Bitstamp.net Review 2021 – Scam or not?
Bistamp is one of the most reliable Bitcoin exchanges nowadays. The platform was founded as a European alternative to then-dominant cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox and provides secure and reliable service to their customers since 2011. The company was founded by Damijan Merlak and Nejc Kodrič in their native Slovenia, but in April of 2013 moved to the UK, then to Luxembourg in 2016.
Review Contents
- Verification at Bitstamp
- Fees
- Bitstamp.com Trading
- Ease of Use
- Customer Support
- Exchange Security
- Supported Payment Methods
- Supported Countries
- Conclusion
This cryptocurrency exchange is well-connected in the industry. They work together with Coinbase, one of the most popular BTC exchanges. The company has also attracted significant investment from Pantera Capital, one of the biggest Bitcoin-specific venture capital investors, owned partly by Benchmark, Ribbit Capital, and Fortress Investment Group.
Verification at Bitstamp
Verification process usually takes about 2 hours, if you have all the necessary documents. You can verify identity by submitting scanned image of your passport, national ID or driver’s license together with the proof of residency. All you need to know is explained in this short video:
The verification itself doesn’t affect the amount of money you can trade, but deposits and withdrawals are not possible with an unverified account.
Bitstamp currently accepts just two fiat currencies – US dollars and European Euro. When it comes to cryptocurrencies, they support BTC and Ripple, but Ripple trading is something that we would not recommend due to extremely high fees. Bitcoin trading is the main feature of Bitstamp, and it works as a user-to-user trade, while Ripple trading is conducted directly, user-to-Bitstamp with an unfavorable exchange rate.
Fees at Bitstamp.com
The trading platform supports wire transfers and the following fees apply:
International Wire deposits carry 0.05 percent Bitstamp fee with a minimum of 7.5 USD/EUR and it takes 2-5 business days to be completed.
International Wire withdrawals carry 0.09 percent Bitstamp fee with a minimum of 15.00 USD/EUR. The minimum amount for international wire withdrawals is 50.00 USD/EUR, and it takes 2-5 business days to be completed.
When it comes to Bitcoin trading fees, Bitstamp starts a bit high with 0.25 percent for a monthly volume lower than $20.000. The percentage drops as the volume increases; all the way to 0.10 percent for a monthly volume over $20 million.
USD/EUR trades have a flat fee of 0.20 percent. You can see the detailed fee schedule here – https://www.bitstamp.net/fee_schedule/
The minimum trading amount is currently $5. Previously the minimum trading amount was $0.86, but the exchange had to increase the limit due to customer complaints. Customers complained that they are paying five times higher fees on the smaller trading amounts due to the Bitstamp’s rounding policy.
Bitstamp.com Trading
Bitstamp allows users to execute instant orders at the best bid currently available, to ask price as well as to place limit orders.
Instant Order on Bitstamp
Buying of Bitcoins is available to businesses and individuals 24/7 through the Tradeview interface and a well-documented API. The API gives users complete access to their accounts, as well as a quick way to analyze the public book and ticket information.
Limit order on Bitstamp
The company also has mobile apps for both Android and iOS, which allow easy trading on the go.
The exchange does not support trading of derivate and futures. Altcoins and margin trading services are not supported too.
Ease of Use
The website’s interface looks simple and clean. It’s very easy to find your way around even if you are the first-time visitor. Bitstamp also has one of the best live trading view interfaces and a great Fiat/BTC graphs. You can learn how to use the Tradeview interface here.
Bitstamp Tradeview
Customer Support at Bitstamp.com
Bitstamp’s customer support typically responds within an hour and they are ready to go an extra mile to help resolve user’s issues. They have earned the respect of many users by giving honest replies to support tickets and working overtime as well as hiring additional staff to handle the workload in times of need. More than decent support – everyone loves them, including us.
There are no scam reports on the Web found but in our comment section below there are a couple of negative reviews in the recent past.
Bitstamp Graph
Bitstamp´s Security
The trading platform keeps the security pretty basic. It offers two-factor authentication that connects a user’s account to a mobile device, and a password, which needs to be changed every 90 days.
When it comes to privacy, the cryptocurrency exchange is very good at guarding it. They are transparent about the information collected, how the website uses that information and how they use cookies.
Bitstamp is very committed to money laundering prevention too. Since the governments have not regulated the BTC exchanges, Bitstamp has created a set of their own rules which they follow in order to prevent any shady financial practices on their platform.
The exchange was last time hacked in January of 2015, and the crooks have stolen up to 19,000BTC. More info can be found in this Reddit discussion.
