his name, he can withdraw the money on this account. Bitstamp is very clear that only withdrawals to accounts held to the trader’s name will be processed. If the trader withdraws money from the USD balance, the funds will be automatically converted to EUR.

On the top-right corner of the screen, the user can see the available GBP, EUR, and USD, which he or she can withdraw. The user’s Personal Details are usually automatically filled in, but he or she has to add the Amount that wants to be withdrawn, from which Account Balance the user wants to withdraw (EUR, GBP, USD), and the user’s IBAN. Then, the trader should click Withdraw to submit the withdrawal request.

Bank Transfer (wire)

To withdraw money from any bank outside SEPA, the user has to click Bank Transfer (wire) from the left menu. Again, the withdrawal account should be held in the name of the Bitstamp platform user. The Personal Information is automatically filled in and the user has to select the Account Balance, meaning from which currency in the Bitstamp account the user wants to withdraw money, the amount that she wants to transfer, and the currency that she wants the money to be converted to. Options for payment include the Australian Dollar, British Pound, US Dollar, and Swiss Franc. Then, the trader has to carefully and correctly submit her Bank Information. More specifically, she needs to write the Bank Name, Bank Address, Bank Postal Code, Bank Postal City, the IBAN/Account Number, the SWIFT/ BIC/ Fedwire Routing Number/ Sort Code, and Fedwire Intermediary Bank Routing Number/ BIC. Finally, to submit the withdrawal request, the trader should click Withdraw.

Cryptocurrency Withdrawals

If a user wants to withdraw his available cryptocurrencies to another wallet outside of the Bitstamp account, he can simply do it by clicking Cryptocurrency on the left menu. The user has to select the type of cryptocurrency, then write the Destination Cryptocurrency Address. If whitelisting is enabled, which is strongly suggested, the user has to select one of the whitelisted addresses. Then the Amount of the transferred cryptocurrency should be specified. When all the information is carefully reviewed by the user, he should click Authenticate and withdraw.

IOU Ripple Payment

Users who want to use the Ripple Network to withdraw their cryptocurrencies have the option to do so by clicking IOU Ripple Payment on the left menu.

From here, they will need to write the Destination XRP Address, the Amount they want to transfer, and the Currency. The only available currencies are Bitcoins and US dollars. Then, they should click 2FA & withdraw, which will initiate the Two-Factor Authentication process and the withdrawal. Bitstamp’s policy discloses that by initiating an XRP payment to the Ripple network, the user’s funds are transferred outside the Bitstamp website and, once the transaction has cleared, they cannot control or be responsible for any losses, failures, or problems raised by the Ripple Network.

Transaction Fees

An overview of the fee schedule can be found at the bottom of the main website, under the About section. The user can click Fee Schedule to access it. The Bitstamp exchange platform has a relatively complicated transaction fee system which changes depending on factors like: the currencies involved, whether or not it is a deposit, or a withdrawal, and the trading volume of the past 30 days.

• Trading Fees. If the user’s trading volume is below $10.000, he or she is charged a basic fee of 0,5%, which is almost double than the industry average. Bitstamp has set fee tiers, where the fees lower when the last 30 days’ trading volume increases by a significant amount. If a trader or a corporation trades more than $10 billion worth of cryptocurrency, for example, then the trading fee becomes 0.

• Deposits of fiat currencies that use SEPA, ACH, and Faster Payments (UK) are free of charge. Deposits made by international wire transfers have a fee of 0.05%, with a minimum fee of 7.5 USD/EUR or 5 GBP and a max fee of 300 USD/EUR or 250 GBP.
• Deposits of cryptocurrencies that are used in the platform (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, XRP, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar and Paxos) are all free of charge.
• Purchasing cryptocurrencies with a credit or a debit card carries a 5% fee and the card issuer might charge additional fees.
• Different withdrawal methods come with different price tags on Bitstamp. When someone uses SEPA, for example, it costs 3.00 EUR. ACH transactions are free of charge. Faster Payments cost 2.00 GBP. International wire has a 0.1% fee with a minimum fee of 25 USD/EUR/GBP, excluding the bank fees that might be charged.
• Each cryptocurrency has a different withdrawal fee. For example, Bitcoin has a fee of 0.0005 BTC and Ethereum has a fee of 0.04 ETH. These prices can change depending on the increased or decreased traffic of each cryptocurrency transaction network (blockchain) .

Trading Interface

When a new Bitstamp exchange platform user completes the registration process, the verification process, and makes his or her first deposit of fiat or cryptocurrency, then the new user can easily start trading by clicking Tradeview on the top-right corner of the dashboard.

Bitstamp offers a live trading interface, with tools that can satisfy even the most demanding pro trader. The user can change into light or dark mode from the settings, for example.

