NDAX Review for 2022

Let me walk you through all the details about NDAX and show you why it’s one of the best Canadian crypto exchanges.

Website	Ndax.io
Country	Canada
Mobile app	Yes
Deposit Methods	Wire transfer, Interac e-transfer, bank draft.
Trading Fees	Competitive 0.2% trading fee.
Fiat Currencies	CAD
Cryptocurrencies	Bitcoin (BTC), Decentraland (MANA), Algorand (ALGO), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Cardano (ADA), Eos (EOS), Litecoin (LTC), Dogecoin (DOGE), Stellar Lumens (XLM), Tether (USDT), Aave (AAVE), Chainlink (LINK), and 20+ additional altcoins.

Pros

• Very user-friendly platform, great for both beginners and experienced traders.
• Low fees.
• Great selection of cryptos compared to other Canadian crypto exchanges.
• Fast registration process.
• Broad selection of technical analysis tools.

Cons

• The platform is only available to Canadian users.
• Doesn’t support margin trading or futures contracts.

 What Is NDAX? 

NDAX is one of the most popular Canadian crypto exchanges. The platform is exclusively available to Canadian users, and it’s fiat-friendly, which means I could buy crypto with Canadian dollars or sell my coins and withdraw fiat cash to my Canadian bank account. The platform was launched back in 2018, and it quickly became a popular solution for trading crypto in Canada, thanks to its simple, intuitive user interface, low fees, and a great selection of cryptos compared to other Canadian exchange platforms. 

The exchange is based in Calgary, Alberta, and it’s fully regulated and registered as a money service business in compliance with Canadian anti-money laundering laws.

The fees are really affordable and combined with the various fiat deposit methods, they make NDAX a great choice for users who are looking to quickly deposit fiat money and start investing in crypto without getting robbed by extremely high deposit or trading fees. 

 Who Is NDAX Aimed At? 

At first look, it seemed to me that NDAX is more geared toward experienced crypto users because they lack a straightforward instant trading option for beginners, but once I started using the platform, it quickly became clear to me that NDAX is easy to use even for crypto newcomers.

All of the trading is done through the NDAX trading interface, which looks like a classic exchange platform trading view with price charts, order books and technical analysis tools, except that the design is very clean, and beginners can easily facilitate a trade.

There are literally two clear Buy and Sell buttons that let users shift between sales and purchase orders and quickly specify which trading operation they wish to carry out. Even if you’ve never done any cryptocurrency trading, you’ll surely be able to quickly understand how the NDAX interface works and facilitate your first trading deal.

For the more experienced traders, the platform is also a real gem because there are loads of different technical analysis tools next to the price charts that can help you devise and implement various trading strategies. There are tools such as drawing mode, trend lines, pitchforks, brushes, indicators, candlesticks, and a bunch of additional tools for measuring price changes on the charts and recognising chart patterns.

 Supported Cryptocurrencies 

NDAX supports 30+ of the top trending coins on the market, including BTC, ETH, XLM, XRP, DOGE, LTC, ADA, EOS, USDT, LINK, AAVE, MANA, ALGO, Polkadot (DOT), and more than 20 additional coins.

The selection of cryptos is rather small compared to large international exchanges such as Binance and KuCoin, but remember that Canadian crypto exchanges generally have a very limited selection of supported assets.

This is mainly the result of strict crypto regulatory policies in Canada, which require exchange platforms to pass complex compliance procedures to add new cryptocurrencies to their selection of supported assets. With this in mind, NDAX actually has a quite large selection of cryptos since most Canadian exchanges have less than 20 coins available for trading.

 Supported Countries 

NDAX is an exclusively Canadian crypto exchange, and it isn’t available for users outside of Canada, similarly to most other Canadian exchanges. This is the result of strict government policies toward the regulation of crypto-related platforms and services. Crypto exchanges in Canada need to comply with extensive laws and need to be registered in Canada. This limits the accessibility of exchange platforms from other countries.

 Useful Features 

Let me show you some of the key features and trading tools that make NDAX stand out.

