Changelly is a cryptocurrency exchange platform with several unique features.
For starters, the broker doesn’t accept any fiat currencies. The exchange is solely for transferring funds between cryptocurrencies and digital currencies. It currently offers over 35 currencies that are traded on the platform. Additionally, Changelly offers widgets for publishers and an API for merchants. Changelly was created in 2013 in Prague, Czech Republic. The team behind MinerGate – a Bitcoin mining pool – initially created the prototype for Changelly.
About Changelly
The “About Us” section of changelly.com isn’t convincing enough. It doesn’t provide information on the people or corporate entities behind the operation. The fact that the people behind MinerGate own Changelly helps to give it credibility in the crypto currency world. Some sources claim more than 100,000 people use Changelly’s services. Being a young service, this is questionable. According to their website, Changelly Exchange began operations in 2016. Nonetheless, the 100k users are MinerGate users, thus on that basis, the numbers add up.
Changelly Features
The operator emphasizes the fact that its operation is fair, fast, and trustworthy. Some of the platform’s key features include:
- Account Opening – Opening an account on Changelly is almost instant. All you need is an email. You don’t need a wallet, nor need to download or install software to exchange coins
- Best rate conversion – The operator scans exchanges across the internet to find the best rate, and allows traders to use that rate
- Privacy – All Changelly requests from you is a valid e-mail address for correspondence. They don’t ask for your ID or fingerprint guaranteeing your privacy
- Support – The operator support works with a ticket system which is the most common system amongst exchanges. A live chat would be a better option for a swift response
- Fast – The swap can take between 3 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the cryptocurrency traded, and order size and confirmation speed of the coin.
Trading Fees
According to their “About Us” section, Changelly claims their 0.5% fee on trades is one of the best exchange rates. There are no charges for withdrawal nor additional commissions. In practice, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Complaints have been raised especially in regards to the abysmal conversion rate for USD/BTC. For example, when the official Bitcoin/USD exchange rate was $2,740, the Changelly system gave out 0.2460 bitcoins for $1,000. According to Coindesk, the exchange rate should be more than 0.30.
Website Ratings
The authority score of the domain is at 33/100, a rather unimpressive score. Even worse is the spam score attached to it, at 2/17. Its back-link profile is healthy with some 60 unique domains linking to it, some of them respected crypto entities. Alexa ranks the site’s traffic at around 15,500. This is a good return and a confirmation that many people are actually using the service. A majority of Changelly’s traffic is from the US, UK, India, France, and Spain.
In regards to reputation, Changelly has a healthy score. Many top crypto currency portals have discussed them favorably, and some of the biggest names in the industry recommend their services. The bottom line is that Changelly is a legit operation.