What Is Changelly?

Changelly Icon Resized

Changelly is a non-custodial instant cryptocurrency exchange that has been in operation since 2015. Changelly acts as an intermediary between crypto exchanges and users, offering access to over 150 cryptocurrencies. Users can swap between cryptocurrencies without storing any coins on the exchange.

As a platform, Changelly has gained millions of users across the globe, boasting a monthly bitcoin turnover of 600,000 BTC. 

Changelly and its mobile app attract users who enjoy a wide selection of cryptocurrency, high limits, fast transactions, and 24/7 live support.

Changelly

Changelly Homepage

Website:changelly.com
CEO:Eric Benz
Headquarters:Malta, European Union
Founders:Konstantin Gladych, Ilya Bere
Founded:2015
Customer service:Knowledge Base
More information:Read Review

Changelly is an instant cryptocurrency exchange which supplies the best live rates on the market for every pair. The interface is colorful and simple to manage, and transactions are performed instantly.

Changelly accepts USD, EUR, and GBP for buying cryptocurrency.

Pros

  • Fast
  • Private
  • Low fees
  • High exchange limits
  • 24/7 live chat support

Cons

  • Limited payment methods

ReputationFeesPrivacyLimits
ExcellentLowHighHigh

Changelly Review Cover

An Inside Look At The Changelly Instant Cryptocurrency Exchange

Changelly’s company mission is to make the exchange process effortless for everyone who wants to invest in cryptocurrency.

Changelly Homepage Dashboard

Before making any purchase decision with an exchange always ensure to investigate the reputation of management, venture capital investors and regulatory approvals. Make sure to learn about each company’s values and core mission and to perform proper due diligence on review sites, message boards and with investment professionals. 

Is Changelly Legit?

Changelly is based in Malta, European Union and was founded in 2015. The executive team consists of Eric Benz (CEO), Konstantin Gladych (Founder) and Ilya Bere (Co-Founder).

Countries Supported

Changelly can be used from any country and in any currency, however, transactions must be in either USD, GBP or EUR.

Changelly supports the following countries for BTC to EUR withdrawals:

  • Austria – AT
  • Italy – IT
  • Belgium – BE
  • Latvia – LV
  • Bulgaria – BG
  • Lithuania – LT
  • Croatia – HR
  • Luxembourg – LU
  • Cyprus – CY
  • Malta – MT
  • Czechia – CZ
  • Netherlands – NL
  • Denmark – DK
  • Poland – PL
  • Estonia – EE
  • Portugal – PT
  • Finland – FI
  • Romania – RO
  • France – FR
  • Slovakia – SK
  • Germany – DE
  • Slovenia – SI
  • Greece – GR
  • Spain – ES
  • Hungary – HU
  • Sweden – SE
  • Ireland – IE
  • Liechtenstein – LI
  • United Kingdom – GB
  • Norway – NO
  • Israel – IL

Cryptocurrencies Supported

Compared to other exchanges that only support a handful of cryptocurrencies, Changelly supports over 150 cryptocurrencies.

The list of supported currencies on Changelly is exhaustive and can be found here.

You can also deposit Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies into your Changelly wallet before performing exchanges on the platform.

Do You Need An Account To Use Changelly?

Changelly doesn’t require you to create an account to use the exchange service. You only need to enter your email or phone number – that’s it.

You will need to have a valid wallet to transact. Those who intend to use a bank account or card might also need to enter additional verification.

How Changelly Works

Changelly pulls prices from different cryptocurrency exchange platforms including Binance, Poloniex, and Bittrex then in the span of milliseconds, correlates the amount to exchange and places bid/ask orders on the trading platforms and picks the best rate possible.

Transactions on Changelly begin with the digital currency of your choice. 

You can choose the currency and the amount of cryptocurrency you wish to exchange. You can choose from multiple pairs, including USD/BTC.

So, let’s assume you choose the USD/BTC pair. All you need to do is enter the amount in USD you wish to spend, and the system will automatically convert it into bitcoins. The exchange rate, fees charged, and estimated arrival time display on the right for your confirmation. 