At the top-left corner of the tradeview, the user can switch between the trading pairs that are offered in Bitstamp and select the one he or she wants to learn more about. In the center of the screen, one can find the Trading Chart. On the trading chart, the changes in prices can be seen in the form of candlesticks.

The chart is fully customisable to accommodate the user’s needs and preferences. At the bottom-right, there is the Order Book, which shows all the active open buy and sell limit orders for the selected pair. At the bottom left, the user can see the Depth Chart. The green chart in the depth chart represents the limit buy orders and the red chart represents the limit sell orders. On the left side of the tradeview, the user can find the Trades column of all the recently executed trades on the specified trading pair.

Finally, at the right side of the screen, the traders can see the New Order and Open Orders column, where they can make the trades. At the top, in the New Order section, they can place a new order. Meanwhile, at the bottom in the Open orders section, they can manage the older ones. For more detailed information, Bitstamp’s users can watch the official series of instructional videos, available on Youtube.

Order

Since Bitstamp does not offer advanced trading options, like margin and lending, placing new orders becomes very simple for any level of trader on this platform. Bitstamp also has easy-to-understand prompts in the brackets of each order type, for example: I want to spend… , I want to sell… , If the price rises to… etc. These non-technical prompts allow even beginners to easily complete and handle their orders.

To place a new order, the trader first has to select the pair of currencies he or she wants to trade from the top-left corner of the tradeview.

The second choice the user has to make is whether heor she wants to buy or sell an asset of the selected pair from the order column.

Then, he or she she has to select one of the available order types, which are Instant, Market, Limit, and Stop.

Instant Order

An Instant Order gets executed immediately. The traders select how much they want to spend if it is a Buy Order or how much they want to sell if it is a Sell Order. The currency depends on the selected pairing. The users can see immediately the effective subtotal after the fee is deducted, and how much (approximately) they will receive, based on the current market prices. When they are ready, they can click Buy or Sell to place the order. Since instant orders are executed immediately, the traders will not find them in the Open Orders section.

Market Order

A Market Order enables traders to buy or sell currencies at the best possible market price. This function gives users the option to open an order at a better price than they would get with an instant order.

This option allows the traders to express how much they want to buy from a currency or how much they want to sell. The fee is deducted automatically and the traders see how much they have to pay or how much they will receive, depending on the amount they want to buy or sell respectively. The market order will be placed when the traders click Buy or Sell, and it will be carried immediately, so it will not appear in the Open Orders section.

Limit Order

A Limit Order allows the trader to specify at which price he or she wants to buy or sell a desired amount of cryptocurrency. The order will not be carried immediately. Instead, it will be carried when the market reaches the specified conditions.

The trader has to decide the amount he or she wants to buy or sell and then the sell or buy price. To place the order, the user has to click Buy or Sell.

Since the trading is not carried out immediately, the trader can see the order under the Open Orders section. In case the trader wants to cancel it, he or she can simply click the x button to the right.

Stop Order

The function of Stop Order is usually used to avoid or limit potential losses in case the price of an asset suddenly drops. When a currency has an upward tendency, a buy stop order can be a good choice. The trader selects the amount she wants to spend and at which price the buy stop order should be executed. Then she should click Buy.

If a trader wants to avoid losses, in case an asset has a significant drop, a sell stop order is suggested. For a sell stop order, the trader selects the amount she wants to sell and at which price this should be executed. Then she must click Sell to place the open order.

Security

Bitstamp’s philosophy has been focused from the beginning on creating one of the safest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. This has become a reality by making sure that more than 98% of its assets are stored safely offline. The Bitstamp team managed to achieve this by partnering up with BitGo, an institutional digital asset trust and security company. Bitstamp has been using cold storage technology in bank-grade Class III vaults, which is considered one of the safest storage methods for cryptocurrencies. In combination with BitGo’s assets insurance policy of $100 million (USD), Bitstamp’s traders can feel safe that they are receiving the most secure services in the cryptocurrency industry.

Besides the thorough verification process, which includes the selfie video and the Two-Factor Authentication process, Bitstamp offers the possibility to enable Whitelisting. When a user enables whitelisting on her account, the account can only withdraw cryptocurrency from authorised addresses. The user is the one who chooses to which addresses the account can send cryptocurrency, by adding them to the whitelist and confirming the transaction each time. In that way, the user can be sure that she knows the purpose of each transaction.

The user can enable this by first clicking Withdrawal to the top-right corner of the dashboard, then by clicking Whitelist to the bottom of the left menu, and finally by clicking the green button Enable whitelisting in the middle of the screen. The account is ready to include the whitelisted addresses, by clicking Add new withdrawal address.

