Invest Reviews

Coinhako vs Gemini – Which Exchange Should You Use?

Coinhako vs Gemini 1

Last updated on June 24th, 2021

This article contains affiliate links. You can read more about these links in my Editorial Guidelines.

There are many crypto exchanges that you can use to buy cryptocurrency.

2 of them include Coinhako and Gemini.

Which one is better and which one should you choose?

Here’s what you need to know:

The difference between Coinhako and Gemini

Coinhako is based in Singapore, while Gemini was founded in the US. Both allow you to transfer money from your Singaporean bank accounts. However, Coinhako has higher trading fees compared to Gemini, and charges you withdrawal fees as well.

Here’s an in-depth comparison between these 2 exchanges:

Founder

Coinhako is a cryptocurrency exchange that is based in Singapore and founded in 2014. Meanwhile, Gemini was founded in New York, also in 2014.

Gemini is a regulated cryptocurrency exchange that is found in 50+ countries!

Both of them seem to be rather reputable companies with a strong background in the cryptocurrency scene.

Number of currencies

Coinhako allows you fully trade 21 tokens. However, it has limited support for 9 other currencies:

Full support for 21 tokens

Coinhako allows you to Buy, Sell, Swap, Send or Receive 21 currencies on their platform.

Swapping refers to you switching between one cryptocurrency to another.

Some of the more well-known ones include:

  1. BTC
  2. ETH
  3. DAI
  4. LTC
Coinhako Fully Supported Tokens Updated April

Limited support for other tokens

Coinhako also has a few tokens that you can have on their platform. However, the functions that you can use with them are quite limited:

Coinhako Limited Support Tokens April 2021

You are able to buy ADA and BNB, which aren’t found in most crypto exchanges that support SGD.

For trade-only tokens, you can only Buy, Sell or Swap these currencies. You are unable to send or receive them from external wallets.

For USDT and USDC, these are rather complicated. You are able to receive both USDT and USDC from external wallets.

However, they will be converted into USD and be credited into your USD wallet on Coinhako.

Coinhako Deposit USD

If you wish to withdraw from your USD wallet, you can only do so in the form of USDT or USDC too.

Coinhako Withdraw USD

Gemini allows you to trade 38 currencies

Gemini has quite a huge offering of currencies too! You are able to trade 38 different currencies on their platform from Singapore.

gemini 38 currencies 3

Gemini allows you to trade GUSD, which is Gemini’s stablecoin that is pegged to the US dollar.

Gemini GUSD

If you wish to trade in GUSD, you can only do so using USD and not SGD.

Methods of funding your account

To start buying crypto on either exchange, you will need to fund your SGD wallet. Here are some ways you can do so:

#1 Xfers

Both exchanges allow you to deposit SGD using your Xfers account.

Xfers Account

Xfers is a payment solution that allow you to transfer your money securely into the crypto exchanges.

It sort of acts like the middleman between your bank accounts and the exchanges.

However, you will need to first transfer your SGD to your Xfers account via FAST. After that, you can transfer your SGD from your Xfers account to either Coinhako or Gemini.

Gemini Xfers Integration

One thing you may want to note is that you will be charged a deposit fee for Coinhako, but it is free for Gemini!

#2 FAST transfer

Coinhako also allows you to fund your account via bank transfer. You are able to send your money to Coinhako directly via FAST.

Coinhako FAST Transfer

However, this option is not found in Gemini!

Methods of buying crypto

There are 2 main ways that you can buy crypto on either exchange:

  1. Your SGD wallet
  2. Via a credit or debit card

For Coinhako, you are able to use both methods.

Coinhako Buy Crypto Methods

You are able to do so using Gemini too! You can buy crypto directly using a debit card,

Gemini Debit Card Purchase

or from your SGD wallet that is connected to Xfers.

Gemini is less flexible as it does not allow you to buy crypto using a credit card. However, the fees that you incur when buying via your credit or debit card may be quite hefty!

You are buying crypto directly instead of trading

When you are purchasing crypto on either exchange, you are buying it directly based on the prevailing market rate.

This is slightly different from trading, where you get to choose the limit price that you pay!

As such, the exchange rate of the crypto that you’re paying may differ slightly.

