Uphold Review

What is Uphold?

As I mentioned earlier in this Uphold review, it's a crypto broker platform. This means that while it functions as an exchange, it also aggregates multiple liquidity providers to offer users the best possible market prices with fixed rates.

It allows users to trade more than 300 cryptocurrencies and a few precious metals, such as gold. Not only does the Uphold exchange offer a solid selection of assets, but it also provides various features like spot trading and the recurring buying option, making it easy to set up automated trades or stick to a trading strategy.

The platform also supports staking and various order types, but its offerings don’t stop here. It provides a secure hot wallet, a crypto debit card, and more.

Uphold has been operating since 2014, bringing over a decade of experience to the industry. It's a highly secure and regulated platform that also features a clean and intuitive interface. So, if you're looking for an exchange that is both safe and easy to use, Uphold is a solid choice.

That said, let’s dive into its pros and cons to get a clearer picture of how Uphold ensures its position as one of the most popular crypto exchanges.

Uphold Reviews: PROS

As per usual, I'll start off my Uphold review by covering the main benefits of this platform. If you’re interested in Uphold features, wallet functionality, and more, you’ll be glad to know that all of these things fall under the “pros” umbrella!

A Multi-Functional Platform

Probably one of the biggest benefits associated with the Uphold crypto platform is the fact that it’s multi-functional. What does that mean, exactly?

Well, some time ago, many traditional cryptocurrency exchanges would only offer their users the chance to trade crypto assets, and that’s it. If the exchange were custodial, it would also be able to act as a wallet, but that’s the extent of it.

With time, though, and with the increase in popularity of crypto, some exchanges started offering their users additional features, like advanced trading options, superior storage, and so on.

Quite a few Uphold reviews will tell you that the platform offers a wide range of different features and functionalities to its customers.

Uphold allows you to easily trade crypto, but it also provides advanced trading tools, such as take-profit and trailing stop-loss orders. Also, you can set up automatic recurring transactions for dollar-cost averaging, a strategy that can help reduce risk.^[1]

To give you ease of mind, it allows you to place up to 50 limit orders using a single pool of capital. Meaning that you can execute buy or sell trades at the prices you set without constantly monitoring the market. Plus, you only pay fees when the trade is executed.

To add to that, Uphold's offering does not stop at crypto trading; it also offers a decent crypto storage service! In fact, to secure your assets, it has three different wallet options, all equipped with various security measures, and two of them are integrated into the Uphold app for seamless use.

The first one is the Uphold wallet, which is a simple custodial wallet that allows you to store your crypto assets. If you want additional security and control, though, you can use the Uphold Vault feature. It provides an assisted self-custody storage option for your assets.

What does "assisted" mean? Well, you get two private keys that only you have control of, but Uphold also provides a secure key replacement service via the third Uphold key. So, in total, there are three keys. Don't worry, though; two keys are required to control your crypto, so Uphold will never be able to do that.

Another notable feature is the Uphold Vault, which lets you easily use your assets because it has instant access to the Uphold trading platform. Just note that the Vault has a subscription fee ($4.99/month or $49.99/year if paid annually), but you do get a 30-day free trial.

The third crypto storage option offered by Uphold is traditional self-custody via UpHODL, a multichain Web3 Wallet. It's a separate app that can be used to store and manage various crypto assets and NFTs. Besides that, it can be connected to various DeFi trading venues.

So, essentially, Uphold allows you to buy, trade, and store crypto assets all in one place. It even offers staking services where you can earn up to 17.6% APY.

To top it all off, there’s also the Uphold Card available to be used, too. However, this is something that likely deserves a discussion on its own.

Uphold Debit Card

More and more specific cryptocurrency-related platforms (exchanges, APY-driven projects, etc.) tend to offer their users the chance to acquire crypto-based debit cards. Some of the more popular examples would include cards from Bybit and Coinbase.

Nevertheless, the Uphold card is worth mentioning, too. To be frank with you, it’s actually a pretty awesome product offered by the company in question.