After the hack, company decided to rebuild the platform entirely in order to restore the trust of the clients. The exchange guaranteed the safety of the funds before the hack and stated the following:
“This breach represents a small fraction of Bitstamp’s total bitcoin reserves, the overwhelming majority of which are held in secure offline cold storage systems. We would like to reassure all Bitstamp customers that their balances held prior to our temporary suspension of services will not be affected and will be honored in full.“
Bitstamp stores 98 percent of all coins in cold wallets, keeping the customer’s funds offline in secure vaults. The remaining 2 percent are held for a live trading on the exchange.
The interesting fact is that the Bitstamp was the first major trading platform to incorporate the best security practices in the industry such as a fully insured cold-storage, two-factor authentication and mandatory confirmation emails in order to increase the security of the users.
The company has email and SMS alerts, and they use PGP (Pretty-Good-Privacy) data encryption for authentication of the uploaded files and privacy protection.
Supported Payment Methods
Supported Countries
Bitstamp welcomes users from all over the world excluding Washington State and Hawai in the USA.
Bitstamp Review Conclusion:
Bitstamp is one of the most reliable cryptocurrency exchanges out there, with a high daily volume and excellent connections in the industry.
Pros
- Good reputation
- High volume and liquidity
- Connections in the industry grant it additional legitimacy
- Easy to use and quick
Cons
- High Trading Fees if you are trading lower volumes
- More negative comments in the recent past
If you are based in Europe, this definitely an exchange you should consider using. Having questions? Feel free to post them in the comments.
We would love to hear from you.
Go to bitstamp.com
Absolute CRAP. Most of the things written here are lies. My account has been validated since couple of months ago, and I still can’t purchase anything (and I have two debit cards, in two different currencies, in two different countries)
I cannot seem to buy ether with bitstamp with Amy of ,y cards. I have bought from them before with the same card. Emailed them twice no response in 48 hours. Left them a voicemail too? They must be losing a lot of money? Can anyone assist me instead I am losing a lot of money because of them!also coinbase doesnot accept any of my cards contacted bank no issues there.
I established a Bitstamp account in December. I would love to be able to give a review, but I’m still waiting on the identity verification, so I can’t do anything. I think it’s time to go somewhere else as I’ve been watching Ripple move, but I am unable to get in the game.
They are holding onto USD 75000
that I deposited.Same story.So what do we do here?
I’m going to laugh when theses scamming indie fucks lose everything and their families get assassinated. Taking money from hard working people because your to lazy to do any legit work. 4 stars my was, paid promotion at its finest. The garbage that country produces needs to be nuked.
Loving American.
my account is freeze a week .i email them is never answer me back ,why my account freeeze is bad
1 month and still i do not have my account verified, unexistent support.
Do not do the mistake to open account at bitstamp.
Get all your personal information, social security , dob, drivers license front and back.. Never complete your verification, does not answer by phone, doesn’t respond to email , or to Support tickets or to Facebook messenger or under comment . People complaining about transaction, charges account issues etc.. the price reflecting the currency current price on their ticker is wrong .. stay away from this place. Something is seriously wrong and you have no reg or governement place to go for help
Horrible company. Big chance they will go down with your money. No way to contact. No one responding phone or emails. Not recommend at all. Even though they have plenty of money they don’t have staff to respond to anything. No way to get your money back.
This review is complete bogus lies. Bitstamp is the worst site ever with 10s of thousands of unhappy people. Just go to the bitstamp reddit and see for yourself. They’ve even locked my account for no damn reason after 2.5 years as a loyal customer. I’m not a terrorist, or money launderer, so if I can get blocked anyone can. STAY AWAY
Absolute joke of a company.. Someone needs to shut them down, they have the absolute worst customer service I have ever seen.
I have been requesting a transfer since December 7th. I have sent 5 emails and called the only phone number I can find. Almost 2 weeks later they still have my money and I have received zero response. This company is a scam. Do not invest with them! -Paul
I made a 5000 € deposit to my account on 11/12/17.
I received a message from Support because it was clasified as third party transfer.
I wrote explaining situation and attaching documents as a holding proof.
No one from Bitstamp answered. None answered phone calls.
I feel l have been robbered…????
Hello all,
I tried to open an account over 1 month ago, and since today it is getting verified. Anyway, after to have read posts down, from Steve – Michael and other people, i need to admit that my belly hurt me now. what the hell am I doing? do i really want open an account with this fraudulent people?
no.
i really hope people here will find their money back. i am so schock, I mean was thinking that Bitstamp look a company that you can trust, but a priori it is not even a company… not even registred.
