Uphold Review 2024

Uphold is a digital trading platform that allows users to buy and sell several assets all over the world. Over 250 cryptocurrencies, 37 national currencies, and 4 precious metals can be traded, stored, sent, deposited, and withdrawn with complete transparency and convenience on the Uphold platform.

If you're looking for a safe, streamlined, and easy way to buy, sell, and store your digital currency, Uphold could be a great option for you. In this review, we will cover a diverse range of aspects of Uphold including available cryptocurrencies, trade experience, fees, security, customer support, and other pros and cons of the platform.

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	Uphold	8.4	Visituphold.com

Uphold Overview

Pros and Cons of Uphold

Uphold Features

The platform features are broadly competitive with those of other exchanges. However, the quality of the features may differ based on your unique requirements and preferences.

Trading Tools

The trading features on Uphold are intuitive and simple to use. When you open an account and deposit money into it using a card or bank account, you can buy crypto or other assets right away. This process is quick and streamlined, so even a complete newbie will have no trouble navigating it.

The pricing charts on Uphold are very simplistic - just line graphs showing the price over the last hour, day, week, month, or year. This pales in comparison to the charts provided by Coinbase and Binance, which are fully customizable in terms of display options, drawing tools, and over 100 indicators and strategies to overlay.

When it comes to the features designed specifically for traders, these are also very limited. Uphold provides the ability to make automated recurring purchases and place limit orders, which are both useful tools, but nowhere near as advanced as Crypto.com and Binance, where you can use trading bots to automate strategies and choose between multiple advanced order types.

The other useful trading feature on Uphold is price alerts, which help you keep track of your favorite assets. But again, this feature is more basic than the price alerts provided by Crypto.com and Binance. While Uphold will give you alerts whenever the price moves by 5%, its competitors enable you to choose what percentage change or target price you want to be alerted about.

Uphold Staking

With Uphold staking, users can stake their cryptocurrency holdings at a validator node in exchange for a share of the network's rewards. Uphold allows users to stake 32 different coins including Ethereum, Polkadot, Solana, and Cosmos on the blockchain to earn a passive income stream. Uphold relies on a Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus technique that's used by blockchains to validate and process transactions and create new blocks.

The Uphold app or online wallet is where you'll need to go to get started with staking, and you may need to stake a required minimum quantity of crypto. Users also have the option to unstake assets at any time, although doing so may require them to wait for the asset's network-mandated unbonding period which can range from 3 days to 30 days.

With pretty competitive rewards rates, Uphold is a solid choice for stakers, providing on-chain staking for more coins than most other exchanges. However, if you’re just looking for ways to earn interest on crypto, you’ll find hundreds more opportunities on rival sites such as Binance, KuCoin, and OKX.

Uphold Card

The Uphold card is a MasterCard debit card that allows its holders to spend everything from gold to cash to Bitcoin. The card can be used at more than 50 million locations worldwide, including almost all ATMs. It's simple to utilize the Uphold Card and you can place an order for it through the Uphold app or website wallet.

Spending results in rewards of 2% cashback when spending national currencies or 4% cashback when spending crypto. However, the rewards are only paid in XRP, which provides less flexibility than the Coinbase Card, with which you can earn rewards in a wide range of coins.

Educational Resources

Uphold provides its users with a variety of learning tools, including Cryptionary, market updates, a DCA calculator, and informative blog posts. Learn about anything from blockchain technology to trading methods using Uphold's extensive library of learning materials. For those unfamiliar with cryptocurrency trading and investment, the information is a great resource.

The information provided by Uphold is extensive and detailed. These pieces are written for those users who are just getting started with cryptocurrency trading and investment.

How Does Uphold Compare on Features?