Since it’s a MasterCard, you can shop online from over 50 million merchants worldwide and withdraw money from basically any ATM that supports MasterCard. The card instantly converts crypto into the required national currency. Plus, you can easily link it to Apple Pay or Google Pay for added convenience.

Do note that there is a £2.50 fee for national ATM withdrawals and £3.50 for foreign ones. Also, if you want to get a physical card, you'll have to pay a one-time shipping fee of £9.95. However, the Uphold card charges 0% foreign transaction and annual fees, as well as offers low exchange rates.

The best part is that the Uphold card provides users with cashback rewards on all their purchases. You get a 1% cashback that is paid out in GBP. The rewards are calculated at the end of each month and then added to your Uphold card balance.

The one major con, which somewhat overshadows the Uphold card, is mentioned above - the fact that you won’t be able to acquire or use the card if you’re not located in the UK. However, if you DO reside within the country in question, this obviously doesn’t apply to you.

Strong Security Features

As you might imagine, security is at the top of the features that you should be looking into when searching for a reliable exchange platform, no matter if you’re reading through Uphold reviews or any others.

Is Uphold safe and legit, fundamentally? Yes, it is - the platform is very meticulous about the security features it applies across the board and has no experience with major hacks or security breaches.

User fund-wise, as stated earlier, you may choose to store your cryptocurrency assets in Uphold storage options. While they will always be accessible, at the same time, Uphold claims that the majority of its users’ funds are kept offline in cold storage devices.

📚 Read More: Cryptocurrency Security Guide

While it’s a feature that has become the standard in the industry, it’s also one of the safest ways to go about it, as well. This, however, is not where Uphold’s attention to security ends.

The company publishes its assets and liabilities in real-time and participates in (at least) annual security audits, all performed by an independent third party. There are penetration tests, new feature integrations, currently existing feature improvements, and so on.

To add to that, if you’re still not sure about "Is Uphold safe?", you should also keep in mind that Uphold encrypts all processes on the platform (trading, emails, software, etc.) and follows strict KYC and AML rules and regulations.

KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) are the two big sets of financial regulations that many reliable exchanges apply to their users nowadays. While it may seem inconvenient, and some may even see it as a breach of privacy, KYC is definitely mandatory in order to keep the ecosystem safe^[2] and drive all of the potential scammers away.

Additionally, it's worth noting that Uphold holds over 50 licences and registrations globally, including in the US, the UK, and the EU.

Table: Uphold's licenses and certifications for compliance

All in all, if you were worried about the security side of things, you can rest assured - Uphold is a reliable and safety-oriented platform. You'll notice the same sentiment when reading through other Uphold app reviews, too!

Wide Selection & Early Token Access

When picking out a cryptocurrency exchange for yourself, naturally, one of the first things that you’ll probably want to look into is the variety of crypto assets available on the platform.

It makes sense, too - if you’re a beginner who wants to start trading BTC and ETH, you can easily trade them and also will be able to look into other assets in the future on the same platform. And if you’re an experienced trader, you’ll probably be happy to know that there’s a variety of assets you can pick from.

As I mentioned earlier in this Uphold review, the platform supports over 300 different cryptos. As you might expect, you can find all of the main crypto coins on the platform and a lot more of the lesser-known assets, too. And you can buy these assets with more than 20 fiat currencies.

Following that, Uphold also allows you to trade various assets beyond cryptocurrencies, such as precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. The platform previously supported stocks and forex, but these features are no longer available.

While many people who are interested in cryptocurrencies aren’t necessarily going to be too excited about trading other types of assets, this is still a wonderful feature to have, nonetheless. This is especially true if you consider that the precious metals functionality doesn’t interfere with the actual crypto exchange part unless you choose to trade between the two.

Since most regulated and centralized platforms don't have AMM functionality, they usually don't allow you to trade completely new tokens or coins or some of the more niche assets. However, when it comes to Uphold, it actually provides users with the possibility of trading new, important crypto assets early, even before they are listed on the majority of popular platforms.

