Phemex

The crypto exchange market has become an integral sector of the budding blockchain and crypto industry mainly because it offers multiple gateways and relies on competitive offerings for growth. As such, it comes as no surprise that one of the newest entities in this market, Phemex, has created an exchange model that borders on disruption. Here, we will review the workings of Phemex exchange, its offerings, and highlight its pros and cons.

An Overview of The Core workings of Phemex

Phemex is a Singapore-based exchange launched in November 2019. Since its launch, the platform has shown its commitment towards delivering customer-centric services and maintaining a trust-enabled relationship with its users. With its management and development team consisting of 8 former Morgan Stanley executives and developers, the platform has successfully implemented innovative and operational infrastructures to reduce risks inherent in trading and promote easy access to the crypto market.
At the time of writing, Phemex offers exchange facilities for spot and derivative trading. The platform has a growing list of trading pairs for its derivative market. They include:
● BTC/USD (Bitcoin/US Dollar)
● ETH/USD (Ethereum/US Dollar)
● XRP/USD (XRP/US Dollar)
● LINK/USD (ChainLink/US Dollar)
● XTZ/USD (Tezos/US Dollar)
● LTC/USD (Litecoin/US Dollar)
● GOLD/USD (Gold/US Dollar)
From the list, you will notice that Phemex supports Gold/USD, which is a non-crypto pair. According to the exchange, the plan is to add more traditional assets and diversify the trading niche of the platform. For now, though, Phemex only offers perpetual contracts for the above-listed pairs with the possibility of accessing up to X100 leverage. And for its spot trading market, Phemex’s users can only trade supported coins against USDT. Cryptocurrencies available for spot trading include BTC, XRP, ETH, and LINK.

Phemex’s Subscription Plan and Fee Structure

One of the remarkable feats of this exchange is its decision to offer zero trading fees to users executing spot trades manually. To establish this model, the platform has adopted a subscription framework. Therefore, users of its premium plan only need to pay a monthly fee instead of the conventional accumulated taker and maker fees. Like a majority of platforms utilizing the subscription model, Phemex has a hierarchical system consisting of standard and premium plans.
According to the website, the exchange’s spot trading features are only available to premium users. Other benefits of joining the premium plan include a 0.1% taker and maker fee for traders using trading bots or the platform’s API, hourly withdrawals, accessibility to conditional orders, no withdrawal limits, and the possibility of gifting premium trials. The platform offers three entry points for users interested in joining the premium plan. For one, users can receive a free premium trial invitation from friends with premium memberships. Alternatively, interested users can pay subscription fees ($9.99/month, $20/3months, $69.99/year) to access the premium membership. Also, users can become premium members when they complete any of the following tasks:
● Invite a friend to sign up for a Phemex account
● Deposit an amount greater than 0.02BTC
● Execute $1,000 worth of contract trades.
Irrespective of the subscription model a user is currently on, the transaction fees for derivative trades are set at 0.075% for takers and 0.025% for makers. Likewise, the minimum withdrawal and deposit are pegged at 0.002BTC and 0.00000001BTC respectively.

User Experience

Through its performance and design, Phemex has shown that it is serious about enabling an effective environment for traders. It provides state of the art trading platforms utilizing a modular design, which makes it suitable for customization. Besides, the trading view chart allows users to implement various timeframes. Away from the design, the platform relies on a high-performing trading engine suitable for a 24/7 market. According to the development team, the trading engine comes with a seamless disaster recovery feature to provide 99.99% availability.
Also, the platform has improved its user experience by providing a mobile app, in addition to its web platform, to ensure that users have access to their accounts even when they are away from their computers.

How Secure Is Phemex?

For us at Cryptolinks, security is one of the most important factors to research when comparing crypto platforms. In the case of Phemex, it has established a cold wallet system, as well as several levels of firewall and security infrastructures, to ensure the safety of its users. Apart from providing cold storage functionalities, the exchange triggers two-factor authentication whenever users execute sensitive tasks. Lastly, it processes withdrawal requests thrice a day and conducts rigorous checks to ascertain that there are no discrepancies.
Does Phemex Impose KYC?
Phemex is yet to establish a KYC requirement. Therefore, new users only need to create an account to access the platform’s services. While the lack of a rigorous registration process will attract traders willing to preserve their privacy, there is no saying how long Phemex will continue to snub regulatory obligations like KYC and AML. Consequently, the exchange is unavailable to traders located in countries with strict regulatory frameworks for crypto exchanges.

Phemex’s Customer Support

Recall that we mentioned that Phemex seeks to provide customer-centric services. In light of this, the platform has created a robust customer support system with various feedback mechanisms. On the website, users can access a FAQ section and a blog where documents meticulously explaining the workings of the exchange are made available. Alternatively, a user can opt for the live chat feature or the email support for quick responses to queries. Additionally, users can directly communicate with the CEO on Telegram. The only shortcoming of Phemex’s customer support is the unavailability of phone support.

Other Features or Benefits

When researching the additional features of Phemex, we discovered its sub-account feature. By providing this, users can create separate sub-accounts, with each having a separate account balance and permission. As such, it is possible to limit risks by using sub-accounts to try new trading strategies or creating one specifically for trading bots. Impressively, it is possible to transfer funds between sub-accounts seamlessly.
Another noteworthy feature is the platform’s affiliate and bonus programs. Phemex offers mouthwatering deals to users interested in its referral program. Moreover, users get to enjoy a bonus package for completing simple tasks like following their social media accounts, retweets, and so on.

What Are the Pros and Cons of Phemex?

Pros
● Its development team has tapped from its experience at Morgan Stanley to create a high-performing trading platform
● No KYC required
● It offers zero trading fee
● It has impressive security features
● Its user interface is topnotch
● It has mobile apps for both iOS and Android devices
● It provides a sub-account feature
cons
● It is a relatively new exchange. Hence, it is too early to determine the credibility or efficiency of its security system.
● It is limited to a handful of jurisdictions.