If you wish to determine the price that you buy or sell crypto, you can switch to Gemini’s Active Trader platform instead.

Withdrawal of funds

Coinhako allows you to withdraw your funds to your bank account,

Coinhako Withdraw To Bank Account

which is also the same for Gemini.

Gemini Withdraw Funds

You are able to transfer your funds to a bank account via FAST too.

Both exchanges offer a very quick way of withdrawing your funds!

Sending and receiving crypto

Both Coinhako and Gemini allow you to send and receive crypto from external wallets. You are able to send and receive all cryptocurrencies on Gemini’s platform.

You’ll need to go to the ‘Transfer Funds‘ page on Gemini. This allows you to deposit or withdraw from Gemini.

Gemini Transfer Funds Page

However, you can only send and receive the 20 currencies on Coinhako!

For those currencies that you can’t send or receive them, the functions will be greyed out.

Coinhako Currencies Send and Receive

Fees

The most important thing when it comes to trading crypto are the fees. You should try to minimise your fees as much as possible!

Here are some of the fees you may incur when using either exchange:

#1 Depositing and withdrawing fees

You are not charged any fees when depositing or withdrawing from Gemini. However, you will be charged certain fees if you trade using Coinhako!

DepositsWithdrawals
Coinhako0.55% (Xfers),
0 (Inter-bank)
$2 SGD per withdrawal
GeminiFreeFree

It seems that using FAST to transfer your SGD to Coinhako is the better choice. However, you’ll incur $2 for every withdrawal that you make.

If you’re only withdrawing a small amount, the fees may quite hefty!

Gemini allows you to easily transfer your money to your bank account via FAST, at no additional costs to you!

#2 Buying and selling crypto

Here are the fees that you’ll be charged for both exchanges:

Coinhako charges a flat 1% fee

You will need to pay a flat 1% fee for any transaction you make with Coinhako.

Coinhako Transaction Fee

The best part is that you are not charged a minimum fee! Even if you buy a small amount of crypto, you will still only be charged 1%.

However for a limited time, you can use the promo code ‘COINGECKO‘ to trade at only 0.8%.

Coinhako Coingecko Promo Code

Moreover if you are buying crypto using a credit or debit card, you will also be charged a 3% processing fee! This fee is charged by the payment provider and not by Coinhako.

Gemini has 2 different fee structures

Gemini actually has 2 different fee structures when making trades on their platform.

The default platform is Gemini Exchange.

Gemini Exchange Platform

If you buy using this platform, the fees are really hefty!

Trade Amount (SGD)Trading Fee (SGD)
≤ $15.00$1.50
> $15.00 but ≤ $35.00$2.00
> $35.00 but ≤ $70.00$2.75
> $70.00 but ≤ $250.00$4.00
> $250.001.49% of your Web Order value

If you are only trading a small amount, the fees are extremely high! As such, it is not recommended to use this method.

Instead, you should switch to Gemini Active Trader.

Gemini Active Trader Platform

If you use this platform, you will incur 0.35% worth of trading fees!

Gemini Active Trader View Fees

This is more than a 4x reduction in fees if you use Active Trader, compared to their Exchange.

Moreover, the 0.35% fee is much cheaper than Coinhako’s 1% as well!

However, Luno Exchange offers an even lower fee of 0.1%, which is one of the cheapest rates.

Using Gemini Active Trader is one of the most cost effective ways of buying crypto in Singapore. It may be slightly confusing to use if you have not utilised a trading platform before.

However, you can check out my guide on Gemini’s Active Trader to find out more.

Gemini charges 3.49% fee for debit card purchases

If you purchase crypto using a debit card, you will incur an additional 3.49% fee. Even though buying through debit card is really convenient, the fees are really high!

It would be best if you use bank transfers instead.

#3 Sending and receiving fees

You may want to send or receive your crypto from an external wallet.

For sending crypto on Coinhako, most of the fees charged are dynamic. This depends on the network traffic and miner fees that the exchanges will incur.

For Gemini, the first 10 withdrawals for each currency is free. However, you will be charged some fees when you make more than 10 withdrawals!

If you want to receive crypto from an external wallet, no fees are charged by either exchange.

However, you’ll need to consider the fees you incur when sending crypto from your external wallets!

