PrimeBit is a brand-new cryptocurrency trading platform that gives users a new and unique way to trade crypto with leverage.
PrimeBit joins a long list of cryptocurrency exhanges that provide leveraged trading. At PrimeBit, this leverage can go all the way up to 200x. This is on a range of different crypto assets.
However, can you really trust such a new exchange?
In this PrimeBit review I will attempt to answer that. I will also give you some top tips that you need to consider before trading.
Overview
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PrimeBit was launched in April of 2019 which makes it less than a year old. PrimeBit is operated by PrimeBit Ltd which is a company that is based in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
It is a broker that offers traders the chance to trade with leverage of up to 200x with fiar price marking. There are two trading platforms on offer at PrimeBit. One is their Web Trader and the other is the MetaTrader 5 (MT5).
With PrimeBit, you are trading cryptocurrency derivative instruments that give you exposure to the price movements. Currently, they offer support for Bitcoin, Litecoin and Etheruem contracts which are margined in Tether.
It is quite clear that they have a global audience in mind with their platform. This is because they have translated their website into over 12 different languages.
Although PrimeBit has these global ambitious, it does have restrictions on certain countries. Due to local laws and regulation, PrimeBit does not accept traders from the US and a number of other countries. You can see the full list here.
Is PrimeBit Safe?
This is perhaps one of the most important questions for any trader when they are considering a broker. Protection of funds and risk management are essential.
So, how does PrimeBit stack up?
Well, we have taken a look at number of factors that determine how “safe” a broker is. So lets start with that burning question about regulation.
Regulation
Currently, it does not seem like PrimeBit has any sort of regulation. Although it is based in St Vincent and the Grenadines, it is not regulated by the financial authorities there.
PrimeBit Registration Details
One of the reasons for this is that PrimeBit is a no-KYC Exchange (more on this below). This is attractive for the trader as it means that they do not have to hand over extensive documentation. Of course, the regulators would not allow this.
It is also worth pointing out that other large cryptocurrency exchanges like ByBit and Binance are not regulated either. Until there is a robust regulatory framework, traders will just have to trust the honesty of PrimeBit.
Coin Safety
Given that you are depositing funds with cryptocurreny on PrimeBit, coin security is of paramount importance. Therefore, PrimeBit operates a secure cold storage protocol.
What does this mean?
Well, it means that they will keep the bulk of the coins in offline wallets. Given that they are offline it means that hackers are not able to gain any sort of access to the funds.
Risk Management
Given that you are trading with up to 200x leverage, PrimeBit needs to have risk management procedures in place in order to ensure that losing positions are closed out quickly.
Firstly, they will automatically stop our your position when it falls below 50% of the initial margin. Stop out activation is triggered against the fair price and executed against the order book price.
However, there are situations in which the price movement is so extensive that they won’t be able to stop you out at 50% of the margin. This is where the Auto Deleveraging or ADL will come in.
Auto Delevaraging At PrimeBit
This is basically a mechanism that will automatically deleverage the positions of those opposing traders. How those opposing traders are chosen is dependent on the amount of leverage they and their profit.
Why do this?
Well, that is because PrimeBit does not have an “insurance fund”. This is a mechanism that exists at a number of other leveraged trading exchanges. They claim that such mechanisms increase losses of highly leveraged traders.
Communication Security
Something else that you will notice about PrimeBit is that there is full 256 bit encryption on the site. This means that all of your communication with them is encrypted.
This is particularly important when it comes to sending your personal documentation and passwords to the platform. This prevents man-in-the-middle attacks.
SSL Certificate at PrimeBit
When you visit PrimeBit you will see the browser padlock in the corner which shows you are on the legitimate site. This also means that if you do not see this you should immediately navigate away from the site.
Two Factor Authentication
Often times, the user is the weakest link when it comes to their own security. Hence, PrimeBit has also provided tools that are best able to secure your account. One of these is two factor authentication.
Note ✍️: This is not enabled by default. The moment you create your account you should do this so as to be fully protected from the first moment.
With this, the user is required to bind their phone to PrimeBit. Through the use of the Google Authenticator app, every login session will ask for your confirmation. This helps as it can prevent a hacker getting access even if they have your password.
Asset Coverage & Contracts
As mentioned, PrimeBit only currently offers cryptocurrency. They currently have coverage for Litecoin, Bitcoin and Ethereum.
These are futures perpetual futures contracts. They differ from traditional future contracts in that there is no expiry date for the settlement of the contracts.
It is also important to point out that the Bitcoin contracts are your traditional simplified futures contracts. These are the same instruments that you will find on the likes of BitMEX & PrimeXBT.
