Jean Galea

If you are looking to buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrencies on your mobile phone, you’ll be pleased to know that there are heaps of options in the market. But, with so much choice, this can make it difficult to know which trading app to go with.

For example, are you looking to focus on an app that offers industry-leading fees, or are you more concerned about trading a specific pair? Either way, you need to perform in-depth research before taking the plunge.

To help point you in the right direction, here I discuss my top-rated cryptocurrency apps of 2020. On top of this, I also explain some of the key metrics that you need to look out for prior to selecting a provider.

Choosing a Suitable Platform

Before I delve into the best crypto trading apps of 2020, it is worth me quickly outlining what you need to look out when searching for a broker/exchange that meets your needs.

In my view, the most important metrics are as follows:

Ownership or CFDs?

First and foremost, you need to assess what your short or long-term objective is. For example, are you looking to buy leading cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, and then hold on to the coins for several months or years? If so, you might be better suited for a cryptocurrency broker that accepts everyday payment methods.

Alternatively, if you are looking to actively trade cryptocurrencies to make frequent profits from every-changing price movements, you might be more suited for a CFD trading platform. This is because CFD providers typically allow you to trade cryptocurrencies without paying any commissions. As such, it’s only the spread that you need to take into account.

Note: CFDs (Contracts-for-Differences) track the market price of an asset. This allows you to speculate on cryptocurrencies without you owning the coins. Instead, you are speculating on the future price of the cryptocurrency. 

Regulation

Regulation is a bit of a grey area in the cryptocurrency trading space. If using a CFD provider, then it is all-but-certain that the platform will be heavily regulated.

For example, the likes of eToro, IG, and Plus500 all hold licenses with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). Other reputable license issuers include the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

At the other end of the spectrum, conventional cryptocurrency trading exchanges like Binance still operate largely unregulated. This is somewhat surprising when you consider the billions of dollars worth of trading activity that goes through its books each and every day.

However, I would argue that Binance is still worth considering, as it has industry-leading security practices.

Supported Pairs and Financial Instruments

The term ‘Cryptocurrency Trading’ is somewhat of a broad one, not least because it can refer to several financial products. For example, if you’re looking to trade cryptocurrencies against the US dollar, you need to ensure your chosen app supports fiat-to-crypto pairs.

Alternatively, you might be looking to trade crypto-cross pairs. These are currency pairs that contain two digital assets. This might include BTC/ETH or XRP/ETH. If you’re a seasoned crypto trader looking to take things to the next level, then you’ll want to look out for things like margin trading, leverage, and short-selling facilities.

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Self-custody is currently the best way to keep your Bitcoin secure, provided that you have the time to plan it properly and implement a few best practices. The idea is that you become your own bank and don’t rely on anyone else to protect your store of value.

This sits right in line with Bitcoin’s principle of self-sovereignty and censorship-resistance.

In this article, I’ll describe what I believe is the best setup for self-custody that we have at the moment.

What you will need:

• Ledger Nano X or Trezor
• Billfodl Multishard

The first item we will need is a tool for cold storage. The “cold” part means that we are keeping the private keys stored in a device that is not connected to the internet. The Ledger Nano X or a Trezor will do that part of the job perfectly.

The next thing we need when working with any hot or cold wallet, is a way to store the backup seed, which contains 24 words. With this seed, you will be able to recreate your wallet should you lose it.

This is as important as your wallet, in fact, I would say it is even more important. If someone gets possession of your wallet, he won’t be able to do anything with your crypto unless he knows the password to that device, but if they get your backup seed they need nothing else to be able to recreate the wallet and transfer all your crypto assets to their own wallet.

And that is why we need to be very careful about how we store this backup seed. Traditionally, the easiest way to store the backup seed has been a piece of paper stored somewhere safe. In fact, cold wallets such as the Ledger Nano come with a cardboard sheet that is prepared for backing up your seed.

However, after so many horror stories of these papers being thrown away, displaced, or simply destroyed in some for or another, it became apparent to serious holders of Bitcoin that a better solution was needed.

