Hotcoin Review

Our verdict: in our view, Hotcoin is a feature-rich exchange for experienced traders who want crypto futures, copy trading, and USDT-settled products on stocks and commodities all in one account. Hotcoin lists 285 crypto assets and charges 0.2% for spot makers and takers at the entry tier. We rate its operation and its range of functions highest, while its support receives the lowest rating.

Hotcoin suits you if:

• you trade derivatives. Hotcoin lists 585 perpetual futures contracts, 362 of them on crypto, with bitcoin futures offering up to 200x leverage.
• you want futures fees of 0.02% for makers and 0.06% for takers at the entry tier.
• you are interested in USDT-settled products on stocks, metals, and forex alongside your crypto.

Hotcoin might not be the right fit if:

• you are new to crypto and want a simple first exchange.
• you need clear support answers before you deposit. Support is the criterion we rate lowest.

For a simpler start, we rate Coinbase and Bitpanda higher for beginners. If you live in the US, start with our list of exchanges for US customers.

Hotcoin at a glance

• Founded: 2017
• Companies on its website: Australian Hotcoin Global Exchange Pty Ltd in the website footer, active in the Australian Business Register since 2021; Hotcoin FZE as the contracting party in the user agreement
• Users: more than 8.1 million in 120+ countries and regions, according to Hotcoin
• Spot fees: 0.2% maker and 0.2% taker at the entry tier (VIP0), dropping to 0.1% and 0.11% at VIP12
• Futures fees, entry tier: 0.02% maker and 0.06% taker
• Leverage: up to 200x on bitcoin perpetual futures
• Crypto assets: 285, on 291 crypto spot pairs
• Perpetual futures contracts: 585, including 362 on crypto
• Crypto deposits: free
• Bitcoin withdrawal fee: shown on the withdrawal page before confirmation (see the cost example)
• Buying with money: Visa and Mastercard through third-party providers, and a P2P market (C2C) with verified merchants
• Proof of reserves: self-published Merkle-tree snapshot, no auditor named
• Apps: iOS, 4.1 of 5 from 35 ratings on the US App Store; Android, 3.9 of 5 from 1.08K reviews on Google Play
• German-language version: no

Who can use Hotcoin

Hotcoin is not available in the US: its list of service regions includes the United States among the jurisdictions it does not serve, alongside China, Iran, and North Korea. If you reside in the US, refer to our list of exchanges for US customers and the alternatives below.

Users from another list of countries and regions, like Hong Kong and India, can apply but will face additional due diligence checks.

Germany is not on either list, yet Hotcoin blocks visitors from Germany with a notice that services cannot be provided in their country or region. Neither list includes a country from the European Union, and Hotcoin's pages leave open whether it serves readers elsewhere in Europe.

What Hotcoin offers

Bitcoin futures allow up to 200x leverage, which means even a small price change can eliminate your margin. Beyond trading, Hotcoin features copy trading, a futures grid bot, pre-market trading, Alpha for early access to new tokens, prediction markets on prices, trending topics, and sports events, along with Earn products for staking and lending.

The latest addition is TradFi: spot and futures products on US, Hong Kong, Japanese, and South Korean stocks, plus ETFs, indices, metals, commodities, and forex, all settled in USDT. Hotcoin's risk warning notes that you do not buy or hold the shares or physical assets behind these products and lack shareholder rights such as votes or dividends.

To buy crypto with money, Hotcoin offers Visa and Mastercard purchases through third-party providers and a P2P market (C2C) where you pay verified merchants directly. Convert swaps one coin for another; Hotcoin advertises it with zero fees, but its risk warning notes that the quoted rate can differ from the market. A Web3 wallet, the Hotcoin Card and Hotcoin Academy complete the app.

What Hotcoin costs: a worked example

Imagine sending USDT from another wallet, buying bitcoin on the spot market, and moving it to your own wallet:

• Deposit USDT: free, as Hotcoin does not charge for on-chain deposits.
• Buy BTC at the entry tier (VIP0): 0.2% of the trade value, whether your order rests on the order book or fills immediately.
• Trade more to pay less: VIP1 begins at 50,000 USDT of spot volume in 30 days or a balance of 10,000 USDT, and the top tier, VIP12, charges 0.1% maker and 0.11% taker.
• Withdraw BTC: Hotcoin's fee schedule and another entry in its coin data show two different bitcoin amounts, and its help center states the exact fee appears on the withdrawal page before confirmation.