Dollar bitcoin image cryptocurrency exchange

Once you have confirmed the details click “Next”. You will then be required to enter your bitcoin address.

Now hit “Continue”. At this point, you are almost done. You will be asked to enter your phone number that’s linked to the card. You will receive an automated message giving you a digital code.

Changelly Billing Address for account registration

Note: We choose a USD/BTC pair, because that’s what many people use when they want to buy bitcoins and kick-start their investment. If you already have BTC, ETH or any other supported cryptocurrency; you can use the same step and choose the appropriate pair. The only difference will be when it comes to payments. After you enter the address where your digital currencies should arrive, you will know an address where you need to make the payments in terms of cryptocurrencies.

Do you still need assistance? Here is a tutorial on how to use the Changelly exchange to buy bitcoin.

Watch the video to learn step-by-step how to buy bitcoin on Changelly exchange

Fees

Considering the cryptocurrency market is a volatile one, most exchanges do not have a fixed rate, and Changelly isn’t any exception. If it chooses to have a fixed rate, then it would be forced to cover market risks. Because of such factors, the platform charges a certain percentage as commission for cryptocurrency to cryptocurrency trades, as well as a commission to buy cryptocurrency with credit card or debit card.

Here are their fees:

  • Simplex charges a 5% processing fee for credit card and debit card purchases
  • Changelly charges a 0.25% fee on crypto-crypto exchanges

Limits

If you are doing your first transaction on Changelly with your bank card, you will be limited to $50 USD. However, if you make another trade, your limit will be lifted to $100 USD. After a week since your first purchase, the exchange raises your limit even higher up to $500 USD. These limits, however, applies to residents based in Australia, Canada, and the U.S.

Those in the non-CIS-region or the EU have the same limit, but there’s one difference when it comes to the limit on the first transaction. They can spend $100 USD on their first transaction and up to $200 USD on their second (in four days). And although the platform doesn’t have a monthly limit, one cannot possibly transact more than six times within the first week.

Customers based in the CIS region (Kazakhstan, Armenia, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and Georgia) have a limit of $200 USD on their first transaction, which lifts in 24 hours. They can transact up to $3,000 in their first week and up to $10,000 in the first month.

Does Changelly Have Maximum Or Minimum Limits For Exchanges?

When making credit card payments, you will be required to enter $50 or higher. But in general, Changelly doesn’t have a maximum or minimum amount that you can transact, apart from the mentioned limits.

However, if you want to exchange cryptocurrency and intend to transact small amounts, it’s best to consider the blockchain network fees. Sometimes you might push your transaction through even without making any adjustments. But if the blockchain fees are high, you might lose all the funds.

How Long Will Your Transactions Take?

Changelly transactions process within 5-30 minutes, on average. However, if it is your first time buying cryptocurrencies and intend on using a card, it might take longer for the verification and purchase process.

This average time is an estimate of how long the platform processes the transactions, but it doesn’t consider the blockchain time. You see, if for some reason the blockchain is overloaded as it happens with Bitcoin, your purchases could take longer. If this happens, there’s nothing you or Changelly can do about it – you need to be patient and wait for the pending transactions to complete.

Customer Support

Changelly has a very responsive customer support team should you have any questions. They have a comprehensive Support FAQ that answers the most basic questions.

Support Email: [email protected]

Users can chat with customer support directly using the chatbox on the lower right portion of the interface. The support team usually replies within a few minutes.

Additionally, users can navigate to the Helpdesk button on the bottom menu to access the Knowledge Base and send a support ticket to Changelly. When you send a ticket, you will receive a response within 24 hours via the Helpdesk software.

Changelly Customer Support screen

Changelly Trust

Changelly begins by the brilliant minds behind MinerGate, which is a bitcoin mining pool launched in 2013. Since its inception, it has established a partnership with many well-established wallets including Jaxx and Coinomi. Additionally, the platform boasts a user base of more than one million users. All these factors point out that Changelly is indeed a cryptocurrency exchange that can be trusted.

