6 Ways You Can Buy Altcoins In Singapore

Last updated on January 19th, 2022

You may already have some Bitcoin in your crypto portfolio. As such, you may be wondering if you should be investing in some altcoins as well.

Altcoins refer to all cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin.

Investopedia

This can range from the more well-known currencies like ETH and LTC, to currencies that are newer like ZIL or DOGE.

However, some of the altcoins that you may want to own may cannot bought using SGD directly.

So how do you go about buying these currencies?

How to buy altcoins in Singapore

Here are 5 main ways that you can buy altcoins in Singapore:

1. Find a crypto exchange that has a SGD trading pair
2. Buy CRO on the Crypto.com App, and transfer it to the Crypto.com Exchange
3. Buy BTC or ETH and send it to another exchange
4. Buy stablecoins and send it to another exchange
5. Buy XLM / XRP / BCH / LTC and send it to another exchange
6. Use crypto swap platforms

Find a crypto exchange that has a SGD trading pair

The most direct way of buying altcoins would be through a platform that allows you to buy them directly from your SGD.

Most of these platforms either allow you to use Xfers to transfer your SGD to them. Some even allow you to transfer your funds by FAST transfer.

There are 9 crypto exchanges that allow you to trade in SGD:

1. Coinhako
2. Gemini
3. Tokenize
4. Crypto.com
5. Luno
6. Liquid
7. Coinut
8. Binance Singapore
9. AAX

Here are the number of altcoins that you can directly purchase with SGD from these platforms:

Platform	Number of Altcoins
Coinhako	30 (Instant Buy)
Gemini	24 (Instant Buy) 1 (Exchange)
Zipmex	15 (Exchange)
Tokenize	25 (Exchange)
Crypto.com	8 (Instant Buy)
Luno	4 (Instant Buy)
Liquid	7 (Exchange)
Coinut	3 (Exchange)
Binance Singapore	7 (Instant Buy)
AAX	2 (Exchange)

For AAX, you can only exchange your SGD for BTC or USDT.

If you are looking for a wider variety of altcoins to choose from, the 3 platforms you can consider are Coinhako, Gemini and Tokenize.

All of these 10 platforms allow you to either:

1. Buy at the prevailing market rate (Instant Buy)
2. Place your buy / sell order on the market (Exchange)

If you use the Instant Buy feature, you are able to get your altcoin almost instantly. However, you are unable to set the price that you wish to buy your crypto at.

Moreover, you will incur a higher fee when you buy your altcoins through Instant Buy, compared to trading on an exchange.

For example, Gemini’s Instant Buy charges you 1.49% for each order.

Meanwhile, their Active Trader platform only charges you up to 0.35% per trade!

As such, you may want to consider the trading fees when trading crypto on these platforms:

Platform	Fees
Coinhako	1%
Gemini	From 1.49% (Instant Buy) 0.35% (Active Trader)
Zipmex	0.2%
Tokenize	0.80% – 1.0%
Crypto.com	0.4% (for withdrawing to Xfers)
Luno	1% (Instant Buy) Up to 0.1% (Exchange)
Liquid	Up to 0.30%
Coinut	Up to 0.50%

Crypto.com and AAX do not charge you any trading fees. However, they may earn from the spread that they charge you.

If you intend to make frequent trades, you can lose a significant amount of funds through the spread!

Even though Crypto.com has a huge variety of currencies on their platform,

the high spread can make it very costly to trade on this app.

As such, you might want to consider trading in exchanges that allow you to place limit orders instead.

Verdict

Most platforms allow you to purchase the more well-known currencies, such as ETH, LTC or XRP.

However, the newer currencies like Zilliqa and Dogecoin may not be available on all exchanges.

Coinhako and Tokenize provide the greatest variety of currencies. However, their fees are generally higher.

As such, you’ll need to consider if it’s worth paying the high fees to own the ‘rarer’ tokens.

Buy CRO on the Crypto.com App, and transfer it to the Crypto.com Exchange

Even though the Crypto.com App does not charge any trading fees, you may be losing quite a bit of money due to the spread.

However, you can transfer your crypto from the Crypto.com app to the Crypto.com Exchange and trade from there!

I would recommend to buy CRO on the Crypto.com app, since CRO has the most trading pairs on the Exchange platform.

Moreover, Crypto.com’s Exchange does not support any fiat currencies, so you can’t buy crypto using SGD on the platform.

Here’s what you’ll need to do for this method:

#1 Buy CRO directly from SGD

On the Crypto.com app, you can buy either CRO directly from your Xfers wallet.

The crypto will be credited into your Crypto.com app wallet.

#2 Transfer your CRO to Crypto.com Exchange

After you have received your CRO, you will need to transfer it to the Crypto.com Exchange platform.

The transfer between the app and the exchange platforms is free.