This is because it’s connected to 30 trading venues, including centralized and decentralized exchanges, along with several Layer-2 networks. This connectivity also ensures liquidity and allows Uphold to offer you some of the best crypto prices.

📚 Check Out: How to Buy New Crypto Before Listing

All things considered, if you’re looking for an exchange platform that would support a decent number of cryptocurrencies for you to trade, the Uphold exchange is surely one of the better options in that regard. This, however, isn’t only due to the aforementioned reason, but also because of the trading intricacies of the platform.

Specifically, some Uphold reviews will tell you that the exchange allows you to trade different assets with one another without any difficulties.

If you’re interested in traditional investment tools and are still looking to trade cryptos, this is an ideal scenario! Once again, it’s thanks to Uphold’s unique position of being able to offer its customers a wide selection of tradable assets.

App Functionality at Its Best

Reading through the different opinions that users have about Uphold, you will undoubtedly come across some Uphold app reviews, too.

The app in question is a fully functional platform in itself. This means you don’t need to have an actual desktop or laptop computer to access Uphold - you can do everything from registration and KYC all the way to trading and storage right here, in the app.

📚 Read More: Best App for Crypto Trading

Just like the desktop version, the app itself is also intuitive and simple to navigate. It offers all of the core functionality that you might require from Uphold - this is true in regards to the wallet, exchange, and other services of the brand.

Naturally, as you might expect, more and more people are using their mobile devices to access their crypto funds and transact with them, too. Mobile is a very convenient medium to do so - you are able to check on your assets on the go and don’t need to bring your computer everywhere with you.

Evidently, you might think that this is only important for wallets. However, if you aspire to be an active day trader, then catching the best possible prices for your assets is important! These prices can change momentarily, though - this is why being able to trade at any point in time becomes crucial.

All in all, the point remains the same - if you’re looking for an awesome and reliable crypto app, Uphold has got you covered!

Did you know?

Compare Crypto Exchanges Side by Side With Others

All Crypto Exchanges may look similar to you but they're NOT all the same!

Yes! Show me the Comparison Chart

Uphold Review: CONS

With all of the main benefits of the platform analyzed and discussed, let’s now take a look at some of the complaints that users' Uphold reviews have and whether or not it’s worth questioning - is Uphold legit?

May Have a Steeper Learning Curve

I did say before that Uphold has an intuitive interface, and this argument still stands. Then, what do I mean by this being a con? Let me explain.

Admittedly, nowadays, the vast majority of the top cryptocurrency exchange platforms aim to make their services as approachable and beginner-friendly as possible. It’s a very logical thing to do, too, as discussed in the introductory part of this Uphold review, there’s a huge influx of new people entering the cryptocurrency market.

“New people” usually means that there’s going to be a lot of confusion floating around. If your exchange is able to present itself as being approachable and super-simple to start using, chances are that it’s going to attract a lot of attention, and as a result, transactions.

Well, with the Uphold wallet and exchange, this isn’t completely the case. Multiple Uphold reviews report the platform being a bit tricky to figure out at first, especially if you have zero prior experience with crypto trading (or cryptocurrencies in general, for that matter).

This is partly due to all of the additional features and trading tools mentioned earlier in the review. With such a wide range of assets and the ability to trade between different asset classes, navigating the platform can feel overwhelming.

Another possible reason, in my opinion, is the lack of intuitive labels on Uphold's interface. For example, there is no clear button to deposit funds into your account. To do that, you'll have to use the [Anything to Anything] transaction box, which I think can be a bit unclear for some users.

That said, I myself didn't really have any difficulties using the platform. Even though its interface differs from the more familiar layouts of other exchanges, it's pretty easy to get familiar after spending a bit of time on it. Besides, it does offer one of the easiest ways to buy and sell crypto via its one-step crypto trading feature.

No Live Customer Support

Customer support is an essential part of any cryptocurrency exchange - that’s pretty obvious. If you come across any technical issues or are stuck with your transaction, customer support is the very first place you’ll want to turn to.

