One of the biggest trends in recent months has seen Bitcoin menstruation out of exchanges into wallets. By and large, this is interpreted as a bullish sign — indicating that investors are optimistic well-nigh further growth in cryptocurrency prices.

Just delve deeper, and there's more to this than meets the heart. The crypto industry has grown immeasurably over recent years — making stars out of a number of exchanges. Platforms such every bit Binance and Coinbase now handle billions of dollars in trading volumes every mean solar day. With this come concerns that centralization is creeping in — and fears that major exchanges are becoming the titans of the industry, just like large banks boss the earth of traditional finance.

Exchanges practise have downsides. Binance and Coinbase have both suffered outages when Bitcoin surges — and in some cases, this has left traders unable to execute transactions in a timely style. Such breaks can prove to be extremely expensive, as a lack of immediate access tin mean users are unable to buy and sell at optimal prices.

Another big platform, OKEx, recently hit the headlines when it abruptly suspended withdrawals for vi weeks — leaving panicked customers unsure whether or non their funds were safety. Although this exchange attempted to make things correct through a generous compensation program, users appeared to exist pulling their funds out fast when services returned to normal.

As retail and institutional involvement in digital assets shows no sign of abating, wallets are starting to serve as a viable alternative for those who are unsure most entrusting their funds in an commutation. Several platforms too claim that they offering low trading fees from the very beginning — a contrast to exchanges, which may only unlock their nigh preferential rates to those who agree its native cryptocurrency and lock information technology away for long periods of time.

What's in your wallet?

In an endeavour to entice crypto enthusiasts, wallet providers are making a concerted effort to evidence what makes them different from exchanges. And although consumers may exist drawn to bigger platforms because of their brownie, there comes a alert: The power of exchanges gives them a greater ability to dictate the rules of doing concern.

For adventurous investors who may accept a diverse portfolio consisting of dozens of altcoins, one of the biggest frustrations centers on how many cryptocurrencies aren't universally supported by exchanges. As a result, this means that their holdings can be scattered across countless platforms — each with their own username and password — that makes life a lot more complicated, particularly when transactions need to be completed with urgency.

1 of the biggest hurdles faced past the whole crypto sector involves making things every bit elementary equally possible, and making buying, selling and transferring cryptocurrencies free from any kind of confusion. Creating a user experience that'south alike to mainstream banks, with cleverly designed apps that allow tasks to be completed at the touch of a button, could evidence crucial to ensuring that recent user growth remains sustainable.

Then in that location's the perennial issue of security. High-profile hacks remain mutual, with $280 million taken from KuCoin's hot wallets during one incident in September. Although most of these funds were eventually recovered, information technology still undermines confidence.

Streamlining the experience

Freewallet is one wallet provider that says its ecosystem offers a compelling alternative to crypto exchanges.

The visitor says it is aiming to create a ane terminate store for digital avails, meaning that its users only demand a single account to complete all of their transactions. This eliminates the need for logins with multiple sites, nearly of whom volition take fees along the way. A recent revamp saw the platform aggrandize its exchange capabilities — decreasing transaction processing times substantially, with an average completion fourth dimension of under a minute.

Although the platform says convenience is something that weighs heavily on the minds of crypto owners, information technology stresses that there are other of import things to consider too. According to Freewallet, its security is unparalleled — with cold storage employed to ensure that crypto avails are kept prophylactic at all times. Additional security measures are as well in force to ensure that the integrity of user accounts isn't compromised.

Freewallet also says it has sought to offer some of the most competitive fees in the manufacture — making information technology easy to purchase, sell and convert betwixt more than 100 cryptocurrencies inexpensively. This is coupled by real-fourth dimension pricing data that accurately reflects what's going on in the markets, at a time when Bitcoin tin fluctuate past hundreds of dollars in a single hour.

Fee-costless transactions are besides offered when Freewallet users are sending funds to another account that's on the platform, with payments arriving instantly. Meanwhile, a new feature ways that users tin can buy gift cards for online and brick-and-mortar businesses with whatsoever cryptocurrency supported past the platform — including Amazon, eBay and iTunes. An integration with MoonPay also ways more than twoscore major fiat currencies tin can be used to purchase a plethora of digital assets.

Freewallet will be hoping that its mobile-offset secure storage, complete with an integrated trading platform, delivers a more satisfying user experience than what mainstream exchanges currently provide. First impressions matter, and simplicity will be fundamental if the public is going to be persuaded that digital assets are correct for them.

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