Cryptopia Review 2019

January Update – Cryptopia Stopping NZDT

This is big. Cryptopia is stopping deposit and withdrawal of NZDT. Go here for more information. I’ll update the full review in due course.

Review continues here: 

Further update – Cryptopia appears to have re-opened user registrations. If you want to register get in quick before they close the door again! I suspect this will happen if volume picks up. Go here to register. Also, LTC base market trading will resume in the near future on a subdomain – ltc.cryptopia.com or similar. You’ll need an account to do this.

Having checked my Google Analytics stats and discovered that this review is getting a lot of people reading it, I decided it would be prudent of me to post a bit of an update about what has happened with Cryptopia over the past few days (really since start of 2019).

Start by watching my quick VLOG on the subject:

Here are my thoughts. Please note I’m not an expert on cryptocurrency and why events like this occur, so do your own research if you want to know more.

• What has happened? Cryptopia has halted all trading in cryptos that are traded in LTC or DOGE pairs. e.g. LTC/XRY (Royalties). Trading in NZDT pairs had also been halted, although I believe this halt has lifted. There are also significant delays reported by many users for depositing cryptocurrency and NZ dollars.
• Why has it happened? Cryptopia have stated that the cause of this has basically been due to an enormous surge in volume (both user registrations and trading activity). This is largely due to a recent surge in trading volume, price and marketcap for “low value” coins that are traded on Cryptopia, often using LTC or DOGE pairs. A good example of this is Paccoin. Basically Paccoin started pumping a bit, and as it rose (and especially because $100 would have bought you about 5 million PAC just before Christmas) a huge surge of people wanted to chase the pump. 24hr volume went from around $30k USD on Christmas eve to over $40 MILLION USD less than a week later. This absurd rise in activity- multiplied across many different cryptos, most of which are primarily traded on Cryptopia – basically caused too much traffic and trade volume for their platform to handle!
• Have we been scammed? Is Cryptopia legit? I don’t believe so. Cryptopia is based in the same city as me (although I have no ties to the company beyond having met some of their team at a business function a few months ago). They have a legitimate office, many staff – although obviously not enough – and are a properly registered NZ business. The names of key founders and staff are publicly accessible unlike many of the shadier exchanges. There has been a good amount of honest communication on their website and Twitter. I honestly believe that they simply weren’t prepared for the carnage that all these low market cap coin “moon missions” has unleashed in the crypto space. People have seen the impressed 500, 1000, 2000, even 5000% gains (probably all pump and dumps) and money and volume has been flowing in like crazy. Just look at CoinMarketCap Gainers & Losers and see how many low marketcap coins have pumped massive percentages recently … the huge influx of money is just looking for quick gains and exchanges like Cryptopia weren’t prepared for the onslaught. Other exchanges I use, such as Coinsmarkets, have also gone down due to volume scaling issues. Although in the case of Coinsmarkets that is looking more and more like the downtime is actually an exit scam! Other notable exchanges like Binance and Bittrex have even suspended new user registrations.
• When will LTC and DOGE marketing trading be back? No idea – your guess is as good as mine. It might be days, or it could potentially even be weeks or months.
• Why can’t Cryptopia cycle LTC/DOGE with BTC (i.e. block one off and swap to the other for say 1 day each on rotation)? I’ve seen this concept floated a number of times on the Cryptopia subreddit and Twitter posts. My understanding is that Cryptopia won’t do this because a) they will be swamped with excess volume of low value trades again when LTC/DOGE is on, b) most of Cryptopia’s trade fees are earned through BTC pairs and therefore the priority is keeping BTC markets functioning. See official Cryptopia tweet below for details:

• Is this legal? I imagine this kind of outage would all be covered by the terms and conditions Cryptopia apply on user signup. Also, despite people trading real money for cryptocurrency, there is currently very little protection under law as you would expect if something like your bank or share market went down for an undisclosed period of time. I am not a lawyer, however.
• What should I do now? Sit tight and wait. If you’re trading in cryptos that are only paired in DOGE or LTC on Cryptopia then there’s not much you can do. I believe you can withdraw them to a wallet by cancelling any market orders you have … but let’s be honest nobody was buying anything like Paccoin because they truly believed in the tech and future of it – it’s all about chasing the pump and trying to get out before the music stops with a healthy profit. Storing your coins on an exchange, although it is risky (just talk to any Coinsmarket user), provides a much faster way of liquidating in the event of a “moon mission”.

Original Review

One of my favorite things to cover here on Reviews Boss is products and services related to Bitcoin/cryptocurrency.

With every passing week I find myself more and more interested in crypto. It really is a cool space, even beyond the potential for massive riches (or losses) through the trading of individual coins and tokens. Blockchain technology is simply the future – although it is my humble opinion that

However, truth be told I’m primarily interested in making sick gains from crypto and hopefully getting on the next moon mission to Lamboland.

