Cryptomate Review
Summary
Cryptomate is a UK-based cryptocurrency platform which was established in 2015. In total, they support 20 cryptocurrencies – including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC).
While the process of buying cryptocurrencies is straightforward enough, it’s not as beginner-friendly as many other options out there.
Cryptomate also charges quite high fees. When I used it to buy some Bitcoin (BTC), I was charged about 5.5% in fees. This fee is variable though, so you might end up paying more or less than this.
What is Cryptomate? How does the platform work? Can you trust them?
And how does it compare to all the other options we have to buy Bitcoin (BTC) in the UK?
Check out this Cryptomate review to find out more about this UK-based crypto platform.
Advantages & Disadvantages
Advantages
- Established in 2015.
- Supports UK bank transfers (via Faster Payments).
- 4.0-star Trustpilot rating (500+ reviews).
- Support 20 cryptocurrencies (including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple).
Disadvantages
- High fees (5.5% when I tested it out).
- Minimum purchase per order is £100 (which is high).
- Maximum purchase per order is £1000 (which is low).
- No disclosure of what fees you’re paying. You’ll have to work it out yourself.
- The interface looks a little dated.
What Is Cryptomate?
Established in 2015 by William Thomas, Cryptomate was originally a UK-based company with offices in Cardiff.
However, it’s now operated by a Lithuanian company called UAB JM Trading – which is run by Jamie Green and Mark Lemon. This is the same company that now operates BC Bitcoin.
Since it was established in 2015, Cryptomate has:
- Served more than 12,000 customers.
- Fulfilled about 54,000 orders.
- Processed about £18.4 million in orders.
They’ve got a 4.0-star Trustpilot rating, with more than 500 reviews.
Many of the positive reviews highlight how much faster and user-friendly Cryptomate is compared to other platforms, and their friendly customer service.
How Does Cryptomate Work?
When you’re using Cryptomate to buy cryptocurrency, your order may be processed by them OR an approved external vendor.
In either case, it works the same way.
- Register for a Cryptomate account. You’ll need to verify your identity.
- Select what cryptocurrency you want to buy.
- Input how much you want to buy.
- Your order will then be matched with a seller. This can take some time.
- Send GBP via bank transfer to the specified bank account.
- Once your payment has been verified, the coins will be sent to your cryptocurrency wallet.
Once you’ve sent your GBP, you should normally receive your cryptocurrency within 2 hours. Cryptomate claims it’s usually quicker than this (within 15 minutes), which seems to match-up with what people have told me and what’s being said in many Trustpilot reviews.
However, Cryptomate isn’t an automated service. Payments are manually checked and processed by someone on the other end. This means that it could take longer to receive your cryptocurrency, especially outside of daytime/evening hours in the UK.
You can also sell your cryptocurrency to Cryptomate. You can sell any cryptocurrency supported by them – but they will accept others on-request too. Once they’ve got the coins, they’ll send GBP via a UK bank transfer. They claim that the whole process should take about 30 minutes.
Supported Cryptocurrencies
Cryptomate currently support 20 cryptocurrencies, which includes Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), and many other popular coins.
Since I first wrote this review, a number of cryptocurrencies have been removed (from 30). This includes privacy-focused cryptocurrencies like Monero (XMR) and Zcash (ZEC).
Payment Methods
The only payment method accepted by Cryptomate is a UK bank transfer.
You’ll need to ensure that you’re using a bank that supports UK bank transfers via the Faster Payments Service (FPS). You can use this tool to quickly check.
Limits
Like other places, you’ll need to register for an account and verify your identity (photo ID and proof of address) to use Cryptomate. This is necessary to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) regulations.
The minimum order amount on Cryptomate is £100, which is higher than most services I’ve checked out.
The maximum order amount on Cryptomate is £1000 too, which is lower than most places I’ve reviewed.
Fees
Cryptomate’s fees are incorporated into the price that you’re offered for cryptocurrencies.
For example: At the time of writing, I was able to find Bitcoin (BTC) on a cryptocurrency exchange for about £31,338 per BTC. On Cryptomate, they were quoting prices that were about 5.5% higher than this.
This is a variable fee, which means that it might be different from one hour to the next. It might also differ depending on the cryptocurrency you’re looking to buy.
When I bought some Bitcoin (BTC) using Cryptomate, I found that I was charged about 5.5% in fees. However, I found that the fees were about 6.5% when I checked the prices of some other cryptocurrencies the next day. Transaction size doesn’t seem to the impact the fee you’re charged.
These are significant fees. You can quickly and easily buy Bitcoin (BTC) from a number of other places using a UK bank transfer without paying more than about 2% in fees.
Take a look at how it compares to some of the other options I’ve reviewed:
| Provider | Fees (Approx.) | Review |
|---|---|---|
| CoinJar | 1% | CoinJar Review |
| Bottlepay | 1% | Bottlepay Review |
| Gemini | 1.99% (if > £150) | Gemini Review |
| Solidi | 2% | Solidi Review |
| Bittylicious | 2% | Bittylicious Review |
| Crypto.com | Variable Exchange Rate | Crypto.com Review |
Cryptocurrency Wallets
Most places where you buy cryptocurrency let you store in on their platform, but this isn’t an option with Cryptomate.
Before you can buy any cryptocurrency with Cryptomate, you’ll have to provide them with an external wallet address to send the funds over to.
This isn’t as beginner-friendly as alternatives which provide you with a hosted wallet where you can temporarily store any cryptocurrency you buy from them.
Most people prefer to store their cryptocurrency long-term in hardware wallets. You can get an overview of all your options in my post about the best hardware wallets. Of all the ones I’ve tested out, I prefer the Ledger Nano S over anything else that’s currently available (as it supports tons of cryptocurrencies, but is also affordable).
But if you’re an absolute beginner who just wants to buy some cryptocurrency and not worry about all this faff?
…then Cryptomate probably isn’t a good choice for you.
Cryptomate Alternatives
The closest alternatives to Cryptomate are Solidi and Bittylicious.
Each of these three options works in much the same manner. You tell them how much of a cryptocurrency you’d like to buy and then match you up with a pre-verified vendor.
Solidi is usually the cheapest of these three, with fees that are somewhere around 2%, but Bittylicious is only a little higher whenever I’ve checked.
Conclusion: It’s an Expensive Choice
There’s no avoiding this: the fees on Cryptomate aren’t great.
There are a number of better places that you can buy Bitcoin (BTC) more cheaply.
And there is no significant upside which justifies paying fees like this in 2023.
The only benefit is that you’ll likely get better support (via live chat) than if you used alternatives like Coinbase or Kraken (which both have lower Trustpilot ratings). When I tested Cryptomate out, I found that they were a bit slow – but they did eventually address all the questions I had and were helpful when I had a problem with an order I placed.
But I don’t think this justifies the fees that it charges.
Share Your Thoughts
Thanks for reading this Cryptomate review!
Have a question? Or want to share your experience?
Leave a comment below and let us know!
There is no ability to buy coins without verification with Cryptomate. Odd that you advertise this as such a big positive when it isn’t true.
Thanks for letting me know about this, John!
You’re 100% right – I’ve gone ahead and updated the review.
Before and during 2020, you were able to buy cryptocurrencies using Cryptomate without any verification. This has likely changed due to new requirements being placed on UK sites by the FCA since the start of 2021.
Given this, I can’t see much reason to use Cryptomate over UK alternatives like Solidi, Bittylicious, or BC Bitcoin (all of which tend to be cheaper).