That’s all fine and dandy. However, you might come across situations where you need help then and there - in other words, a problem that needs to be resolved ASAP.

In situations like these, you’d probably want to be able to contact support immediately. This, unfortunately, isn’t going to be an option with Uphold.

No matter if you’re reading through some Uphold app reviews or those that talk about the desktop version of the exchange, one thing remains the same with both versions of the platform - there’s no live customer support available.

Most top-tier exchanges nowadays allow their customers to establish some sort of live communication with an agent - this allows you to rest assured that you’ll get your issue resolved quickly and efficiently. However, Uphold's help center is pretty extensive, covering most of its features and various possible issues.

Limited Availability

One frustrating downside of Uphold is that it's not available everywhere. While it supports a long list of countries, it restricts access in several major markets, including Germany, Egypt, and India.

These restrictions are often tied to changing financial regulations, so the list of supported countries can change without much warning. This creates uncertainty for users, especially in regions where crypto regulations are evolving quickly.

To be fair, it's just how the crypto world works right now. You won't find a single centralized exchange that's legally allowed everywhere on the planet. Even big names like Binance and Kraken have a bunch of countries where they can't operate.

📚 Check Out: 10 Most Crypto-Friendly Countries

Fun fact (or not so fun, actually), one of my friends signed up for Uphold last year and was using it occasionally to monitor the markets. But some time ago, they got locked out because their country was suddenly no longer supported. Luckily, they hadn’t kept much crypto on the platform, but it was still annoying.

So, if you're thinking of using Uphold, double-check whether your country is supported, and keep in mind that even if it is today, that might not always be the case in the future.

Uphold Fees

Uphold fees are a somewhat controversial topic, or at least that’s the impression you might get from some Uphold reviews found online. Whether this sentiment holds true largely depends on the specific cryptocurrencies you plan to trade. Allow me to elaborate on that.

If, say, you’re looking to trade cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, things will be quite clear straight from the get-go - Uphold fees for these cryptos are around 1,4-1,6% in the EU, UK, and US. However, if you want to trade other cryptocurrencies, the spread of the Uphold fees can go up to 1,9-2,95%.

Table: Uphold trading fees in the US, UK, and Europe

When it comes to deposit and withdrawal fees, they vary based on your location, the asset in question, and the payment method. However, they usually fall into the 0-3,99% range.

So… Where’s the confusion, then?

Well, as you can see, the spread of the fees varies depending on several factors, such as the cryptocurrencies you’re trading, your location, and more.

That aside, Uphold fees are actually rather decent, especially if you’re looking to trade some of the better-known cryptocurrencies! Yes, the fees are far from being “low”. However, there are exchange platforms out there that offer far worse fee models to their clients.

📚 Read More: Uphold Fees Made Simple

That said, it’s worth mentioning that while you do have to pay some higher fees than with other traditional crypto exchanges, the good variety of features available with the Uphold exchange does act as a sort of trade-off!

Uphold VS Coinbase

As you read through the different Uphold reviews online, you’ll likely find the name Coinbase mentioned quite a few times. This is because Uphold VS Coinbase is a rather fierce discussion - these two exchanges tend to get compared often.

However, the good thing here is that both of them are very different from one another and are aimed at somewhat different types of crypto traders. Let me explain.

	COINBASE	UPHOLD
Overall Score	9.6	8.2
Best For	Advanced Users & Beginners	Wide Range of Assets
Operating Countries	United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, France, + 100 more	United States, Argentina, United Kingdom, Mexico, France, +180 more
Latest Coupons	GET $200 REWARD All Coinbase Coupons	See All Coupons of Best Exchanges
Verdict	A well-known and one of the most reputable crypto exchanges in the US.	A reliable multi-asset exchange for trading crypto, fiat, and precious metals.
	Visit site Read review	Visit site Read review

Table: Coinbase VS Uphold comparison

As we’ve already established, Uphold is a multi-functional exchange. The platform offers its users a wide array of different benefits and tools - wallets, different asset class trading, a debit card, and so on.

