Phemex Review: Pros, Cons, and More | The Motley Fool (2024)

Top perks

Zero transaction fees for premium members

Paid Premium members enjoy free transaction fees on real-time "spot" trades. For clarity, spot trading is buying or selling assets now. Contract trading is agreeing to buy or sell an asset at a certain price in the future -- also known as future trading.

Phemex Premium supports different cryptos including:

• Bitcoin (BTC)
• Ethereum (ETH)
• Ripple (XRP)
• ChainLink (LINK)
• Tether (USDT)

Premium accounts expire at the end of their term. They cannot be cancelled within its period of validity. Automatic subscription renewal can be cancelled at any time. Phemex offers membership subscriptions that range 30 days ($9.99), three months ($19.99), or for a year ($69.99). This zero-transaction fee discount does not apply to any other trading fees or withdrawal expenses.

Phemex offers leveraged trading up to 100x

Phemex provides leveraged trading up to 100 times the amount you contribute. Leverage trading (also known as margin trading) is a method involving borrowed funds from the exchange. The reason to trade via leverage is to increase profit potential. Leveraged trading allows you to trade and profit using much larger asset amounts than with personal funds.

Another advantage of Phemex is that you can practice leveraged trading on the Phemex testnet platform using fake funds to learn. The coins/tokens available for practice trading are BTC, ETH, XRP, LINK, Cardano (ADA), and USDT.

Phemex's higher-level referral tier, called Phemex All-Star Program, requires a separate, short application process. Once accepted, All-Star affiliates permanently earn a 50% commission on all trading fees collected from members in their network. All-Star members can invite new All Stars to join and build networks beneath them. That triggers an extra 10% commission from their new All-Stars' referral network into your commission pool.

Phemex offers an 'All-Star commission system' to help All Stars track their progress in detail. Phemex offers high-quality media materials to help All Stars achieve better results. Additionally, Phemex helps All Stars attract new users by offering a new user bonus of up to $100,

Phemex recently announced promotional restrictions on how All-Star participants can build their referral network on Phemex. Violation of these new guidelines can get you kicked out of the program.

Earn interest with fixed and flexible accounts

Phemex has two ways to earn interest with your unused Bitcoin and Tether stored on the exchange.

The first is the Flexible Saving product. This allows users to earn interest on cryptos without any long-term commitments. The best feature is the ability to deposit and withdraw at any time, while still experiencing a good rate of return while the funds are held. A user only needs to transfer funds from their Phemex spot wallet to their Flexible Savings account. As soon as funds arrive, the user will receive the corresponding interest calculated per day. The initial deposit and interest can be withdrawn at any time.

The second method is Phemex's Fixed Saving product, which allows users to earn higher levels of interest on BTC and USDT invested for a specified period of time. Users must subscribe to this option for a fixed period of time before any earnings can be redeemed. The rate of return is higher and more stable than Flexible Saving. Early withdrawal from the Fixed Saving account is not currently supported.

Competition mode gamifies investing for fun and profit

The Phemex platform has a feature that turns investing into a team competition that lasts a set amount of time. Teams have no restrictions for maximum number of members, but must have a minimum of 10 teammates. If a team has less than 10 members by the time the competition starts, the team will be disbanded and members will be randomly assigned to other teams that meet the requirements.

Once member registration opens, Phemex users can sign up to join any team of their choice. A user's BTC Trading Account net value must be at least 0.005 BTC at the time of registration.

Once the competition begins, if a user's BTC Trading Account net value is below 0.005 BTC, the initial net value will still be calculated as 0.005 BTC. Once you have successfully joined a team, you can no longer change teams.

According to the Phemex website, 78% of the final prize pool will be allocated to pay team awards. Each captain of a winning team will receive 40% of their team's award. The top 10 team members of each winning team will share 30% of their team's award equally. All other team members will share the remaining 30%. The most recent competition ran from June 21 to July 4, 2021. There was no sign of when the next competition would begin.

What could be improved

Limited number of supported cryptocurrencies

The cryptocurrency selection on Phemex is limited in comparison to the larger exchanges, some of which have over hundreds of cryptos to choose from. Phemex offers many cryptocurrency trading pairs for spot trading and for contract trading.