Furthermore, Bitstamp offers clear suggestions to its traders about the best practices to protect their accounts and to avoid breaches. The user of the exchange platform should set a strong password, use the Two-Factor-Authentication process, and safely store the 2FA key that they received during the verification process. Bitstamp makes clear that customer support will never ask for the user’s password, and the user should not share login credentials with anyone or let others open an account to their name. Social media will never be used by Bitstamp for giveaways and requests of funds, and profiles who attempt this should be reported and blocked by the exchange’s users.

Customer Support

Before contacting customer support, the users can try to find the answer to their questions, by visiting the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) webpage of the platform. They can do this by scrolling at the bottom of the screen and clicking the FAQ, below the About section. The FAQ page has more than 70 questions and answers about the most common topics that arise during the use of the platform. Another solution is to watch the official videos on Bitstamp’s Youtube channel.

If the FAQ page is not sufficient, Bitstamp has 24/7 customer support for any question that might arise to the traders regarding the platform. The user can access the support form by clicking Account on the top-right corner of the dashboard and then Support on the left menu.

The user can then select the category of his or her inquiry, for example, Bank Withdrawal, Bitcoin Deposit, Verification, etc., write his message or question, upload a relevant file (PNG, JPG, or PDF) and click the green button Send to support. Alternatively, the customer can also contact Bitstamp at +44 20 3868 9628, +1 646 568 9784, or send an email directly to support@bitstamp.net. The customer support usually replies between 24 - 72 hours.

Corporate accounts receive a dedicated account manager who will help them in every step of the way.

Bitstamp is also very active on social media. Bitstamp traders can follow the company’s official pages on LinkedIn and Facebook and get great insights into the company and the cryptocurrency industry.

Regulations

Bitstamp has supported the Bitcoin industry since 2011. Its founders embraced self-regulation from the start and started the procedures to become legally regulated. In 2013, they were rejected from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, because Bitcoin was not classified as a currency, so their exchange platform could not be considered a trading platform and therefore be subjected to the relevant regulations. This changed in 2016, when they managed to receive a full regulation license by the government of Luxembourg. Since then, Bitstamp has managed to become regulated and has received permits to operate in all EU member countries.

Bitstamp also gets audited, once a year, by one of the ‘Big Four’. The ‘Big Four’ is composed of the four largest professional services networks in the world. More specifically, these are Ernst & Young, Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers(PwC), and KPMG. They make sure that Bitstamp maintains its transparency and that the platform is not used for money laundering or other malpractices.

Bitstamp’s team says that it wants to incorporate more cryptocurrencies in its platform, but this will not materialise unless the digital assets pass the technical, safety, and compliance reviews, but also the regulatory approval in multiple jurisdictions.

Why Bitstamp?

Bitstamp is a veteran exchange that has proven its secure and reliable way to perform fiat-to-crypto exchanges, since 2011. It features an easy-to-use trading interface that can accommodate both a beginner and a professional trader and a really helpful customer support service, which is available 24/7.

Despite not have as many functions as other platforms, the security and liquidity that Bitstamp offers are top in the industry. The exchange wants to expand its portfolio and the management actively scrutinises the available coins to see which one to incorporate, but Bitstamp is not going to compromise security and liquidity.

Bitstamp’s insurance policy, the cold storage technology in Class III vaults and the thorough verification process can offer the protection that every investor wants for their assets.

Bitstamp is ideal for high-volume traders who desire absolute security for their assets in a fully regulated environment. The new NASDAQ matching engine increased further the speed of order matching which allows a matching performance as effective as in traditional financial markets, with sub-millisecond order executions.

Conclusion

Bitstamp was founded when the two co-founders became obsessed with creating a reliable and secure cryptocurrency exchange platform compared to what was available, back in 2011. They managed to surpass expectations by becoming a fully regulated company to all the European countries and create one of the safest exchange platforms in the world to this day.

Bitstamp has a more conservative approach compared to other exchange platforms and it does not offer advanced trading options, like margin, and lending or advanced services like buy/swap, and referral programs. But a trader can be sure that the available services are conducted in the most secure and compliant way possible. Bitstamp exchange platform has selected the most commonly traded cryptocurrencies to accomplish inexhaustible liquidity.

Bitstamp has a proven track record, a clientele of 4 million people, and more than 180 employees in Luxembourg, New York, London, and Slovenia who trust, support it, and invest in it.

Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency Industry is a highly volatile market, with unpredictable upwards and downwards tendencies. Extreme caution and a deep understanding of the industry are essential while trading cryptocurrencies to avoid losses. Each trader has to be aware of the high risks and should take into consideration the appropriate level of risk for his or her specific financial situation.