Is cryptocurrency safe?

Cryptocurrency is a high-risk investment, both in terms of the volatility of the assets and the lack of investor protection in the way they are bought, sold, and stored. If you want to invest in cryptocurrency, make sure it only accounts for a small percentage of your portfolio and that you only invest money you can afford to lose.

What should I look for in a cryptocurrency exchange?

When you're choosing a platform where you can buy and sell crypto, don't base your decision on fees alone. Look for a company that has a good reputation and is transparent about what it does with your funds. Bonus marks for an exchange that carries out third-party audits of its reserves and has New York's BitLicense.

How should I store my cryptocurrency?

If you leave your cryptocurrency on the exchange where you bought it, there is a risk you could lose it if the platform fails. Consider using a crypto wallet that you control to store your coins and tokens. There is a bit of a learning curve involved in using a wallet for the first time. Also, be aware that if you lose your security phrase you could lose access to your assets completely.

Uphold Review: Pros, Cons, and More

Uphold is ideal if you want to buy and trade a variety of assets in one place. It offers a good range of cryptocurrencies, along with precious metals and national currencies. The platform boasts robust security measures, but a class-action lawsuit also raises some questions.

Read our in-depth Uphold review to see what it offers and decide if it's right for you.

Ratings Methodology

Our Rating:

Rating image, 4.00 out of 5 stars.

4.00/5

Bottom Line

A well-designed trading platform with a large number of assets, useful features, and educational content. However, there have been complaints regarding its customer service and security.

Terms Apply. Crypto assets are highly volatile. Your capital is at risk.

Fees:

0% commission, variable spread

Account Minimum:

$1 deposit min.

Open Account for Uphold

Alternatives to consider

Offer	Kraken	Coinbase
Rating	Rating image, 4.00 out of 5 stars. 4.00/5 Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor.	Rating image, 4.50 out of 5 stars. 4.50/5 Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor.
Commissions	$10 purchase minimum, other fees charged on a per-service basis. 0.0% - 0.40% maker-taker fees on Kraken Pro	Variable fees (Coinbase), 0%-1.20% (Coinbase Advanced Trade), $29.99 monthly (Coinbase One)
Next Steps	Open Account for Kraken Read Full Review	Open Account for Coinbase Read Full Review

Full Uphold review

This cryptocurrency broker is a good fit for: Investors who want access to cryptocurrencies, precious metals, and forex trading in a single platform.

Pros

Excellent cryptocurrency selection
Cross-asset trading
Educational content
Various ways to deposit money
Won't lend out your money

Cons

Security concerns
Debit card and crypto staking not available to U.S. customers
Trading fees can add up
Not available in New York

Top perks

Excellent cryptocurrency selection

You won't be short on digital currency options if you use Uphold. It lists over 250 cryptocurrencies for international users, including most popular coins and tokens. However, some of its cryptocurrencies are not available to U.S. users, and state-specific restrictions also apply.

Trade between cryptocurrencies and other assets

One of the best features of Uphold is that it offers several types of assets and lets you trade between them. With an Uphold account, you can buy and trade:

Cryptocurrencies
Precious metals, such as gold and silver
Fiat currencies, such as the U.S. dollar and the euro

Educational content

Uphold offers valuable educational content that teaches users about crypto. It has a "cryptionary" explaining crypto terminology, a blog, and a section covering cryptocurrency news.

With many of the types of cryptocurrency it offers, Uphold also includes a page with info on what that cryptocurrency does. These pages often include sections on what the bulls and bears are saying, meaning the arguments for and against that cryptocurrency.

Low minimum deposit and good mix of deposit options

You don't need a lot of money to start investing in cryptocurrency with Uphold. The minimum deposit amount is $1. You can deposit money with Uphold via bank transfers, credit or debit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. Standard bank transfers are free. Most of the other methods will incur a 3.99% charge in the U.S.

Uphold Vault service

The collapse of several high-profile crypto exchanges made many crypto investors more aware of how they store their crypto. It's convenient to leave your crypto on the exchange where you bought it, but your funds could be at risk if the platform fails. That won't happen with an external crypto wallet, but there are other risks. For example, crypto wallets don't have a handy "forgot password" button. As a result, there are billions of dollars worth of crypto stuck in wallets people can't access.

Uphold Vault promises the best of both worlds -- the security of self-custody with the convenience of an exchange. So if you lose the keys to your Uphold Vault account, you'll still be able to access your wallet. There is a fee for the service, and it's currently only available for Bitcoin and Ripple.