On the currency’s page, you’ll need to go to ‘Transfer‘,

click on ‘Withdraw‘,

and then tap on ‘Crypto.com Exchange‘.

After selecting the amount, the CRO will be deposited in your Exchange account.

#3 Find a CRO trading pair with your crypto

On the Exchange platform, you’ll need to go to ‘Spot‘,

and select the CRO trading pair with the crypto that you want to buy.

There are many currencies you can choose from, including SOL, THETA and VET.

#4 Select the amount and make the trade

You can choose between 4 different types of trades on Crypto.com Exchange:

1. Limit
2. Market
3. Stop Limit
4. Stop Loss

After selecting the price and the amount that you wish to buy, you can make the trade.

One thing I do not like about Crypto.com’s Exchange platform is that you are unable to see the fee that you’ll incur.

Once the trade has been filled, the altcoin will be credited into your account.

The fees are up to 0.16%

Crypto.com charges you a fee of between 0.10% to 0.16% when you use the Exchange.

What I like about this method is that you do not need to transfer your currency from one platform to another.

This will help you to save on your withdrawal fees, which can be high for certain currencies!

Buy BTC or ETH and send it to another exchange

There may be other currencies that you wish to buy. However, they are not found on these platforms that allow you to trade with SGD.

Some of these currencies include GLM.

In this case, you can’t directly purchase your altcoin from SGD. Instead, you’ll need to do 3 steps:

1. Buy BTC or ETH on an exchange that supports SGD
2. Send your BTC or ETH to an exchange that has more trading pairs
3. Make the trade on the platform

#1 Buy BTC or ETH on an exchange that supports SGD

You can use any of the exchanges above to buy BTC or ETH first.

This is because BTC and ETH are the most heavily traded currencies. As such, there should be a BTC or ETH trading pair for the currency that you’re looking for.

Since you need to send your cryptocurrency to another exchange, I would recommend using Gemini’s Active Trader to buy your BTC or ETH.

Gemini’s Active Trader has 2 main advantages:

• 0.35% trading fee
• No withdrawal fees for the first 10 withdrawals per month

Compared to other exchanges, I believe this is the most cost effective way.

#2 Send your BTC or ETH to an exchange that has more trading pairs

There are some platforms that offer a lot of trading pairs. These are:

1. Binance
2. Huobi
3. Crypto.com (Exchange)
4. Liquid
5. Kraken
6. KuCoin

Here are the number of trading pairs that you can find on any of these platforms (from CoinMarketCap):

Platform	BTC Trading Pairs
Huobi	300+
Binance	280+
KuCoin	229
Liquid	88
Kraken	63
Crypto.com (Exchange)	22
AAX	32

Binance is the international version of the platform, and is different from Binance Singapore.

If you are looking for the rarer altcoins, your best bet would be the top 3 platforms: Binance, Huobi or KuCoin.

You can search for your preferred platform on CoinMarketCap to see if there is a suitable BTC trading pair!

After you have bought your BTC on the platform of your choice, you’ll need to send it to the platform of your choice.

The way you deposit BTC into either platform is the same. When you go to ‘Deposit‘ section of the platform, you will be given a wallet address that you need to send your crypto to.

There are 2 things you’ll need to make sure of:

1. You are sending the correct currency to the address (e.g. BTC to a BTC address)
2. The address code is exactly the same, letter for letter

To make sure that you get the wallet address correct, it would be best to either

1. Copy and paste the address, or
2. Scan the QR code

If you get any of these steps wrong, your crypto will be lost forever!

You’ll need to enter this wallet address into the platform you’re withdrawing from.

For example, here is how I’m sending over some BTC on Gemini.

After sending your crypto, it may take a while before your crypto appears on either Binance or Huobi.

#3 Make the trade on the platform

After you have received the crypto on either platform, you can start to make the trade.

Here are some of the trading pairs on Binance,

as well as Huobi.

Both of their platforms are similar to brokerage platforms like Tiger Brokers. As such, you can place a few orders like:

1. Market
2. Limit

Limit orders allow you to determine the price you wish to buy or sell your crypto. Meanwhile, market orders will buy your crypto at the prevailing market rate.

Once your order is matched with someone else, your altcoin will be credited to your wallet.

Fees involved

Here are some of the fees that you’ll incur when using either platform:

Platform	Trading Fee	BTC Withdrawal Fee
Huobi	Up to 0.20%	0.0004
Binance	Up to 0.10%	0.0005
KuCoin	Up to 0.10%	0.001
Liquid	Up to 0.30%	0.0005
Kraken	Up to 0.26%	0.00015
Crypto.com (Exchange)	Up to 0.16%	0.0004
AAX	Up to 0.1%	0.0004

I’ve included the BTC withdrawal fee as you may want to cash out your earnings by withdrawing your BTC to a Singapore exchange.

