Most of us are either underbanked or unbanked. Do you think I’m exaggerating?

Let’s take a look.

2 Billion people around the world do not have a bank account. These are people that live in areas where banks don’t have a presence or daily use, or they have been outright rejected by banks as they are not profitable clients. Many countries have only 10-30% of their population within the banking system. The rest live their lives without access to the banking services that we’ve all taken for granted all our lives.

This is a statistical fact.

Now, how about the underbanked. This is a bit more of a nuanced argument, but hear me out. If you’re reading this blog, you most likely have one or multiple bank accounts, have been used to using debit cards and credit cards to buy things online and in physical stores, and have probably traveled to places where you had to use other currencies. These are basic banking services that most of us in developed countries use on a frequent if not daily basis, and we take them for granted.

However, when was the last time you stopped to wonder why every card transaction suffers a fee of 3-8%? And what about remittances? For those millions of workers who move to other countries in order to be able to sustain their family back home, fees for remittances account to around 9-11% every time they send money to their loved ones. These fees have not changed in 100 years. Is this normal, given the technological advances we’ve made in the meantime? I think banks and associated financial institutions have been doing a lousy job…

Still not convinced that you’re underbanked? How about the excessive KYC/AML procedures that dog every account opening with a bank? Or how about the open discrimination practiced by banks against individuals from certain countries (I know about this first hand) or against businesses operating in industries that the governments stated they do not like or support?

Or let’s talk credit. Today’s major banks only give decent loans for buying real estate (again, because that’s what the government wants you to do). They will fleece you on credit card interest rates, and good luck getting a loan to make an investment or to start a new business. How about offering assets beyond real estate as collateral?

DeFi changes this.

It decentralizes finance and banking. The promise is to disintermediate the banks and get rid of all the problems I just mentioned. In this article I’ll show you some of the use cases of DeFi and the platforms that you can use.

As someone with an unbounded interest in software and finance, DeFi is a natural rabbit hole for me to dive into. It’s a vast world, although it’s still in its infancy. Over time, I hope to dedicate a lot more time to research and investing within this space.

While in the early days of Bitcoin, most of the talk centered around how it works and its future potential, nowadays it seems to have consolidated its position as a store of value, and most of the news and discussion focuses around price action, regulations and adoption. While that is also interesting, DeFi is more aligned to my core interests and also kind of feels how the Bitcoin community felt in the early days.

Speaking of community, most of the discussions around DeFi seem to be happening within the Discord and Telegram channels of the many projects that dot the DeFi landscape. Twitter and YouTube are also important places to be for any DeFi enthusiast.

This post will serve as a repository for my overall view of the space, and eventually, I expect that I will write about certain projects separately as my knowledge levels up.

Best DeFi tools

• DappRadar – Track, analyze and discover decentralized applications.
• Defiyield – Trade and Swap assets across different blockchains. Add liquidity to earn yield. Also includes the largest database of DeFi project audits and an impermanent loss calculator.
• DeFi Rating – a simple dashboard for tracking DeFi positions in top protocols like Synthetix, Set Protocol, dYdX and Compound. Easily analyze and manage all your DeFi assets in one-stop-shop interface.
• Defillama – DeFi analytics
• Zapper – a simple dashboard for DeFi. Easily track and visualize all your DeFi assets and liabilities in one simple interface.
• Zerion – DeFi dashboard/portfolio
• Nansen – Ethereum wallet analytics.
• Furucombo – a tool built for end-users to optimize their DeFi strategy simply by drag and drop.
• Ethereum to Polygon Bridge – useful for moving assets to Polygon and thus paying lower fees.

My favorite DeFi projects

I’ve tried to group them into a few main categories, although some projects span multiple categories.

Trading

• Uniswap – a decentralized exchange. Together with Sushiswap, currently the best place to trade tokens in a decentralized manner.
• SushiSwap – swap, earn, stack yields, lend, borrow, leverage all on one decentralized, community driven platform.
• PancakeSwap – #1 AMM and yield farm on Binance Smart Chain.
• Bancor – another DEX. I find it particularly interest due to its liquidity pools that offer impermanent loss protection.
• Curve – a decentralized exchange that’s optimized for assets with the same relative value, for example USDC or Tether, or evcen WBTC and renBTC. Better than Uniswap for such trades.
• Perpetual Protocol – lets you trade a wide range of assets, including short selling, with up to 10x leverage. In addition, you can earn fees by providing liquidity or staking protocol tokens. All this can be done programmatically, or via web3 interfaces.

DEX Aggregators

• 1inch – a DEX aggregator that works out the best crypto prices across decentralized exchanges and multiple blockchains (Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain and Polygon).
• Matcha – finds you the best prices across exchanges and combines them into one trade.
• Kyber – connects liquidity from diverse sources to provide the best rates for takers such as DApps, Wallets, DEXs, Aggregators, and users.
• Paraswap – Best DEX prices for DeFi Traders & dApps.

Money Markets

• Aave – an open-source and non-custodial liquidity protocol for earning interest on deposits and borrowing assets.
• Alchemix – self-repaying loans.
• Compound – a lending protocol enabling users to lend and borrow popular cryptocurrencies like Ether, Dai and Tether.
• Maker – a permissionless lending platform responsible for the creation of DAI, the first decentralized stablecoin, built on Ethereum.
• Venus – a decentralized marketplace for lenders and borrowers with borderless stablecoins, running on the Binance Smart Chain.
• Yearn – a suite of products in Decentralized Finance (DeFi) that provides lending aggregation, yield generation, and insurance on the Ethereum blockchain. The protocol is maintained by various independent developers and is governed by YFI holders.
• Alpha Homora – DeFi’s first leveraged yield farming product.

