In today's review, we're looking at Uphold, a crypto exchange available in 180+ countries including Canada and Ontario.
This post is part of a larger review where I tested 20 Canadian cryptocurrency exchanges. We'll go over the pros and cons of using Uphold for Canadian investors and see if it's worth signing up for. Let's get started.
Bottom Line
Overall, Uphold has high spreads and you can't fund your account with Canadian Dollars. There are better choices for Canadians. On the upside, it is beginner-friendly, supports 130 altcoins, precious metals, and 20 fiat currencies.
You can visit our comparison tool that will help you find the best crypto exchange in Canada. It compares over 20 popular Canadian crypto exchanges based on 60+ variables, including spreads, features, security, and more. The top exchange for Canadians was Newton.
Where It Shines
Where It Falls Short
Overview
Coins Offered | 130+ |
Total BTC Purchase Fee | Not Tested Yet |
Total BTC Selling Fee | Not Tested Yet |
BTC Spread | 3.46% (Apr 16, 2022) |
Trading Fee | Free |
Funding Methods | USD, GBP, or EUR |
CAD Deposits | Not Supported |
CAD Withdrawals | Not Supported |
BTC Withdrawal Fee | 0.0003 BTC + $2.99 |
Notable Features | Trade altcoins, precious metals, 20+ fiat currencies |
What Is Uphold?
If you’re looking to trade multiple assets all in one place then Uphold might be what you’re looking for. They offer 130+ cryptocurrencies, 5 precious metals, and 20+ fiat currencies. They also have stocks but those are not available in Canada.
When you log in to Uphold, you'll see a beginner-friendly and minimal design. Anyone can figure out how to make trades regardless of experience. Its main feature is you can trade "Anything-to-Anything" in just a few clicks. For example, Gold to Bitcoin without having to convert to fiat first.
Uphold is relatively popular. They have 10 million users since being founded in 2013. They are based in the USA but offer their services in 150+ countries.
Some Stats:
- 10 million users
- Available in 180+ countries
- 130+ cryptocurrencies
- 20+ fiat currencies
- 8 assets for staking
- Headquartered in USA
- Founded in 2013
User Interface
Platform & Features
In general, Uphold does not have the highest number of features, like a Binance or Crypto.com. But, they do let you trade multiple asset classes, stake crypto, set up recurring transactions, and more.
A great thing about Uphold is that you can open an account in 10 minutes, and it's easy to use, regardless of your experience with investing. A beginner will appreciate the clear navigation and the beginner-friendly design. With no learning curve, you can focus on investing rather than learning how to use the platform.
The biggest drawback is that Canadians cannot use Uphold easily. That's because deposits and withdrawals using Canadian Dollars are not supported. Another drawback is that some features, like the debit card and stock trading, are not supported in Canada. There is also the downside of high spreads, which I discussed in the fees section.
Here's more information about what's available and not available in Canada:
130+ Cryptocurrencies
Uphold supports 130+ cryptocurrencies. They frequently add new coins, so the number of available coins keeps increasing. In 2021, they only had about 70 coins. While it's a good selection, the best altcoin exchanges are Binance and KuCoin. They both offer 600+ coins with the lowest fees and spreads in the industry.
Trade 20+ Currencies
Uphold offers a wide range of fiat currencies. From Peso's and Shekel's to Rupee's and Swiss Franc's, you have a variety of choices. The Canadian Dollar can be traded, but it cannot be deposited or withdrawn. Unfortunately, Canadian accounts can only deposit USD, GBP or EUR.
Precious Metals
You can buy gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. And you'll enjoy instant liquidity as well as zero custody costs.
U.S. Equities (not available in Canada)
Uphold lets you trade over 50 U.S. stocks for as little as $1. However, this service is unfortunately not available in Canada.
Trade "Anything to Anything"
The "anything to anything" trade allows you to move between crypto, national currencies, and metals using one screen. There are no trading fees, but beware of the spreads, which can be quite high. It claims to be 1.2% on their website, but when we tested it, it was 3.46%. A considerable difference!