Overview of Contracts at PrimeBit
When it comes to the Ethereum & Litecoin futures, these are Quanto Perpetual contracts. So, what the hell is that?
Well, quite simply, these are futures contracts that will settle in a currency other than the one the future is written on.
So, in other words, when it comes to the LTCUSD and ETHUSD contracts here, the contracts won’t be settled in those currencies. They will be settled in Bitcoin which is the standard currency on the platform.
You should also take note of the minimum contract size for each of these. For BTCUSD it is 0.0001 BTC, for ETHUSD it is 0.005 BTC and for LTCUSD it is 0.01 BTC.
Leverage
Given that you are trading futures instruments, you are crypto margin trading. This basically means that you are putting down only a fraction of what is required for a notional trade size.
This means that for a particular move in the price of the asset, your return / loss will be magnitudes larger than that. At PrimeBit, the margin requirement is 0.5% which implies leverage of up to 200x.
Impact of Leverage on Trades
Although the max leverage is 200x, we would advise that you start with lower leverage limits. This is more than is available at other exchanges and it could be incredibly risky with an asset as volatile as Bitcoin.
The main benefit of being able to trade futures on PrimeBit is that you can also short these assets. This means that you can take a position that the price of one of these cryptocurencies could fall.
PrimeBit Fees
Another really important consideration for any trader has to be the fees that they pay when trading. These will directly impact on the profitability over the long run.
So, how do they look at PrimeBit?
Well, PrimeBit has a maker-taker fee model. This means that there are two fee rates depending on whether you are making a market or whether you are taking liquidity off the books.
When it comes to these fees, the makers will get a 0.025% rebate on the trades that they place. The takers will have to pay a 0.075% fee when they place these trades. This is about in line with the other leverage futures exchange.
Confused ❓: If you place an order and it gets executed automatically, this is taking liquidity and you will be charged for that. If you place one as a limit order that is not executed immediately then you will get rewarded
Something else that you may have to consider is called “funding rates”. This is basically a market rate that will be charged to your account in order to keep your position open.
At PrimeBit, this rate is applied every 8 hours to your account. The exact rate will be determined according to the prevailing funding rates on the cryptocurrency and the USD funding rate.
You will be happy to know that there are no deposit or withdrawal fees on the side of PrimeBit. However, you may be charge a small miner or network fee when you are making a withdrawal. This is standard though.
Registration
If you have decided that you would like to give PrimeBit a go then you will first need to create an account there. You can head on over to the homepage and hit “Register”.
Registration Form at PrimeBit
All that is required is an email address. Once you hit submit they will send you an email to the above address and you will have to follow the link to confirm the email. This will allow you to then set your password.
Once that is done you are ready to start using the platform. Something else that you may note is that PrimeBit does not require you to verify your account. It is a “no-KYC” exchange and they do not require any form of ID to start trading.
Demo Account
You will be pleased to see that PrimeBit also offers a completely free demo account. This means that you can test out the MT5 platform as well as the trading conditions before you fund.
This is also a great way for you to practice your skills before you move onto live trading with all the risks. It also replicates the trading conditions fully (apart from slippage)
Demo Account Selection at PrimeBit
You are given 1 BTC of demo money to trade on which can be replenished at any time. So, if you are just starting out trading then we would recommend the demo account.
Deposits / Withdrawals
If you would like to start trading with real money then you will have to fund your account. Given that PrimeBit is a full cryptocurrency exchange, you will have to fund your account with Bitcoin.
If you wanted to fund your account then you will need to log in and check out your dashboard. Here you will be shown your live and demo account. You will hit “Deposit” and this will then take you to the PrimeBit payments page.
On this page a Bitcoin address will be generated. This is both a long form addresses as well as in QR code form. Once you have sent the funds they will first have to process on the network. You can observe a Bitcion Block Explorer to see how much longer there is to go.
Funding your Account with Bitcoin
When it comes to withdrawals, the process is just as simple. You will go on to your dashboard and then hit “withdrawal”. Here you will be asked the amount as well as for your 2FA code.
You can then give the Bitcoin address of your offline wallet and they will process the transaction.
PrimeBit Trading Platforms
When it comes to your trading, something that can make or break your experience is the technology that you have at your disposal. There are two trading platforms at PrimeBit currently and the newest of these is their proprietary web trading platform.
Web Trader
The Web Trader is perhaps best suited to those who are first trading at the exchange. It is pretty well laid out and intuitive with a decent amount of functionality. It is also quite similar to platforms that you have seen at more popular crypto exchanges.