My point here is that Uphold is aimed at traders who would like to explore other asset classes and not stay fixated on crypto. On top of that, since the platform isn’t all that simple to get into (by comparison, that is), it’s preferred by some experienced day traders and people who’d like to diversify their portfolios.

On the other hand, Coinbase separates its platform into two experiences: Coinbase Advanced (previously Pro) offers more options than Uphold, while Coinbase One is significantly simpler. In this sense, Uphold provides an experience that falls somewhere in between the two.

📚 Check Out: Coinbase Review

Coinbase also sets itself apart in the "Uphold VS Coinbase" debate by being widely regarded as one of the simplest and most beginner-friendly exchanges in the industry.

Table: Differences between Uphold and Coinbase

This is actually a point that the company itself emphasizes. If you’re a complete beginner, Coinbase allows you to have an awesome experience getting to learn about crypto as you trade. There were even rewards for doing so! While Uphold also has a learning platform, it doesn’t include any earning opportunities like Coinbase used to.

Both exchanges are secure and reliable, though. On top of that, they support a decent number of cryptocurrencies and allow you to store your coins and tokens in their hot wallets.

In short, it’s worth emphasizing that both Coinbase and Uphold are awesome crypto exchanges, yet each of them has their own target audience. At the same time, you can be sure to try out both platforms, too - perhaps that’s actually the way to go, in the first place?

How to Use the Uphold Cryptocurrency Exchange?

Now, with all of that being said and done, to finish off my Uphold review, let’s check out the actual platform itself and how you can get started with using it.

First things first - how should one go about registering on the Uphold exchange?

Well, kind of. Before you make any “big moves”, you’ll need to do two things - pass the relevant KYC processes and fund your account.

The registration process is actually quite quick and very self-explanatory. You shouldn’t come across any hurdles whatsoever.

In order to pass the KYC verification checks, you’ll have to provide Uphold with some private information. Specifically, you’ll need to identify yourself and provide proof of ID.

If you’re a crypto elitist, then this isn’t ideal. However, if that is the case, you probably already have a non-KYC exchange picked and are ready to start trading there.

If you have no issue with Uphold identifying you, then the KYC and AML checks shouldn’t prove to be a hassle at all. They are very standard and help keep the platform safe and sound.

📚 Check Out: How to Use Uphold?

Once you do all of that, you can then fund your account via a credit or debit card or a bank transfer, and start trading the cryptos (or other assets!) that you’d please!

Conclusions

Now that I’ve explained everything in this Uphold review, let's take a final look at the verdict on this exchange. Well, I think it’s rather self-evident - if you don’t fear a small challenge of getting around the advanced features of the platform, then Uphold is definitely worth checking out!

If you’re an advanced trader or are planning to become one, Uphold will provide you with all of the features that you might need in your journey to come. This is true both in regard to functionality as well as portfolio diversification, too. Well, the latter point is actually even cooler than it sounds. Uphold allows users to trade multiple different asset classes - over 300 cryptocurrencies and precious metals.

Nevertheless, this exchange is still suitable for every level of trader. It has a straightforward design that even a beginner can navigate and understand easily.

The content published on this website is not aimed to give any kind of financial, investment, trading, or any other form of advice. BitDegree.org does not endorse or suggest you to buy, sell or hold any kind of cryptocurrency. Before making financial investment decisions, do consult your financial advisor.

Scientific References

1. M. J. Brennan, F. Li, W. N. Torous: ‘Dollar Cost Averaging Get Access Arrow’;

2. Dhinagaran.V, Aruna Kumari. S: 'KYC Verification Using Ciphertext Policy Attribute-Based Encryption and Blockchain Technology';

3. P. Bouchey, V. Nemtchinov, A. Paulsen, D. Stein: ‘Volatility Harvesting: Why Does Diversifying and Rebalancing Create Portfolio Growth?’.