Coinspot VS Coinjar 2023

With an ownership rate of 22.9%, Australia has emerged into the top 3 countries with the highest number of crypto owners.

This national enthusiasm toward blockchain technology has opened space for a plethora of international crypto exchanges to flourish under the present business landscape in Australia.

However, it seems that Aussie traders prefer reliable Australian bitcoin exchanges with a proven record of sleek AUD-to-crypto transactions and personalised customer support.

One of the best fits in this description is CoinSpot — a veteran exchange that has been contributing to the mainstream integration of cryptocurrencies since 2013. This Melbourne-based exchange focuses on instant crypto purchases, making it a perfect crypto destination for less-experienced traders.

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Its beginner-friendly model is based on a neat interface and a wide choice of AUD-adjusted payment methods.

Another very similar-in-name crypto exchange called CoinJar is levitating across the Australian crypto scene. This exchange was launched a bit earlier than CoinSpot, but CoinJar is falling behind its direct competitor based on trading volume and traffic.

Now, let’s dig a bit deeper into the features of both exchanges and see why CoinSpot always comes as the first choice for Australians, even though Coinjar has the same industry experience and a very innovative crypto product to offer — the CoinJar Crypto Debit Card.

Comparison Table

In the beginning, we’ll go through some bare facts and figures to better understand the feature sets of both CoinSpot and CoinJar.

Features	CoinSpot	CoinJar
Amount of Cryptocurrencies	360+	50+
Trading Fees	1%	1% conversion fee and 0.8% – 1% crypto trading fees
Deposit Fees	Wire Transfer: free, BPAY: 0.9%, Cash: 2.5%	Blueshyft cash deposits: 1.5%, Instant Buy with Mastercard/VISA: 2%. All other supported methods are free
Withdrawal Fees	Free	0.5%
Average Spread	1%-2%	variable
Payment Methods	POLi, BPay, Pay ID	Bank Transfer, Osko, PayID, Debit card / Credit card, Blueshyft cash deposits,
Fiat Currency	AUD	AUD and GBP
Regulatory Framework	AUSTRAC	AUSTRAC and FCA
Customer Support	Email, ticket system, live-chat	Email and help desk

CoinSpot

Pros:

• Beginner-friendly user interface;
• Competitive conditions for deposits and withdrawals;
• Wide choice of supported altcoins;
• Additional facilities like SMSF support and an OTC desk.

Cons:

• No option for credit-card purchases;
• Limited services to the Australian market only.

CoinJar

Pros:

• Intuitive platform;
• A range of AUD-accepted payment methods;
• A spending option for your cryptocurrencies.

Cons:

• Uncompetitive fees for fiat-to-crypto transactions;
• Limited numbers of supported crypto assets.

Amount of Cryptocurrencies

CoinSpot never ceases to amaze us with its imposing list of supported cryptocurrencies. Apart from Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and other top sellers, you’ll find 360 different coins on its instant market, including Binance Coin (BNB), Solana (SOL), Ripple (XRP), and Cardano (ADA).

There is also a decent selection of stablecoins like Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), and TerraUSD (UST), as well as the increasingly popular DeFi tokens: Avalanche (AVAX), Shiba Inu (SHIB), 0x Token (ZRX), Chainlink (LINK), and Polygon (MATIC).

For more crypto-advanced traders, CoinSpot offers an order-based market with around 15 trading pairs with AUD as the base currency: BTC/AUD, ETH/AUD, XRP/AUD, DOGE/AUD, LTC/AUD, EOS/AUD, POWR/AUD, and a few more.

CoinJar, on the other hand, doesn’t prioritise coin diversity. It focuses on a handful of dominant cryptos such as BTC, ETH, XRP, Stellar (XLM), Litecoin (LTC), EOS (EOS), and Algorand (ALGO). In fact, it’s the solid range of DeFi tokens that make up the majority of the 50+ list.

Amount of Cryptocurrencies Winner: Coinspot

As you could expect, CoinSpot is the absolute winner in this category. Even though the number of 350 means nothing to you at the early stages of your crypto career (as it isn’t very likely that you’ll make an initial investment in a less-known coin), the list on CoinJar does lack some of the most attractive blockchain brands.