No fiat currency support for 80-plus countries

The Phemex OTC service allows for direct purchase of cryptocurrencies for residents of dozens of countries using eight types of fiat money. OTC stands for "over the counter" and describes a secure method of purchasing or selling crypto via wire transfer. Phemex supported fiat currencies include:

• U.S. dollar (USD)
• European Union euro (EUR)
• British pound (GBP)
• Japanese yen (JPY)
• Hong Kong dollar (HKD)
• Australian dollar (AUD)
• Singapore dollar (SGD)
• Mexican peso (MXN)

It needs to be noted that even though SGD and MXN may be accepted for deposit, Singapore and Mexico are on the restricted list of countries that Phemex does not support. This is an odd arrangement that residents of Singapore and Mexico should avoid.

Additionally, Phemex outsources its fiat wire transfers to purchase e-currencies to another company called Legend Trading. Phemex users should research that third party before making any purchases using traditional funds.

Fees are charged on fiat-to-crypto purchase and most exchange withdrawals

Phemex claims to offer institutional-grade services through its OTC offerings by lowering the fees for larger transactions.

Additionally, Phemex has minimum withdrawal amounts and withdrawal fees for all but two of the 37 cryptocurrencies it supports. No explanation was given as to why those tokens don't trigger withdrawal fees. For clarity, tokens are cryptos that run on another coin's blockchain. For instance, "tokens" such as BAT, OMG, and ZRX all run on the Ethereum blockchain. While "coins" run on their own respective blockchain such as Binance Coin (BNB) and Bitcoin (BTC).

Regarding Phemex withdrawals, several of the one-star reviews on the iPhone app store specifically complained about the withdrawal fees. One reviewer claimed to deposit a small amount of ETH on Phemex to learn the exchange, and when he went to withdraw the total deposit, the flat withdrawal fee for ETH (0.0036 ETH) was more than twice the amount he deposited. Anyone interested in Phemex should carefully review the tables under the fee section before sending any funds.

Doesn't currently offer lending or borrowing against your stored funds

More and more crypto exchanges are offering lending services. This is especially true with the explosive growth of decentralized finance (DeFi) within the space. As of this writing, Phemex does not offer a way to lend or borrow via the exchange. However, the mobile app states that, "Phemex will soon introduce new services such as Crypto Loans and Margin Trading to rival traditional financial ." No targets were provided for the launch of these promised services.

Phemex provides different ways to deposit assets. It supports transfers of major cryptocurrencies from other digital wallets and trading exchanges. The current digital currency deposits supported include:

• Bitcoin (BTC)
• Ethereum (ETH)
• Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
• Litecoin (LTC)
• TetherUS (USDT)

The mobile and desktop versions of the Phemex app have an embedded wallet for deposits that can be used for either spot or contract trading.

Investing on Phemex

To begin, users must complete the required know-your-customer (KYC) process to enable the OTC account to deposit fiat money. Then they must choose between an individual or institutional account. The next step requires a deposit of fiat currency or crypto. Once the user selects the asset and price, Phemex immediately executes the trade. Fiat settlements normally arrive to the Phemex wallet within two hours and instantly for crypto settlements.

Phemex users can also trade gold futures. Though no time frame was provided, the mobile app also promises additional non-crypto trading options will be forthcoming including:

• Major stock indices
• Interest rates
• Foreign exchange currencies
• Commodities
• Energy contracts
• Precious metals

Through its "over-the-counter" service, Phemex supports fiat-to-crypto wire transfer purchases from dozens of countries. The traditional funds supported by this service are:

• U.S. dollar (USD)
• European Union euro (EUR)
• British pound (GBP)
• Japanese yen (JPY)
• Hong Kong dollar (HKD)
• Australian dollar (AUD)
• Singapore dollar (SGD)
• Mexican peso (MXN)

The two methods to purchase cryptocurrencies using sovereign funds are:

• Through Phemex OTC partner Legend Trading, as long as residents live in a country where bank transfers are supported by Phemex. Once settled, the cryptocurrencies are deposited to the Phemex wallet.
• Through third-party services, namely Banxa, MoonPay, Mercuryo, Coinify, which allow the user to buy cryptos using a credit card.