If a card is used instead, the purchase goes through a third-party provider, and Hotcoin's risk warning states the price may include spreads and fees set by that provider.

For comparison, the entry tier of Kraken Pro charges 0.40% for makers and 0.80% for takers on spot trades. Our fee comparison table lists the spot fees of every exchange we review side by side.

Security and regulation

Companies and licences

Hotcoin's own documents mention various companies. The website footer lists Australian Hotcoin Global Exchange Pty Ltd, which the Australian Business Register lists as active since 2021 with its main business location in New South Wales. This entry records the company, not a licence. The user agreement names Hotcoin FZE as the contracting party. It applies the laws of England and Wales and sends disputes to arbitration in the Dubai International Financial Centre. The privacy policy names another company. The user agreement also calls a virtual asset regulator in the United Arab Emirates "our regulator", but we did not find Hotcoin on that regulator's public register, nor any Hotcoin company in the European register of authorized crypto-asset service providers. In our view, this unclear setup is the main limit on trust in Hotcoin.

Account security and reserves

Hotcoin provides two-factor authentication, anti-phishing codes, withdrawal address whitelisting, and login device management. It states that most user assets are stored in offline cold wallets, without specifying a percentage.

Hotcoin publishes a Merkle-tree proof of reserves with an open-source verifier on GitHub. Its latest snapshot showed reserve ratios of 104% for BTC, 110% for ETH and 112% for USDT, and Hotcoin puts its reserve assets at over $137 million. No auditor is named and total customer balances are not published, so these figures are Hotcoin's own.

A Hotcoin Protection Fund holds assets at 10 published wallet addresses, but Hotcoin decides case by case whether it pays and how much, and the size of the fund is not stated. Hotcoin's risk warning adds that crypto assets are not bank deposits and in most places are not covered by deposit insurance.

Who should not use Hotcoin

• Traders who require fast, clear support responses.
• Beginners seeking a simple app.

Alternatives to Hotcoin

If simplicity is a priority, two exchanges score higher for beginners in our ratings:

• Coinbase is available in the US in all states and is authorized as a crypto-asset service provider by Luxembourg's CSSF. In our view it is the easier first exchange, although its fees are higher.
• Bitpanda holds a MiCA authorization from the FMA in Austria. We rate it higher for beginners in Europe.

For US readers who trade actively, Kraken serves US customers except residents of New York and Maine. Our Coinbase vs Kraken comparison weighs those two US options against each other, and our WEEX vs Hotcoin comparison sets Hotcoin next to another derivatives exchange.

Our How we rate page explains the criteria behind our scores.

FAQ

Is Hotcoin regulated?

Hotcoin's user agreement names a regulator in the United Arab Emirates, but we did not find Hotcoin on that regulator's public register. Its footer company is listed in the Australian Business Register, which is not a licence. In our view, treat Hotcoin as an exchange without a licence you can verify.

Is Hotcoin available in the US?

No. Hotcoin's service region list excludes the United States, so US residents cannot open an account. US readers can compare Coinbase and Kraken instead.

Is Hotcoin available in Germany?

Not from Germany. Hotcoin blocks visitors from Germany with a notice that services cannot be provided there. Its pages leave open whether other European countries are served.

Does Hotcoin require identity verification?

Hotcoin's help center says accounts without identity verification can trade, with withdrawals capped at the equivalent of 2 BTC a day. Verification with an ID card, driver's license, passport or permanent residence permit plus a face scan usually takes 3 to 5 minutes, according to Hotcoin, and withdrawal limits then rise with your VIP level up to 60 BTC per 24 hours. In our view, plan to verify: Hotcoin can ask for it when its risk controls flag an account.

How we checked this review

We read Hotcoin's user agreement, fee schedule, service-region list, risk warning, proof-of-reserves page and help articles, counted its tradable crypto assets from its public market data and searched the public register of the regulator its user agreement names and the European register of crypto-asset service providers.