In the past I had been buying crypto from NZ using two services:

• We Sell Crypto
• My Bitcoin Saver
• Go here for my full and growing guide to buying cryptocurrency in New Zealand.

However, We Sell Crypto is dead and buried. My Bitcoin Saver (another NZ-based service) shut down temporarily a few months ago. It’s back now and I use it every week, but during that downtime I had to find another way to get my cryptocurrency fix.

Enter Cryptopia (go here to register).

What Is Cryptopia

Cryptopia is a cryptocurrency exchange, based in New Zealand.

Basically, it allows you to buy, sell and temporarily store a variety of crypto currencies.

For New Zealanders, Cryptopia has unique appeal. Firstly, because it’s local. Secondly, it offers something called “NZDT”. This is basically a cryptocurrency that has a 1:1 value with the New Zealand Dollar. So 1 NZDT = 1 NZ Dollar. What you can do with NZDT is purchase directly with NZ dollars via bank transfer, and then you’ll receive an equivalent amount of NZDT in your Cryptopia account. You can then trade this on the NZDT/BTC market on the exchange.

Although this is a bit convoluted, it is probably the fastest way to turn NZD into BTC without horrific fees.

How Much Does It Cost?

A Cryptopia account is free. You can register here. However, depending on the volume/value of transactions you do, you may need to provide some personal information for ID verification purposes.

Cryptopia also earns from shaving off small transactions fees when you make trades.

Things I like About Cryptopia:

• New Zealand-based company – As a Kiwi I always love to support local businesses where possible. In fact, Cryptopia is just located down the road from where I live (I’m going to be visiting their offices in the next few weeks as well, as I met some of the team at a recent event).
• Real people behind it with a growing team – As mentioned above, I have personally met members of the Cryptopia team in real life. Their team is also rapidly growing in size, up to about 20 full-time equivalent employees now.
• Easy enough to use – Compared to some of the more complex exchanges like EtherDelta, Cryptopia is easy to use. It looks, feels and functions like most other exchanges, and it’s easy enough to place both market-price sell and buy orders, as well as specify your own prices.
• NZDT – For New Zealanders looking to invest in crypto, the NZDT system is very handy. Yes, the liquidity isn’t brilliant but it is one of the fastest ways to turn NZ dollars into BTC without having to pay terrible fees for buying with a credit card. It’s useful for those time-sensitive “buy the dip” opportunities that are rife in crypto. It also provides a mechanism for withdrawing money back to an NZ-based bank account.
• Good variety of crypto currencies on offer – In fact, Cryptopia has one of the most diverse ranges of cryptos to play with. Lots of low market cap, low value coins make their debut appearance here, alongside mid-tier and top-tier cryptos. Sometimes Cryptopia has been criticized for allowing too many poor quality coins to list. However, a free marketeer would argue that you aren’t compelled to buy any particular coin, so DYOR before purchasing! If you get the right low cap coin on Cryptopia early enough, then you might well make a nice packet.

Things I Dislike About Cryptopia

• Interface could do with improving – It’s not the best looking website in the world, with muted colors and a slightly early-days-of-broadband-Internet vibe. However, I have assurances from the Cryptopia employees I met that they are looking at releasing a new-and-improved public facing website (including exchange interface) in the near future.
• Better marketing/branding required – The exchange itself looks ugly and a bit home-brewed. The site is very busy and you could be forgiven for thinking it was cooked up on an old version of Microsoft Frontpage. While the actual usage side of things is easy (because it functions like almost every other exchange out there in the crypto space) the “aesthetics” of the site and its branding aren’t the best. Better branding would help grow the platform and allow it to become a top tier exchange.
• Need to build trust – I frequent a number of different crypto trading and investing boards (including the notorious /biz on 4chan). Many users on these boards have a negative view of Cryptopia, primarily because it is seen as the home of the “shitcoin” – low market cap, low volume, low price cryptos, most of which will never go anywhere. However, I think this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. That being said, Cryptopia need to do work to build trust in their platform!

Cryptopia Review Conclusion

Overall, I quite like Cryptopia. I can see why it gets mixed reviews from users in the crypto space – it doesn’t have the prettiest interface, and because of their less-than-stellar marketing the whole brand can come across as a bit amateurish.

However, having personally met members of the Cryptopia team I can say that they are a genuine bunch of people who are working hard to develop a good platform in a very difficult space.

Go here to check out Cryptopia and register your own account.

NB: Nothing on this website constitutes financial advice. Trading/investing in cryptocurrency carries significant risk, and the owner of this site accepts zero responsibility for any negative effects that trading/investing in any cryptocurrency on any platform may have on your personal or business finances. Always consult with a financial services professional before making any investment decisions.