The panda logo Cryptocurrency Exchange, Shakepay was founded in 2015 by Jean Amiouny and Roy Bredi. Based in Montreal, Shakepay’s mission is to provide people from all walks of life to be able to connect with the digital economy.
How to use Shakepay
Sign up
- Sign up here to create your Shakepay account.
- Once your email address has been confirmed, you would be prompted to do KYC. Don’t worry as this is normal and all exchanges do this.
- Deposit some CAD or cryptocurrency and you’ll be set to start trading!
Buy & sell crypto on Shakepay.
- To deposit CAD we recommend using the Interac e-Transfer method for the fastest speed.
- Once you’ve deposited CAD, you can buy bitcoin or Ethereum.
- Pick what you want to invest in and click buy!
- Congratulations, you have used the Shakepay platform!
Is Shakepay Safe?
As there has been a huge rise in exchange in 2017-2018, knowing if the exchange is safe to trade on and safe to leave your coins on is important. Shakepay is a safe Canadian exchange because they are formally registered with FINTRAC – the governmental body to regulate financial businesses.
Shakepay are licensed and you can view their license number on their website. What this means is that everything they do has to be tightly in line with the rules. Shakepay is also regulated with AMF as well – another regulatory body of Canada.
In terms of storing cryptocurrency, Shakepay is using cold offline storage to store a majority of user’s cryptocurrencies. Hackers would not be able to steal any of those even if they somehow broke into the exchange. They can only take what’s connected to the internet – the hot wallets.
Shakepay is partnered with companies who hold SOC 1 Type II and SOC 2 Type II certifications.
This means it’s very secure and on top of which, Shakepay offers users a guarantee – If any private keys get lost or stolen, Shakepay will cover the cost of that.
Shakepay has also hired a 3rd party company – CipherBlade to audit their security system and internal processes. CipherBlade has given Shakepay the stamp of approval when it comes to regulation and system processes. You can find the security report here.
For user funds on the exchange that are in Canadian dollars, Shakepay stores those on a segregated Bank account. And all funds deposited by you is 100% held by the Canadian exchange. They don’t go and use your funds behind your back unlike some Chinese Exchanges recently found to be investing in high-risk investments with user funds.
Shakepay.com Review and Fees Breakdown
Fiat currencies accepted:
Shakepay only accepts Canadian dollars.
Cryptocurrencies accepted:
Shakepay accepts Bitcoin and Ethereum currently.
Shakepay’s fees
One unique thing Shakepay does to differentiate from competitors is having 0 fees. That’s right, zero deposit and withdrawal fees. Zero trading fees. But how about withdrawal? Doesn’t it cost a fee to transact bitcoin over the network? Still zero fees for the user! Transaction fees are also zero.
How is this possible? Shakepay makes it possible through the spreads of the price. What this means is if you buy or sell bitcoin on Shakepay, it will be slightly higher than other exchanges. This difference will be the revenue Shakepay makes in order to provide the service.
Deposit and Withdrawal methods:
Shakepay offers two deposit methods – Interac e-Transfer and Wire Transfer. Interac has a $5 minimum deposit fee while Wire Transfer has a minimum of $1000.
If you use Interac e-Transfer method, the funds will be available for you to use within minutes.
The same two methods can also be used to withdraw any Canadian funds from your account. But Wire Transfer will require you to withdraw at least $5000 and Interac e-Transfer is still a minimum of $5 withdraw.
With both deposit and withdrawal, the fees are free. You don’t need to pay anything to get funds in or out of your account.
As for cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawal, it’s also free to deposit and withdraw.
Security features:
Shakepay offers offline cold storage, separated bank accounts and guarantees for stored funds in their cold storage.
Regulation compliance:
Shakepay is regulated with FINTRAC and AML.
Customer service:
Shakepay’s customer service is not the best around but they do have a FAQ documentation section and if you wish to contact them via email, you can send them an email at [email protected]
Mobile functionality/mobile app:
Shakepay’s mobile app is available on both Google Play Store and the App Store. It’s been well received because of Shakapay’s non-existent fees and the use of ease when interacting with the Canadian cryptocurrency exchange.
History of Shakepay
Shakepay was founded in 2015 by Jean Amiouny and Roy Bredi and is based in Montreal. They have been making sure Shakepay fits the user’s needs. At the start, the spreads on Shakepay were a lot higher and Shakepay was able to listen to community feedback and reduced the spreads as low as possible.
The Verdict on Shakepay
Shakepay is a safe and easy to use exchange for Canadian investors. Their major selling point is the lack of fees which other exchanges charge an extraordinary amount. Shakepay is also extremely transparent with all their security measures and we can go and verify their security reports done by the 3rd party company they have hired.
This tells us Shakepay is most likely not doing anything shady. The lack of fees + clear transparency of security makes Shakepay a solid exchange to be on.
The only downside is the diversity of coins as they only have bitcoin and Ethereum and also the higher than average spread prices.
All in all, Shakepay is a decent exchange. Sign up here.