Bitstamp. go f..k
Same as so many others here. Utterly horrible experience with these monkeys. Deposited 50k two weeks ago and no sign of the money. Multiple emails and calls are left unanswered. Customer service is non existent. to Bitstamp: If you complete amateurs cant handle the traffic STOP doing business!! I am concerned about my money now and will see what can be done to force these people to act.
I am writing in regards to their service responding to customers transferring money into their respective account on Bitstamp.
I had done so with a large amount and after 7 days of not knowing where my money is I contacted my Bank about the transfer.
They assured me that the money was sent. I tried calling Bitstamp today around 4:00pm not in London , but in Guernsey, an Island of of England. No one there , only an answering mashine. I will try in the morning.
I had transferred money before and it did not take 1-3 days as they state on their website.
As below comments do not me very happy and I cannot afford to loose this transfer. Please do not let this be a negative experience !
Poor support and complaint teams. Sent wire transfers but went missing despite the fact that their bank confirmed the deposit into their account. Special withdrawal fees that they charge and blame to third party that unrelated to the relationship with Bitstamp. When I researched my story, I discovered many many similar stories. Buyer be aware. Do your own research. Good luck.
wasted hours, presented all id perfectly, for hours, no avail. I don’t trust this site
Wondering if it’s just seeking your info. Very worrying
Won’t try again. Wondering if it is an id fraud scam?
It is scam. I try 4. time to withdraw my money but they do not send the verification mail. Every time I complain, I get automatic bla bla mail.Do not put your money there. You will never get it back
Do not deposit fiat money to this site anymore. I have deposit to them for four days but got no reply no matter I call them, email them and leave message to their support page.
The fund is disappeared now and I suggest you guys withdraw all you have in Bitstamp.net before too late.
Do not deposit fiat money to this site anymore. I have deposit to them for four days but got no reply no matter I call them, email them and leave message to their support page.
The fund is disappeared now and I suggest you guys withdraw all you have in Bitstamp.net before too late.
I hope someone looks into this scam – I would never have given my personal information to them had I known there was not instant trading. There web page says “Instant Trading – All major Credit Cards accepted”. This is a blatant lie and I’m trying to figure out who to turn them into. There is nothing instant about them and I wouldn’t trust anything else they say either.
Catastrophic support. I have a sleeping account since 2013, and I decided to start investing in Litecoins there, fortunately for a “reasonable amount”.
The transaction went well, and a day after I purchased my Litecoins, I was kicked out of my account.
I have had zero feedback from the support, despite the numerous emails I sent.
Stay away from that platform as you have tons of platforms that provide a much better service.
I deposited money into bitstamp and purchased ethereum. When i went to withdraw to my nana wallet it never showed up. Ihad the correct addresses, very frustrating. I have emailed several times and to different people and there has been no response. I made a ticket and no response either. Not very happy with the serviceor lack there of. Would like what i purchased! I have seen several people on the internet that said they had the same ethereum problem with getting to their private wallets. Seems there is a technical problem and a service problem. Wait a week to get approved then they take my money!
Hi Gialuca, or Steve, did you get any money back? i had a similar experiance like yours. I am very stressed about this. After the account termination, they returned the money i had in the account but no the last big wire i made to them!. Now they dont answer to me anymore. Anybody can advise something? this is a nightmare!
I signed up for Bitstamp and judging by the reviews I anticipated the verification to take over a week. I was surprised to see that after less than 12 hours after signing up, my account was verified. Even after my account was verified I immediately purchased crypto and the whole transaction took less than 10 minutes from start to coin in my account. So far all has been smooth in my experience.
Be very aware using Bitstamp. Currently they have too many clients resulting in the inability to sell your shares or buy shares in high volume times. You could lose everything because they don’t have enough servers. I 100% recommend you use any other exchange. It happened to me and they sent me an email pretty much saying they could care less. I tried to sell numerous times during a sudden drop and it kept saying error. Finally I guess one went through but an hour later and it sold well below the current stock value. There is no compensation and they take no fault for it.
Hi, I would like to tell my chilling experience with BITSTAMP. I had an account verified about 3 months ago. Deposit via wire transfer, $ 25,000, and I buy XRP. Since I want to keep them for a long time, I do nothing except to enter the account every so often. On November 9th, I deposit another $ 30,000 to buy ethereum, on November 13, customer service tells me that the money has come and is being processed. Since then the money on my account has never arrived, and yesterday Bitstamp sent me the attached mail telling me that the account is TERMINATED (I’ll find out then on google that happened to a lot of people). Yesterday I was still in the account (it was just frozen) and they sold all my XRPs without my permission, so on the account there was the equivalent of about 29,000 euros (the $ 30,000 first never came). So I try at least to reclaim the money on the bill, but the transfer is refused. Today I have completely deleted the account. Conclusion: Almost 60,000 euros lost. I’ve written everywhere: on their facebook profile they have removed my posts, on twitter and by email they do not respond. I’m traumatized because I then searched on google and it happened to so many people. The only thing I can do right now is to post this message and hope it’s shared. #bitstamp
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Update on 22 NOV 16:50
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Dear Gianluca,
Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.