Derivatives

• Synthetix – lets users create synthetic versions of traditional assets (like stocks and commodities) on the Ethereum blockchain.
• Opyn – DeFi’s options protocol.
• Ribbon – generate yield through automated options strategies.
• Pods – enables the easiest way to hedge crypto assets in Ethereum. The Pods Protocol is a decentralized non-custodial Options Protocol that allows users to buy, sell and provide liquidity using the new Options AMM.
• BarnBridge – A fluctuations derivatives protocol for hedging yield sensitivity and market price.

Insurance

• Nexus Mutual – most well-known insurance system in DeFi. Get covered against smart contract failure & exchange hacks.
• InsurAce – a leading decentralized insurance protocol, providing reliable, robust and secure insurance services to DeFi users, allowing them to secure their investment funds against various risks.

Asset Management

• Harvest – yield farming pools that automatically get you the highest yields.
• Enzyme – a decentralised asset management infrastructure built on Ethereum. Using Enzyme Smart Vaults, individuals and communities can build, scale and monetise investment (or execution) strategies that employ the newest innovations in decentralised finance.
• DHedge – join in funds managed by third parties or create your own fund.

Staking

• Lido – simplified and secure staking for digital assets.

Stablecoins

• Terra – a financial ecosystem that includes a stablecoin facilitator, synthetic assets, savings accounts and more.
• Frax – the Frax Protocol introduced the world to the concept of a cryptocurrency being partially backed by collateral and partially stabilized algorithmically.
• Empty Set Dollar – an algorithmic stablecoin built to be the reserve currency of Decentralized Finance.

Taxation of DeFi

It is extremely important that you understand how DeFi is taxed and that you have proper tools that can help you out. Read my article on the best crypto tax tools for more information and some suggestions. My favorite tool is Cointracker.

Learning resources

Books

There’s a lot of rubbish and very little books with substance on the topic of DeFi. It’s a field that is developing rapidly so things quickly get out of date, but these books below are recommended.

The “How to DeFi” series is the best introduction to all the facets of DeFi, while for those who want to dig deeper into the various concepts and terminologies you’ll see bandied about, Lisa Tan’s book is essential.

Sites

• Bankless – an extremely popular site and community around DeFi, Ethereum and NFTs
• DeFi Slate
• DeFi Rate – explore interest rates from the top cryptocurrency lending protocols and crypto banks.
• Decrypt – news and guides.
• The Defiant – news.
• DeFi Pulse – DeFi rankings.

Tutorials

• Yield Farming 101
• DeFi 101: Generating Yield 
• DeFi 201: Intermediate-Advanced Strategies for Earning Yield on Crypto
• Guide to becoming a DeFi power user

YouTube

• DeFi Dad
• Finematics
• Gabriel Haines
• Taiki Maeda
• The Defiant
• DeFi Slate

Wallets

• Metamask
• Argent

Finally, I should also note that I’m seeing a lot of bullishness around DAOs, so these seem to be the next hot thing. It would pay to keep an eye on any DAO-related projects that come about in the next few months.

Tokenize your assets with Fintelum

The advent of cryptocurrencies has inspired the emergence of a whole new financial era – where money is equivalent to technology in many ways. Today, it is possible for you to convert any of the assets you have into digital tokens – using tokenization.

And Fintelum is one of the pioneers in this sector. The platform allows you to create tokens that represent your assets or invest in other tokenized securities – all while focusing on compliance.

In this review, I will introduce you to what tokenization is and how Fintelum can help you tokenize your assets. In addition, I will also walk you through the process of how you can invest in tokenized assets through Fintelum, specifically by talking about my investment in the KEEPP project.

In addition to this review, make sure you check out my podcast episode with Liza Aizupiete, the co-cofounder and Managing Director of Fintelum. We spoke all about how Fintelum operates and about the future that Liza sees in this space.

What is Tokenization?

In the most simple terms – to tokenize is to represent the value or commitment of an asset as a crypto token. A tokenized security will be a legal agreement that is represented as a digital asset or a smart contract. When your securities are delineated by a smart contract on a blockchain, it offers transparency and trustless access to information.

Today, you can tokenize almost any asset, be it company equity, debt, real estate, a product, or service – thus creating an unchangeable record of ownership. Not only that, you can create tokens that represent whole or fractional ownership of the security.

What is Fintelum Tokenization?

Fintelum has designed its unique Security Token Implementation process that allows its users to tokenize their assets. Read this guide about the legal basics of tokenization to learn more about why they are a viable way of implementation.

In a nutshell, the tokens created by Fintelum have the following features:

• The tokens have an Ethereum Solidity code base.
• The implementation follows a standard protocol with flexible features.
• It tackles the need for a compliant blockchain instrument that represents a transferable security in a given jurisdiction.
• Fully compliant with given security laws – including KYC, AML, and CTF.

As you can see, Fintelum aims to give investors an opportunity to tokenize their assets – without compromising on the security aspects. The company is based in Latvia, Europe.

In addition to token issuance, Fintelum also offers the following associated services:

• It functions as an equity crowdfunding platform for investments in companies based anywhere, although the legal structure will likely be chosen to be Latvia, Luxembourg and Ireland.
• Enables issuance of tokens in both primary and secondary markets.
• Allows users to invest in security tokens from anywhere in the world in fiat and cryptocurrencies.

