Why Nigerians Should Take Advantage of FTX Crypto Exchange

As someone who’s been in the Crypto space for some time now, I know that the industry is still relatively young. And that is why I have always tried to be alert for any opportunities to get early on a project and make some money for myself in the process. It is perhaps this “skill” of always looking out for opportunities in the space that piqued my interest when sometime last week I saw a tweet by a character I respect. That tweet was extolling the awesome User Interface (UI) of cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX.

As a fervent user of Binance — a competing exchange platform, I quickly countered the tweet. This tweep came back at me with some proof to back his claim. Well, we ended up “agreeing to disagree” and moved on, but I didn’t move on. My mind was still stuck on how this platform might be a better crypto exchange than all of the other exchanges around. I’m a boneheaded person, so I wanted to see for myself and be certain. Quickly, I started down the rabbit hole. Went to my phone’s app store and downloaded the FTX Pro application.

I’ve got to say here that this was the most seamless onboarding process I’ve ever experienced on any crypto or Decentralized platform (DeFi) platform. To sign up, it only required my email address and a password and that was it. Got in and was prompted to set a two-factor authentication (2FA) — Google Authenticator or SMS, to secure my account. Although, while this isn’t mandatory, and a user can ignore this and set it up later, I did it immediately. I understand that the security and protection of my exchange account are paramount.

One unique thing I found out after registering on FTX is that I could start trading immediately without doing a Know Your Customer (KYC) verification. I found this very exciting but then there was a caveat. A user using FTX without a KYC done can only carry out withdrawals of $1000 in total. If you think about it, this is still amazing because a lot of the centralized exchanges around will not allow you to trade on their platforms without first completing a KYC verification.

KYC Verification

Earlier, I mentioned how you can start trading (depositing and transfer included) without doing a KYC verification on FTX but your withdrawal is limited to $1000 only. However, to get the option of having a larger withdrawal limit, you have to do a KYC verification. There are three different levels to verifying your identity on FTX. With level 1, you can withdraw up to $2000 a day and also trade cryptocurrency pairs using the exchange’s native token, FTT. To pass this level, you do not need to provide any documents. You only need to submit your full name, country of residence and — although this isn’t compulsory — they also ask you to select a preferred chat app like WeChat, Telegram, Weibo or KakaoTalk. You can easily select Telegram here since it is more popular in Nigeria. Fill in your Telegram handle below.

Here’s what you need to do to gain access to level 2 where you can have unlimited crypto withdrawals. You’ll need to provide your full name, country of residence, proof-of-residence like a government issue ID. And then you’ll be required to upload a photo of you holding your ID and a note displaying the given date you took that photo. I did this, and in no time, I got access to level 2 of the KYC process. I stopped here though, as this was okay for me but if you want more features and access, you’ll need to complete level 3.

Level 3 allows you to withdraw not only unlimited crypto funds but also unlimited fiat. Here, you’ll need to submit a bank statement issued to the address on a utility bill you would be required to submit. You’re also required to provide information about where you source the funds you deposit on the platform.

Depositing Funds

I found depositing funds on FTX very easy. You just go to your wallet, select deposit and select the currency you’d like to deposit on your account. You get unique deposit addresses for different networks once you’ve selected a coin. Copy the correct network address you would like to use. You should be careful here to make sure that the coins you want to deposit match the address you are given.

Other perks of FTX

Trust me when I say by now, I was already sold. So, it was easy for me to see the other advantages the platform has over other exchanges as I started using it. FTX is a platform built with crypto traders in mind. This means that if you’re looking for somewhere you can buy cryptocurrencies and forget them, essentially holding for a long time, perhaps you should look elsewhere. You can do that too on FTX but the platform serves you better if you’re looking for a platform to trade cryptocurrencies actively.

With more focus on Futures and Derivatives and the ability to trade margins up to 101x, professional traders find FTX much more appealing to carry out their trading activities. This focus on futures and derivatives makes it very easy to get in and out of positions quickly without having to pay withdrawal fees moving bitcoin around. Another positive feature of FTX is its Zero Percent Maker Fee.

The zero percent maker fee means you can trade on the platform without having to pay any percentage in transaction fees. You can open and close positions at extremely low costs. This is a dream come true for traders because you can’t find this anywhere else and that’s just another reason FTX is growing so fast.

Finally, another key quality the guys at FTX have got going for them is their security. In May 2019, Binance got hacked and the hackers stole $40 million worth of bitcoin from the wallet of users on the platform. FTX as far as I know hasn’t had any security breach.

Final thoughts

Change isn’t always easy and I was very pessimistic at the start. Until now, I’ve been used to one exchange platform that I thought satisfied my crypto needs but I’ve been very impressed with FTX since I’ve started using the platform. From the start, the onboarding process was really easy — I found registration easy. ID verification confirmation was fast, the exchange has easy deposit features and as someone who prefers using applications to websites, I found the user interface of the application very easy to manoeuvre. FTX has impressed me so far.

Elvis is a Blockchain & Cryptocurrency Writer.

You can follow him on Twitter @TheElvace