Staking

Staking crypto assets is one of the most popular ways to make your crypto work for you without trading it on the market. I’m a big fan of staking, but many Canadian crypto exchanges lack such services, however, NDAX is an exception and offers users the ability to stake some of the most popular cryptos on the market and earn high annual percentage yields (APYs). 

Users can stake crypto either through the NDAX website or through the mobile app. The platform even has a handy staking profitability calculator that lets you estimate your returns after a certain period of staking. 

Available assets include ADA, Polygon (MATIC), Ether, The Graph (GRT), and Polkadot (DOT), while the staking rewards go from 4.3% for ADA and up to 12% for DOT tokens.

Fast CAD Deposits

Since NDAX is a fiat-friendly crypto exchange, you can deposit Canadian dollars or withdraw fiat money to your bank account. The CAD deposits are real fast, especially if you use an Interac e-transfer, which takes around 30 minutes. Wire transfers and bank drafts are also fast, but they can sometimes take up to a whole business day to get processed; and keep in mind that these transfer methods depend on the working hours of your bank.

Mobile and Desktop App

You can access NDAX either through a desktop computer, through the web version of the platform, or through the NDAX mobile app for Android and iOS devices. Both methods work great.

I really liked the user-friendly design of the desktop version of the platform, but the mobile app is even better. All the platform’s features are seamlessly integrated into the mobile app, which makes using NDAX so easy that even beginners can quickly grasp the operational mechanisms of the platform. 

Apart from trading, you can also manage your NDAX wallets and even assign assets to staking pools through the mobile app.

NDAX Referral Program

I always like it when a crypto exchange has a good referral program to motivate users to onboard their friends onto the crypto market. The NDAX referral program works through affiliate links. 

You can easily get your own affiliate link to the NDAX registration page, and every time someone signs up through your referral link, you’ll get rewarded with up to 25 CAD. Additionally, every time your referral makes a trade on NDAX, you’ll receive 10% of their trading fees. The referral rewards are paid out in Bitcoin, which makes the affiliate program a great way to earn some additional crypto.

There are three tiers of NDAX referral program participants. Every tier is awarded 10% of affiliate trading fees, but the first tier gets a 10 CAD reward for each affiliate, the second tier gets a 15 CAD reward, and the third tier gets the highest 25 CAD affiliate reward.

 Trading Features 

Let me show you some of the trading features that make NDAX a serious crypto exchange for both advanced users and large-scale investors.

Order Types

NDAX supports a multitude of trading order types, which I found very useful because it allowed me to implement different trading strategies that depend on advanced order types.

The platform supports basic market orders used to purchase or sell crypto at the best current market price. These orders are always filled immediately, and they work just like instant trading on other exchange platforms, which is perfect for beginners.

Limit orders allow users to execute buy or sell orders at a specified price, however, keep in mind that you can’t be sure that your limit order is going to get filled due to market volatility. Stop orders and stop limit orders are used to trigger a buy or sell operation once an asset reaches a specific price and close your open trading position while limiting losses. 

NDAX also supports trailing stop limit orders and trailing stop market orders which are executed only once the underlying asset reaches the trailing price that you can set manually. 

Immediate or cancel (IOC) orders are used to facilitate instant transactions at a certain specified price. If the whole order isn’t filled, then the unfilled portion of the order is automatically cancelled. Fill or kill orders, on the other hand, aim for immediate full execution. The whole trading order is cancelled if a fill or kill isn’t filled immediately.

Additionally, NDAX supports iceberg orders, also referred to as reserve orders, which are orders used for splitting large trading deals into several portions that are gradually processed through the blockchain.

OTC Desk

NDAX has its own over-the-counter (OTC) crypto brokerage service, which is quite important for large-scale investors and business-level clients looking to buy or sell large amounts of crypto. The OTC service is called NDAX Wealth and comes with several advantages for high spenders. 

NDAX Wealth services don’t have any deposit fees or withdrawal fees. The execution fees are manually negotiated with third-party traders by NDAX Wealth team members who are assigned to help you facilitate your OTC trading deal. The OTC service also uses segregated bank accounts, and the deal settlements are always finished on the same day when you’ve sent your portion of the funds.