Compared to the few other platforms that offer similar services – Fintelum differentiates itself by bringing in years of technical experience and legal expertise. The team behind Fintelum has been working together for over a decade and has significant knowledge about the ins and outs of the crypto industry.

In other words, Fintelum has a unique value proposition for investors that are looking for innovative ways to store their assets and make sizable returns compared to conventional listed securities.

Fintelum Products

The solutions offered by Fintelum can be broadly categorized into two – for investors and for issuers.

As an issuer, you will be utilizing the platform’s tokenization services to issue tokens for your respective asset. On the other hand, as an investor, Fintelum can connect you to viable investment opportunities.

Fintelum for Issuers

As I mentioned above, for issuers – the most important step on Fintelum is to tokenize your assets. However, as imaginable – not many issuers might be familiar with the concept of tokenization or how it practically works. Not to worry, Fintelum has developed a five-step process that can assist you every step of the way.

You will only have to provide the information you have regarding your assets, and Fintelum will take care of the rest.

Let us take a look at how you can start crowdfunding on Fintelum:

Step 1: Assess What You Want to Tokenize

Fintelum allows you to tokenize almost any type of financial instrument imaginable. Whether it is a company, a fund, a corporate bond, a contractual promise, or even a possession such as a boat or a property – Fintelum can create a token for your respective asset.

As such, your first option will be to define whether you want to create a security, a utility, or a hybrid token?

Step 2: Enter What Information You Already Have

If you are getting started on a new project, then Fintelum will ask you to take a look at the minimum requirements for your token to start selling. This includes:

• Idea
• Team
• Proof of concept
• Existing business
• Paying clients
• Minimum viable product.

If you have two of these six qualifications, then you can proceed to start setting the targets for your enterprise.

Step 3: Choose Your Jurisdiction

To proceed further, you will need to specify which is the appropriate jurisdiction of your project and your participants.

Step 4: Choose Your Communication Method

Based on your requirements, you will need to define whether your project is going to be on a local or a global scale. And consequently, how are you going to reach out to your investors and community?

Step 5: Let Fintelum Take Over

At this stage, you have provided everything that Fintelum needs to issue your token. The platform will look into KYC/AML compliance, the custody of crypto and escrow, define the security and utility tokens, and transfer agency.

In addition, Fintelum will also facilitate the secondary P2P trading and implementation of your STO. You can then sit back and focus on running your business efficiently.

What is an STO?

For those who are entirely new to tokenomics, you could also benefit from understanding what an STO is before you consider Fintelum. STO stands for Security Token Offering – and it is a method of fundraising that enables investors to invest in opportunities from anywhere.

Compared to the more popular Initial Coin Offering (ICO), the main attraction of an STO is that it conforms to regulatory requirements. It brings more regulation to blockchain-based crowdfunding and providers more guarantees by issuing tokens.

In other words, when investors inject money into a project through Fintelum, they receive a token in return.
The type of token will depend on the type of asset. Regardless of what it represents, the token is bound by both securities and crowdfunding laws which will be clearly laid out in the offering document following the KYC/AML processes.

With this in mind, let me tell you how an investor can use Fintelum to invest through an STO.

Fintelum for Investors

For investors, Fintelum serves as an innovative platform to get you access to unconventional opportunities. But if you are someone who is exposed to decentralized ICOs, then your first question would be why should you choose a centralized platform?

In order to answer this, Fintelum stresses the point of exerting control over your rights as an investor. For instance, the KYC/AML compliance ensures your ownership rights, voting rights, right to income, right to ownership inheritance, right to true and unobstructed information, litigation rights, and any other specific contractual rights.

Without such regulation,  external controls over your asset might not be easy to attain. In other words, security tokens that follow compliance are potentially a better way to represent your lawful rights as an investor. It not only enforces protection but also enables the issuer the obligation to fulfill them.

This protection can be crucial for an investor – when thinking of the security of the assets and your rights. Additionally, another important aspect of investing in tokens is access to the secondary market.

Now that I have established why investors might prefer to invest in tokenized assets – let me tell you how you can use Fintelum to start investing.

Step 1: Register as an Investor

The first step is to create your account on Fintelum by providing some basic personal information.

Step 2: Choose Your Project

Fintelum will then give you a list of vetted projects. Each project profile will include details of the company, its mission, use of funds, the total funding sought, and the type of investment. You will have options to choose between dividend shares, equity, asset-backed tokens, bonds, profit share, real estate, and revenue share.

I decided to invest in the KEEPP project, so I hit the “Make an investment” button to get started.

Step 3: Provide Your Compliance Information

As an investor, you will be required to offer further information in order to comply with the KYC/AML requirements. You will have to complete this step only once. When you are whitelisted – you can proceed to start investing in your chosen projects securely.

There’s nothing too daunting here, although as investors we are tired of filling in KYC forms, this is a necessity for any financial institution.

For ID verification you can use either your ID card, your passport, or your driving license. Here are a few screenshots of how this looks.

Once you’re verified, you can proceed with your investment. During the KYC process, you will also be asked how much you are going to invest and whether you will be using EUR, ETH or BTC.

At the end of the process, you will get an offer for the tokens and you need to proceed with your deposit of EUR, ETH or BTC.

Step 4: Trade Security Tokens

You can acquire new tokens or sell any existing ones you have through the Fintelum P2P trading desk.