Related: See The Ascent's Coinify review.

For spot and contract trading, the Phemex dashboard is typical of cryptocurrency exchanges. Across the top of the page is a pulldown menu that lists the supported trading pairs. Immediately below that, Phemex has its "Buy" and "Sell" boxes to place orders on the left side of the screen. Advancing to the right is "order book" or pending trade feed. Beside that comes a chart that shows price movement and trading volume, with the list of settled trades on the far right side of the screen. The dashboard allows three kinds of limit orders to help traders minimize losses and maximize profits.

Phemex has four different fee structures as outlined in the tables below.

Wallet withdrawals

According to the Phemex website, standard and premium trial users can only withdraw up to 2 BTC per day. Withdrawal processing times are at 8:00 a.m., 4:00 p.m., and 11:00 p.m. UTC every day. Premium users have no withdrawal limits and enjoy hourly withdrawal reviews. For security purposes, each account must have at least one valid deposit and must have Google two-factor authentication enabled prior to a withdrawal. Potential Phemex users are encouraged to review the table below. The exchange requires withdrawal fees for all cryptos, except for NEO and USDT-TRC20. There are no fees for account deposits.

Over-the-counter trading

Phemex claims to offer institutional-grade services through its OTC offerings by lowering the fees the larger the transaction. Additionally, Phemex outsources its fiat wire transfers to purchase e-currencies to another company called Legend Trading. Phemex users should research that third party before making any purchases using traditional funds. Here's the OTC fee breakdown:

Spot trading

Currently, only full premium and premium trial users can spot trade with zero fees. Standard users will have to pay 0.1% in transaction fees (both as takers and makers).

Contract trading

Phemex allows multiple perpetual contracts, which are similar to futures contracts but with no end date. Makers that add quotes to the Phemex order book receive rebates for each execution. Takers that remove liquidity from its order book are charged for each execution. Phemex does not charge any overnight fees.

For clarity, Phemex uses a "maker-taker" fee model for its contract trading. A "maker" order adds funds to the market. An order that pulls funds from the market, is a "taker" order. The fee structure rewards "makers" with lower fees per transaction for boosting liquidity. Liquidity tends to make markets run more efficiently. The exchange charges higher transaction fees to "takers" who slow markets down.

Phemex offers more than 34 cryptocurrency trading pairs for spot trading and 37 for contract trading. Some of the coins and tokens available for either type of trading include:

• Bitcoin (BTC)
• Ethereum (ETH)
• Ripple (XRP)
• Dogecoin (DOGE)
• Cardano (ADA)
• Litecoin (LTC)
• ChainLink (LINK)
• Aave (AAVE)
• USD Coin (USDC)
• Tether (USDT)

Phemex repeatedly states on its website that security is a top priority. Its security consists of three separate elements.

Phemex wallet

The Phemex website says it has designed and implemented a Hierarchical Deterministic Cold Wallet System. A cold wallet stores cryptocurrencies off the exchange, while a hot wallet is on the exchange, and susceptible to theft. Phemex assigns separate cold wallet deposit addresses to each user. All the deposits are periodically gathered in the company's multisignature cold wallet via offline signature.

Phemex processes withdrawal requests three times a day, and each request is rigorously scrutinized by both operators and founders.

Security system

Phemex deploys its system and secures its machines on the Amazon Web Service (AWS) Cloud. Phemex uses several firewalls to separate different zones and machines for different trading purposes. There are multiple levels of security and internal network access management protocols to control the accessibility of one instance to another.

User account security

Phemex uses a two-factor authentication mechanism to protect all user accounts. When a user performs any critical operations such as login, funding, or password modifications, the system automatically triggers two-factor authentication. This forces the user to perform a secondary authentication to protect account safety and security.

• You're an intermediate or experienced investor
• Competitive trading interests you
• You like the idea of earning interest on BTC and USDT
• Cybersecurity is important