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Opening online brokerages has become very lucrative in recent years, so it’s no surprise that you can see new ones every month. With most, it’s easy to see a scam a mile away. However, there are some brokerages that are more subtle when it comes to shady business practices. Original Crypto seems to land somewhere in the middle.
This Original Crypto Review will provide you with in-depth coverage of everything this new brokerage has to offer. Your first impression when looking at their website will be one of confusion. They declare themselves as a crypto brokerage, which is a little misleading. Judging by their offering, they are a typical CFD broker with traditional trading assets with a slight twist. Your account is held entirely in Bitcoin.
The company is owned by Bali Limited, a company with headquarters in Sofia, Bulgaria. As such, there doesn’t seem to be any regulatory bodies overlooking this brokerage, so your funds could be at risk. As original as the company’s offer is, they are in essence an unregulated broker, and all traders should proceed with caution.
Platform and Execution SCORE: 65%
If you are an experienced trader who prefers one of the MetaTrader platforms, you will be disappointed to find out that Original Crypto offers only a rudimentary web-based trading platform. It doesn’t offer any advanced features you might find on MT4 or MT5. While we have previously encountered some other web-based systems that were half-decent, Original Crypto platform fails to impress at any turn. At heart is it a binary options platform.
If you do decide to give it a try, you will encounter another hurdle right at the beginning. While there are several account types, the initial deposit amount even for the basic account is 0.5 BTC, which is ridiculously high. There are six account tiers in total, with the highest one requiring a deposit of 45 BTC.
As it is often the case with similar companies, Original Crypto offers deposit bonuses. Traders should be aware that they come with a caveat. You have to trade a minimum of 30 times the size of your initial investment before you can withdraw your funds. While some experienced traders can generate this amount of profit in weeks, the majority will just end up with locked funds that they cannot claim.
Withdrawal Speed SCORE: 55%
Like we previously mentioned, Original Crypto is an atypical CFD trader that allows only Bitcoin as a payment method. To make deposits, you can use Qiwi Wallet or WebMoney, both Russian-based payment settlement systems. Since the payment method is entirely based on cryptocurrencies, you will now experience long waiting times or additional fees like you would if you chose Wire Transfers for example. There is, however, a different type of problem, you should be aware of.
While depositing is done almost effortlessly, many traders will have issues when trying to withdraw their funds. Even though there is no information about it on the website, traders must achieve an amount 30 times larger than their initial deposit in order to transfer funds from their account to their wallet. The lack of information upfront makes this entire brokerage seem like a scam.
Support and Assistance SCORE: 40%
Given everything we have seen so far, it’s hardly surprising that Original Crypto offers very little customer support. Basically, the only two way you can reach them is using a telephone line or via email. There is a physical address in Bulgaria, but given the global pandemic, I doubt anyone will really consider paying them a visit in Sofia.
If you wish to address your issues or question via the telephone, you will be greeted with a polite, and yet unhelpful representatives. It is true that manners go a long way, but it will ultimately still be frustrating when none of your issues will be unresolved.
The situation with email is just slightly better, however, you need to be ready to face long waiting times. On average, I was receiving responses after a couple of working days. Since this method provides better assistance, I would say it’s worth the wait.
Original Crypto sorely needs a better customer support system. Other competitors have set the bar way too high in this segment, so it cannot be overlooked. For starters, traders would massively benefit from a live-chat feature, that would enable issue solving in real-time.
Education and Tools SCORE: 30%
This has been such a divisive topic among traders for such a long time. Yes, there is plenty of free educational resources on the web, but so many brokerages are offering complete packages on their websites. Original Crypto has opted to invest very little when it comes to educational tools.
The only thing you can find on their website is the “What is Bitcoin” section. This offers the most elemental coverage of some of the most basic Cryptocurrency terminology. There are also 3 YouTube videos presumably too busy to read the bare minimum that is offered.
Traders are forced to look elsewhere to satisfy their trading education needs. While some experienced traders will not find this troublesome and will jump straight into the trading portion, many will feel disappointed. Without this section, Original Crypto just doesn’t feel like the complete package it could be.
Original Crypto is an unlicensed CFD broker, with a big emphasis on cryptocurrencies. Their offer is quite unique as your account is entirely in BTC. The trading environment is relatively decent If you are not a highly demanding trading.
This company will ultimately struggle to attract the crypto enthusiasts or forex traders. While it tries to appeal both sides, Original Crypto’s offer fails to win over any of them. Another concern is the fact that they are offering CFDs without any financial regulations. Given the high initial cost of trading, many traders will start looking for a different brokerage.
Until Original Crypto improves their trading conditions, we cannot full-heartedly recommend them. This fairly new brokerage still has a long way to go until it becomes competitive.