However, this will be possible only if the issuer has opted for the secondary market. If not, you will have to purchase the tokens at the time of the STO.

Step 5: Track Your Investments

Once you have invested, you can follow your portfolio and see the updates on the Fintelum Investor profile. You will be able to access reports on your investment history and see any additional income if applicable.

If any of your projects has an affiliate program, you will have the option to enroll directly from your profit and profit from further offerings.

Why I Invested in the KEEPP Project

The KEEPP project is currently available for funding at time of writing, so I decided to invest in this project. I had to go through the KYC process I just described in order to be able to receive the investment offer, whereby I then had to transfer the money via bank transfer in order to formalize the investment.

What I really liked about Fintelum and the KEEPP project, is that, unlike other similar crowdfunding platforms, a ton of information was provided about the project. Indeed, the prospectus was comparable to other prospectuses I’ve analyzed in the past for companies going public. The document was written in perfect English, and some other languages were also made available.

With such projects, a major concern is whether the company will accurately report its financial performance. This is crucial because investor returns depend on a positive result for the company, and in that case, to what degree was it a positive result. To make sure that a stakeholder is on the board, Liza Aizupiete from Fintelum will be representing investors’ interests by being on the company’s board of directors.

Another important element is what kind of shares you’re getting. In this case, we are getting class B shares, and that entitles investors to be the first to receive dividends in proportion to the shares held. We also need to consider what price we are paying, and here we see that this round of investment carries a €510,000 share premium. That means that the price per share is €2.50, whereas the nominal or original value of the share was €1. This is normal for such issuances, as the value of the original shares would have typically gone up due to the company’s successful operation in the earlier years.

The team behind any business is always of utmost importance to me. In KEEPP’s case we can see that they have a solid team with lots of experience in the different matters needed for the successful operation of this business.

KEEPP is my first investment, but I’m hoping to see Fintelum continue to develop as a platform and put up more interesting projects. I’m also interested in the overall rate of acceptance of the STO model in Europe. It seems to be a space that’s heating up and I like the idea of directly investing in small and medium businesses in addition to my portfolio of public stocks.

Fintelum Development

Apart from investing and fundraising, Fintelum also offers development services. You can approach the platform for a customized solution on building a minimum viable product (MVP) or to set up a website for your business.

The company specializes in offering sophisticated solutions with a focus on user experience and user interface in mind. They are experts in developing complex payment systems, trading applications – for web-based, desktop, and mobile applications.

Fintelum Advisory

As I mentioned earlier, the team behind Fintelum has tons of experience when it comes to the development and legal aspects of building a business. The platform also offers advisory services for those who are seeking guidance during the establishment or the running of a business.

Here are certain areas where Fintelum can be of help:

• Developing a strategic vision
• Technical implementation
• Corporate finance
• Corporate governance
• Investor relations
• Brand development
• IT systems and security
• Token modeling

All in all, Fintelum has many facets that can be of high value to business owners.

Fintelum Fees and Charges

As a tailored token issuing service, the charges for tokenization will depend on each issuer’s specific requirements.

If you are an investor, the amount you pay for each token will also depend on the type of project you choose. However, it is unclear whether any other additional charges will be incurred when you make investments.

Fintelum Safety

As a crowdfunding platform, Fintelum holds responsibility for the funds and assets of both investors and issuers. This is where the KYC/AML compliance and smart contracts come into play. By deploying smart contracts on the blockchain, Fintelum ensures accurate records of all transactions.

Additionally, the whitelisting of investors using KYC/AML compliance will protect the issuer from any fraudulent process. In addition, Fintelum will only issue share-tokens when the crowdfunding is complete and thus – after the participants and their funds have even verified.

The smart contracts are created only at this point, and tokens are distributed to stakeholders via their Fintelum accounts. In case the issuers have enabled secondary markets, any transaction made will be recorded on the blockchain – and will be available for review whenever necessary.

Moreover, Fintelum implements its STOs on the Ethereum blockchain. If this system fails for any reason, it is possible to replicate the tokens on other blockchains – by following the same legal and business requirements. This makes the STO implementation of Fintelum dynamic, giving an additional layer of safety to your investments.

Fintelum Customer Service

As Fintelum offers tailored services,  you might be required to contact the team on several occasions. The platform has made this process easier for you to connect with experts directly through the platform.

Even if you are not an issuer or investor yet, you can reach out directly through the contact form, or through one of the social media pages of the company.

Fintelum – What’s the Final Verdict?

If you are looking for alternative investment options, then Fintelum offers a way for you to achieve this. As an issuer, you have the opportunity to gain access to more investors to secure crowdfunding.

As an investor, you will be able to find innovative projects to back without having to compromise on any of the guaranteed rights to your invested capital.

Fintelum is headed towards an inevitable future, where STOs, ICOs, and tokenization are about to become increasingly common in the capital markets. With its regulatory and compliance features, the platform sets itself apart – by making the process more secure for all participants involved.

Tokenize your assets with Fintelum

Buy crypto on Coinmama

When looking for a place to buy and trade cryptocurrencies, you want to consider all that a platform can offer, including its services, features, fees, payment methods, listed coins, availability in your country, security, and registration requirements.

In this review, we zoom in on all things Coinmama, a popular exchange that offers brokerage services.

What is Coinmama?

