Crypto Exchange Comparison in Australia

Cryptocurrencies are an increasingly popular asset in Australia to invest in. With Bitcoin headlining the news and social media platforms earlier this year, it’s not surprising that many have looked into jumping into the crypto space and try their hand at crypto investing. 

This is where our crypto exchange comparison comes in – you’ll have an insight into how popular exchanges operate as well as an understanding of their end-to-end fees.

How easy or hard is it to buy cryptocurrencies?

The process for buying Bitcoin has never been easier, especially when buying through a crypto exchange. That said, there are some things to be aware of when buying crypto through exchanges.

For one, you have to consider the cryptocurrencies that the exchange supports. This isn’t much of an issue for those wanting to invest in the more notable coins such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), or Ripple (XRP).

However, for those who are more interested in investing in smaller coins such as Dogecoin (DOGE), it’s important to keep that in mind.

Other variables to consider are the fees that are associated with buying crypto through exchanges. These fees range from network fees, withdrawal fees, blockchain fees, exchange fees, and more.

Some exchanges will have different labels for these fees – and some less transparent than others. The bottom line is that as an investor you want to get the most out of your hard-earned Australian dollars. This crypto exchange comparison in Australia will hopefully instill some insight for Aussies interested in getting into the crypto space.

In this article, we’ll be comparing the costs and fees when buying crypto through Easy Crypto along with other popular options in Australia. 

Check the latest BTC rates: Click here to view the latest Bitcoin prices in Australia.

Comparing crypto exchanges in Australia

As we prefaced above, exchange fees and costs are variables to consider when trading crypto. It’s important to note that things are not always what they seem to be. An exchange might seem to have a good deal on the surface, but they could be masking their true costs in different ways. 

To give you a sense of how each exchange operates, we’ve curated a list of crypto exchanges in Australia to make a comparison on how they each fare against Easy Crypto when buying Bitcoin (BTC).

Experiment setup

For this comparison, we’ll be conducting a deposit of AUD $100 to buy the maximum amount of BTC possible, and then have it transferred to our external crypto wallet.

All trades will be completed as close to each other as possible. Starting at 11:00 am AEDT 18/03/2021. Additionally, the Spot price / Reference price used will be from CoinDesk. They were chosen over Coin Market Cap as it is owned by Binance (we wanted a reference that is as objective as possible). 

The block explorer that was used is Blockchain.com, and Mempool.space was used for statistics and unconfirmed transactions. 

All TXID’s have been made public in the interest of fairness and accountability. You can check them out below:

• Binance
• Swyftx
• CoinBase
• Easy Crypto

While a new wallet address was used, when the transfers were made, in the interest of efficiency the preloaded and test purchased BTC was moved with them. Hence why the TXID may show different amounts being moved.

Here is the wallet address that we’ve used:

bc1q5k6r895v5yks0k22m3ksfnuz228g0mtge9j9ev

Experiment 1: Binance

Purchase:

To start the day, the spot price was $75,652.25 AUD at the time of our first purchase. We decided to use Binance as the largest benchmark. 

At a glance, the fees at Binance sound amazing: 0% plus the 0.0750% Maker / 0.0750% Taker fees.

For those not familiar with Maker & Taker fees, they are paid to the liquidity providers. They are in simple terms a rebate for traders that take the risks and participate in markets.

The Card order was placed at 10:55 am which resulted in 0.001281 BTC. 

The transaction process was relatively painless, only having to enter your CVC if you have made previous purchases with that card. However, some banks like Commbank will make you complete a 2-factor authentication step before they will process the transaction. Banks like UP (Bendigo and Adelaide Bank) complete this process however, no user input is required. 

Once placed, the order is filled instantly and is visible in your wallet. There is a significant time delay in it appearing in your transaction history and it can be difficult to see the rate and/or fees once paid. 

*The test transaction was charged a 2% fee, however in the interest of fairness, this has been ignored as it was not charged to this order. 

Transfer:

Arguably the biggest weakness in Binance is leaving their ecosystem. Currently, we have only just been able to withdraw fiat from this exchange as their bank verification system can be quite buggy.

To transfer to an external wallet requires no additional verification other than an email. The system for verifying the address is quite sophisticated, however. It strongly pushes users towards the Binance chain. We believe that this is part of their strategy to keep users within the Binance Ecosystem. 