Fees

Associating transaction costs only with a trading fee can be really discouraging when you see your balance at the end of the trade. You should consider the fact that some exchanges charge for deposits and withdrawals.

On top of this, there is a transaction fee that is out of the range of cryptocurrency exchanges as it’s imposed by the blockchain to which your desired asset belongs.

Sometimes, users value transparency more than the total amount of costs. For example, a crypto exchange may promote a no-trading fee policy but charge 5% for fiat deposits in return.

The way the exchange processes transactions also plays a great role in the ultimate cost outcome. If the exchange serves as a retailer and sells you the crypto directly, then you can’t expect a trading fee of only 0.1%.

However, such low fees are available only on regular trading platforms that follow a more complex trading pattern.

To complete a transaction on a crypto trading platform, you’ll need to place an order on an order book containing your desired trading pair (for example, if you want to buy Bitcoin in exchange for Australian Dollars, you should look for a BTC/AUD pair).

Depending on the exchange’s options, you can either place a market order and wait for the exchange’s algorithms to pair you with a trader who sells that crypto at the current market rate.

Or, you can go for a limit order and wait until your coin reaches the desired buy/sell price. The entire bid-and-ask concept isn’t that difficult to grasp.

However, if you don’t have any previous experience in the stock market, it’s better to pay an extra penny and turn to a crypto broker for full comfort.

CoinSpot

Having considered all fee-related factors, we can say that CoinSpot has a transparent fee schedule. On its instant market, the exchange charges a trading fee of 1%, while the spot trading fees are only 0.1%.

However, CoinSpot charges an additional fee of 1% for using more advanced order types and tools such as Recurring Buy on its spot training platform.

CoinSpot deposit-fee system is also favourable, but not all deposit methods are free. For example, BPAY direct deposits will cost you 0.9%, while Blyeshyft-powered cash payments are 2.5%. Fortunately, you won’t face any additional fees for cashing out your crypto through the CoinSpot platform.

CoinJar

Similar to CoinSpot, CoinJar charges a flat fee of 1% for all instant purchases and sales, but it features a bit different pricing system on the spot market. CoinJar trading fееs depend on whether you’re entering a position either as a maker or taker.

For AUD-containing trading pairs, takers pay zero fees while maker’s fees start from 0.10% and can go down to 0.04% as your trade size rises in volume. Crypto-to-crypto trading incurs no fee for takers, while makers need to pay 0.04% per transaction.

When it comes to deposits, almost all fiat payment options are free except for the Visa/Mastercard purchases and Blueshyft cash deposits that cost 2% and 1.5%, respectively.

Finally, withdrawal transactions from a crypto account to BPAY Biller come with a 0.5% fee. Cryptocurrency withdrawals, on the other hand, incur a dynamic fee that depends on the coin itself and the current network load.

Fees Winner: Coinspot

When we did the math, we realized that CoinSpot was a more cost-efficient solution for both AUD-to-crypto and crypto-to-AUD transactions.

Spread

One of the key factors that made us pick a unanimous winner in the Fee section is the spread. This “hidden fee” represents the percentage difference between the buy and the sell price. CoinJar calls this a conversion rate, and unlike many other crypto exchanges, it transparently reminds its users to consider this expense when buying their crypto.

CoinSpot seems to process transactions with a much lower spread, never exceeding the 2% threshold. On the other hand, CoinJar states on its official website that the spread varies to a great extent depending on the current crypto price.

Spread Winner: Coinspot

You can find a few Australian crypto exchanges (Swyftx and Digital Surge) with really favourable spread systems, but in this single combat, we have to choose the “lesser evil”, and our vote goes to CoinSpot.

Customer Support

Users somehow underestimate the power of a responsive support team in the initial selection of a suitable crypto exchange. Ultimately, it turns out to be the weakest link for a positive end-user experience.

Fortunately, both CoinSpot and Coinjar have well-designed systems to provide users with the assistance that is necessary at any point in their crypto journey.

CoinSpot relies on its ZenDesk widget, where you can send your feedback or concern, but you can also reach out to their tech team through live chat and regular email. Based on users ratings, CoinSpot features one of Australia’s most devoted customer support services.