Established in 2013 in Tel Aviv, Israel, Coinmama is a cryptocurrency exchange boasting over 2.6 million users from 188 countries. It is currently registered in Slovakia, but the headquarters are in Israel and are run by New Bit Ventures.

Coinmama is famed for providing a wide range of payment options that allow users to purchase crypto with fiat currencies. The company is also uniquely defined by its brokerage service that doesn’t connect you to buyers or sellers but rather gives you access to the platform’s inventory. Unfortunately, they don’t provide wallets either, so users have to bring their storage solutions to perform any transactions.

Pros and Cons

Let’s look at some of the pros and cons that Coinmama has to offer.

Pros:

• A user-friendly platform that supports multiple languages.
• High level of security.
• Wide range of everyday payment options with credit or debit cards and wire transfers.
• You can receive your coins instantly.
• Excellent customer service.
• High purchasing limits.
• You can buy coins directly from the site, no middlemen.

Cons:

• No mobile app.
• No wallet.
• Do not accept PayPal, American Express, or Discover.
• It only lists 10 coins.
• No Chat. Customer support is only available via email.
• High fees.
• No crypto-to-crypto trades.

Services and Features Offered

Brokerage Services

As mentioned earlier, Coinmama provides brokerage services. Unlike cryptocurrency exchanges that are marketplaces, this platform buys and sells from you directly. This feature saves time because you don’t have to go searching for a seller or for buyers. However, it gets expensive because of the extra fees they charge.

Loyalty Program

Coinmama also has a loyalty program that rewards users as they buy more crypto on the site. There are three levels of savings, which you reach after meeting a particular minimum purchase amount measured over 90 days.

1. Crypto Curious: Level 1 is for new Coinmama users. You don’t get any savings under level 1.
2. Crypto Enthusiast: Level 2 users get to save 12.5% on the final price of their purchase. The saving reflects as a crypto bonus during check out.
3. Crypto Believer: Level 3 buyers save 25% and, as Coinmama promises, queueless customer support. You will be required to purchase for at least 30 days before becoming a Crypto Believer. You also need to achieve a cumulative purchase amount of 18,000 USD within 90 days or a lifetime purchase of over 50,000 USD to maintain the status.

Help Center

The platform also provides a Help Center, which is a comprehensive library of learning materials to answer users’ queries.

Blog

For trending news, they have a blog that delivers the latest in the cryptocurrency world.

Supported Coins

Coinmama currently only supports 10 coins, which is a small number compared to what other popular platforms such as Binance and Kraken offer. The coins listed on the platform can be seen when you click the “Buy” button, which rolls out a dropdown menu. They include:

• Bitcoin (BTC)
• Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
• Ethereum (ETH)
• Ethereum Classic (ETC)
• Litecoin (LTC)
• Cardano (ADA)
• Qtum (QTUM)
• EOS (EOS)
• Tezos (XTZ)

Payment Methods

Coinmama provides users with the following range of conventional fiat currency payment methods:

• Visa or Mastercard credit and debit cards are accepted, a 5% momentum fee is charged.
• Faster Payments. It applies to UK banks only, has zero fees, and settles in one business day.
• SEPA Bank Transfer. Applies to EU bank accounts only, has zero additional fees, and delivery takes up to one business day.
• ApplePay
• Fedwire
• Swift
• Sofort

The amount you pay is denominated in EUR, USD, AUD, CAD, GBP, or JPY, depending on your preference. If you wish to buy cryptocurrency in Coinmama, you must hold at least one of the six fiat currencies mentioned or convert the one you have to one of these first.

Fees

Coinmama’s fees are arguably high for a crypto exchange. The base price of coins is based on TradeBlock’s XBX index. There is an additional 2% (standard deviation) and a selling fee of 0.1-0.9%, depending on your user level. In a nutshell, the rates translate to a 5.9% fee for Curiosity-level users, 5.5% for Enthusiasts, and 5.1% for Believers.

The platform also charges another 5% fee for credit and debit card transactions, reflecting after you choose your payment method. SWIFT bank transfers attract a flat fee of £20 on all orders below 1,000 USD or its equivalent in the other currencies.

As you can see, depending on your level of experience with the platform and method of payment, you may have to part with anywhere between 5.1% and 5.9% extra in addition to 5% (card) or £20 (SWIFT) on your purchase.

If your bank or card issuer considers the transfer a “cash” transaction, they may also charge you a Cash Advance fee. To be safe, consider factoring in about 10% in fees when working with Coinmama. It could be slightly more if you are using a card or less if your payment method does not attract additional charges.

Buying Limits

Coinmama imposes several purchase limits depending on the level of usage you achieve on the platform. They include:

[wptb id=287980]

The limitations are rolling limits, which imply they apply to any 24-hour time frame or 30-day period and not from the first of every month or midnight. Before making any purchase on Coinmama, you will have to submit some form of identification document. They increase according to your level of usage as follows:

• Level 1: A valid government-issued ID, a selfie while holding the ID, and a note that says “Coinmama,” on which you should also write the day’s date.
• Level 2: A secondary ID (for example, a driving license) and a utility bill with your details.
• Level 3: Filling a short form in addition to the documents above.

Supported Countries

Coinmama has one of the widest lists of supported countries among crypto exchanges, even beating some of its rivals, such as BitStamp and Kraken. They only restrict sanctioned countries and a few US states. If you are in a sanctioned country, you will need to use a VISA or MasterCard issued by your government to make any purchases on the platform.