Binance offers lower trading fees, but a slightly higher BTC withdrawal fee than Huobi.

In the end, both platforms seem quite comparable.

This process is rather inefficient

Here is a summary of the steps that you’ll need to do, if you want to buy a ‘rarer’ currency like DASH:

1. Buy BTC on a platform that has a SGD/BTC trading pair (e.g. Gemini)
2. Send BTC to either the platform that has a BTC trading pair with DASH
3. Trade your BTC for DASH on the platform

If you wish to sell your currency, then you’ll need to do the same steps again in reverse:

1. Trade your DASH for BTC
2. Send BTC to a platform that has the SGD/BTC trading pair
3. Sell your BTC for SGD and withdraw to your bank account

The process is rather long and inefficient. Furthermore, there may be price fluctuations as you send your funds across the platforms!

Along with the fees that you incur along the way, it can be quite costly.

As such, you’ll need to decide if it’s worth all this hassle to buy a certain currency that you’re looking at!

You can consider buying BTC using Binance’s P2P platform

Another method that you could try is to use Binance’s P2P platform.

You are able to buy BTC or ETH directly from SGD. However, you will be trading with an advertiser on the platform.

This means that Binance does not have full control over the transaction, especially when you’re sending fiat over to the advertiser.

While this saves you on a lot of fees, the risks are quite high.

Furthermore, you do not get to choose the rate that you want to buy BTC at!

This is a possible method, but I would be quite wary of it, especially with the risk that scammers might be on the platform.

Buy stablecoins and send it to another exchange

This method is similar to using BTC / ETH to buy other altcoins:

1. Buy a stablecoin using your SGD
2. Send the stablecoin to Binance or Huobi
3. Make the trade on these platforms

Instead of sending over cryptocurrencies like BTC or ETH, you will be sending a stablecoin.

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that attempt to peg their market value to some external reference

Investopedia

The most common stablecoins are ones that are pegged to the US dollar, such as:

1. USDT
2. DAI
3. USDC
4. GUSD

There are many different stablecoins that are equivalent to 1 USD. However, USDT has the highest number of trading pairs amongst the different coins.

Why should I send my funds via stablecoins instead of BTC or ETH?

These stablecoins are pegged to the US dollar. This means that the value of your funds will be quite stable, unless something drastic happens to the US dollar!

In contrast, cryptocurrencies like BTC or ETH are very volatile. The value of your funds may change a lot while your are transferring your funds between the exchanges.

Buying stablecoins in Singapore

Not many exchanges allow you to buy stablecoins from your SGD:

Platform	Stablecoins Offered
Coinhako	USDC USDT
Coinut	USDT DAI
Gemini	DAI
Tokenize	DAI USDC USDT
AAX	USDT
Zipmex	USDT USDC

You’ll need to consider the trading and withdrawal fees too:

Platform	Trading Fee	Withdrawal Fee
Coinhako	1%	Dynamic
Coinut	0.50%	20 DAI / 12 USDT
Gemini	From 1.49%	0.1 DAI (None if ≤ 10 withdrawals in a month)
Tokenize	0.80%	20 USDT / USDC
AAX	None	8 USDT

You aren’t able to send DAI from Tokenize.

Alternatively, you could use Binance’s P2P platform to buy USDT or DAI as well.

Sending stablecoin to Binance or Huobi

After you’ve bought your stablecoins, you’ll need to send your funds to Binance or Huobi.

This is done in the same way as sending your BTC / ETH.

USDT has much more trading pairs compared to DAI.

You may need to make a trade from DAI to USDT on either exchange first.

The conversion is supposed to be 1 DAI : 1 USDT. However, you may not be able to get that exchange rate (as seen above).

Once you’ve traded your DAI for USDT, you can start buying your altcoins!

Verdict

This method is definitely more ‘stable’ as stablecoins do not fluctuate as much as cryptocurrencies.

However, there are purchasing stablecoins directly from SGD is not that efficient.

You may be able to preserve your capital’s value. However, you may incur a lot of unnecessary fees throughout the whole process!

Buy XLM / XRP / BCH / LTC and send it to another exchange

If you don’t want to trade using Gemini and still want lower fees, you may want to consider sending these 4 currencies to the exchanges mentioned above:

1. XLM
2. XRP
3. BCH
4. LTC

This is because you will incur the lowest withdrawal fees when sending over these currencies!

However, this process is slightly more complicated. You will need to make multiple trades to buy your preferred altcoin.

For example, you may want to buy the SHIB token. You will need to use this process:

1. Buy XLM / XRP / BCH / LTC from SGD on a crypto exchange with the trading pair
2. Transfer XLM / XRP / BCH / LTC to an exchange that has more trading pairs (e.g. Binance)
3. Trade these 4 currencies into USDT
4. Trade USDT for SHIB

I would prefer to trade to USDT over BTC or other currencies as it will be less volatile.

