Bitbuy Review 2024: Is Bitbuy Safe and Legit?

In this post, we're going to dive in and explore Bitbuy's features, trading fees, available cryptocurrencies, alternatives and everything the exchange has to offer. 

Key takeaways:

• Offers secure access to buy, sell and trade popular cryptocurrencies
• Exchange is only available to users in Canada
• Great security and strongly regulated by federal authorities

If you want to create an account on Bitbuy, get started here.

What Is Bitbuy? 

Bitbuy is a top cryptocurrency exchange for traders based in Canada.

Founded by Adam Goldman and Ademar Gonzalez in 2016, the crypto exchange is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and runs with a mission to help Canadians buy, sell and trade cryptocurrencies securely.

For traders in the Canadian market, Bitbuy offers a user-friendly platform for trading crypto assets (Express & Pro), corporate solutions, and a private wealth management program (OTC) for high-volume investors.

Regarding security and regulation, Bitbuy maintains strict measures for your account, data, and asset protection. The exchange Is strongly regulated by Canadian federal authorities like the Ontario Securities Commission and Canadian Securities Administrators. It is also registered with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) as a Money Services Business (MSB).

In trading volume, Bitbuy has grossed over $5B Canadian dollars (CAD) and is used by 400,000+ Canadians to trade 20+ cryptocurrencies listed on its platform.

The exchange’s main objective is to foster a safe and secure trading environment for Canadians, with a focus on user-friendliness, transparency, and customer satisfaction.

Who Should Use BitBuy?

Here's who you should use BitBuy to trade cryptocurrencies.

• Canadians who prefer Interac e-Transfer deposits.
• Investors who value lower trading fees.
• People who prioritize simplicity and ease of use.
• Those who are comfortable with a smaller selection of cryptocurrencies.

Pros and Cons

For Express, you’re charged a fee of 1.50% per transaction. This fee could be less when your trading volume exceeds the $250k mark in the previous 90 days. 

Pro traders also pay a fee of 1.5% per transaction for both market makers and takers. And if you have a trading volume below $250k in the previous 90 days, you’ll pay a less fee depending on your tier. You can see the tiered fee structure here.

Bitbuy supports free deposits for both fiat and crypto. This means you can send in your crypto from another wallet or fiat money into the platform with zero charges. 

For crypto withdrawals, the fee you pay depends on the particular asset. You can see withdrawal fees for each crypto asset here.

However, if you’re withdrawing fiat money via wire transfer or Interac e-transfer route, you pay withdrawal fees of 1.5% per transaction.

Bitbuy Products & Features

In this section we'll go through the main products and features offered from Bitbuy.

Express Trade

Bitbuy’s Express Trade is perfect for the crypto beginner who wants to skip the complex stuff and just buy or sell crypto assets at market price. 

To get started trading on Express, you need to first deposit funds (Canadian dollars) via wire transfer, credit card, or e-transfer into your wallet. When you deposit $250 or more, you get a free $20 bonus.

Once your CAD funds are in your Bitbuy fiat wallet, you can now proceed to select the coin you want to buy, enter the purchase amount and buy.

You can also sell available crypto assets from the Express Trade platform. It’s pretty easy to use.

Pro Trade 

Pro Trade is well-suited for advanced crypto traders who want to dive deep into technical analysis.

The interface offers comprehensive live charts to view trading market pairs and monitor price movements.

Plus, you’ll also get access to more advanced order types (than in Express Trade) and a live order book to monitor ongoing trades.

Bitbuy Corporate Solutions 

Bitbuy offers unique crypto investment solutions designed to help Canadian businesses and corporations diversify their treasury by adding crypto to the mix.

When you sign up for Bitbuy Corporate Solutions, your business gets access to:

• A white-glove support service with a dedicated account manager
• Trade execution and custody
• Over-the-counter (OTC) desk liquidity
• Collaboration with industry-leading account professionals 

And more.

The service is trusted and used by over 1,500 businesses to add crypto to their balance sheet.

Bitbuy Private Wealth (OTC)

Bitbuy’s private wealth program and OTC desk offer private banking and account management for your cryptocurrency needs.

