Uphold Review

Uphold Review: Spreads, US Availability, Safety and Who It Suits

In our view, Uphold is a good fit for US beginners who want to buy crypto, stocks and precious metals in one app and swap between them in a single step. We think it is a poor fit for active traders. Uphold employs a spread pricing model for trades, rather than a visible maker or taker fee, and the spread on bitcoin is significantly higher than what order-book exchanges typically charge. Uphold serves US users through Uphold HQ Inc., but in New York, users are limited to selling crypto for fiat, as buying and transfers are restricted.

Uphold at a glance

• Operator for US users: Uphold HQ Inc., NMLS ID 1269875
• Headquarters: San Francisco, California, United States
• Launched: 2015
• Assets: more than 300 cryptocurrencies, plus more than 4,000 stocks and precious metals
• Typical spread on BTC and ETH: 2.00% to 2.20%
• Typical spread on altcoins: 2.45% to 3.8%
• Fee on trades under $500: $0.99
• Bitcoin withdrawal fee: 0.00004 BTC
• US registration: FinCEN MSB
• US availability: yes, with limits in New York

What Uphold is

Uphold launched in 2015 and describes itself as a multi-asset money platform. It says it serves more than 140 countries. In the US app it lists more than 300 cryptocurrencies and more than 4,000 stocks, plus gold and silver. It also supports 27 currencies.

In our view, what makes Uphold different is its "anything to anything" design: you can swap, say, bitcoin straight into a stock or into gold without first selling to dollars. We think that is convenient for building a mixed portfolio, but every conversion carries a spread, so frequent switching adds up.

Ease of use

In our view, Uphold's app is one of the simpler ways to buy a first coin: you pick what to pay with and what to receive, preview the price and confirm. The Preview Trade screen shows the all-in price, and Uphold says no fee is added between preview and confirmation. We prefer that clarity, because beginners see one number instead of a fee schedule.

In our view the flip side is that the same simplicity hides how much of that number is cost. We would always compare the preview with the market price on another app before a larger trade. Limit orders are available if you want to set your own price instead of taking the quote.

Getting started

Opening an account takes an email address and identity verification, which Uphold says protects your account and transactions. In the US you can then fund it by ACH bank transfer, wire to a USD bank account, card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal or Venmo. We would link a bank account first, because ACH deposits are free and count toward trading at once.

On the US App Store, the Uphold app is rated 4.69 from 91,042 ratings. On Google Play it shows 5M+ downloads. In our view these numbers point to a widely used app, though store ratings say more about the experience than about costs. We would still read the fee section below before the first deposit, because the costs are where Uphold differs most from an exchange.

Fees and spreads

Uphold does not charge a separate maker or taker fee; the price you see on the Preview Trade screen already includes everything, and that is the price you pay. Uphold says its spread on BTC and ETH is typically 2.00% to 2.20%. On altcoins it is typically 2.45% to 3.8%, and less liquid tokens cost more. Precious metals carry 2.80% to 3.40%. Conversions between US dollars and supported USD stablecoins cost 0% on the first $20,000 a month, while other stablecoins cost under 0.25%.

Besides the spread, trades under $500 have a $0.99 fee, except for card purchases, stablecoin trades, and Autopilot trades. In instances of market spreads exceeding 4%, the app issues a confirmation warning.

A worked example

If you buy $1,000 of bitcoin, a spread of 2.00% to 2.20% means roughly $20 to $22 of the price goes to costs. A $100 purchase funded by bank transfer costs about $2.00 to $2.20 in spread plus the $0.99 small-trade fee, so roughly $2.99 to $3.19 in total. In our view that is fine for an occasional purchase, but it is far more than the trading fees on the order books of the exchanges we list below.

Deposits and withdrawals

Deposits via ACH from linked bank accounts incur no fee within the US. Card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay deposits cost 3.99%. PayPal and Venmo deposits to US dollars incur 2.5%, while direct asset purchases cost 2.99%. Withdrawals to a debit card or instant bank account withdrawals have a 1.75% fee, with a $1 minimum.

