For readers interested to purchase cryptocurrencies in Singapore, chances are you would have heard of Coinhako.

Coinhako Overview

Coinhako is a local company started by Singaporeans back in 2014. Coinhako is the first cryptocurrency exchange allowing users to purchase cryptocurrencies with SGD.

Here’s what it looks like:

Here is a quick overview of Coinhako’s features:

Coinhako allows you to purchase 42 cryptocurrencies using Singapore dollars, a convenient way for Singaporean users to directly purchase the cryptocurrencies once the money is depositted into the Coinhako account. The prices of each cryptocurrency is reflected in Singapore dollars:

Executing a buy or sell order in Coinhako is simple, you simply select the cryptocurrency you want to purchase, and click the buy button to purchase the amount you require.

While you are able to buy and sell these cryptocurrencies, some of these cryptocurrencies have limited functionality where you are unable to send or receive these tokens from another platforms.

This is arguably one of the biggest disadvantage of the platform. Cryptocurrencies with limited functionality are shown on the Coinhako dashboard:

Methods of funding account

There are 2 main ways that you can fund your account:

1. Xfers Direct
2. FAST Transfer

To start using Xfers, you’ll need to create a Xfers wallet and then make a deposit to the Xfers wallet. Once the deposit is effected, the amount will appear in your Coinhako dashboard.

You can also deposit your funds directly into Coinhako via a direct bank transfer. There are no fees involved for a direct bank transfer, however, the fund will take up to 1 business day to reach your Coinhako account.

Here are the pros and cons of each method:

Purchasing Cryptocurrency from Coinhako

How Coinhako operates is different from other exchanges where you are not trading with another party. Instead, you are buying at the prevailing market rate set by Coinhako.

Because of this arrangement, it may be higher or lower than the actual market rate.

Here is Coinhako’s rate between Bitcoin and SGD as well as the rate on Google as of 14th July 2021.

The rates have stabilized recently as there are low liquidity and demand in the market now.

Cryptocurrency Purchases Using Credit Card

There are 2 ways of buying cryptocurrency on Coinhako – you can make purchases from your SGD wallet where you deposit your SGD in, or you can link a credit card to Coinhako and purchase using the credit card.

Purchases made from credit card will be more expensive as you will incur credit card charges. However, credit card purchases provides you with additional funding options in case you are unable to deposit funds instantly into your Coinhako wallet.

Fund Withdrawals

Fund withdrawals are done via FAST transfer on Coinhako. Here’s how it looks:

There is a $2 withdrawal fee. Funds will reach your designated bank account in 2-3 working days.

Coinhako Fees

Here are some of the fees that Coinhako charges you:

Coinhako Security

Coinhako offers a secure two-factor authentication for all users. According to the FAQ, 99% of the funds it holds are kept in cold storage. Cold storage funds are stored in hardware wallets and vaulted in a highly secure location. These ‘Cold Wallets’ are offline, offer paramount security and cannot be hacked.

You also have the option of using your own wallet instead and simply using Coinhako to buy and sell cryptocurrencies rather than store them.

Payments Service Act

As with most cryptocurrency exchanges in Singapore, Coinhako does not hold any license to operate in Singapore. However, Coinhako is exempted from the Payments Service Act and is able to carry on its operation in Singapore while the regulators come out with the regulations around the industry.

Coinhako intends to comply with all regulatory requirements of Singapore.