CoinJar’s customer support is also based on a ticket system or email communication. The response time of the CoinJar team is far from ideal, as it often takes more than 24-hours for them to respond.

Furthermore, CoinJar lacks live-chat means of support but offers a phone line to its users in return. However, you can contact the team only during regular business hours.

Customer Support Winner: Coinspot

Even though the open-phone lines are the most valued form of customer support, CoinSpot steals this win because of its super-fast responsiveness.

Mobile App

Before downloading the mobile version of your desired crypto platform, you need to know its capacity and limits in order to make it an efficient trading tool. So, you should pay careful attention to the operational scope of your desired app since all of them feature a top-notch design nowadays.

Quite a number of crypto traders see the respective mobile app only as an on-the-go assistant for real-time price alerts and regular balance check-ups. However, it’s quite legit for you to be looking for a fully functional mobile app that will replace the web-based version in total.

The very nature of both CoinSpot and CoinJar allows them to transfer their full feature sets to a small screen. They’re available for free on Android and iOS devices and support the full exchange package: activating deposits and withdrawals, executing purchases and sales, and clear portfolio balance.

Hence, the choice for a small-size screen solution here won’t differ from the overall comparison results.

Mobile App Winner: Coinspot

Eventually, our vote in this category will go to CoinSpot because of the super-regular app updates. The CoinSpot mobile app was upgraded over 10 times in 2021 only and now even offers a staking feature.

Also, based on user experience, the CoinSpot mobile app offers better in-app navigation through different features.

Deposit Methods

Both CoinSpot and CoinJar are “home-made” brands with a single purpose to ease the overall crypto experience by providing as many as possible local payment options.

The CoinSpot list of deposit methods includes BPAY, POLi, PayID/Osko, Blueshyft cash payments and a direct bank account transfer. CoinJar supports all these payment options, but it also allows users to make an instant purchase using their credit and debit cards.

Despite being ridiculously expensive, plastic payments are in continuous demand on cryptocurrency trading platforms across Australia.

Deposit Methods Winner: Coinjar

Because of the debit/credit card option, CoinJar is a clear winner in this category. It gets a bonus point because it charges less for the Blueshyft cash deposits.

Security

The crypto market has a notorious history of hack attacks and other fraudulent activities mainly because of the unregulated status of service providers, which used to operate hidden behind the virtual walls and outside government regulatory frameworks.

However, the crypto landscape improved much in this regard, and now, there are strictly defined norms that make a secure crypto exchange.

For starters, Australia requires all exchanges to register with the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) and conduct money transactions in compliance with the latest AML/CTF practices. From an end-user point of view, this means that you can’t start trading crypto without KYC verification.

Apart from being an AUSTRAC-registered company, CoinSpot is the only Australian crypto exchange licensed with ISO 27001 certification, which makes CoinSpot the most transparently audited and secure exchange on a national scale.

For a full account and fund protection, CoinSpot employs standard security protocols such as 2FA (two-factor authentication, anti-phishing phrases, manually-signed withdrawal requests, session timeout, and distributed cold wallets for the majority of incoming funds.

CoinJar also applies all necessary methods to maintain assets and users’ information intact, including data encryption and Transport Layer Security. Similarly to CoinSpot, the exchange avoids using cloud servers for storing circulating digital assets.

Security Winner: Coinspot

Both exchanges deserve a medal for surviving all Bitcoin development stages without thefts, data breaches, and user distrust. However, because of the ISO 27001 certificate, this round goes to CoinSpot.

Final Verdict

Both CoinSpot and CoinJar contributed a great deal to building trust among Aussie traders towards the far-fetched crypto realm. They established highly-regulated grounds for all crypto activities and enabled local citizens to buy crypto on a retailer level.

However, it seems that CoinSpot has shown greater flexibility in adjusting its services to the needs of modern traders in terms of choice of digital currency, ease of use, and customer support.

For that reason, over 2 million traders recommend CoinSpot as a better crypto destination over the other Australian “coin”, and we completely agree.

Visit Coinspot

 

Visit Coinjar

The Top Australian Exchanges Compared