You can either schedule a meeting with an NDAX Wealth team member or you can even request an immediate meeting if you’re in a hurry. This is a great feature for large-scale crypto investors looking to move large amounts of cash and crypto at favourable rates without unnecessary paperwork and slow bank-related bureaucratic procedures.

 NDAX Fees 

I was really surprised to learn how reasonable the NDAX fees are. Let me show you why using NDAX for trading crypto is a great choice if you want to save money by avoiding high-fee platforms.

Trading Fees

Unlike many competitor crypto exchanges that have complex fee structures with multiple fee tiers and charge sky-high fees for their services, NDAX has a very simple flat fee system. All trades on the platform are charged the same. No matter whether you’re buying or selling, and regardless of the order types you’re using, the fee always remains 0.2%, which is a fairly low trading fee. Not many Canadian platforms can compete with such low fees.

Deposit and Withdrawal Fees

Many crypto exchanges are known to charge hefty percentage fees on deposits and withdrawals. Well, I was thrilled to see that NDAX is an exception to this trend. All fiat and crypto deposits on the platform are totally free of charge. 

As far as withdrawals go, you’ll need to pay the average blockchain transaction fees for crypto withdrawals, while fiat currency withdrawals have a fixed, flat fee of 4.99 CAD, instead of a percentage-based fee. This means that your fiat withdrawals are always charged the same, no matter if you’re withdrawing a few thousand Canadian dollars or a 100,000 CAD.

 NDAX Deposit Methods 

You can always deposit any of the various supported cryptos to your NDAX account, but the platform is really known as a fiat-friendly exchange that supports various popular deposit methods. 

There are three ways to deposit fiat currency into your NDAX account. Interac e-transfers are the fastest, with a 0 to 30-minute transaction settlement period. The Interac network connects most Canadian banks and enables users to quickly facilitate a transaction from or to their bank account. 

Wire transfers are also a great option, except that they can take up to a whole business day to get processed. Additionally, you can use a bank draft to send money to NDAX and have your bank guarantee that the presented amount of cash is available for spending. This method can also take up to one day for processing.

 NDAX Security and Safety 

Security is always my top priority when choosing a crypto exchange. If it doesn’t look safe, then I’m definitely avoiding it. With that said, NDAX has some great security features.

Is It Safe?

Your funds are very safe with NDAX. The platform has some of the highest security standards among Canadian crypto exchanges and regularly goes through third-party security audits by reputable cyber security companies. 

Most of the funds are kept offline in cold storage devices, while a tiny portion is kept in high-security hot wallets for platform liquidity. NDAX is protected against denial of service hacks through a distributed denial of service protection (DDOS) system that ensures the platform is securely kept online. 

All user accounts are protected by custom passwords and encryption, ensuring all of the data you provide during the Know Your Customer (KYC) procedure is safe from third parties. Additionally, two-factor authentication (2FA) is mandatory for NDAX users. You can’t deposit or withdraw assets unless you enable 2FA, and every withdrawal needs to be confirmed through your email address just to make sure no one can facilitate an unauthorised transaction out of the platform.

Is NDAX Regulated?

NDAX is a regulated crypto exchange, which is very important for me since it adds a considerable level of security to using the platform. The exchange is licenced to operate in Canada as a money service business, it’s registered with FINTRAC, and complies with all laws regarding the prevention of illegal activities, such as money laundering and financing terrorist-related activities.

 How to Open an NDAX Account 

The NDAX account creation procedure is fairly simple and straightforward. It shouldn’t take you more than 10 minutes to finish the whole process and start trading.

Step 1: Enter Your Personal Information

• Go to the NDAX sign-up page.
• Fill in your full name and user name. 

Step 2: Enter Your Contact Information

• Provide an active email address.
• Create a custom password and confirm it.

Step 3: Enter Additional Information

• If you have a promo code, now is the time to enter it.
• Comply with the terms of services.
• Confirm that you’re over 18 years old.
• Proceed with account creation by clicking on the Sign-up button.