Among Coinmama’s restricted states are Alabama, Florida, Arkansas, Iowa, Connecticut, Louisiana, Delaware, Georgia, Oregon, South Dakota, Nevada, New Mexico, Vermont, Washington, and Rhode Island. In addition, the restricted countries include Cuba, Crimea, Lebanon, Israel, Sudan, Somalia, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Palestinian Territories, and Syria.

Privacy and Security

Regarding privacy, Coinmama collects data surrounding your activity in the platform, the KYC info you provide, inquiries, bugs and reports sent, and device data such as IP addresses and geolocation information. However, the company says they only use the data to improve their services and occasionally send you marketing materials.

Coinmama also admits that they may share private information with third parties in connection with the services they provide. This, they say, is only the minimum information needed. They may also share it with the authorities or arbitrators in case of legal compliance issues or disputes.

The platform uses industry-standard practices in the protection of your information, including encrypted transactions. In addition, they do not store your credit card details. Moreover, the absence of a wallet on the platform means that you run a lower risk of losing your coins with Coinmama.

However, exchanges are always in the crosshairs of cyber attackers. Coinmama is not an exception. On February 15, 2019, hackers attacked the site and gained access to approximately 450,000 old user emails and passwords dating 2017 and earlier. No coins were stolen, thanks to the lack of hot wallets on the platform.

The attack was part of a larger data breach that targeted 30 companies and a total of 841 million users, among them 1.4 million Coinmama accounts. Coinmama was quick to notify the affected customers, advising them to change their passwords. They also started expiring customer passwords and recommending that users set new ones. However, the Coinmama team admits they still don’t know who orchestrated the attacks.

User Reviews and Customer Support

Coinmama provides a help center and a dedicated support channel via the email [email protected]. Most user complaints and queries receive responses within 24 hours. It may take longer on weekends and public holidays, though. Looking at customer reviews online, there seems to be no issue concerning response time.

One thing with user reviews is that the majority are often negative, given that most people only feel inclined to say something after a bad experience. Among the issues that keep coming up is the KYC procedure for identity verification. The company asks for detailed client information and occasionally rejects applicants without providing a comprehensive explanation.

The good news is that they also let rejected applicants re-apply.

Verdict: Is Coinmama Right for You?

Coinmama is not the best choice if you are an avid crypto trader. However, the platform would suffice if you wish to purchase crypto quickly in any of the 10 listed coins. To top it off, you don’t have to be tech-savvy to use it.

Coinmama is perfect for first-time buyers and newbies who do not hold cryptocurrencies yet. It allows you to purchase through wire transfer easily or use a credit or a debit card, among other popular payment methods. What’s more, if you want to get a coin that’s not available to purchase using fiat currency, you can simply buy a popular coin such as BTC from Coinmama then use the BTC to buy the crypto coin you wanted from another site that supports crypto-crypto trades.

Buy crypto on Coinmama 

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What is Nebeus?

Nebeus (Developed and operated by Money-4 Limited & Rintral Trading SL) is a London & Barcelona-based fintech start-up company founded in 2014 by Sergey Romanovskiy. Their primary focus is to provide crypto asset-collateralized loans by integrating margin calls, health monitors, and volatility alerts. This unique platform aims to help bridge the gap between fiat and crypto with a wallet that allows you to earn, borrow, exchange, send or receive cash and crypto.

Some of the other features of Nebeus include:

• Make deposits and cash withdrawals at physical locations.
• International cash transfers to over 150 countries worldwide.
• Mobile phone top-ups on more than 500 mobile phone operators around the world.

They have also recently entered into a partnership with Railsbank and will soon provide users with their own Nebeus Mastercard to make purchases in everyday life.

Where is Nebeus Based?

At first glance, their website states, “The platform is developed and managed by Rintral Trading SL, Carrer de la Ciutat de Granada, 150, 08018, Barcelona, Spain.” and are registered in the Commercial Registry of Spain.

Although founded in 2014, they do not have a large social media following or many reviews from the public to date. However, they did a recent crowdfunding event on the “Seedrs” platform where 248 investors joined the campaign. Their funding was also match approved by the British Government’s “Future Fund,” resulting in a total of €995K raised. Allowing Nebeus to win the global award for “Digital Lending Innovation” in the Finance Monthly Fintech Awards 2021.

The Nebeus website offers English, Spanish and German translations. The English translation is not perfect and they have a few spelling errors here and there (which were promptly corrected when I pointed them out), but their blog posts are clear, educational, and easy to understand.

I felt as though the overall website user experience was a bit misleading. Many of the links I clicked on redirected me to the sign-up page to open an account instead of providing me with more information about the option stated on the link as I would have expected.

About Nebeus

Their “about us” page could use some improvement. Although it mentions their past and future, it does not include any information about the employees or company registration. I was not able to find a clear link to this page on the homepage, but it came up when I searched through Google.

Nebeus comply with all UK and EU regulations, and they are planning to obtain an EMI license to improve the services they can offer.

By 2020 Nebeus had more than 60,000 users already. They currently provide options for you to make cash transfers to more than 150 countries and offer mobile top-up with more than 500 mobile phone operators supported around the world. They have made it possible for you to transfer and deposit money at more than 230,000 retail locations & post offices.

On Nebeus, you can add funds using any Visa or Mastercard, and your funds are instantly credited to your account. Soon you will also be able to use your Nebeus Mastercard to make payments.

Opening a Nebeus Account

Opening a Nebeus account is quick and can be done by providing your Name, Surname, Email, Password, and Country. They support a large variety of countries that other platforms often exclude.

