Cryptomate Review
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Ease of Use
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Beginner Friendly
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Payment Options
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Speed
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Fees
Summary
Cryptomate is a UK-based cryptocurrency platform which was established in 2015. In total, they support 30 cryptocurrencies – including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), and a number of smaller cryptocurrencies.
Although it’s simple and easy to use Cryptomate, I paid about 5.5% in fees when I bought some Bitcoin (BTC). This fee is variable, 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 in the UK?
Check out this Cryptomate review to find out more about this popular UK-based crypto platform.
Advantages & Disadvantages
Advantages
- Supports UK bank transfers (via Faster Payments).
- The interface looks a little dated, but it’s straightforward and easy to use.
- UK-based company (Cardiff) established in 2015.
- 4.6* Trustpilot rating (500+ reviews).
- Support 30 cryptocurrencies (including BTC, ETH, and XRP).
Disadvantages
- High fees (5.5% when I tested it out).
- No disclosure of what fees you’re paying. You’ll have to work it out yourself.
What Is Cryptomate?
Cryptomate is a UK-based (Cardiff) cryptocurrency platform that was established in 2015 and operates as a UK limited company. The founder is William Thomas.
Cryptomate aims to make buying and selling cryptocurrency secure, fast, and easy. Since they were established in 2015, they have:
- Served more than 11,000 customers.
- Fulfilled about 50,000 orders.
- Processed about £16 million in orders.
They’ve got a 4.6* 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
Compared to similar UK alternatives, you are spoilt for choice with Cryptomate.
They currently support 30 cryptocurrencies, which includes Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Monero (XMR), and many other popular coins.
They’re looking to add new cryptocurrencies to their platform over time and welcome suggestions via email.
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.
If you’re looking to buy more than £5000 in one go, then you will get a better deal if you go through Cryptomate’s OTC service. You can find out more about that here.
The minimum order amount on Cryptomate is £50, which is a little higher than other services I’ve checked out.
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 Monero (XMR) on a cryptocurrency exchange for about £68.09 per XMR. On Cryptomate, they were quoting 72.72 per XMR. This means that there’s a hidden fee of about 6.5%.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Solidi | 1 - 2% | Solidi Review |
| Bittylicious | 1 - 2% | Bittylicious Review |
| Wirex | 2.5% | Wirex Review |
| Crypto.com | 2.99% | Crypto.com Review |
| BC Bitcoin | 4% | BC Bitcoin 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. I prefer how this works, as I don’t like to leave my cryptocurrency on exchanges. Purchases just go straight into a cryptocurrency wallet you control.
I have a few mobile wallets, but I tend to use my hardware wallet as much as possible. 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 and Ledger Nano X over anything else that’s currently available.
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.
Here are the main points I picked out from these three:
| Cryptomate | Bittylicious | Solidi | |
|---|---|---|---|
| # of Supported Cryptocurrencies | 30 | 8 | 5 |
| Payment Methods | UK Bank Transfer | UK Bank Transfer Credit & Debit Card | UK Bank Transfer |
| Approx. Fees | 5-6% | 1-2% | 1-2% |
| Custodial Wallet | No | No | Yes (100% Cold Storage) |
| Automated Transactions | No | Yes | Yes |
| FULL REVIEW | - | Bittylicious Review | Solidi Review |
Solidi is usually the cheapest of the lot, with fees that are somewhere between 1% and 2%. That’s a competitive rate, especially considering how fast, simple, and easy it is to use. However, they currently only support Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP), and Chainlink (LINK).
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 2021.
The only benefit is that it supports some cryptocurrencies – like Monero (XMR) – that can be difficult to get your hands on in the UK.
The customer service (via live chat) was a little slow, but they did address all the questions I had and were helpful when I had a problem with an order I placed.
Check out their website to learn more about them.
Cryptomate WebsiteShare 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).