Below is a screenshot of the platform. In the middle you have the chart which is a tradingview chart. For those of you who do not know, this is perhaps the best charting package on the market and is specifically useful for those traders that employ technical analysis strategies.
User Interface of PrimeBit Web Trader
You will also notice that you can expand the chart so that it takes up the whole screen. This makes it easier for you to conduct your charting analysis. To the right of the charts you have your depth chart which gives you an idea of the buy / sells currently open on the market.
Next to that you have your order forms. These are pretty functional and you have choice around the type of order (Limit, Market, Stop etc). For those who don’t know, a Limit order is one placed at a particular price, a market order is placed at the prevailing market rate and a stop is designed to be placed so to limit losses.
At the bottom of the order form you have the option to adjust the leverage level. This will determine how much margin you will have to place down for the trade as well as the exposure to the price movement in the underlying asset.
Order Calculator
Another really handy tool that you have is the trading calculator. This will allow you to calculate profit / loss and margin or liquidation levels before you enter your trade. Hence, you know what levels to watch for when you have an open order and the best places to position your stops.
MT5 Trading Platform
For those traders who are a bit more advanced, PrimeBit also offers their traders the MetaTrader 5 application. For those who don’t know, MetaTrader software is one of the most popular trading packages online.
MetaTrader are also the developers of the MT4 trading platform which is used by nearly half of all the world’s brokers. The MT5 is an upgraded version of this platform.
So, why all the fuss over MT5?
Well, firstly you have the functionality of the MT5 platform. You have a number of different technical tools at your disposal that people have come to expect from the MT4 platforms.
User Interface on PrimeBit MT5 Platform
For example, you have extensive charting capabilities which allow you to hone your technical analysis. This includes many technical studies and indicators such as Fibonacci, trendlines, RSIs, oscillators, you name it.
You also have a great deal of order functionality with the MetaTrader platforms. You have a pretty wide range of customization options for these orders. Placing stop losses, conditional orders and other parameters is that much easier.
The MT5 also has a number of other features that are not included on the MT4 platform. These include the likes of market depth charts as well as economic calendars right there on your platform.
Expert Advisor Development at PrimeBit
Something else that you will love about the MetaTrader platforms is that PrimeBit allow you to code your own Expert Advisors or “EAs”. These are trading scripts that run automatically and are coded in MQL5, the proprietary language on MetaTrader 5.
Another really great benefit of using the MT5 platform on PrimeBit is that your knowledge and skills are transferable. If you want to try a new broker, as long as they have an MT5 then it is really easy to switch.
While PrimeBit offers the MT5 platform through a web browser, you can also download the application and run it on your PC. This is actually much faster and is our preferred method of running the MT5 application.
The MT5 is available on Windows, MacOS as well as on Linux. You can also trade it on a mobile device which brings us onto our next topic.
PrimeBit Mobile Apps
If you are always on the go and you want to monitor your trades then you will need to download the PrimeBit MT5 mobile application.
As is the case with the main desktop app, the MetaTrader apps are some of the most popular in the world. You only need to take a look at the reviews and total number of downloads to get a sense of how widely used it is.
You can download the application from both the Google Play Store as well as the iTunes store. Once it is on your phone then you can insert your login details as well as the applicable PrimeBit server.
The mobile app has a lot of the same functionality as the Desktop app. You have a reasonable amount of charting as well as order optionality. You can also manage your expert advisors on your mobile app.
User Interface of the MT5 Mobile App
It is also relatively easy to navigate the app and you can switch the interface from the charts to the simple one touch order forms. Or you can hop over to the general market charts where you can see all the important levels of the pairs on your watchlist.
Worth It? ❓: Mobile trading has its benefits but you can never really replicate the same conditions that you have on the desktop application. Hence, this should only be a fall back for when you can’t be at your desk.
And, as is the case with the MT5 desktop and web traders, once you learn how to use the MT5 mobile app then you can easily jump to another broker that has the same. It is easily transferable all over.
You can also trade on the WebTrader platform through your mobile phone although this is not a mobile app. You will have to use your phone’s web browser which is less than optimal. However, it could be a great way to monitor your orders while away from your desk.
Customer Support
Customer support is that often-overlooked requirement that can make or break your experience with an exchange or broker. Hence, it is a really important criterion for us.
We decided to test out the customer support on PrimeBit to see how responsive it was to our queries.
When reaching out to PrimeBit, there appears to be a live chat option at the bottom right. Well, this is a bit more of a simple FAQ section and email form. You don’t really connect with anyone on a live chat.