Currently, you can use your account without completing the verification process. The only option that is not available without verifying your identity is to transfer Fiat from your Nebeus account.

They have an easy automated KYC verification process. Once you have created your account, click on the profile icon top right and then click on “get verified,” where Nebeus will guide you to add your phone number and verify it with a pin code. Next, you will be required to go through an identity verification process where you are asked to take a selfie and a picture of your original document. Lastly, you need to provide your proof of address to verify it.

Once your account is verified, Nebeus will notify you via email. The entire verification takes around 24 hours to process and once completed, you will be able to use your account with all of its features.

Deposits

Nebeus offers a great variety of payment channels:

• Deposit directly from your Visa or MasterCard charged at 2.90% per transaction – this is the standard rate of most other platforms.
• Deposit cash at a Cash Collection Point near you for a fee of 6.50% to add or send funds – this option is great for those who do not have access to the other methods, and although it is a little higher in terms of fees, it still provides an option that would otherwise not be available.
• They also accept free SEPA deposits, and to send it is 7 € or 1% fee.
• Supercharged Wire Transfer for free – another great option that shows they are trying to accommodate as many people as possible.

Exchange

Nebeus makes it easy for you to add fiat and exchange it to crypto such as BTC or ETH within your account. Recently they launched deposits of USDC and USDT too. They also provide the option to exchange crypto for Euros, US Dollars, or British Pounds.

You can buy crypto by sending a wire transfer in Euros or transfer money via your bank account. These funds are then converted into crypto and deposited into your Wallet within one business day.

Nebeus charges a fee of up to 0.35% when you buy or sell cryptocurrency.

In June, they added two stablecoins, namely Tether (USDT) & USD Coin (USDC), and integrated both coins into some of their services, enabling you to:

• Buy, sell, and exchange stablecoins with crypto and fiat.
• Get crypto-backed loans in stablecoins.
• Top-up your mobile phone using stablecoins.
• Send or receive stablecoins to and from any other digital wallet.
• Withdraw stablecoins directly to your MasterCard.
• Send stablecoins to any other Nebeus user for free.

Borrow

As crypto has started to become a much better alternative store of value and investment option, it only makes us wonder about other ways to benefit from the crypto while holding it. This is where crypto-backed loans come in. It is a way to leverage your crypto and use it as collateral. Crypto-backed loans are an excellent option that allows you to use your loan to pay for your daily expenses without touching your crypto. Nebeus’ loans are pre-approved and insured.

Nebeus offers two options for borrowing.

1. Quick Loans. These are instant, pre-approved loans that are offered directly from their treasury.
2. Flexible loans. Fully customizable, where you can select your terms and borrow up to 80% of your crypto value.

How to Borrow?

Once you have opened your Nebeus account, you can get a loan in 3 steps:

1. Transfer your crypto from any other wallet for free
2. Choose the loan you would like to take out
3. Get cash while still keeping your crypto

Fees

• Quick Loans: 50% Loan-To-Value and 0% interest for three months.
• Flexible Loans: up to 80% Loan-To-Value, interest rate, and borrow up to €250,000 for as long as 36 months.

The fees are pretty similar to the other prominent players in the lending space like YouHodler and Nexo.

These are two of my other favorite crypto lending platforms to earn interest in your crypto and obtain loans by providing crypto as collateral.

Transfers

You can transfer to over 150 countries from your Nebeus account as long as your account is verified.

• The minimum amount to send is 5€
• The maximum amount you can send is 3500€ per transaction
• The fee for transferring is 2.8%

You can also use SEPA transfers/withdrawals for a fee of 1%, with a minimum of €7. Deposits with SEPA are free.

Rent

If you are not interested in borrowing, perhaps an option that might be interesting to you is the rent feature that Nebeus offers. Crypto renting is a way to rent your crypto to someone and get rewarded for it.

The two options at Nebeus are:

• Juniper – Rent a minimum of 0.0025 BTC or 0.03 ETH for more than one month to earn 3.5% per year.
• Sequoia – Rent a minimum of 0.12 BTC or 3 ETH for more than four months to earn 6.75% per year.

How to Insure Your Crypto?

Nebeus stores your crypto in their Nebeus Vault, a Class III bank-grade secure cold storage that is a disconnected device, making it safer from cyber attacks and insured up to $100M by Lloyds of London.

Nebeus provides two options insured by Lloyds of London in which you can protect your crypto against risk.

• Single Insurance at 4€/month for one of your cryptocurrencies.
• Full Insurance at 6,90€/month for your full vault.

Customer Support

There is no chat service available on Nebeus. When clicking on the help link, you are redirected to their knowledge base, and at the very bottom will find the link to submit a ticket. I have submitted a ticket to them; although I received a timely response, it came from a support@…us.zohodesk.eu email address with the subject Re:[## 2662 ##], and this can be easily missed or disregarded as spam. Perhaps something to take note of when requiring support from them.

Status Page

On their website, they have a link to a status page that provides you with a live status of their systems, whether they are operational or not, as well as the downtime. Proving to be quite a thoughtful feature.

Verdict

Overall, I like that Nebeus have taken a simplified approach, and the platform is easy to use for everyday people. Nebeus offers a great one-solution platform that provides a secure wallet to store a combination of fiat and crypto, allowing you to send, withdraw, lend, borrow and earn.

