Uphold Review

What is Uphold?

The Uphold platform is designed to provide users with a secure, transparent, and cost-effective way to manage their investments. It is compliant with global banking standards and offers a range of features to make investing simpler. These include its intuitive user interface, zero fees and commissions, integrated wallet for asset storage, margin trading capabilities, and advanced analytics tools.

Uphold also offers advanced features such as automated portfolio tracking and real-time market data, making it an ideal platform for both novice and experienced investors. Uphold is also regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), providing users with an extra layer of security when conducting transactions on the platform.

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Uphold Crypto Exchange

Uphold Crypto is the trading platform's primary product which offers over 200 digital assets and cryptocurrency staking with interest earnings of up to 25% APY. They have the largest variety of cryptocurrencies for a multi-asset broker, with a wide selection of leading smart contract blockchain tokens, alt-coins, DeFi tokens, Metaverse assets, NFT assets and much more.

The Uphold crypto exchange also charges zero trading fees and tight spreads when buying or selling assets on their online brokerage. You can find the full list of available assets here.

Uphold Crypto Staking

One of Uphold's premier features is their crypto staking app. They currently offer up to 25% in yields on staked crypto for customers in any country. The staking is flexible, which means you can stake and unstake at any time without having to worry about lock-in periods.

You can find the full list of staking assets and the yields below.
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How to Buy Crypto on Uphold

Uphold makes buying, exchanging and selling cryptocurrency easy. All you need to get started is an account on Uphold.com and a supported payment method (bank transfer, credit card or debit card). Then simply select the type of cryptocurrency you would like to buy and enter the amount. Once your purchase is complete, it will be added to your Uphold wallet.

The video below is an example of how to buy Cryptocurrencies in the USA with an Uphold account and a bank transfer.

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Other Available Assets on Uphold

As mentioned earlier, Uphold is a multi-asset brokerage and offers stocks, ETFs and metals like Gold, Silver and Palladium. With respect to stocks, they offer 50 of the most popular assets and ETFs like Tesla, Google, Amazon, Facebook and others

Finally, on the precious metals side, customers can trade Gold, Silver, Platinum and Palladium on the Uphold exchange. It is important to note that stock trading is not available in the US, Europe or the United Kingdom.

Uphold App

The Uphold app is available on both iOS and Android devices. The app has a 4.5-star rating on the App Store with over 6,000 ratings and a 4.1-star rating on Google Play Store with over 3,000 ratings.

The app allows users to buy, sell, trade and hold all of the assets available on the Uphold platform. In addition, users can track their portfolios, set up price alerts and transfer funds to other Uphold accounts.

Uphold Regulation & Audits

Uphold is a regulated company with multiple layers of security in place to protect customer funds. They are registered with FINRA, the SEC, FCA and other global financial regulators. In terms of customer funds, Uphold stores 96% of all crypto assets in offline cold storage wallets which are not connected to the internet. The remaining 4% is held in hot wallets for active trading.

In terms of account security, Uphold offers 2-factor authentication (2FA) as well as email and SMS alerts for all account activity. They are also one of the few exchanges that regularly publishes audited transparency reports that prove they hold customer funds 1:1 in reserves. This means they do not loan out customer funds in a way that could lead to a collapse like FTX or BlockFi.

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Uphold Fees

As a multi-asset brokerage, the fees you pay on Uphold will depend on the asset class you are investing in or trading. Below is a high-level summary of the fees across the entire suite of Uphold products and services compared to major competitors like Coinbase, Revolut and Robinhood.

• ‍Uphold Crypto Fees: Zero upfront fees to trade crypto. However, there is a spread that does average around 1%. There is also a flat fee of 1% for trades under $100.‍
• Precious Metals: Zero fees and spreads for Gold and Silver at 3%.‍
• US Equities: Zero fees and the spread for US Equities on Uphold is dynamic and can be dependent on market volatility. In normal market conditions, the spread to trade stocks is around 1%.
• Card Fee: A 2.49% fee to buy assets using a debit card or credit card.

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Uphold Cashcard

Uphold has also recently released a Cashcard, which allows users to spend the Crypto in their Uphold wallet on day-to-day transactions. The cashcard also provides a 4% cashback reward on all transactions that is paid out in XRP tokens. You can find more information about the product here. Note this product is only available to users in the United Kingdom.

Uphold Deposit Methods

Uphold has a wide variety of deposit methods to start trading on their platform. These include Bank Transfers, Debit Cards, Credit Cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay. In terms of fiat currencies, they currently accept USD, CAD, EUR, GBP and 30 more.

Generally speaking, the easiest way to start buying crypto on Uphold is through a deposit from your Debit Card or Credit Card. We have provided a table below that gives a high-level overview of the available deposit methods and relevant charges.

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Final Thoughts

Uphold is a regulated and secure online brokerage that offers customers the ability to buy, sell, trade and hold a wide variety of assets. Overall, they are one of the most versatile brokerages available with extremely low fees on crypto trading.

If you’re looking for an easy way to start buying crypto or want to diversify your portfolio with stocks and precious metals, Uphold is definitely worth considering.

Uphold Disclaimer: Asset availability on the Uphold platform is subject to region. All investments and trading are risky, and may result in the loss of capital. Cryptoassets are largely unregulated and are not subject to protection.