Limits and minimum amounts

When you want to buy crypto on either exchange, you may be subject to certain limits and minimum amounts.

Coinhako has a minimum of $45 SGD per trade. However, for Gemini, their minimum trade amounts are based on the cryptocurrency that you’re trading in.

Security

You may have heard of how crypto exchanges can be hacked, and these hackers can steal your cryptocurrencies!

So how do these exchanges try and combat this?

Coinhako stores the majority of your currencies in a cold storage

Coinhako mentioned that they store the majority of your crypto in their ‘highly secure’ cold storage accounts.

Meanwhile, only a small percentage of your funds will be stored on their exchange. This helps to facilitate liquidity where you are able to sell or withdraw your funds.

If hackers are able to gain access to your holdings, they will only gain access to the small percentage on the exchange.

To get the rest of your funds, they will need to hack the cold storage account. This is much harder to do!

As such, most of your crypto with Coinhako will be safe and secure.

Coinhako also allows you to use 2FA apps like Authy to make your account extra secure.

Gemini uses a similar approach

Gemini claims it is one of the most secure crypto exchanges.

Majority of the assets on the exchange are stored in an offline cold wallet.

Moreover, the remaining funds in the hot wallet is insured.

Our policy insures against the theft of Digital Assets from our Hot Wallet that results from a security breach or hack, a fraudulent transfer, or employee theft.

Gemini

It seems that Gemini’s owners are quite confident about the security of their platform!

Regulation

The MAS has explicitly said that they do not regulate cryptocurrencies. This is because they do not recognise it as legal tender.

However, they still regulate most exchanges that operate in Singapore via the Payment Services Act.

These exchanges would require a license to operate in Singapore. Coinhako and Gemini have both applied for a temporary exemption, which will last till 28 Jan 2021.

Meanwhile, Gemini has also hired a Head of Asia Pacific Region to file Gemini’s license under the Payment Services Act.

Moreover, the Singaporean government intends to tighten regulations on these exchanges as well.

This will help to ensure that both exchanges will be under the regulation of the Singapore authorities.

Platforms

Both exchanges have web and mobile platforms.

Here is how Coinhako’s web platform looks like,

Coinhako Web Platform

and their mobile app.

Coinhako Mobile App

Meanwhile, here is Gemini’s Exchange platform,

Gemini Exchange Platform

Active Trader platform,

Gemini Active Trader Platform

and mobile app.

Gemini Mobile Platform

Both of these platforms seem to be very sleek and easy to use.

Verdict

Here is a comparison between Coinhako and Gemini:

CoinhakoGemini
Year Founded20142014
HQSingaporeNew York
Number of Currencies3038
Funding MethodsXfers
FAST
Xfers
Methods of BuyingSGD Wallet 
Credit / Debit Card
SGD Wallet
Debit Card
Withdrawal of FundsBank AccountBank Account
Deposit Fees0.55% (Xfers)
0 (Inter-bank)
Free
Withdrawal FeesSGD$2 per withdrawalFree
Trading Fees1%From 1.49% (Exchange) and
0.35% (Active Trader)
Sending FeesDynamicFree for first 10 transactions
(fee depends on currency)
Minimum Per Trade$45Based on currency
SecurityCold storage + hot walletCold storage + hot wallet

So which exchange should you choose?

Gemini seems to be the better exchange for these reasons:

  1. Lower fees when you use Active Trader (0.35% vs 1%)
  2. No withdrawal fees
  3. Larger number of currencies available

The choice between these 2 exchanges comes down to fees. However there are certain currencies like DOGE which can only be found on Coinhako.

Conclusion

Both Gemini and Coinhako are crypto exchanges that allow you to easily buy crypto with SGD.

Since they are quite similar in terms of functionality, Gemini may be the better exchange to use, based on its lower fees!

👉🏻 Referral Deals

If you are interested in signing up for any of the products mentioned above, you can check them out below!

Gemini Referral (Earn $10 USD in BTC)

If you are interested in signing up for a Gemini account, you can use my referral link.

You will be able to receive $10 USD in BTC!

Gemini Referral

Here’s what you need to do:

  1. Register for a Gemini account
  2. Trade ≥ USD $100 or equivalent on Gemini’s platform
  3. Receive USD $10 worth of BTC in your account

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