Nebeus aims to create a financial world without boundaries between cash and crypto and be known as a trusted financial service worldwide. Using Nebeus is a great way to help you earn interest on your crypto without needing to sell any of it by implementing some form of lending.

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Sign up to Cointracking

If you own or trade any crypto, the approach of tax season might present a whole new set of challenges. Trading and investing across multiple cryptocurrency exchanges can easily become very confusing for the average trader. In other words, it can be very tricky to keep track of your digital portfolio, your gains, and losses at all times.

If you regularly engage in cryptocurrency transactions, then the burden of calculating these profits and losses usually falls entirely with you. Fortunately, there is software out there that can help you keep an account of your cryptocurrency portfolio and generate tax reports based on your activities.

CoinTracking.info is one such platform that can function as your personal crypto portfolio monitor. In this review, I will walk you through the different features of this product and how you can use it to simplify the process of crypto tax reporting.

CoinTracking.info – An Overview

As you likely already know, the first cryptocurrency – Bitcoin, was launched in 2009. In 2012, CoinTracking was created as one of the first companies to have tapped into the upcoming market of crypto tax reporting tools. The platform was intended to make the lives of traders easier, by managing their portfolio throughout the year.

Over time, CoinTracking.info has gained the trust of over 880,000 users and handles portfolios worth $24.7 billion. It has built a worldwide network comprising expert tax advisors, professional cryptocurrency investors, and lawyers who can offer you any assistance with international filing requirements.

In simple terms, CoinTracking.info allows you to evaluate all your relevant information about your crypto portfolio in one place. With this tool, there is no need for you to extract your trading reports and enter them manually. Instead, the platform will directly import your data, and then do the rest of the work by itself.

At the moment, CoinTracking.info integrates with 68 cryptocurrency exchanges, 22 wallets, and offers legacy support for 22 closed trading platforms.

CoinTracking.info – Features

You can look at CoinTracking.info as a multi-faceted platform. It can serve as a portfolio manager, as well as a tax calculator for your crypto holdings.

As a portfolio manager, CoinTracking.info allows you to:

• Calculate your historical balances and profits
• Check coins and currency on each exchange
• View current balances
• Review your realized and unrealized gains
• Analyze the total profit and losses of your trades

CoinTracking.info also offers a unique Capital Gains Tax Calculator for thousands of different cryptocurrencies, digital assets, and tokens. And most importantly, the platform will be able to generate reports that are compliant with your country’s specific tax laws.

The tool is also accessible through its mobile app, allowing you to track different cryptocurrencies and your assets while on the go.

Now that you have an idea of what CoinTracking.info is all about, I’ll now explain how you can start using the platform.

How to Start with CoinTracking.info?

Once you have created an account on the platform, in order to start using its features – you will first have to import your trading data from an exchange or a wallet.

How to Add your Trades

CoinTracking.info allows you to import your trading data using three methods.

1. Automatic API Import

As I mentioned earlier, CoinTracking.info has partnered with several cryptocurrency platforms to monitor your trading data automatically. This can be done by linking the API Keys of your respective exchanges and wallets.

The platform also comes with an API Live Data Check that will allow you to check your current balance across multiple exchanges that you have connected through an API. This will ensure that the trades are added seamlessly, and you do not have to worry about manual updates.

2. Uploading Data Using CSV

You can also transfer data by uploading a CSV file that contains all your trading information. Many exchanges allow you to export these directly from their platforms.

Then you can simply drag and drop these files into CoinTracking.info and you are ready to go.

3. Manual Data Entering

In case there are some trades you were unable to import automatically, you can enter the data manually. You will be entering the details in the form of a table, by entering the specific numbers of coins bought and the trading involved. You will also have the option to edit these entries or erase them later.

If you are having any trouble setting up your account, not to worry – CoinTracking.info offers you detailed instructions every step of the way. When this is completed, the platform will give you a complete analysis of your trades, prices, volume, gains, losses, and the entire value of your portfolio.

Note: The automatic import options are available only for paid users of the platform. If you are accessing the free service, you will have to manually enter all the data.

CoinTracking.info – Interface, and Tools

When you have set up your account, you can proceed to explore the different features of CoinTracking.info. Let us start with what you will find in the portfolio management section.

CoinTracking.info – Analysis Tools

CoinTracking.info has one of the most user-friendly interfaces you will come across. Although the website might look a bit outdated, it has clearly defined each section and categorized its features.

In terms of analysis, you will be able to find the following useful features on CoinTracking.info:

Dashboard

Your dashboard will give you a complete overview of your portfolio. This will include the summary of the coins you hold, the value of each coin, your total profits/losses, the list of your exchange, and much more.

You will also be able to get a synopsis of your trades per day.

Reporting

The Reporting Tab consists of a wide range of different data regarding your trading activity. These charts and tables are interactive, which allows you to take a look at individual datasets if needed. You can also set the graph to view information for a specific period.

This includes:

• Trade Statistics – Here, you will find separate graphs for your historical balance, the current value of each currency, your trading volume, and the number of coins you hold.
• Trade List –  Under this section, you will be able to see a detailed listing of all your trades, such as the buy and sell volumes. This will also include any comments that you have added for individual coins at the time of uploading the data. CoinTracking.info allows you to export this list in multiple formats directly from the platform.
• Trade Prices– This will calculate the cost of all your trades on any particular day, or until the date specified.
• Trade Fees – Here, you will be able to find an account of any trading fees applicable to the trades you have imported.

CoinTracking.info – Research Area