Recurring Transactions
With recurring transactions, you can dollar-cost average (DCA) into your investments completely automated. Uphold lets you automatically withdraw money from your card without having to deposit it every time.
Staking
Uphold lets users earn rewards automatically every week based on how much you stake. The more you stake, the higher the APY you may earn, which currently ranges between 4% and 19.5%. There are currently 8 assets available for staking (KSM, KAVA, ADA, DOT, ATOM, SOL, ETH, XTZ).
App Integrations
Uphold lets you to connect your wallet and account to third-party apps for more functionality. For example, you can connect with CoinTracker, Koinly, BlockReward, and other services. There is at least a dozen "Uphold approved" integrations which can be added in a few clicks.
Uphold Debit Card (not available in Canada)
The Uphold card allows you to use crypto, gold, and other assets as payment methods. You can earn 1% cashback and 2% crypto rewards. The debit card is also integrated with Google and Apple Pay. Unfortunately, this product is not available in Canada.
Customer Support
You can reach Uphold by email or live chat. They also have a pretty comprehensive FAQ section that covers most topics. Unfortunately, we didn't test their customer support so we can't give them a review.
- Live chat (log in to your account)
- Help center (https://support.uphold.com/)
- Submit a ticket (https://support.uphold.com/hc/en-us/requests/new)
- Email Uphold (support@uphold.com)
Opening An Account
Uphold has a seamless registration process. In less than a minute, you can open an account. Then, verification will take another few minutes. In under 10 minutes, you can start trading crypto and other assets right away. Trading on Uphold requires you to provide your ID and complete KYC.
Requirements
Application Time | Under 10 minutes |
KYC | Mandatory |
Instant Verification | Yes |
Who Is Eligible? |
|
Sign Up Requirements |
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Fees & Spread
*Total BTC Purchase Fee | 0.45% (not including deposit fee which can only be USD, GBP or EUR) |
*Total BTC Selling Fee | 2.91% (not including withdrawal fee which can only be USD, GBP or EUR) |
Trading Fee | Free |
Recurring Buys | Free |
Staking Fee | 15% (already included in the APYs) |
CAD Deposits | Not Supported |
CAD Withdrawals | Not Supported |
BTC Withdrawals | $2.99 + 0.0003 BTC |
Spreads
This is what Uphold claims are their spreads on their website:
- 1.80% for BTC and ETH, significantly higher for other coins
- 3.00% for precious metals
- 0.20% for major fiat currencies like EUR, USD, and GBP
However, in our test, Bitcoin had a 3.46% spread, nearly twice as much. The results are below:
Price Test & Spread
Price Test (Apr 16, 2022) | Prices |
|---|---|
BTC Spread | 3.46% |
BTC Buy Price | $41,446 USD |
BTC Sell Price | $40,061 USD |
Ref. Price Difference | Buy: 0.45% Sell: -2.91% |
Reference Price (Google) | $41,261 USD |
Deposit & Withdrawals
Funding With Canadian Dollars
Uphold supports CAD but it does not allow CAD deposits or withdrawals. Canadians can only fund their Uphold account with USD, GBP or EUR. So it's not a good fiat on-ramp or off-ramp unless you have a bank account with these currencies.
You have the option to buy with debit/credit in USD, however my bank blocked the purchase:
Funding With Crypto
The other way to fund your Uphold account is with crypto. To do that, you'll need a local crypto exchange like Newton that makes it easy to convert CAD to crypto. However, at this point it's not worth the hassle to use Uphold if you're funding with crypto. It would be better to use Binance or KuCoin since they have more features, lower spreads, and hundreds of more altcoins.
Crypto Withdrawal Fees
Type | Fee | Minimum Withdrawal |
|---|---|---|
Bitcoin | $2.99 + 0.0003 BTC | 0.00001 BTC |
Ethereum | $2.99 + Gas Fees (dynamic) | 0.001 ETH |
USDC | $2.99 + Gas Fees (dynamic) | ? |
Security
Company Security Features
User Security Features
Is Uphold Safe?
