LakeBTC was founded in 2013 as a Bitcoin exchange for high-volume traders and financial professionals. Nowadays, LakeBTC stands for Lake Banking Technology Company. The company is based in Shanghai, China and it serves the Asian market primarily.
Verification Process on LakeBTC
In order to trade digital currencies on LakeBTC users don’t have to verify their identity, but the verification is required for trading with fiat currencies.
The process involves all the usual steps and requires standard documents. In order to get verified on LakeBTC user needs to submit the following:
- Full name and address. Withdrawals can be made only under the full name used in the account, so that’s one of the important details to know.
- Photos of government-issued document (ID, passport, driver’s license). The document needs to be photographed from both sides.
- Mobile phone number
- Proof of residency, which must not be older than three months. In case that proof of residency is not available, the exchange accepts other government issued ID photos.
- A selfie photo with the documents is required if the user plans to trade high volumes or is a resident of certain countries.
There are no trading limits for unverified accounts.
The exchange accepts many different FIAT currencies, including but not limited to – USD, CNY, SEK, EUR, HKD, JPY, GBP, AUD, CAD, SGD, CHF, KRW, ZAR, ARS, BRL, MXN, INR, NZD, IDR, THB, MYR, TRY, RON, VEF, NGN, KES, XAF, XOF.
There’s one rule when it comes to deposits and withdrawals in FIAT currencies – if the account is registered in one FIAT currency, deposits and withdrawals are possible in only that currency. Of course, trading is possible in all available currencies.
The trading platform currently offers only Bitcoin and FIAT pairs. No other cryptocurrencies are available for trading.
Fees
When it comes to deposit fees, all of these are free of charge:
- BTC
- Ripple
- System Banker
For other LakeBankers the fee varies, and it’s shown for the user review before submitting a deposit request. The exchange supports wire transfers, but they are slow (it takes approximately 5 business days for a transfer) and expensive (usually the transfer costs between 15 USD and 65 USD). Besides that, the company’s location (Shanghai, China) carries additional fees for Internacional traders. Great way to deposit money to the exchange is by Ripple network, which offers high speed and low fees.
Withdrawals, on the other hand, have specified costs:
System Banker
- For volume below 6000 BTC, it’s 0.3 percent + 5 USD.
- For volume between 6000 and 15,000 BTC, it’s 0.2 percent + 5 USD
- For volume above 15,000 BTC, it’s 0.1 percent + 5 USD
Third-pary fees not included.
Withdrawal fees with other LakeBankers vary. The actual fee is submitted for review by the user before placing a withdrawal request.
Withdrawals in Bitcoins are free.
Trading fees
Trading fees are 0.2 percent for the taker and between 0.15 and 0 percent for the maker. As the volume increases, the fees drop meaning that there’s no fee for high monthly volumes (over 20,000 BTC), while those who trade below 500 BTC on a monthly level are charged 0.15 percent fee.
OTC buying is free, but selling costs 1 percent of the amount.
LakeBTC.com Trading Analysis
LakeBTC doesn’t have very high volume, and it only offers Bitcoin trading. It doesn’t support many advanced order types, limiting the users to:
- Limit order
Used primarily to protect inexperienced users from loosing their money.
- Darkpool
Used in case of large trades to make the order invisible and lessen the impact on the market. Darkpool carries a higher fee.
- Maker only
Used in the case when the user wants to pay only the maker fees, automatically canceling the orders if it’s a taker.
The exchange currently doesn’t support margin and short trading, but it plans to introduce these features. No futures or derivates are supported either.
Ease of Use
The platform looks good, with a minimalistic design. The exchange offers two different interfaces for trading Bitcoin – the standard trading interface and the “LakeTrader” interface which allow advanced users to access to various trading options easily.
The website is a bit slower than other platforms, but it’s rather responsive. When it comes to mobile support – the entire platform was developed in html5, and it’s completely user-friendly on mobile. There are no apps until now, but the website works great on all mobile devices.
Support
The support on LakeBTC is pretty decent. There’s phone support for Mandarin speaking users, while International users will have to contact the support by email. Their FAQ page is rather extensive and provides vital information for the users. The support team is very responsive and professional.
User experience
There are some complaints related to the locking users out of their accounts, and the company’s location (China) raises suspicion, but overall this is a reliable exchange.
Security
The platform offers two-factor authentication, SMS confirmations and it holds the majority of the funds in cold storage.
There are no hacking reports, but the LakeBTC did lose a lot of money when EgoPay was compromised in a hacking attack.
There are email notifications, and email encryption is used as well, making the security tight. Very reliable and safe trading platform.
LakeBTC Review Conclusion
LakeBTC.com is a growing market and it surely does offer many great features.