Bitbns exchange: a review

TL;DR: You can get a summary of this article on its last section.

Bitbns is the largest Cryptocurrency exchange in India. Their platform for buying, selling, and trading Crypto is available via Web , and through mobile apps in Android and iOS . The service is available in English, and there is provision for 24/7 customer support via ticket, as well as email, Telegram, and Reddit.

In presenting this review of Bitbns, I will divide my analysis into 5 sections, each containing the following salient features of the service:

1. Reliability
2. Security and trading
3. Special features
4. KYC/AML
5. Summary.

Reliability

According to its LinkedIn , Bitbns was founded in Bangalore by Gaurav Dahake, Prashant Singh, and Srikanth Sethumadhavan. The young trio of engineers are graduates of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology and were technology entrepreneurs before jumping on the Crypto bandwagon. A couple of months ago, hot on the heels of the official approval of cryptocurrencies in India, Bitbns launched its BNS utility on a self-hosted IEO and later on KuCoin’s IEO platform, Spotlight. Bitbns claims over 500k users in India, and enjoys traffic in the hundreds of thousands of visitors.

Security and trading

No hacks have been reported on the exchange so far.

To test ourselves, we ran a cybersecurity check on Bitbns with the Observatory by Mozilla, the result was a C+. This is a solid result, particularly for Crypto exchanges, which normally score an F on this type of evaluation. Although this is no guarantee a hack would never happen, no hacks have been reported on Bitbns so far.

Bitbns reports safety as one of the main advantages of the platform. Certainly, they are forthcoming in providing tips to their users to avoid phishing and scamming by unscrupulous individuals. They also have enabled 2FA via SMS and Google Authenticator, which is mandatory for withdrawals.

Bitbns fees

Bitbns trading fees are about average for the industry. Bitbns does not charge different fees to market makers and maker takers. Whether you use Limit Orders or Market Orders, fees start 0.25%. For 30-day trading volumes above 6,000 $USDT , the fees can be reduced to 0.1785% if paid with Bitbns’s $BNS token, for which there should be a balance of at least $25 worth of $BNS during the month. There are actually 10 levels of volume-based discounts which can make the fees as low as 0.03% for 🐋 trading whales 🐋 with monthly volumes above 80M $USDT and a $BNS balance above $200,000. If you have that kind of volume, this is a great offer.

Bitbns charges dynamic withdrawal fees that vary per listed token, for example, Bitcoin withdrawals are at 0.0005 $BTC per withdrawal at the moment. Bitbns fees are below-average as withdrawal fees hover around 0.0008 $BTC .

Bitbns also offers margin trading, which has its own set of rules for margin interest fees and profit-sharing. More detailed information can be found in Bitbns’s help article on margin trading and finance fees .

Liquidity Trading pairs

Bitbns is an exchange that is oriented towards India. It is also a growing exchange, with considerable web traffic volume. Growth is an important factor for any exchange as there are strong consolidation pressures in technology — startups naturally grow from niche markets.

Check out the top traded pairs, stats and performance on Bitbns according to CoinMarketCap .

The main advantage of Bitbns is the Crypto-to-Fiat pairs with the Indian rupee (INR or ₹). There are 80+ such pairs where cryptocurrencies can be acquired directly with INR, including $BTC , $ETH , $XRP , $LTC , $ADA , $XLM , $EOS , $TRX , $BCH , $XMR , and much more!

You can deposit Crypto and up to ₹10,000 in INR before you require verification. Deposits can be done via INR bank transfer from India (NEFT/RTGS/IMPS), as well as P2P inside the Bitbns interface. Deposits in fiat are also available in P2P via Tether ($USDT ) from the United Arab Emirates in Emirati dirham (AED), a market being actively sought after by Bitbns.

Bitbns for Pro and Business users

Bitbns offers a clean and easy-to-follow interface. For each trading pair on offer, a trading view is available. There are no right or wrong ways to do trading views, each trader will have his preferences and I encourage you to check Bitbns and see if you “feel” for its trading view. The order book is right under the customizable trading chart, and at its side is the order widget. Bitbns supports Limit Orders, Stop-Limit Orders, and Bracket Orders (where you specify a target exit and a stop-loss on the same order).

Margin trading is also available, with limited leverage. Currently, Bitbns offers up to 4x leverage on a select number of cryptocurrencies for margin financing.

Bitbns also offers a well-documented API which supports market data collection, order execution, and account management. The API is available in Node.js, Python, Go, and PHP.

Special features

Arbitrage plugin

A plugin is available for Chrome , Firefox , and Microsoft Edge that identifies arbitrage opportunities between Bitbns and Binance, Huobi, Gate.io, and KuCoin. The plugin acts as a browser extension that will give you an alert and you can execute a trade in Bitbns without switching tabs. Quite innovative! 👨🏾‍🔬

Bitdroplet investment plans

Bitdroplet is a service powered by Bitbns where individuals can buy Bitcoin in a manner similar to a structured investment product (SIP) in a bank. Users can specify a savings goal, and amount, and a frequency of deposit and what Bitbns calls a systematic purchase plan (SPP) is put in place, which allows dollar-cost averaging in building one’s Bitcoin reserves. Fees are 0.25% per installment, which can be set daily, weekly, or monthly, missed without penalty, paused at any time, and withdrawn in full for the same 0.25% fee. Cool! 😎

Fixed income plans

Bitbns recently launched fixed income plans (FIPs) to promote its $BNS token. Stake your $BNS or other tokens and earn an interest rate in Bitbns. Recent plans have involved 19% APY paid on $USDT for staking $BNS , and 12% APY on $USDT for staking $USDT . The plans are really popular and subscriptions go fast! 💸

KYC/AML

You can deposit Crypto and up to ₹10,000 in INR before you require verification.

Bitbns offers an expedited KYC/AML process that happens completely in-app. Indian nationals must provide a national ID, and bank account details. International users provide their passports. The whole process is over in a couple minutes. You may also skip it and trade Crypto-to-Crypto.

As Bitbns is not registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission or any other U.S. regulatory entity we cannot be certain, but it seems as if Bitbns may accept U.S. citizens since it is not expressly forbidden.

In Summary

Bitbns is a great “entry-level exchange”. Run by a committed and reputable team, it has the feel of a superbly-built product. With the legality of Crypto in India not in question anymore, it is an excellent time for Bitbns to grow, and they have wasted no time. Bitbns shows what it looks like for an exchange to commit to the mission of financial empowerment that so many tout but very few live up to in Crypto. We trust the future is bright for Bitbns in India and beyond!

#review