Here are some typical scenarios:

I had my seeds written in a paper notebook that I put in my safe which was 4 1/2 feet off the ground. During Hurricane Harvey we got 6.5 feet of water. I had $1 million of [cryptocurrency], now I have nothing.

Enter the Billfodl, a stainless steel device with laser engraved tiles. It serves as secure storage for your backup seed.

Why do we choose something like the Billfodl instead of just writing the seed words down on a piece of paper? There are several reasons:

• Fireproof – Forged to withstand more than double the average house fire.
• Waterproof – Marine-grade 316 stainless steel means it will never rust
• Shockproof – Shockproof up to 1 million volts means serious protection
• Hacker proof – Seeds and keys remain completely offline
• You proof – Unlike a piece of paper, you will never accidentally throw away your Billfodl

The Multishard setup is essential, in my opinion. With the Multishard, you are given 3 single-sided stainless steel units very much resembling the original Billfodl. However, each of these units only stores 16 of the 24 words your seed phrase is made of. Each unit tells you which 16 of the 24 words to load, and after full installation, you will have backed up each seed word twice. Any recovery efforts in the future will require 2 of the 3 devices because that is the only way to know the entire seed phrase.

Anyone with a significant amount of crypto who is relying on paper seeds or any other similar means of backup should consider switching to the Billfodl Multishard setup.

How to Setup a Billfodl

Setting up is straightforward, but make sure you have some time reserved for this procedure, in order to make sure you understand what you are doing and double check everything.

The best way to explain how to set things up is to show you, so just follow this 5 part video tutorial and you’ll be all set.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mRjwOYHsgo

Alternatives

We can talk of two types of alternatives. There are other devices that help you backup your backup seed securely, with the

The main alternative to this setup is to use an online service such as Casa or Unchained Capital’s Vault service to implement multi-signature security.

This means that in order to transact with your crypto you will need to have multiple signatures that approve the transaction. This could be, for example, a 2-of-3 or a 3-of-5 key setup. This is a good setup however you have to pay these companies monthly for the service.

It might be a good solution for those with very little technical knowledge, institutions or those who absolutely don’t want the burden of responsibility for taking care of their cold storage wallet and seed phrase setup.

Yet another alternative is to set up your own multisig setup using the open-source tool Caravan, which was developed by Unchained Capital. The downside is that this is still quite a new tool, while the cold storage wallet + seed phrase setup has been in use for many years now.

It is true that a hardware wallet device, when used by itself to secure funds, is a single point of failure. Using hardware wallet devices as part of a multisig setup offers greater resilience.

My Recommendation

The best value and most convenient setup for most holders of Bitcoin and other cryptos is the combination I mentioned:

• Ledger Nano X or Trezor
• Billfodl Multishard

The Ledger and the Trezor are the undisputed top dogs when it comes to cold wallets, while the Billfodl is cheaper than competition while at the same time using better materials and making it very easy to set up.

For just $89 for the Billfodl or $199 for the Billfodl Multishard (my recommended purchase), plus the Ledger or Trezor, you will have a very secure setup that is pretty much hacker-proof, meaning you can rest safe with the knowledge that your crypto investment will be there for you tomorrow or years ahead.

Get the Billfodl today

Do you have any questions about crypto custody or have explored other setups that I didn’t mention? Let me know in the comments section.

As we are entering the last quarter of an eventful crypto year, exchanges are gearing up for a long-awaited bull market. With a sharp increase in new users, as well as daily trading volumes, platforms are doing everything possible to get in front of their audience.

And it’s not the first time this happens. Back in 2017, exchanges utilized all kinds of ways to grab the top ranks of price-tracking websites like CoinMarketCap. One rather “unethical” way of doing this was through the manipulation of reported trading volumes.

This article will discuss fake trading volumes, the progress that has been made, how CoinMarketCap evolved over the past two years, and what you need to know in order to buy bitcoin safely. Let’s start by taking a look at the past events that led to the issue at hand.