Uphold charges nothing for crypto deposits beyond the network fee. Crypto withdrawals carry a flat $0.99 fee on every network except BTC, XRP and HBAR. For bitcoin, Uphold's fee table shows 0.00004 BTC. We would fund by bank transfer rather than card, because the card fee alone is larger than the bitcoin spread.

Products beyond buying and selling

Uphold offers Flexible Staking, which pays weekly and lets you sell any time, and Boosted Staking with higher rewards and lock-up periods. Its staking page shows up to 3.32% for Flexible and up to 11.51% for Boosted Staking, and the rates change with each network. Uphold keeps a commission on staking rewards: 35% on Boosted Staking and 50% on Flexible Staking. In our view those commissions are high, so it helps to know that part of the network reward stays with Uphold.

US customers can move dollars into a High-Yield Cash Account that pays up to 4% APY, or 2% on balances under $1,000, and Uphold says the money is FDIC insured at program banks up to $2.5M. Stocks are available as fractional shares in certain US states through Uphold Securities Inc., a broker-dealer and member of FINRA and SIPC. You can also borrow against BTC, ETH or XRP at around 7% APR without a credit check, although the loans are not offered in every market.

For self-custody, Uphold Vault uses 3 keys, 2 of which are needed to move funds, and adds an inheritance feature for BTC, HBAR and XRP. We think Vault is a sensible middle ground for people who want to hold their own keys but fear losing them.

Uphold issues a debit card in Essential and Elite versions. The Elite card offers 4% back on crypto or metal funding, and 3% on fiat or stablecoin funding, capped at $300 monthly. Elite has an annual fee of $99.99, whereas Essential is fee-free. The US card is unavailable in Louisiana, New York, and US territories.

Security and regulation

In the US, Uphold HQ Inc. is registered as a money services business with FinCEN. It holds state-specific money transmitter licenses, listed with numbers on its regulators page. Its NMLS ID is 1269875.

Uphold says it is certified for SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001 and PCI DSS. You can turn on two-factor authentication, and Uphold uses email verification for activity that looks unusual. It runs a public bug bounty program on Intigriti. Identity verification is part of opening an account.

Crypto held on Uphold is not covered by the FDIC or SIPC, although Uphold's parent company keeps a private policy that covers theft of digital assets held in custody. In our view that is better than nothing, but it is not the same as deposit insurance, and the policy terms matter.

Reserves and track record

Uphold publishes its assets and liabilities in real time on its transparency page, which showed a reserve ratio of 100.5% on our visit. A live reserve page is a good sign of openness, though in our view an outside audit of liabilities would add more weight. We found no security incident notice on Uphold's security or transparency pages.

Availability and limits

In New York, Uphold limits crypto to selling for fiat; purchases and transfers of crypto are blocked while you are physically in the state. In California, Uphold's Digital Financial Assets Law license is still listed as pending.

Uphold's Canadian company has withdrawn its registration application in some provinces and no longer offers registrable services to Canadian residents. In the EU, Uphold's European company is still waiting for its MiCAR license and has introduced temporary service restrictions. For readers outside the US, we would check what Uphold offers in your country before you sign up.

Support

We could not find a published list of support channels on Uphold's contact page, which shows a contact form. In our view a broker of this size should state its support hours and channels more clearly, and we would keep that in mind if fast help matters to you.

Who should not use Uphold

If you trade often or in larger sizes, we would not use Uphold, because the spread model costs far more than the fee on an order book. If you live in New York and want to buy crypto, we would look elsewhere for now. And if you want the lowest cost on a single coin such as bitcoin, a dedicated bitcoin app or an exchange with an order book is cheaper in our view.

Alternatives

For a US exchange with an order book and a beginner app, we think our Coinbase review and Kraken review are the first places to look, and Coinbase vs Kraken compares them side by side. For a regulated exchange with a strong security focus, we would also read our Gemini review. We would also compare the options on our list for US customers, our list of brokers for direct purchases and our list of exchanges with low fees.

Our verdict

In our view, Uphold is a convenient all-in-one app for US beginners who value easy swaps between crypto, stocks and metals, a live reserve page and an interest account for idle dollars. We think the spread pricing, the high staking commissions and the New York limits are the trade-offs, and anyone who trades regularly will pay less on an order-book exchange.