We received your complaint, and I will personally look into the issue and get back to you as soon as possible.
Should you have any other questions in the meantime, please feel free to ask.
Best regards,
Katja
Bitstamp Support
###########################
UPDATED NOVEMBER 24
#############################
Dear Gianluca,
Unfortunately, we are unable to provide any further information on the reasons leading to the termination of your account due to our internal policies.
We have instructed our Payments Department to proceed accordingly. Once the transfer is finalized on our end, we will let you know by replying to this email.
If you need additional help, please feel free to reach out again.
Best regards,
Bitstamp Support
In other words, I do not tell you that you rule you have breached, I close the bill and sell you everything, because I decided it, and so many greetings.
THANK YOU #bitstamp
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FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
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Here is my personal and final opinion on the story. I noticed that the thing that unites all the “finished” is the inactivity of the account. I suppose whoever keeps money on their account, but does not trade and therefore does not make it, it “unnecessarily” consumes the assurances that BitStamp has to give on deposits, watchdog. Of course, it would be enough to write in the conditions that dormant accounts are terminated and send an automatic email message when that is to come. It would save figures like this, as well as doing something illegal. So since they do not explain in the conditions page and do not give explanations by email of the closures, my personal opinion, and I repeat, PERSONAL, and #bitstamp is going to fail. REPEAT, PERSONAL OPINION. If the money is back, be sure you know it after 1 minute. Someone has to intervene!
Bitstmap is pretty straight forward and easy to use. I think initially after the scare and mass flux of people buying and selling in mid 2017, they got backlogged like many exchanges. I signed up just this past week; no problems. Verification was same day; they emailed me every step of the way; verification, deposited, confirmations, transactions, trades, etc. Yes they do run through Simplex for CC purchases. I am ok with that as my bank called to confirm and authorize the transaction. I’m in USA and it is of course outside of USA. Many get FAQ and answers, quick responses.
Easy enough to get verified but trying to deposit money is a nightmare – they use simplex a third party CC processor which is a red flag right there and who are also liars stealing money. Next tried depositing directly from my LLoyds account and they held that up and then claimed it was a thrid party and unacceptable – even after sending further proof!! They then stole money on the return of funds. Fake office in London/ Slovenian crooks. AVOID THIS EXCHANGE
It has been nearly four weeks since I made my first withdrawal request, which was for an amount well within my KYC declarations. A few days later, Bitstamp suspended my trading privileges. A week after that, they notified me that they had terminated my account without providing any specific reason for their decision. Other than the termination email, they have provided no communication or response before or since. They’re holding approximately $200,000 hostage, and my only recourse is to file a complaint with Luxembourg’s CSSF. Do NOT make the mistake of doing business with these guys!
DO NOT USE!!! I deposited $5000 USD into my account, and it has been in the “In Process” status for weeks despite many support tickets and phone calls that never get answered. A few people I know told me after the fact that they lost thousands with BitStamp. This should tell us something, if a so called “Major Crypto Exchange” cannot afford proper customer service, do you really want to put your money in it?
Again, no legitimate company will accept customer’s money without providing support.
SCAM!!! SCAM!!! SCAM!!!
I have the same situation, tried to buy some bitcoins by credit card, jumped to simplex,they made the transaction, however, all deposit are failed, and they still charged me, now i lost USD 4500, simplex said not their problem, Bitstamp just ignored my email!
——–Do not trust them, scammer!!!!!———-
Made a SEPA transfer to Bitstamp the money is not credited to my account after week. The said I needed further verification for the transfer and to submit additional documentation. I disputed this as I have used the account before with no issue. Provided the additional information, still the funds have not been credited and no more correspondence from Bitstamp. I would not recommend them.
I deposit first time after approved account E 7000 and did some trades , easy interface app works great.
then i wire E 43000 last Friday Aug 25 same day i receive a message that money was arrived and that i had to answer the questions know your customer KYC before they release this money.
Same Friday i answer all their questions, today Saturday Aug 26 money was released into my account.
Very fast !
I fully understand that a Financial institute like this wants (and needs) to know their customers .
If i can give advice to customers , do KYC before sending larger amounts.
I am very satisfied with the service.