What could be improved

Security concerns

There have been reports regarding crypto funds stolen from Uphold clients. Multiple users allege that an unauthorized party was able to access and drain their accounts despite having two-factor authentication (2FA) active. Some lost over $20,000 worth of cryptocurrency. A class-action lawsuit was filed against Uphold on Feb. 25, 2022. Uphold says it has several security measures in place, but reports like these are still a big red flag.

Debit card and crypto staking unavailable in the U.S.

In some parts of the world, Uphold offers a crypto staking program and an Uphold debit card. When you stake your cryptocurrency, it's used to help validate transactions and secure the blockchain network. In return, you earn rewards on the amount you stake. However, neither this staking program nor the company's debit card are available to U.S. customers.

Learn more about staking:

Trading and deposit fees

You'll always pay a percentage of your transaction in trading fees on Uphold. How much depends on what you're trading. For example, Uphold charges between 1.4% and 1.6% for Bitcoin and Ethereum trades, while fees for smaller altcoins are between 1.9% and 2.95%. In addition, Uphold charges $0.99 for smaller trades (below $500). Crypto trading is rarely free, but these fees are higher than what some of its competitors charge.

Not available in New York

Uphold does not have New York's BitLicense, so the service is not available in New York state. A BitLicense is a bit like a gold stamp in terms of regulation. To get it, exchanges need to provide a boatload of information about their financials, anti-money laundering, and compliance. As such, if Uphold had it, it would give an extra layer of trust.

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How Uphold works

Uphold is a cryptocurrency exchange that lets you buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrency, precious metals, and fiat currencies.

What makes Uphold unique is its cross-asset trading. You can trade between any of the assets it offers, meaning you could trade a cryptocurrency for a precious metal or a foreign currency.

In addition to trading, Uphold offers several other financial services, including:

Instant fee-free payments to friends and family worldwide.
Withdrawals to bank accounts in many countries or to private crypto wallets.
Integration with Brave, a free browser that allows you to earn Brave Rewards paid in the Basic Attention Token (BAT) cryptocurrency.
Highly rated mobile app for Apple and Android devices

Fees overview

Uphold fees depend on where you are in the world and what payment method you use. In addition to a fee of $0.99 for trades under $500, it charges a trading fee or variable spread of up to 2.95%. The typical fee for popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum is 1.4% to 1.6%, but that fee is higher for altcoins that don't have so much liquidity.

You can transfer money directly from your bank account, but there's a 3.99% fee for most other types of deposits (such as credit/debit cards or Google Pay and Apple Pay). Standard bank withdrawals are free. There's a 1.75% charge for debit card withdrawals and instant bank account withdrawals. Withdrawals to external crypto wallets also have a network fee, but for most blockchains, that's charged by the cryptocurrency network, not Uphold.

Cryptocurrency selection

Uphold offers over 250 cryptocurrencies, which gives it one of the deeper lineups among cryptocurrency exchanges. However, some of those cryptocurrencies are not available to U.S. investors or are restricted in certain states.

One of the reasons Uphold is popular is because it offers cryptocurrencies that most other U.S. exchanges don't. The biggest example is XRP, the native cryptocurrency of Ripple. It was delisted by quite a few exchanges due to an SEC lawsuit.

Is your cryptocurrency safe with Uphold?

There are a few different aspects to cryptocurrency security. One is specific security features on the platform. Another is how the platform handles client funds, particularly how much it holds in reserve. Unlike money you deposit with a bank, there is no FDIC insurance for crypto assets. This means it's wise to look for a platform that has enough funds to support all client deposits. Uphold promises that it will never lend out your money. Importantly, it supports that promise by publishing real-time assets and liabilities online, so you can see for yourself. Given the limited regulation and investor protection in the cryptocurrency industry, this level of transparency is a big plus.

Here's a rundown of Uphold's other security features.

Two-factor authentication (2FA) is enabled by default on all accounts
About 90% of crypto funds are kept offline in cold storage
It runs a bug bounty program
All employees go through mandatory background checks

Despite those safety features, there have been reports of Uphold customers who claim their accounts were hacked, even after correctly setting up 2FA. A class-action lawsuit filed by Kronenberger Rosenfeld alleges that third parties were able to reset 2FA on several users' accounts without their permission. These hackers then withdrew all those users' cryptocurrency.

In fairness, every crypto exchange receives its share of complaints, and Uphold has plenty of satisfied customers. But these account hacks are worth looking into if you're thinking about buying and storing cryptocurrency on Uphold.

Uphold is right for you if:

You're looking for a user-friendly platform to invest in cryptocurrencies and other assets.
You want to be able to transfer directly from one asset to another, such as Bitcoin into gold.