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	Uphold	8.4	Visituphold.com

Uphold Fees

Uphold's pricing is fair and open. Every cryptocurrency transaction on the site incurs a spread fee. Uphold displays the bid and ask prices for all cryptocurrencies that can be bought and sold on the exchange. If you want to sell a certain cryptocurrency, you could get the bid price, whereas if you want to purchase any, you'd have to pay the ask price. Uphold's spread fee is added to the market price of the cryptocurrency you're buying or deducted from the price when selling.

Trading Fees

Uphold charges a fixed transaction fee of $0.99 on all trades under $500. In addition to this, there will be a spread included in the quoted price when buying or selling. The size of this spread is usually about 1.5% on BTC and ETH, but can be higher for assets with less liquidity. Trades between national currencies tend to have a smaller spread of about 0.2%. If you choose to buy crypto with your debit or credit card in the US, this will instead incur a 3.99% fee.

The trading fees on Uphold are at least more transparent than the simple purchase fees on Coinbase, which doesn’t tell you how much the fee will be until the trade preview screen and doesn’t reveal the size of the spread at all.

However, the cost of trading crypto on Uphold is higher than most exchanges. If you’re looking for a cheap option, you’d be better off spot trading on Binance or the Crypto.com Exchange, where you’ll find trading fees of 0.1% or less and no spread.

Deposits & Withdrawals

All deposit methods are free in the UK and EEA countries. In the US, you can make bank transfers and wire transfers over $5,000 for free, but smaller wire transfers cost $20. There is also a 3.99% fee for depositing via credit card, debit card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay. The only fiat withdrawal method is bank transfer, which is free in all countries where it is available.

Crypto deposits are free in every country, but withdrawing crypto incurs a network fee, which varies by cryptocurrency. There are also some coins that carry a fixed $0.99 “Uphold fee” for withdrawals.

Other Fees

The service fees differ for business accounts and can be found here. There are also fees for using Uphold’s API services, which can be found here.

Finally, if you want to stake on the platform, Uphold will retain a commission on your staking rewards of 3% to 34%.

How Does Uphold Compare on Fees?

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	Uphold	8.4	Visituphold.com

Available Assets and Trading

Cryptocurrencies

Over 250 different digital currencies, including majors, alt-coins, emerging tokens, and stablecoins, are available on the Uphold exchange. This means that users can purchase and sell a large selection of cryptocurrencies on the platform. As new tokens are listed on Uphold on a regular basis, you can expect that other digital currencies will be made available in the future.

The number of cryptocurrencies available on Uphold is similar to the number on Coinbase and Crypto.com. While the selection is significantly larger than Gemini’s selection, it is nowhere near the size of KuCoin’s.

National Currencies

Users of Uphold can choose from more than 25 national currencies for their trading. It should be kept in mind that users in different regions have access to a different set of fiat currencies. Uphold's website is the best resource for up-to-date information on the currencies it supports. Some of the most popular fiat currencies supported include EUR, USD, GBP, and CNY.

Precious Metals

On Uphold exchange, you can buy, sell, and trade the four most popular precious metals, namely, Gold (XAU), Silver (XAG), Platinum (XPT), and Palladium (XPD). You can even trade directly between metals and crypto. However, metals aren’t available in some non-US jurisdictions.

Types of Trading

Uphold stands out from other platforms since it allows trading across asset classes. Users may also utilize dollar-cost averaging to smooth out some of the wild swings in the Bitcoin market by setting up recurrent purchases using Uphold's AutoPilot feature.

Other than that, limit orders are the only kind available on this exchange. Those searching for more complex order options or looking for derivatives and leverage features will need to choose a different crypto exchange. In addition, the platform lacks the sophisticated charting and other tools that advanced traders need.

How Does Uphold Compare on Assets?

User Experience

Trading on Uphold is simple and convenient as users can use the website or download the app for Android or iOS to place orders on the go. Those just getting their feet wet in the cryptocurrency market usually find the trading interface to their liking as it’s highly user-friendly and intuitive.

