FlowBTC Review

FlowBTC – Is It Good?

FlowBTC is a Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange. It offers a small but decent amount of altcoins, a free wallet and even recommends cryptocurrencies for you to buy based on trends and analysis. It’s a great “gateway” platform for newbies to start on the cryptocurrency world, being quite informative and intuitive at the same time.

However, it being a regional exchange, you’ll find some hiccups with their Brazilian focus and their fiat options.

So how good is FlowBTC? Is FlowBTC trustworthy? Is it only for Brazilians? And, most importantly, how does it stack up against other platforms?

What does FlowBTC provide?

FlowBTC has a great way for Brazilians to start on Bitcoin. Topping up your account is quite convenient for them since they can use multiple local banks like the Banco do Brasil, Itaú, Neon, Caixa and Santander. Although these bank transfers are not instant, express deposits can clear the same day.

Once you have some fiat in your account you have several choices to exchange it besides Bitcoin. FlowBTC supports Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash and it has recently added Ripple (XRP), EOS and the lesser known Takion.

It’s easy to keep track of your portfolio too, FlowBTC shows the total value of your coins in real time to keep track of your investments. It also has a very interesting “Recommended Wallet” feature, which helps you diversify by following the experts’ advice and buying certain coins at certain times. This feature is great for beginners looking to invest when they don’t know where to start.

To further help newbies, they also offer trading and blockchain courses in Portuguese. However these courses aren’t free and paying around 100 dollars for a three-hour video course seems quite steep for most, specially when you can find very similar information online for free.

Since they follow AML and KYC policies, trading anonymously isn’t an option, in fact you’ll have to verify your identity as a Brazilian national to start trading.

Supported Countries

FlowBTC is currently only available for Brazilian nationals. You have to verify your Brazilian status by verifying your identity.

FlowBTC Rates and Buying Limits

FlowBTC being a regional exchange has less competition than worldwide exchanges which allows it to charge higher fees. While the Takers fee is around double compared to the industry average, their Makers fee are just a bit above what we usually see.

FlowBTC fee:  0.5% for Takers and 0.25% for makers

You can check a detailed list of their fees on their fees sheet.

Your trading limits will depend on your level of verification. FlowBTC offers three levels, Silver, Gold and Platinum. The Silver account has a generous daily limit of 1 BTC or R $ 3,000 which will suffice most people. The Gold account, focused on heavier players, has a daily limit of 5 BTC or R $ 45,000. Finally, the Platinum account has custom levels and is only given to experienced Gold level users.

FlowBTC Cons

• Only suited for Brazilians: If you’re from anywhere that’s not Brazil, FlowBTC isn’t for you.
• Basic options: With no charting, technical analysis tools or other advanced features, the interface is clearly designed for beginners.
• Slow transfers: Since they only accept transfers or TED, you can’t buy bitcoin instantly and in fact will probably have to wait a while for your funds to clear.

Sign Up at FlowBTC

Is FlowBTC Good For Bitcoin?

FlowBTC does a very important job. Its primary focus is to help Brazilians start trading crypto by helping educate them in crypto and trading as well as making it easy to trade their fiat. That being said, if you’re not a Brazilian beginner you would probably want something a bit more advanced.

Their approach can feel a bit too simplistic and restrictive, their alt-coin catalog isn’t extensive, and you can’t even trade anonymously in it. If you’re not Brazilian or are not a beginner, you may want to keep looking for an option that may suit your needs better.