The program is designed for high-volume customers who are looking to invest massively in cryptocurrency and need a personal account manager. 

When you join, you get access to:

• Best crypto rates
• Early entry to newly listed coins
• White-glove service which comes with a dedicated account manager
• Collaboration with tax and account professionals

And more.

However, you need a minimum investment of $25,000 (CAD) to join the program.

Bitbuy API

Bitbuy’s API is available to trusted partners who want unlimited crypto trading market data access.

The API offers unlimited access to Bitbuy’s 10+ trading markets which feature CAD-to-crypto and crypto-to-crypto pairs.

Anyone looking to automate trading activity and access exchange rates can use it.

You can request API keys and view the documentation on the Bitbuy API page.

Bitbuy Mobile Apps

If you love to trade Bitcoin, Ethereum or your favorite crypto on the go, you should get on the Bitbuy mobile app.

Bitbuy’s mobile app was designed to offer a seamless crypto trading experience with an easy-to-use wallet and interface.

Right on your phone, you can deposit fiat currency, withdraw your assets and place market buy and sell orders. 

The mobile app is available on both iOS and Android. 

Available Cryptos on Bitbuy 

Bitbuy allows its users to buy, sell and trade up to 25 cryptocurrencies in minutes.

The crypto assets that are available to trade include:

• Bitcoin (BTC)
• Ethereum (ETH)
• USD Coin (USDC)
• Cardano (ADA)
• Solana (SOL)
• Dogecoin (DOGE)
• Polkadot (DOT)
• Polygon (MATIC)
• Uniswap (UNI)
• Litecoin (LTC)
• Chainlink (LINK)
• Stellar Lumens (XLM)
• Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
• Decentraland (MANA)
• Sandbox (SAND)
• ApeCoin (APE)
• Axie Infinity (AXS)
• Maker (MKR)
• EOS (EOS)
• AAVE (AAVE)
• Fantom (FTM)
• Basic Attention Token (BAT)
• Curve DAO (CRV)
• Compound (COMP)
• SushiSwap (SUSHI)

You can buy or sell any of these tokens in minutes by depositing Canadian dollars (CAD) in your account.

How to Create a Bitbuy Account? - Step By Step

Trading crypto on Bitbuy begins with signing up for an account.

To be eligible to open a Bitbuy account, you must:

• Be a Canadian citizen or resident
• Be 18 years of age or older 
• Have a North American cell phone number (+1 country code)

If you tick all boxes, follow the steps below to sign up for a Bitbuy account:

1. Go to the official Bitbuy website and click on the big Get Started button. 

2. Enter your email address to get started, check the privacy policy box and click the Sign Up button.

3. Next, choose an account type—personal or business. Then, enter your email address, a unique username, and secure password. If you have a referral code, enter it in the box (optional). Finally, click the Submit button.

4. Once you’ve submitted this information, you’ll receive an email to confirm your email address and account. After confirmation, you’ll need to confirm your phone number.

5. Enter a valid North American phone number with +1 country code to complete registration. Once you’ve entered the number, you’ll receive an SMS code on your phone. Next, confirm your phone number by entering the code sent to your phone.

6. After this step, you’ll need to enter some personal information so the Bitbuy platform can verify your identity through an automated third-party identity verification service. 

Once your identity has been verified, you can start trading your favorite crypto coins on Bitbuy.

Is BitBuy Open to US Citizens?

No, US citizens can't use BitBuy to trade cryptocurrencies. As a US citizen, you have amazing crypto exchanges you can use to invest in cryptocurrency.

Bitbuy Alternatives

Here you will find some of the alternatives of Bitbuy Crypto Exchange.

Bitbuy vs Binance

Binance is a global cryptocurrency exchange available to users globally while Bitbuy is restricted to customers in Canada. There are many things to like about Binance over Bitbuy. First, the Seychelles-based exchange offers a more robust suite of crypto-related products such as margin trading, futures trading, staking, and NFTs.

It has hundreds of available-to-trade crypto, is well secured, and offers lower trading fees. With a $9B+ average daily trading volume and 28M+ customers, Binance has all you need in exchange.

