Coinhako review, usage tips, and generous referral benefits (19% fee rebates)
Receive 19% of your trading fees back when you sign up with Coinhako via the referral link or referral code: ueJaHSS.
Coinhako revamped its ‘Refer & Earn’ programme in August 2022, allowing referrers to specify the ratio to split the 20% trading commission rebate.
At the moment, I am offering to keep only 1% for myself.
Table of Contents
Company
Easiest way to buy Bitcoin and digital assets in Singapore
Founded in 2014 by Singaporean entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. The current CEO is Yusho Liu, who is also a Co-Founder.
Accolades
- champions in the ‘Financial Services’ category at the 2022 SBR National Business Awards
- Launched in 2016, the SBR National Business Awards honours local and homegrown companies in Singapore and recognises their outstanding projects that greatly contribute to Singapore’s fast-growing economy.
Business model
Coinhako does not facilitate any leverage trading on their platform. All trades with Coinhako are required to be pre-funded and/or fully collateralized which ensures that credit default risk (if any) is kept to an absolute minimum.
Investors
- Tokyo-based financial services giant SBI Holdings announced a joint investment in Coinhako [Dec 2021]
- via a fund jointly set up by SBI and Switzerland-based Sygnum Bank, namely, the SBI-Sygnum-Azimut Digital Asset Opportunity Fund
- Prominent investors such as Tim Draper, Josh Jones, as well as established venture capital firms such as Boost VC.
Key metrics
- 150,000 active monthly users (Nov 2021)
- 350,000 registered users in Singapore (Nov 2021)
Notable developments
- reduce trading fees from 1% to 0.6% [23 May 2022]
- includes all buy, sell, and swap orders
- granted official approval from MAS for a Major Payment Institution (MPI) licence [May 2022]
- received in-principle approval from MAS for license to provide Digital Payment Token (DPT) Services [16 Nov 2021]
- Coinhako is the first local crypto exchange to be given such approval for DPTs
Presence in Singapore
- Coinhako is currently headquartered in Singapore.
- Entity: HAKO TECHNOLOGY PTE. LTD. (UEN: 201332728R)
Take a tour of Coinhako’s Singapore office here.
Regulation by Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)
In May 2022, Coinhako was granted official approval from MAS for a Major Payment Institution (MPI) licence. Securing the full licence means that Coinhako will be able to legally operate as regulated providers of Digital Payment Token (“DPT”) Services under the Payment Services Act (“PSA’).
“This key milestone marks the pinnacle of our 8-year journey as a homegrown crypto platform, and we are immensely thankful for the community’s trust and support over the years.”
In a statement released in August 2022, MAS clarified that Payment Services Act (PSA) licensing involves regulation around money laundering and terrorism financing risks as well as technology risks.
Firms are not subject to risk-based capital or liquidity requirements, nor are they required to safeguard customer money or digital tokens from insolvency risk. It said that’s similar to the approach taken in most jurisdictions.
This means it may not be possible to recover all the money or DPTs you paid to your DPT service provider if your DPT service provider’s business fails.
Travel Rule
Coinhako announced in Dec 2021 that it will be launching a series of updates to comply with MAS Notice PSN02 and recommendations issued by the Financial Action Task Force, relating to the prevention of Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism.
Effective from 27 April 2022, Coinhako will be introducing the following measures:
- Mandatory personal wallet address verification: Coinhako Singapore users will be required to prove ownership of their personal (non-custodial) wallets by completing an ownership test.
- Verification can be completed via either the ‘Satoshi Test’ or ‘Wallet Signature’ method.
- Updates to the way crypto deposits and withdrawals are processed
- For deposits: Users will have to declare the source of their crypto deposits if they are from non-Travel Rule compliant VASPs or unverified wallets.
- For withdrawals: Withdrawals will only be available for verified personal wallets or Travel Rule compliant VASPs.
Visit Coinhako’s blog for more details.
Read: What are Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs)?
Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) refer to entities that provide services relating to virtual assets, such as offering an exchange between virtual assets and fiat currencies, exchange between different forms of virtual assets, transfer of virtual assets such as moving a virtual asset from one address or account to another, providing custodian wallet services and participating in and providing financial services related to an issuer’s offer and/or sale of a virtual asset.
Social media
- Instagram: @coinhako_official
- follow for promotions and giveaways, plus educational tidbits and fun crypto content!
- Telegram: Coinhako (Official)
Ecosystem
Coinhako Earn
Hold Crypto. Earn. Repeat.
Coinhako Earn was introduced to the platform towards the end of December 2021. With Coinhako Earn, one can earn interest when subscribing to a variety of fixed earn products.
The number of crypto assets supported is growing constantly, but the interests offered for a couple of them (i.e BTC, ETH) lag far behind other market players. Hopefully Coinhako can improve the deal over time to attract more HODLers.
Another thing I noted is that the Coinhako Earn deposit quota for some of the popular assets gets filled up rather quickly.
Coinhako Earn Risk Disclosure Statement
By participating in a Coinhako Earn lending programme, you expressly acknowledge, understand and agree to assume the risks set out in the Risk Disclosure Statement on Coinhako’s website, which can be found on https://www.coinhako.com/risk-disclosure, and the additional risk disclosures set out below:
1. Lending of Digital Tokens may carry added risk compared to lending of other types of assets because transactions in cryptocurrency are in many cases irreversible. As a result, funds may not be recoverable in the event of errors or fraudulent activity.
2. The Loaned Digital Tokens (as defined below) are not insured by us or any governmental program or institution. We do not assume any market or investment risk of loss associated with your participation in a Coinhako Earn lending programme. Your Loaned Digital Tokens may decline in value during the term of a Coinhako Earn lending programme.
3. Interest rates on a Coinhako Earn lending programme, fees and other charges are variable and subject to change. Interest rates may decline over time and we cannot guarantee that you will earn any particular rate of return on your Loaned Digital Tokens.
- An early earn termination will result in a forfeiture of your earnings.
- Daily Cut-off Time: Asset earnings and redemptions are closed from 14:00 to 14:30 (GMT+8) on every interest date. APY and Availability (if any) are updated after the cut-off time.
- One inconvenience I noticed is that after the lock-up period, the assets are returned to the exchange wallet, and users have to manually subscribe again, subject to availability on a first-come, first-served basis.
Coinhako Treasures
Launched in October 2022, Coinhako Treasures is Coinhako’s institutional arm offering a suite of structured products for institutional and high net worth clients.
✔️ Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Instant SGD deposits
via FAST with zero fees
Coinhako users can deposit Singapore Dollars into their Coinhako accounts by making a FAST transfer from their bank account of choice. Deposits can be made at any time of day and will get credited near instantly.
Bank transfer details can be found on the Deposit page under the SGD wallet, and each user is assigned a unique virtual account number to which they should make the transfer.
Learn more from this blog article at Coinhako.
via PayNow with zero fees
Coinhako clients can receive their deposits within 60 seconds via PayNow. There are no fees involved for using PayNow for deposits.
Usage Notes and Tips
GrabPay purchases
You can buy crypto instantly with GrabPay. However, do take note of the following:
- There is a 2.5% flat fee for GrabPay purchases. This fee covers both payment processing fees and trading fees.
- GrabRewards points will not be awarded for purchases made on Coinhako using GrabPay.
Redeem Coinhako voucher with GrabReward points
Redeem Coinhako vouchers worth $5/10/20 on GrabRewards to fund your crypto trades and offset trade fees. Limited availability.
How to redeem and use Coinhako vouchers on GrabRewards?
- Search for ‘Coinhako’ on GrabRewards on the Grab app
- Use your GrabRewards points balance to redeem any available voucher options
- Receive a unique redemption code which is tagged to each voucher
- Enter the code under the Rewards section on Coinhako
- Check your new SGD wallet balance and you are good to go!