Ease of Use

Uphold is designed to be simple and intuitive, whether you're a first-time user or a seasoned expert. The platform's user interface is straightforward and easy to learn and utilize. When compared to other cryptocurrency exchanges, Uphold's sign-up process is both simpler and quicker and it also features the AutoPilot function that automatically invests in cryptocurrencies for the user.

In addition, Uphold allows for rapid inter-account transfers, which comes in handy for users who need to move money quickly. Users can organize their accounts and assets in an order that makes sense to them using the platform's tile desktop, which can be customized. Uphold also facilitates simple deposits and withdrawals. Bank transfers, credit cards, and debit cards are just some of the deposit options available to users.

The cryptocurrency ordering process is simplified with a single-click interface. This streamlines the process of buying and selling assets, making it convenient. Users who often work with many currencies would appreciate the platform's built-in currency converter.

Apart from that, there's the Uphold Card which is a debit card that you can use at any store that accepts MasterCard to spend your crypto or fiat funds. Uphold's user interface prioritizes simplicity and ease of usage. Beginners will find it simple to use the platform's many features and begin trading and investing in cryptocurrencies.

Device Compatibility

Uphold can be accessed from a number of platforms, including desktops and mobile phones. The app is available on both iOS and Android devices. The Uphold mobile app is just as capable of buying, selling, and holding cryptocurrencies and other assets as the desktop version. For example, users who need to move money fast can make use of the app's rapid transactions across accounts.

The Uphold mobile app has been developed with simplicity and convenience in mind. The app's user interface is clean and straightforward, making it simple to navigate. Funds can be deposited quickly and conveniently using a number of different payment options available to users. Withdrawals follow the same simple procedure.

Customer Satisfaction

Most of the customers who have used the platform seem to be satisfied with the exchange. They appreciate the simplicity and transparency of the platform along with a wide range of product offerings that include crypto, national currencies, and even some precious metals.

That being said, some users have reported issues with their experience. Most complaints seem to be about poor communication, delays in verifying customer profiles, and account lockouts.

How Does Uphold Compare on User Experience?

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	Uphold	8.4	Visituphold.com

Safety and Regulation

Both safety and regulation are important factors to consider when choosing a cryptocurrency platform as you entrust the service with your valuable personally identifiable information as well as hard-earned money. Overall, Uphold is committed to keeping its users’ personal information and transactions completely secure. The platform is regulated by multiple institutions and deploys a wide range of security features.

Security Features

Uphold uses a number of security procedures to keep customer data and accounts safe. Among these procedures are:

• Uphold mandates the usage of 2FA, or two-factor authentication, to protect user accounts against hacking attempts.

• Uphold employs encryption to protect financial and personal information.

• Uphold's security is regularly audited to ensure they are effective and up-to-date.

• User funds are never loaned out and can be withdrawn at any moment as Uphold is completely reserved.

• Uphold is the first platform that shows online asset and liability data in real time.

• Uphold's systems are always being monitored in an effort to spot and stop any potential security breaches.

• Rewarding users who discover and report security flaws is easy using Uphold's bug bounty program.

By blocking unauthorized access, keeping user data encrypted and secure, and offering real-time visibility into platform operations, Uphold safeguards user accounts and assets.

Regulation

Uphold is subject to oversight by FinCEN, which is part of the United States Treasury. In addition to being registered with FINTRAC in Canada and the Financial Crime Investigation Service in Europe, which falls under the purview of the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania, Uphold is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom. It is imperative that Uphold abides by international AML regulations.

No governing body has taken any action against Uphold so far. The platform takes the privacy of its customers' personal information very seriously, which is why it complies with all local, state, federal, and international privacy regulations.

To limit the potential for credit card theft caused by leaked cardholder data, Uphold is obligated to follow PCI-DSS, which was developed by the Payment Card Industry.

