I use Bitaroo. Bitcoin only and cheapest brokerage.

+1 for bitaroo.

In my experience express buys etc kinda screw you on the execution. Best to just place a limit order.

Risk wise the only way to eliminate counterparty risk is to be your own bank and withdraw to cold storage, however I get that this is intimidating if you haven't done it before. In the interim they have a vault function and 2FA that should protect you from the sort of hacks that have been known to happen.

Personally I've bought Bitcoin and Ethereum through various exchanges and am fortunate enough to still be holding, but my current plan is to move towards holding these assets via the new US ETF's instead of on an exchange or on a cold-storage USB.

Exchange counter-party risk is unfortunately very real with cryptocurrency's (the exchange goes bust, they get hacked, etc), as are the risks of self-custody via cold-storage USB's (Lose your seed phrase password, Your USB gets damaged in a fire / flood). Either of these unfortunate outcomes may result in you losing your entire investment which is a slightly terrifying thing to have to worry about.

This sort of confession is akin to heresy for many cryptocurrency evangelists ("Not your keys, not your coins"), but the convenience of buying a US domiciled ETF that is properly insured and can be simply purchased using your usual ASX share broker is very appealing to me. BITB appears to have the best fee structure, or alternatively IBIT for the strong reputation of iShares.

@topowl

I've got accounts with;

BTC Markets

Luno

Swyftx

Coinspot

Ledger (cold wallet).

I find BTC Markets to be the moat expensive, but also the most reliable and the least gimicky. They also choose their coins very purposefully, so not all alt-coins are offered.

But I don't trust online exchanges for storage, so I have my holdings in a ledger/cold storage.

Unsure if this helps as I've never actually used any of them or bought any bitcoin (or other coins) - however when I was researching the space a couple years ago Independent Reserve came up as one of the better local ones (reputation, costs, reliability, etc) (I did open an account with them but have never actually used it)

Thanks for that, appreciate it.

Yes, I'm trying to get my bitcoin off Swyftx and into my Ledger (Cold Wallet), but Swyftx are having an issue verifying my ledger account as a destination for my btc....

It's crazy....they are no help at all.

They are blaming my email, but the whole thing reeks of stalling, like they aren't interested in helping me get it off their exchange....

Yeah thats odd. A ledger address is like any other btc address. They've transferred from swyftx no issues before.

Even if its malformed it should attempt to send.

You can reuse addresses. Try one you've used before perhaps?

Good luck.

I use Swyftx & Kraken. Swyftx is more user friendly & haven't had an issue transferring to ledger. Kraken works out cheaper & the spreads better in AUD but slightly more "trader" focused as the interface is pretty heavy. I always keep my crypto on my ledger and only use exchanges for holding cash waiting for buys.

I have used swiftx for past 4 years no issues other than standard questions when looking to transfer to my personal wallet .

My 2 cents (and a reminder to others that you can mute this thread if this is not your bag)

Bitaroo is the best in Australia. It's Bitcoin only and they don't muck about with gimmicky "yield" products and the like. Very cheap brokerage, lightning withdrawal. No questions asked.

Bitcoin only is important in my opinion, as there is much less regulatory risk and it speaks to the ethics of the operators (others are just operating casinos in my humble opinion). I wouldnt be surprised to see some exchanges closed down in the future for dealing in what are essentially unregistered securities.

As for Ledger, I used to have one but have since changed to a Passport. The Coldcard and Blockstream Jade are also very good and widely recommended in the community.

The problem with ledger is it's not open source and so no one can independently audit the code. I don't think they are doing anything dodgy, but you have to trust them..

Also, Passport, Coldcard and Jade are all BTC only -- which means a much smaller attack surface for any would be hackers.

Hope this helps.