0.0005 BTC / 50,000 satoshis or $37.83 AUD / $29.61 US at the time for a transaction is the fixed-rate paid for withdrawals, and this includes the network fee. 

This was placed at 11:21 am and the block was confirmed on-chain at 11:26 am. 

This was significantly above the market rate as for block 675094 with a size of 2036 bytes / 2.04kvB. The average fee per byte was 111.337 satoshis /  virtual byte which was slightly above the 102 satoshis / virtual byte average for today assuming a 140 byte average for simple transactions. 

Thus per byte, 357s/vb for negligible speed bonus paying nearly 3x what is necessary for convenience. While higher fees are not uncommon to provide the speeds that customers demand, the fact that this is so hidden and that the user has no control over it is disheartening. Savvy users could save themselves upwards of $25 AUD / $20 USD every block.

Experiment 2: Swyftx

Purchase:

Up next is Swyftx, with the Bitcoin spot price at AUD $75,655.25 at the time of purchase.

Swytfx fees are quite reasonable given the size of the exchange at 0.6% of every transaction. The Card order attempted to be placed at 10:31 am, however after realising that you have to preload your account with fiat to place an order, PayID of $100 AUD was completed. 

This is where one of the issues Swyftx arises. You have to pay AUD $2 for deposits less than $200. While from a business stance this makes sense, small orders can be just as costly as large ones. However, percentage-based approaches really break down as a viable option for small businesses. 

Even with this taken into consideration, at 11:35 am an order for AUD $98.01 of BTC was placed and filled by 0.00128492 BTC. 

In comparison to the Spot price of $75,655.25, with the 0.6% (0.00000775 BTC) included, this is only a difference between the spot and the actual price of 0.8%.

Also worth noting is that they are also considerably more upfront and open about their fees compared with Binance. 

Transfer: 

The biggest issues with Swytfx are in the Withdrawal / Transfer fees. There is limited control over the fees paid for by the user. 

A single transfer cost 0.0005 BTC or 50,000 satoshis / 37.83 AUD / $29.61 US at the time for a transaction is the fixed-rate paid for withdrawals, and this includes the network fee. This was placed at 11:38 am and the block was confirmed on-chain at 11:46 am.

The point we would make is mostly the same as with Binance. Even the BTC address which crypto came from. If anything, this makes me sympathetic to Swytfx as the fees that they are in control of are reasonable. Where they get let down is the transfer process makes them severely uncompetitive. 

The block was 675096 and it was completed at 11:51 am, in total, it took 5 minutes from transferring to receiving the funds. Which is as fast as reasonably possible. 

TXID: a4ca344c93813d0f45adf31c83144f232119ab3579fbec55b31859d588d18bdb

Transaction Index: 2

Experiment 3: Coinbase

Purchase:

The experience with Coinbase was clear and concise, with a simple and straightforward process with minimal clicks. With my card details already entered in was as simple as re-entering the CVC as which point you are presented with this screen: 

The results are clear, concise, and easy to use. They are upfront about their fees, while not the best, at least they were honest. 

Transfer: 

The transfer process was also significantly better than both Binance and Swyftx. The transfer was processed at 11:50 am, added to the mempool by 11:51 am. A single transfer cost of 0.00003485 BTC or 3485 satoshis / AUD $2.63 / USD $2.05 at the time for a transaction. As far as I can tell, this was directly paid to the network at cost. 

You might think being 14x times cheaper for your network fee would massively slow down the transaction, yet it was completed at 12.17 pm. While unlike with Swyftx and Binance, where there were some of the highest-ranking transactions. 

This transaction was indexed at 43, which is about the average out of the 75 transactions. One noticeable downside was having to wait for 2 blocks on the blockchain instead of 1, or 16 minutes for people like you and me. 

The transaction was entered into block 675099 at 12:00 pm and was confirmed in the mempool at 12:01. The transaction was processed at 12:17. 

TXID: 6fa54d270ecccac584d9f9cbed1d0aad400fdc2e8096a44691c20e504412c25a

Transaction Index: 43

Experiment Control: Easy Crypto

Last but certainly not least, is our very own exchange. The same transaction conditions are in place in the interest of fairness for the comparison. We had a team member go through the buying process, which involved purchasing AUD $100 at 3:06 am which subsequently completed by 3:08 am. 