Step 4: Phone Number Verification

• Now, you’ll need to verify your email and phone number. 
• You’ll receive an email from NDAX to verify your email address.
• The same goes for your mobile phone number. You’ll receive a confirmation code through a text message. Enter the code on the platform to verify your phone number.

Step 5: Identity Verification

• Now, you’ll need to provide additional personal details, such as your permanent address, birth date, source of income, and employment details.
• Additionally, you need to submit a photo of a government-issued ID document with your photo.

Step 6: Submit a Selfie

• Finally, submit a clear selfie of yourself and finish the verification process.
• NDAX will confirm that your account is verified within a couple of minutes.

 Making Your First Deposit 

Let’s have a look at how depositing crypto and fiat to NDAX works.

Crypto Deposits

• Go to the Wallet section of your NDAX account.
• Choose the crypto you wish to deposit, for instance, BTC.
• Select the Receive option. 
• You’ll see your NDAX Bitcoin wallet address.
• Just copy this public address into your third-party crypto wallet when facilitating a transaction and submit the funds for transfer.
• Keep in mind that for XRP, XLM, and EOS, you’ll also need to enter the destination tag into your external wallet.

Fiat Deposits

• The fastest way to deposit cash into your NDAX account is through an Interac e-transfer.
• Log into your platform account and navigate to the Deposit section.
• Select the Interac option.
• Now copy the information provided by NDAX into your e-banking app and send a transaction to [email protected].
• The money will be deposited into your NDAX account within the next 30 minutes.

 NDAX Customer Support 

NDAX has great customer support features, and it’s one of the rare Canadian crypto exchanges you can contact through a designated support team phone number. I tried, and it really works. The support line is available during Canadian working hours. You can also use the live chat option on the website, or you can contact support through an email message.

Social Media Channels

You can also contact NDAX through their Twitter account. The account is very responsive to user enquiries and usually answers questions within a couple of hours.

 Competitors 

Now that we have checked out all the details about NDAX, let’s see how it compares against some of its competitors.

BitBuy

BitBuy and NDAX are somewhat similar platforms thanks to the fact that both exchanges provide great services, however, NDAX has a broader selection of cryptos compared to BitBuy’s 17 coins and tokens.

On the other hand, BitBuy has an express trading feature that makes things easier for beginners, but NDAX has far more options when it comes to pro trading on their trading interface. I think that NDAX is definitely a better choice for experienced traders, while beginners might find BitBuy a better option if they plan on sticking to the express trading feature.

Newton

At first, Newton might seem like a better choice than NDAX because of its huge selection of over 50 popular coins and tokens. However, Newton doesn’t support any advanced trading options. All of the trades are made through an instant trading interface. Additionally, the Newton fees go up to 0.7% per trade, while all NDAX trading fees are fixed at 0.2%.

Coinberry

Coinberry is another high-quality Canadian crypto exchange, but it’s really built for beginners and not for experienced crypto traders because it doesn’t have any advanced trading features. If you’re an advanced trader looking for a broad range of trading orders, then NDAX is definitely a better choice.

 Frequently Asked Questions 

Let’s have a look at some common FAQs about NDAX.

How long does it take to get money from NDAX?

You can withdraw money from NDAX either by bank draft or through a wire transfer. Both methods take up to a full business day to process a transaction.

Can you withdraw crypto from NDAX?

Yes, you can easily withdraw crypto by accessing the Wallet section of your account and choosing the Send option. You just need to specify how much crypto you’re sending and enter the recipient’s address.

Is NDAX good for beginners?

NDAX is a great platform for beginners despite the fact that there’s no clear instant trading option. The NDAX trading interface is very clear and well-designed. Beginners can easily start trading by issuing simple market orders on the platform.

Is NDAX staking safe?

Yes, NDAX is one of the safest crypto exchanges in Canada. The platform uses extensive safety measures to secure all platform funds, along with user accounts. 

 Conclusion 

My final verdict is that NDAX is definitely a great choice when it comes to Canadian crypto exchanges. The selection of available cryptos is great, the fees are low, there are various deposit methods available on the platform, and you have a bunch of trading order types that can satisfy even the most experienced traders. The best thing is that the platform is super-secure, and it’s perfect for both beginners and pro traders alike.