On this page
Most crypto exchange reviews you find for Singapore were written for a global audience and patched with a paragraph about MAS. Ours start from the other end. We look at what a Singapore resident actually experiences: which company you sign up with, whether it holds a local licence, whether you can pay by PayNow, and what the fee page says, not what the marketing banner says.
If you only want the side-by-side table of ten platforms, it lives on the home page under best crypto exchanges in Singapore. This page collects the full reviews and explains how we write them.
The seven reviews
The cards follow the same order as our main ranking. The order reflects how many common needs a platform covers well, not a score. A platform lower down can easily be the best choice for you.
CEX.IO review
A 2013-founded global exchange with licences in the US, UK and beyond.
Read
Coinhako review
Singapore-born, MAS-licensed and now SBI-owned. Fees and PayNow explained.
Read
Independent Reserve review
Transparent fee tiers, PayNow up to S$200,000 and an OTC desk.
Read
OKX Singapore review
Free PayNow and FAST rails, low spot fees and OKX Pay.
Read
Coinbase Singapore review
Simple vs Advanced trade costs, FAST and PayNow, and XSGD.
Read
Crypto.com review
App vs Exchange pricing and the Visa card fees for Singapore users.
Read
Gemini review
Fully MAS-licensed since September 2026. Where Gemini fits and what it costs.
ReadHow we review a platform
Every review goes through the same five checks. We write down what we found on the company’s own pages and on the regulator’s register, and where we could not confirm something we say so in the review itself.
1. Licence and legal entity. We search the MAS Financial Institutions Directory for the exact Singapore entity and note the licence type. A Major Payment Institution licence for digital payment token services is what a crypto platform needs to serve Singapore customers from here. For international platforms we look up the licences they hold elsewhere and say clearly that Singapore protections, such as the statutory trust over customer assets, do not cover your account.
2. The fee schedule, not the headline. We read the official fee page and separate the trading fee from the spread, the deposit fee and the withdrawal fee. A platform advertising “0.1%” can still cost more than one charging 0.5% if its instant-buy price is wide or its SGD withdrawal is expensive. When a figure comes only from a third party, we label it as such.
3. SGD rails. PayNow and FAST are free for most Singapore bank customers, so a platform that supports them properly saves you money every month. We check deposit limits, withdrawal fees and whether the rail is instant. Cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay are faster to set up but cost more, and since MAS consumer measures took effect, licensed platforms cannot accept locally issued credit cards.
4. Support and day-to-day use. We look at how you reach a human, whether there is a Singapore office, and the recurring themes in public app-store reviews, such as verification loops or withdrawal holds.
5. Weaknesses. Every platform has them. We list them in a “watch out for” box on each review, and we do not soften them because a platform is popular or ranks highly on our list.
Check any licence yourself
You do not need to trust us on licences. Search the company name in the MAS Financial Institutions Directory and check it is not on the MAS Investor Alert List. Our list of MAS-licensed crypto exchanges shows the full register with links.
Who each platform is for
A short guide to where each platform fits. The reviews explain the reasoning and the costs in detail.
| Platform | Singapore status | Suits | Main trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| CEX.IO | Not MAS-licensed; serves Singapore from abroad | Card and Apple Pay buyers, people who want many coins | No PayNow or FAST, no Singapore protections |
| Coinhako | MAS MPI, now SBI-owned | Beginners who want a local app and GrabPay | 0.6% on SGD trades is not cheap |
| Independent Reserve | MAS MPI | Larger PayNow buys, OTC clients | Around 30 coins only |
| OKX SG | MAS MPI | Cost-focused order-book traders | No derivatives in Singapore |
| Coinbase | MAS MPI | First-time buyers, XSGD users | Simple-buy spread adds up |
| Crypto.com | MAS MPI (Foris DAX Asia) | People who want a crypto Visa card | App pricing less transparent; card FX fees |
| Gemini | MAS MPI since Sep 2026 | Security-minded holders | Standard app fees are high |
Two patterns stand out. If your priority is the lowest cost on a regular SGD purchase, the order-book platforms with free PayNow, OKX SG and Independent Reserve, are hard to beat; our cheapest way to buy Bitcoin guide does the maths. If your priority is paying by card or reaching coins the local apps do not list, an international exchange such as CEX.IO covers that, at the price of giving up local protection.
Try the flow before you commit
Whichever platform you choose, verify your account, deposit a small amount and run one buy and one withdrawal end to end.
What we leave out, and why
We do not review platforms on the MAS Investor Alert List or platforms that have left Singapore. That rules out Binance, Bybit, which blocks Singapore users and was added to the list in June 2026, Luno, which left in June 2023, and Tokenize Xchange, which ended its Singapore operations in September 2025. Institutional-only firms on the MAS register, such as Cumberland or GSR, are covered in our OTC guide instead, because retail customers cannot open accounts with them.
We also do not publish star ratings. A number out of five tells you nothing about whether you can deposit with PayNow or what happens to your coins if the company fails. We would rather tell you who a platform suits and let you decide.
Where to go next
New to all of this? Read how to buy Bitcoin in Singapore first, then the review of the platform you like. If funding is your main question, buying crypto with PayNow compares deposit limits and fees across platforms. And if you want the regulatory background, is crypto legal in Singapore explains the Payment Services Act in plain English.
Frequently asked questions
Which crypto exchange review should I read first?
Start with the platform you are already leaning towards, then read one alternative from the other camp. If you are leaning towards a MAS-licensed app, compare it with an international exchange, and the other way round. Seeing the trade-off side by side is more useful than reading all seven.
Do you give star ratings or scores?
No. A single score hides the trade-offs that actually matter in Singapore, such as whether a platform is licensed by MAS, whether it takes PayNow, and how much a card purchase really costs. Each review ends with who the platform suits and who should look elsewhere instead.
How often are the reviews updated?
We re-check licence status against the MAS Financial Institutions Directory and fees against each company’s own fee page whenever a platform announces a change, and in a full sweep every few months. The facts in the current versions were checked on 20 October 2026.
Are the reviewed platforms all licensed in Singapore?
Six of the seven are. Coinhako, Independent Reserve, OKX SG, Coinbase, Crypto.com and Gemini hold Major Payment Institution licences for digital payment token services. CEX.IO is not licensed by MAS. It operates through regulated entities in the United States, the United Kingdom and elsewhere and serves Singapore residents from abroad.
Why is Binance not reviewed?
Binance has been on the MAS Investor Alert List since September 2021 and closed Binance.sg in February 2022. We only review platforms that Singapore residents can reasonably use today.