A quick look back

Two years ago, Bitwise released a report, outlining all the “shady” practices that exchanges were using to climb in the top ranks of CoinMarketCap (CMC). Approximately 95% of the exchanges they looked into reported fake trading volumes to portray their platforms as very popular and highly liquid.

After the report was made public, Chief Strategy Officer and interim CEO of CoinMarketCap Carylyne Chan mentioned that Bitwise’s findings were correct. The company vouched to look into the issue and rearrange the ranking of exchanges.

A few months after the release of Bitwise’s report, CMC introduced the “liquidity” filter. The new metric proved helpful for investors, making it more difficult for exchanges to take advantage of the loopholes.

Chainalysis Report

About a year after Bitwise’s findings, research firm Chainalysis discovered that exchanges decreased the apparent inflation of their reported trading volumes. According to their report, the crypto ecosystem seems to be clearing up, but there is more work to be done.

Some large exchanges, including Bitforex, still follow unethical methods when it comes to the reporting of trading volumes. This is done to improve their rankings and increasing the liquidity of their platform. The study points the finger at a total of 12 cryptocurrency exchanges that still report over-inflated trading volumes in order to get higher spots in the exchange list of CoinMarketCap.

For reference, the Chainalysis report was published in November 2019, just a few months before CoinMarketCap was acquired by Binance. The latest has since changed a large number of ranking metrics, making the reported trading volume a less important factor.

How Binance improved CoinMarketCap

Earlier this year, Binance acquired CoinMarketCap for an undisclosed amount. The popular exchange vowed to help the platform reach its full potential while remaining completely objective to the presentation of data.

Naturally, many users felt hesitant about this transition. According to them, Binance could easily manipulate the data or emphasize the importance of Binance and BNB. However, half a year after the acquisition took place, we can see that this is not the case.

Currently, the exchange list is conveniently split in Spot and Derivatives. This makes it easier for traders of all experience levels to find exactly what they are looking for.

The inflated trading volumes posed a great problem for the exchange list related to “Spot” trading. Since April, however, the ranking methods have changed completely.

While liquidity and the 24-hr trading volume are still relevant when it comes to rankings, CMC now determines the final placement based on the Web Traffic Factor – a collection of data from multiple web traffic sources, cross-checked with the reported volumes. Naturally, this leads to more honest rankings and fewer attempts to “cheat” the system.

Is the problem solved?

When looking at the past 6 months, we can confidently say that we are headed towards a good direction. However, it may still take some time until the problem is eliminated. As long as there are platforms reporting fake volumes, CoinMarketCap may experience ranking issues.

For many, the challenge seems easy to solve – simply remove all platforms that report fake volumes from the exchange list. While this would solve the problem, it would take away the democratic approach that Binance has maintained all along. Many users would be upset since the platform would no longer present data in an objective manner.

Looking at the past few months, we can see that the platform is working very hard to improve the space and motivate others to do the same. This is all done in an unbiased manner, with the user in mind. If this trend continues to unfold, the future of cryptocurrency seems bright.

What to expect in the future

If the market follows historical patterns, we would now be getting ready for a surge in demand – a new bull market. And this would be very interesting for cryptocurrency exchanges. With more new users, it would become imperative for CoinMarketCap to operate at the highest possible standards. This would lead to the elimination of fake volume reporting, with the most popular platforms taking the majority of market share purely through their reputation.

Aside from that, investors are no longer entering a fully unregulated “wild” market. Those that were around in the last bull market (2017) are well aware of these issues, and will likely educate new users to avoid the same mistakes they made. This also goes for new project listings, who will try to get listed on popular exchanges, even if this means paying a premium.

Overall, it is important to remember that crypto is still a small-sized market that is prone to manipulation. In the past 10 years, industry leaders have managed to improve the way data was presented, but there is still work that needs to be done. More specifically, users should be able to navigate through price-and-data tracking platforms easier, making educated decisions easier. We hope that the next few years will improve this issue, making cryptocurrency a mainstream name on a global scale.