Here are some of the crypto exchanges in Singapore that have SGD trading pairs with these currencies:

Platform	XLM	XRP	BCH	LTC
Coinhako	✓	✓	✓	✓
Gemini	✕	✕	✓	✓
Luno	✕	✓	✓	✓
Zipmex	✕	✓	✓	✓
Crypto.com	✕	✓	✓	✓
Liquid	✕	✓	✓	✕
Tokenize	✓	✓	✓	✓
Coinut	✕	✕	✕	✓
Binance Singapore	✕	✓	✓	✓

Don’t forget to consider the trading fees for each platform too!

Verdict

If you decide to use this method, you will be able to significantly reduce the costs. However, it is the most tedious method too!

I would only suggest using this method if you are comfortable with making multiple trades.

Use crypto swap platforms

Another option that you can consider are crypto swap platforms.

These platforms will do the swap your coins to another altcoin of your choice, and then send it back to your wallet.

There are 3 main platforms that offer you such a service:

1. ChangeNow
2. SimpleSwap
3. Changelly

All 3 of them work in a similar fashion:

1. Send your currency to the platform
2. Select the currency you wish to exchange to
3. Select the wallet address you wish to deposit to

Again, you’ll need to send a cryptocurrency over to these platforms, and not SGD.

For both Changelly and SimpleSwap, you will be able to choose between 2 types of rates:

Type of Rate	Definition
Floating rate	Exchange rate changes according to market conditions
Fixed rate	Exchange rate remains locked for 30 seconds

For ChangeNow, you can only exchange it at the floating rate.

You may want to compare between these platforms to see which one has the better rates.

You’ll need to consider the fees that you’ll incur too

When you are sending and receiving the altcoins during this process, you may incur quite a few fees.

ChangeNow lists down the possible fees that you may incur:

1. Network fee for the deposit transaction from a customer’s wallet
2. Network fee for transferring coins to our liquidity provider
3. Trading fees that our liquidity providers charge
4. Network fee for sending the exchanged funds to the customer

All of these network fees are dynamic, and depends on how high the demand is for the network.

One good thing about Changelly is that it’ll show the fees that you’ll incur for each trade.

The amount that Changelly shows you is the amount you’re expected to receive after the fee deduction.

However, it is still an approximate amount that you’re expected you receive. It is possible that you’ll receive less than this amount!

You need to have a wallet that can accept your new altcoin

The last part of the exchange process is to send your altcoin to another wallet address.

However, you need to ensure that your wallet is able to support the altcoin that you wish to hold!

For example, you can only send GLM to a wallet that is able to receive GLM. If not, all of your GLM will be lost forever!

As such, you’ll need to find a suitable wallet to store your altcoins.

You can consider the Ledger Wallet, which allows you to store a variety of altcoins.

Verdict

The exchange process may take quite a while before it reaches your destination wallet.

Moreover, the fees are not that transparent as most of them are dynamic. As such, you may pay a lot of network fees during the whole process!

These platforms will be suitable for you, if you are:

1. Looking to buy altcoins without much hassle
2. Looking to buy an altcoin that does not have a trading pair with your current cryptocurrency on other platforms

Conclusion

If you are looking to purchase altcoins, the best way would be through a direct trading pair with SGD.

You will be able to immediately buy your preferred altcoin from SGD!

However, not all altcoins have an available trading pair with SGD.

For these altcoins, you will have to trade them using either of these currencies below:

1. BTC
2. ETH
3. USDT

The process is definitely more troublesome, and you will incur a lot of costs along the way.

As such, you will need to consider carefully if it is worth all of this hassle to own that altcoin you desire!

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

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You will be able to receive 5 TKX in your account (worth ~$25 SGD)!

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Receive a further SGD $50 worth of TKX when you upgrade to Premium

You are able to receive another SGD $50 worth of TKX if you upgrade to the Premium or Platinum membership of Tokenize.

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Crypto.com Referral (Get up to $25 USD worth of CRO)

If you are interested in signing up for Crypto.com, you can use my referral link and enter the code ‘x2kfzusxq6‘.

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Here’s what you’ll need to do:

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2. Enter my referral code: ‘x2kfzusxq6‘
3. Stake enough CRO to unlock a Ruby Steel card or higher

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Here’s what you need to do:

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You will need to purchase BTC using the Instant Buy function. The fees that you incur will be 0.75%.

It would be best to buy only $200 SGD worth of BTC, which only incurs you a $1.50 fee. The $30 SGD bonus will be able to offset the fee!

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Amount of CRO Staked	Referral Bonus You Receive
1,000 – 4,999 CRO	$10
≥ 5,000 CRO	$50

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