Fund Security

So, what about the security of your funds? Sadly, Changelly doesn’t provide information regarding the safety of funds and their policies. There’s less to worry when it comes to security, especially considering that the platform doesn’t host user’s accounts or keep their funds. Instead of storing your funds on the platform, Changelly immediately sends your assets to your wallet the moment you make the purchase. But just like other cryptocurrency exchanges out there, you can use their 2FA authentication every time you sign in.

Affiliate Program

In order to offer an incentive to its users, the platform provides an affiliate program to those that share Changelly to their friends or family. Changelly gives a generous 50% of the revenue they get from your referral forever. Once you log in, you will have a referral link, which you can use to ask your friends to register. Whether they make one transaction or several within a month, you get a share of their commission, permanently.

Changelly App

Now you can exchange your favorite cryptocurrency while on the go or anywhere from your smartphone device. The Changelly app is available on both iOS and Android devices.

Features:

  • Exchange 150+ cryptocurrencies on-the-go
  • Choose between fixed and floating rate exchanges
  • Buy crypto with a bank card
  • Explore the crypto market and monitor prices live within the application
Changelly App On iPhone X

Features For Developers

Along with a primary exchange system, Changelly offers a few other tools for business owners and developers. These include:

  • Instant Exchange API: This feature allows you to add Changelly exchange functionality to your service.
  • Exchange Widget: This is just a widget that can embed in your pages.
  • Payment Button: Just like the exchange widget, this is a tool that you can also embed on your site, creating a button for payment of altcoins.

Pros

  • Supports Many Regions – The platform is based in Prague, Czech Republic, but accepts users from across the globe, including the USA, Canada, Australia, and the Middle East.
  • Fiat Currency Pairs – Along offering more than 90 cryptocurrencies, Changelly also provides fiat currency pairs for USD and EUR, making it convenient for first-time investors.
  • Accepts credit card – The platform allows you to make payments using your MasterCard or Visa card, making it easy for you to acquire cryptocurrencies. However, for this payment method, you will be required to pay a 5% commission or a flat fee of $10.
  • Beginner-friendly – Changelly has a simple interface that makes it easier for beginners to use.

Cons

  • Credit card limits – Although Changelly doesn’t have minimum and maximum limits it does have a limit of $50 on the first transaction for those using a credit card.
  • No cryptocurrency for fiat trading – While you can buy bitcoin or any other top cryptocurrency with USD or Euro, you can exchange the same for fiat currency.
  • Limited payment methods – Changelly accepts credit cards and cryptocurrency payment methods. It doesn’t allow other means such as PayPal or bank wire transfer.
  • Transactions not instant – Purchasing cryptocurrencies on Changelly is not instant. You have to wait for around 5 to 30 minutes for the transaction to complete.

Partners

Changelly’s core partners include:

  • Binance
  • Jaxx
  • Coinpayments
  • Coinomi
  • Enjin
  • Edge
  • Mycelium
  • Poloniex
  • HitBTC
  • Exodus
  • MyEtherWallet
  • Ledger
  • BRD
  • Trezor
  • Edge

Changelly vs Coinbase

CompanyFeesCountries SupportedCustomer Service
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Changelly

5.00% + 0.25%31 countries (see full list)Knowledge Base
Coinbase Icon Resized
Coinbase
0.50% + $0.99 to 3.99%102 countries (see full list)Knowledge Base

Conclusion

Compared to other exchanges out there, one thing we can agree on is that Changelly is one of the most straightforward platforms when it comes to buying and exchanging cryptocurrencies. Changelly comes with an appealing interface, doesn’t require you to submit your personal details to register an account, and doesn’t store cryptocurrencies.

The platform offers a good number of cryptocurrency pairs and a large coin selection. Although Changelly has some drawbacks such as low credit card limits and fewer payment methods, it is an excellent platform for those who are considering an investment in cryptocurrencies.

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