Bitbuy only beats Binance in account funding methods and fee-free fiat deposits. You get charged withdrawal fees in Canadian dollars when getting your money out. Also, the Canadian crypto exchange has an incredible customer support team and offers an intuitive, user-friendly trading experience to traders. Overall, Binance is the better pick if you desire an encompassing trading experience. You can checkout our complete Binance review here.

Bitbuy vs Coinbase

Bitbuy and Coinbase are reputable crypto exchanges built to help you buy, sell and trade cryptocurrencies. Both exchanges are well regulated, offer enhanced security mechanisms, and offer user-friendly interfaces to their customers. They also provide robust knowledge centers, and mobile apps for trading on the go and are regulatory compliant in their jurisdictions.

While Bitbuy was built solely for the Canadian market, Coinbase offers its service to many countries globally.The US-based crypto giant also comes with more complementary products (such as staking, lending, and NFTs) along with access to a higher number of crypto assets than Bitbuy.

Bitbuy shines over Coinbase in the area of account deposit routes, trading fee—which is lower when compared to Coinbase—and customer support. Bitbuy supports fee-free fiat deposit (CAD), has mobile apps for trading on the go and offers wealth management for investors and businesses. If you’re based in Canada, you’re better off getting on Bitbuy for a seamless crypto trading experience.

Bitbuy Customer Reviews & Ratings

On TrustPilot, Bitbuy enjoys a rating of 3.2 with 242 reviews which is quite impressive compared to other crypto exchanges.

And looking through the Better Business Bureau (BBB) ratings, Bitbuy holds an A rating even though it’s not yet accredited. 

Looking at TrustPilot reviews by customers of Bitbuy, I saw a good number of excellent comments amidst a little negative feedback. 

Most customers praised the platform’s user-friendliness, excellent customer support, ease of use, and responsiveness.

For example, here are some reviews from customers:

“Bitbuy support helped me out. They were able to cancel an e-Transfer which saved me some transfer fees. Friendly and professional service”

“Easy trading platform. I am trading on a very small scale, but at the pace I like. this site offers options for the avid trader, but also for the amateur”

“Superb all around! I found the experience in purchasing ETH through Bitbuy to be straightforward. The user experience was pleasant, the documentation on their site is quite good, and their customer support is superb. Highly recommended”

Also, Bitbuy has a review page on their site with reviews aggregated from Google reviews, Apple Store and Google Play Store. This page showcases positive comments about the platform from real users.

Bitbuy Customer Support Team

Bitbuy boasts of a reliable customer support team that has endeared many customers to the platform. 

The exchange maintains a solid reputation of offering swift customer service and a trusted trading environment for thousands of customers.

Bitbuy offers speedy support via four routes: 

1. Email: You can contact the Bitbuy team at support@bitbuy.ca or submit a support request with a description of your issue and you’ll get a swift response in a few hours.
2. Knowledge base: This support section contains comprehensive articles and guides to common questions you'll have while using the exchange.
3. Phone: You can call the direct customer support line and receive helpful feedback for your issue.
4. Social media: You could also reach out to the team and get support via their active social media profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or Instagram.

Bitbuy Crypto Exchange FAQs

Verdict - Should You Trade on Bitbuy Crypto Exchange?

For traders based in Canada, Bitbuy is well worth it and would be a great choice for your crypto trading.

The exchange has strength in the areas of ease of use, user-friendliness, security and customer service. Bitbuy is fully regulated and maintains strict security measures which would give peace of mind to any investor. Its support for fiat currency deposit (through wire transfer, credit card, or e-transfer) and withdrawal is also worth mentioning. 

The downside of using Bitbuy is that you pay a premium in trading fees—compared to industry standards and international exchanges—and you’re restricted to 20+ crypto assets. Bitbuy also lacks all the juicy crypto-related products you’ll find elsewhere: staking, Defi, lending, or NFTs. 

Overall, Bitbuy is a decent, secure Canadian crypto exchange and is well recommended for anyone getting started in the world of crypto.