Yes, Uphold is a safe and secure platform. They have never been hacked (founded in 2013) and are regulated in multiple countries. They also have full reserves and are very transparent about their holdings. Their assets and balances are publicly available and can be viewed in real time.
⚠️ Although Uphold is safe, 44% of platforms we tested have had a hack or incident in the past. We strongly recommend storing and protecting your crypto on a hardware wallet or any wallet where you own the private keys.
Compared
RankFi signed up for and analyzed all of Canada's major cryptocurrency exchanges and brokers. We tested each platform across 60+ features each. Here is a summary of our results:
Name | Our Ranking | Coins | CAD Wallet? | Total BTC Purchase Fee | Spread (BTC) | Trading Fee | Website |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 NDAX(#1 overall) | 1/18 | 30+ | Yes | 0.49% | 0.35% | 0.20% | |
2/18 | 70 | Yes | 0.66% | 1.11% | 0% | ||
3/18 | 1700+ | No | N/A | 0.00% | 0% | ||
4/18 | 200+ | Yes | 1.60% | 0.05% | 0.16%-0.26% | ||
5/18 | 75+ | Yes | 0.69% | 1.34% | 0% | ||
6/18 | 2 | Yes | 1.03% | 2.26% | 0% | ||
7/18 | 250+ | Yes | 1.68% | 3.11% | 0% | ||
8/18 | 55+ | Yes | 2.94% | 3.17% | 1.50% | ||
9/18 | 35+ | Yes | 1.24% | 1.67% | 0.50% | ||
10/18 | 1 | Yes | ? | ? | 0% | ||
11/18 | 25+ | Yes | 1.99% | 0.41% | 1.50% | ||
12/18 | 140+ | No | 4.54% | 3.07% | 0% | ||
13/18 | 2 | N/A | ? | ? | 0.60% | ||
14/18 | 40 | Yes | 1.23 | 2.63% | 0%-0.50% | ||
15/18 | 100+ | No | ? | ? | 0.20%/0.40% | ||
16/18 | 65+ | No | N/A | 0.05% | 0.40%-0.60% | ||
17/18 | 10 | Yes | ? | ? | 0% | ||
18/18 | 16 | Yes | 2.51% | 2.82% | 0.20%-0.30% | ||
 Bittrex Global [banned] | N/A | 300+ | No | 3.42% | 0.41% | 0.41% | |
 KuCoin [banned] | N/A | 700+ | No | 2.82% | 0.00% | 0.10% | |
 Binance [leaving] | N/A | 600+ | No | 1.60% | 0.00% | 0.10% | |
 Coinberry [closing] | N/A | 35 | Yes | 2.44% | 4.19% | 2.00% | |
 FTX [collapsed] | N/A | 190+ | Yes | N/A | 0.02% | 0.02%-0.07% | |
 Gate.io [banned] | N/A | 1400+ | No | 2.92% | 0.00% | 0.20% |
Here are the best crypto exchanges for Canadians right now. We assessed 18 platforms across 60 variables and 1080+ data points.
The Bottom Line
Uphold has zero trading fees, 130+ cryptocurrencies, and a variety of assets you can trade. However, it has high spreads and it's hard for Canadians to use since you can't deposit/withdraw Canadian Dollars. Overall, we found that there are other better platforms for Canadian investors.
The best fiat on-ramp and off-ramp is Newton. The best altcoin exchange is Binance or if you live in Ontario, it's KuCoin. You can also compare crypto exchanges in Canada to find the best choice for you.
Reasons To Use Uphold:
- Beginner friendly and easy to use
- Variety of cryptocurrencies (130+)
- Trade precious metals and dozens of fiat currencies
Reasons Not To Use Uphold:
- Can't deposit/withdraw Canadian Dollars
- Uphold has high spreads and cheaper platforms are available
- High crypto withdrawal fees
- No advanced trading
Trade 130+ cryptocurrencies!