Reputation

Since 2014, while it was still known as Bitreserve, Uphold has served as a platform for buying and selling crypto. Having weathered numerous bull and downturn markets without controversy, Uphold has earned a solid reputation as a trustworthy platform. There have been no security incidents or legal problems with Uphold.

Uphold is overseen by a number of government agencies and takes data privacy very seriously. Over the course of many market ups and downs, Uphold has shown itself as a trustworthy and reliable platform for trading digital assets.

How Does Uphold Compare on Security?

Customer Support

Email assistance and a knowledge base are two of the primary customer service resources available from Uphold. Sending a message to the support staff through the help center is quick and simple. The response times are satisfactory, and the problems are usually solved by the customer service staff. Apart from that, you can also reach out to the customer care team through social media.

Uphold provides excellent customer service that is on par with the industry standard. However, Uphold's customer service and security have been criticized by certain users saying they've experienced communication delays.

How Does Uphold Compare on Customer Support?

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	Uphold	8.4	Visituphold.com

Is There An Alternative To Uphold?

Fortunately for crypto beginners and enthusiasts, there are a number of cryptocurrency exchanges they can choose from depending on their preferences and trading goals. Some of the top alternatives include the following:

Coinbase - Better reputation than Uphold

If you're looking to deposit or trade using fiat currency, Coinbase provides more direct options than Uphold. In addition to its reputation and popularity, Coinbase is also lauded for its helpful customer service. If you're searching for a reputable exchange that supports several different cryptocurrencies and tokens, Coinbase is a solid choice.

Binance - Lower fees than Uphold

Binance is a cryptocurrency and digital asset exchange that has gained popularity due to its affordable costs and extensive offerings. To trade a variety of cryptocurrencies and other assets with minimal costs, Binance is a wonderful choice for users. Moreover, it also offers a wide range of earning opportunities for crypto holders.

Kraken - Better customer service than Uphold

Kraken is a popular cryptocurrency exchange that allows users to buy and sell a wide range of cryptocurrencies and other assets. Kraken is safe and secure, and provides excellent customer service. Kraken is a great choice for anyone in need of a reputable cryptocurrency exchange with helpful staff.

eToro - Better for copy trading than Uphold

eToro is a unique social trading platform that offers a distinctive feature - the ability to copy the trades of other experienced traders. This innovative approach allows users to leverage the expertise of successful traders and replicate their strategies effortlessly. Additionally, eToro provides staking rewards on certain coins (only in some non-US jurisdictions), making it an appealing choice for users seeking not only social trading but also potential passive income from staking.

Should I Use Uphold?

In conclusion, Uphold is a crypto platform that offers numerous benefits, including a wide range of supported assets and networks, quick and straightforward asset trading, transparency on fees, and a secure, regulated environment. The platform also offers automatic and scheduled transactions for added convenience.

However, it falls short in terms of customer support options, advanced trading features or tools, and accessibility in certain countries or regions. Despite these drawbacks, Uphold remains a viable option for those seeking a user-friendly and regulated platform for basic crypto transactions. Uphold is best suited for:

• Users who are looking for a user-friendly and intuitive platform that offers an extensive range of cryptocurrencies and other assets.

• Users who want to trade crypto and other assets on a highly secure and well-regulated platform.

• Users who want to buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrencies on-the-go and require a fully-featured mobile app.

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	Uphold	8.4	Visituphold.com

FAQs

Methodology

BanklessTimes is fully dedicated to offering unbiased and informative content, aiming to assist our readers in making well-considered investment decisions. We conduct impartial reviews that thoroughly examine the pros and cons of various platforms, incorporating valuable feedback from their users, while also comparing them to other alternatives.

In the process of conducting our reviews, we meticulously analyze each platform, evaluating a wide range of essential criteria that hold significance for potential users. These encompass the platform's features, fees, tradable assets, security measures, and more. Additionally, we delve into the platform's user-friendliness, ensuring we answer critical questions, such as its licensing status, in order to present a comprehensive and insightful review.