Rene Panama Panama
transferred for them aound 100 thousand dollars, so far not credited to my account, no answer to support tickets, to complains, their phone line not working, trying to sue them in the UK they have no office there, currently arranging to travel to Slovenia and handle the matter. Like Anthony commented below i think they are in financial difficulty and holding my money to their own benefit.
I have paid $23,000 to their bank account 6 days ago but they didn’t deposit my money to my account. I have asked that is there a problem? The answer was there is no problem they have my money on their account. After 6 days I am curious about why they haven’t deposit my account yet.
Hi Daniel,
none of our reviews is paid. The problems you describe seem like very normal issues which are caused by the current crypto currency frenzy. Check out the reviews and comments of the other exchanges, many take way more time to get you verified or to anwer your support Ticket. So to us, bitstamp still is recommended.
This review must be paid marketing? BitStamp is shocklingly bad. It takes 1 week to get verified and on average more than a week to have a bank deposit credited. They ask a lot of questions and require ID checks, photo uploads, selfies and audits in order to get funds into the account.
Their support is useless and over 24 hours to respond with someone unhelpful. Issues do not get resolved and just get dragged out. In some cases support questions just get ignored.
Avoid this company at all costs!
Been using the service for a while, verified my account years ago. About a 2 weeks ago they terminated my account citing “breach of terms and conditions” and have not returned my money.
Down approximately $5000 with no recourse. Wouldn’t go anywhere near this scam.
Their support is awful, and recently i think they are trying to keep the transfers as long as possible for themselves before releasing it to the customer account. I did a transfer more than 14 days back and they contacted me for KYC process, i sent everything they requested and yet there is no progress from their side and they do not reply to my inquiries. This is not the first time i do a transfer and it usually goes smoothly, this time i wanted to buy btc before the fork so i can get the bcc, they kept the transfer and the BCC for themselves :-). this is definitely the Last time i deal with them, they caused me huge looses and they are basically stealing.
I definetly not recommend Bitstamp! Credit Card was charged, payment canceled, support answer: it takes 7 days to return the money! No thank you!
The support is catastrophique!
and I don’t know how to contact them! on their website, I don’t see the live chat!
I can’t believe this report. i think this review was paid for marketing material. I paid 5000 EUR by using credit card. But, In the company’s account, I can’t find the money… Support is a cathasrophe. It’s automatically replied. How can i solve this problem… terrible site!!!
Support is a cathasrophe. If you want to transfer money back to your bank account they ask many questions and just freeze your account. You can not even transfer btc to your wallet.
No User complaints in 2 years? Clearly, this review is either ill-informed or paid for marketing material. Your own comments section and any other forum will tell you the reality. Makes me wonder if this site can be trusted for reveiws now.
The support is very poor. Email not replied for weeks. The verification process is bad. All uploaded images are rejected and explanation not clear. My experience tell me to avoid this website until they iron out the issues.
I made a wire to Bitstamp on May and have not been deposited and any attempts to contact them via tickets have been met with radio silence. Do not use them until they sort out their issues.
I am currently in the middle of a dispute with bitstamp. I transfered Thousands of pounds to their account to invest in cryptocurrencies and the money has just vanished, contact with them was poor to begin with and has just stopped, despite many emails, support tickets and attempts to contact them by phone I have had no success. They claimed their bank (in slovenia? registered in Luxembourg?) had contacted my bank to resolve the dispute however my bank have stated that no such contact has been made. They have lied numerous times about the state of the investigation into what they have done with my money that I expect that they are in financial difficulties and are sitting on their customers money to skim the interest. My experience with Bitstamp has been the complete opposite of the above review and felt it important to give a true to life account of doing business with this ‘company’ (investigation has determined that this is a one-man band operation based in a block of flats in Luxembourg) Simply put: NOT TO BE TRUSTED
Here are some facts about bitstamp. Nice guide, easy to use, not too expensive. These are the good things. The bad things is the verification process. It take time. But the truly catastrophically is how they manage the company. No support. Forget about any support. Any problem with you account will take months to get help. Yes months. Not weeks months. You have problem that require some correspondence two three four mails it will take an average of 2- 3 week per mail if you are lucky. So no support. The number bitstamp has given on their homepage don’t work. In fact it is disconnected. And here is the star. The address bitstamp has given I ran it through the British police and no bitstamp company is registered on that address. So I’m not convinced bitstamp is a legitimate company it looks more and more as a scam. But they have existed sometime which would would indicate that they are poorly managed. Or considering that the poor support complaints have been reported in 2012 having the same support issues after 5 years only tell me 2 thing, Because real companies usually do something about these things, bankruptcy or scam.