Not to be deterred, we still wanted to test out the responsiveness. We requested information on setting up our MT5 account on a desktop app. So, it was relatively technical.
The team was able to get back to us in under 2 hours. This is actually quite impressive as we tried other brokers like OctaFX and IC Markets who took so much longer to respond to our queries.
“Chat” Function at PrimeBit
Of course, another way that you can send a request in to the team is through a ticket. This may be more effective as it means that your ticket can be sent to the most appropriate support desk.
Top Tip ✅: If your ticket is taking a bit longer than you would like, why don’t you hit them up on their social media? Be sure to quote your ticket number
Of course, if your question is more routine in nature then you can always take a look through their Frequently Asked Questions. This was fairly comprehensive and has handy user guides as well.
API
Any developers out there? PrimeBit has their own API that allows you to code trading bots in javascript (NodeJS). This is unlike the MQL5 EAs that will have to be run within the metatrader platform.
With the PrimeBit API, your trading bot can interact directly with the PrimeBit servers which reduces latency. There is both a REST API as well as a websocket version. You can take a look into the docs to get a better sense of it.
We took a look into it and there appears to be quite a bit of functionality with the APIs. You have all your standard endpoints for reading the charts and monitoring your orders.
Generating an API Key to Trade
If you want to use the API then you will have to generate an API key. This will allow your bot to interact with your account. This can be done in your dashboard by going to the settings and hitting the “API Keys” section. Here you can select “New API Key”.
You will have to name the API key and then it will automatically be generated. You will have both your Key and a secret key. The secret key is only generated once so be sure to save it when it is pulled.
Warning ⚠️: Do not share this API key with anyone. There are services online that offer trading bots but we advise to avoid these. They are often used as a phishing tactic.
It also seems that unlike with other exchanges, you cannot select the permissions that the API key gives you. This means that the key that is generated will give you full permissions for trades as well as withdrawals.
Referral Program
If you have been using PrimeBit and you found that your experience was relatively pleasant then you can also make money by referring it to your friends. This is through their affiliate program.
If this is something that you would like to do then you will have to generate your affiliate link. You will head on over to your PrimeBit dashboard where you can click on “Affiliate Program”.
This will then take you to the PrimeBit affiliate management system. This is third party affiliate software that was developed by by Unilink. There is a whole host of functionality that will help you promote the brand.
PrimeBit Affiliate Dashboard
Once you are on here you can click on ” Referral Link” and this will pull up your affiliate link for you. There is also so much more that you can do on this dashboard. For example, you can structure unique campaigns and pull up general marketing material.
When it comes to the affiliate commissions, they are tiered based on the total number of traders that you have brought to the platform. You start off at 5% when you just sign up which can go all the way up to 20% for those that bring considerably more trading revenue.
Areas For Improvement
There were are a lot of things that we really liked about PrimeBit but we also need to highlight some of the things that warrant improvement.
Firstly, there are only 3 cryptocurrency assets that you can trade. While this could be good for beginners, crypto traders have become accustomed to a large array of assets to trade. They should introduce more options for the traders.
Then it would also be great to see more in the way of funding options. Currently you can only fund in Bitcoin & Tether which means that users will first have to exchange their crypto to get either BTC or USDT to start trading. This is the case even if you are trading the Litecoin or Ethereum futures.
It would also have been great to see some additional material that would help traders learn about cryptocurrency trading and the MT5 platform. These are offered as standard at many exchanges and brokers. This material helps improve on the trading experience.
And perhaps the last thing to take into account with this exchange is that it is brand new. As such, it does not have an established track records so one can’t form an opinion from fellow traders. Of course, this is a bit of a chicken and egg thing and most exchanges have to start somewhere.
Conclusion
To wrap things up, we have to say that we were pleasantly surprised with PrimeBit. For such a new exchange, they already have quite a lot going for them.
For example, they have attractive leverage not seen in the crypto industry to date. They are also able to manage this risk with a well-developed deleveraging process.
They are also giving their traders the best tools to work with by offering the MT5 platform which is no doubt an industry favourite. Add to this the mobile trading app and the API and you have a pretty sweet technology suite.
Yes, there are things that can be improved but this is still a brand-new exchange. They are likely to implement a number of changes over the coming months.
So, should you consider PrimeBit?
Well, if you are looking for a high leverage trading platform with no KYC and advanced trading technology, then it could be for you.
Warning ⚡️: Trading leveraged futures products is incredibly risky. Make sure that you practice adequate risk management
Ratings PrimeBit
Pros
- MT5 Platform
- API
- No KYC
- ADL Risk Management
Cons
- Not Regulated
- No Live Chat
- No Training Tools
