Bamboo is a crypto investing and round-up app for Australians. If you're looking to invest your spare change or set up recurring investments, Bamboo might be for you. This review will help you decide if it's the right app to use.
At RankFi, we've tested 20+ Australian crypto exchanges. We'll let you know how Bamboo stacks up to the competition and most importantly, if it's worth it. Let's jump in.
What Is Bamboo?
Bamboo is a micro-investing app that rounds up your spare change into investments. In their words, "it's so simple, anyone can use it." It can help investors with any budget and any experience level grow their portfolio.
Bamboo's core premise is to help you set up automatic investments that you can forget about. Set it up once and let your portfolio grow in the background as you go through every day life.
How Does Bamboo Work?
Bamboo has a simple, 90-second registration process. In less than 5 minutes, you can set up a long term investing strategy that runs on autopilot.
- Open a Bamboo account (90 seconds)
- Connect your bank account
- Select your round-up amount ($1, $2, $5, $10)
- Choose the asset(s) you want to invest in (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Gold, Silver)
- Let Bamboo run in the background and watch your portfolio grow
- (Optional) Set up recurring deposits to Dollar Cost Average
Who Can Open An Account?
- Australian residents (USA coming soon)
- Must be 18 years old
Sign Up Requirements
- Email address
- Phone number
- Legal name
- Select an Individual or SMSF account
- Connect your bank account
What Can You Invest In?
Bamboo has 4 assets to choose from: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Gold, or Silver. You can customize your portfolio mix by percentage. For example, it's easy to set up 75% Bitcoin and 25% Ethereum, or whatever you like. They also have a "rebalance" feature so you can update your holdings whenever you like.
Round-Ups
Investing your spare change is Bamboo's key feature. It will automatically round-up your credit and bank card purchases to the nearest $1, $2, $5, or $10. For example, when you spend $3.50 on coffee, Bamboo will round it up to $4.00 and invest $0.50.
When your "round-up meter" hits $50, Bamboo will transfer the money from your bank account and invest it. The minimum deposit is $50 but you can set it higher if you want to save on fees.
Dollar-Cost Average (DCA)
Besides round-ups, you also can create recurring purchases to help you DCA. DCA is a famous investing strategy where you spread out your purchases over time. Bamboo lets you set up purchases weekly, monthly, fortnightly, and more based on your needs.
Top-Ups
If you want to make a manual deposit, you can do that as well with Top-Ups. Make real-time purchases whenever you like. The minimum deposit is $50.
BAM Native Token
$BAM is Bamboo's native token that rewards investors who use the app. Users can earn BAM Tokens for in-app actions like topping-up $50, referring friends, setting up recurring payments, and more. To take part, users must buy at least $50 worth of BAM and maintain 2% of BAM in their portfolio at all times. BAM can be sold for cash at any time on the open market. Find more info below:
- Documentation
- Etherscan (0x22b3faaa8df978f6bafe18aade18dc2e3dfa0e0c)
- Uniswap
Fee Structure
Bamboo charges a flat fee on deposits and withdrawals which ranges from 0.80% to 3.00%. Even their lowest fee of 0.80% makes Bamboo more expensive than leading platforms. If you're worried about fees, Bamboo could be a dealbreaker for you.
Deposit/Withdrawal Amount Fee |
Less than $100 $1.49 (1.50% to 3.00%) |
$100-$250 $2.49 (1% to 2.50%) |
$250-$500 $3.99 (0.80% to 1.60%) |
$500+ 0.80% |
There are also additional fees in the spread. A spread is the difference between the price at which you can buy and sell Bitcoin (or any other asset). We have not tested Bamboo's spread yet, but you can see the platforms we have tested here. It's common for companies to hide the spreads, because this can range anywhere from 0% to 2% in extra fees.
Knowing how the fees work is one of the most important parts of choosing an investment app. If you're worried about fees, Bamboo could be a dealbreaker for you.
Bamboo Fees Compared
Knowing how the fees work is one of the most important parts of choosing an investment app. Here is how Bamboo compares to 20+ Australian platforms we've reviewed.
If you're investing $50 at a time (which is the minimum threshold), the fee will be 2.98%. That would rank Bamboo 15/16 most expensive and it doesn't account for the spread. If you invest $99, the fee will be 1.49% which is still in the bottom 50% of platforms. If you're investing $500+ then the fee is 0.80% which would put Bamboo somewhere in the top 5 cheapest platforms. That's a lot more reasonable but remember this is still not counting for the spread.
Is Bamboo Safe?
Bamboo is probably safe but there is limited to no information about their security measures. It's unclear what they do in order to protect users cryptocurrencies. We can assume they use cold storage but I could not find any information. Here is some other info I found:
- Your bank account is securely connected via Basiq
- Bamboo is not AUSTRAC regulated because it's not a cryptocurrency exchange, so it doesn't have to be
- No verification required
Customer Service
Bamboo offers customer service via email and their FAQ page. In their own words, they will get back to you in 24 hours. We have not tested their customer service so we cannot vouch for the quality or speed of their responses.
- Contact: support@getbamboo.io
- Support Page: (https://www.getbamboo.io/support/)
- FAQs: (https://www.getbamboo.io/faq/)
Our Take
Bamboo is great if you want an easy way to invest your spare change on autopilot. It can also be a great way to start investing if you've never done it before. On the downside, Bamboo's fees range from 0.80% to 3.00% which is high. If you want to save on fees or access more altcoins, it's better to use a cryptocurrency exchange.
Our top crypto exchange is Swyftx, but you can see more choices below. Swyftx has a dollar-cost average feature, lower fees, and hundreds of altcoins.
Pros & Cons
Here are the best crypto exchanges for Australians right now. We assessed 16 platforms across 60 variables and 950+ data points.
FAQ
Bamboo.io is based in Perth, Australia. It's not to be confused with InvestBamboo.com which is a stock trading app based in Nigeria and the USA.
Like most platforms, Bamboo charges fees on every transaction. You will pay between 0.80% to 3.00% per transaction. There might also be extra fees in the spread which we have not tested yet.