Once the funds had hit Easy Crypto accounts, the order was processed at Market Rate. $76,879.91 AUD and I received 0.00130073 BTC. 

A few minutes later:

That’s it. Done – no transfer section here because Easy Crypto does it for you with BTC. 

How is it done you may ask? Well if you look at some of the previous TXIDs, the majority of the funds came from a handful of addresses, yet, every single one of them had to pay a massive transaction fee. What Easy Crypto does is bunch them all together, save everyone money, then pay for it themselves. 

An economist reading this may be thinking, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Well there is also value in the economics of scale. The difference is, Easy Crypto passes this on to our customers. 

The transaction was added to the blockchain at 3:36 am and completed at 3:40 am as part of block 675116. This gap between placing the order and receiving the funds might be concerning for some, the main reason for this is that to bundle orders together, you need to try and collect as many as possible.

This results in the aforementioned gap above. Rest assured that your funds are safe and secure with us in the meantime. 

At Easy Crypto we make sure this process isn’t at the expense of the customer. Once the funds are received the order is immediately processed, the rate is locked in, and the conditions won’t change regardless of what the market does.

The following is proof:

TXID: 68f665327e8b297d280acc6fb7c7bc406d35ae13bda1ef51708e1dc96c1597c0

Transaction Index: 3

Learn more: What is a cryptocurrency exchange?

Crypto exchange comparison results in Australia

To help you process the comparison findings above, refer to the chart below:

	Purchasing power	Amount of BTC	Effective Cost of BTC	Spot Price	Effective Fee
Easy Crypto	$100.00	0.00130073	$76,879.91	$75,139.87	2.32%
Swyftx	$98.01	0.00128492	$77,825.86	$75,655.34	2.87%
Binance	$100.00	0.001281	$78,064.01	$75,682.25	3.15%
CoinBase	$100.00	0.00126943	$78,775.51	$75,489.03	4.35%
CoinBase w/ trade	$100.00	0.00123458	$80,999.21	$75,318.25	7.54%
Swyftx w/ trade	$98.01	0.00078492	$127,401.52	$75,391.19	68.99%
Binance w/ trade	$100.00	0.000781	$128,040.97	$75,564.63	69.45%

To summarize, below are the crypto exchanges in Australia ranked by their advertised rate v. actual BTC received to our external crypto wallet:

1. Easy Crypto: AUD $76,879.91 rate. We received 0.00130073 BTC in our wallet.
2. Swyftx: AUD $77,825.86 rate. We received 0.00128492 BTC in our wallet.
3. Binance: AUD $78,046.01 rate. We received 0.001281 BTC in our wallet.
4. CoinBase: AUD $78,775.51 rate. We received 0.00126943 in our wallet.

Below are the crypto exchanges ranked based on the advertised rate for BTC/AUD from lowest to highest:

1. Easy Crypto
2. Swyftx
3. Binance
4. Coinbase

Below are the results for the amount of BTC received to our external crypto wallet from each exchange, ranked from most received to least received amount:

1. Easy Crypto
2. Swyftx
3. Binance
4. CoinBase

As you can tell from the results above, sometimes lower rates do not guarantee it will net you more BTC for the same amount of AUD.

You can purchase Bitcoin at lower rates, but still end up with fewer bitcoins because of additional fees and costs that are incurred.

We think the comparison results here speak for themselves. With all things considered, Easy Crypto will net you the most BTC delivered to your crypto wallet.

Now, anytime someone says that Easy Crypto isn’t also the cheapest crypto around, show them this, especially if they actually want to hold on to their funds themselves. 

Safety first! Click here to shop our crypto hardware wallets collection.

Buying Bitcoin in Australia with Easy Crypto

In the end, we all want to get the most value out of our Bitcoin or crypto purchases.

Regardless if you’re a newcomer or a long-time investor, a crypto exchange comparison in Australia like this article is crucial in understanding the true costs of crypto transactions, allowing you to achieve your investment goals with more precision and efficiency.

We hope this crypto exchange comparison has been insightful and provides you with a better understanding of the fees involved when making crypto transactions in Australia. 

With that said, our team at Easy Crypto makes it quick and easy to buy Bitcoin or any other crypto in Australia. With competitive rates, the flexibility to trade directly between your crypto assets, portfolio tracking, and the ability to automate your purchases – we’ve got you covered. 

Get started: Click here to Buy Bitcoin in Australia

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