Xapo Review: Is Xapo A Legitimate Place to Buy Bitcoin?

• Xapo Key Information
• How to Use Xapo to Buy Bitcoin
• Is Xapo Safe?
• Xapo Customer Support
• Supported Countries
• Buy and Sell Limits
• Sending Bitcoin from Your Xapo Wallet
• Receiving Bitcoin to Your Xapo Wallet
• Xapo Review Summary

You’re looking to , but you’re not sure who to trust. There are seemingly endless places to buy Bitcoin with your hard-earned fiat currency. How do you know which company is safe, secure and reputable?

Well, Xapo is one of the most reputable companies in the Bitcoin world. Recently, they’ve raised $40 million in funding from a variety of investors, which helps showcase their legitimacy.

Xapo also offers a Bitcoin debit card that is associated with your Bitcoin wallet, allowing you to spend Bitcoin easier than most other services.

In this Xapo review, we’ll be diving into their company and examining their reputation to see if they’re worth the hype, or if you’d be better off with another exchange.

Xapo Key Information

Key Information
Site Type	Cryptocurrency Exchange
Beginner Friendly
Mobile App
Company Location	Hong Kong
Company Launch	2014
Deposit Methods	Credit Card, Debit Card, Bank Transfer, Cash
Withdrawal Methods	Bank Transfer, Cryptocurrency
Available Cryptocurrencies	Bitcoin
Community Trust	Great
Security	Great
Fees	Low/Medium
Customer Support	Poor
Site	Visit Xapo

Xapo began its life in Palo Alto, California in 2014. Not long after, it began to grow rapidly and the team relocated to Switzerland due to regulatory stability and international neutrality. Now, Xapo is incorporated in Hong Kong, and operates worldwide with offices in Hong Kong and Palo Alto, California.

The CEO of Xapo is Wences Casares, who is an international entrepreneur with over 20+ years in building and selling technology businesses. He founded Argentina’s first ISP in his 20s. He then founded Patagon, an online brokerage firm, which he sold for $750 million. Essentially, this guy has been forming and selling companies for most of his life.

The President of Xapo is Ted Rogers, who brings over fifteen years of experience in business and finance to Xapo. The COO of Xapo, Federico Murrone, has focused his career on technology his entire life. He worked as the CTO of Patagon.

What does all this mean to you? Xapo is operated by legitimate businessmen and entrepreneurs. They have a long history of building companies that are successful. Additionally, all of their reputations are on the line with Xapo. They’ve made themselves available to public scrutiny. In a world where many companies and exchanges have very little publicly available information about the teams, this is worth mentioning.

How to Use Xapo to Buy Bitcoin

The process begins by completing the above signup form. You’ll then answer a few questions about yourself (you also have to disable AdBlock). You’ll have to be over 18 years of age to use Xapo. Of course, you’ll be sent a verification email.

As you can see, you’ll need to verify a mobile number before you can do anything with your wallet. Once you’ve provided a phone number, you can check a box to enable 2FA under ‘Security Settings’.

Now, before you can actually buy Bitcoin with your new account, you’ll have to upload a driver’s license and Proof of Residence. If the information on your documents doesn’t add up, you’ll be declined.

Once you’ve been approved, you’ll be able to buy Bitcoin using their easy-to-use interface with your FIAT currency.

Is Xapo Safe?

When it comes to discussing the safety of a Bitcoin-based service, there are three factors that should be considered: company legitimacy, safekeeping of funds and personal account security:

Company Legitimacy. Xapo has an excellent reputation in the Bitcoin world. They are incorporated in Hong Kong and have offices around the globe. While there are some complaints on Bittrust about their customer support, they appear to be a legitimate company.

Safekeeping of Funds. Xapo claims to, “Combine the convenience of an everyday Bitcoin wallet with the security of a deep cold storage vault.” What does that mean exactly? Let’s go to the Xapo FAQ for an answer:

“Deep cold storage is a type of cold storage where not only are bitcoins stored offline, but also the system that holds the bitcoins were never online or connected to any kind of network. The private keys associated with that system were generated in offline systems, and the signing process of the transactions is also made in offline systems. The systems used in this type of storage never touch the Internet; they are created offline, they are stored offline, and they are offline when signing transactions.”

If that was too much to digest, it essentially means that your Bitcoin is incredibly safe due to never being online.

Personal Account Security. You create a PIN and a password when you create your Xapo account. This helps keep your account secure. You can also enable 2FA (two-factor authentication) to protect your account.

Xapo prioritizes security above all-else, which means that your personal information, Bitcoin and fiat currency are likely to be safe with them. The fact that someone has to upload a driver’s license and proof of residency to become a customer gives me added faith in them as a company.

Xapo Customer Support

Xapo attempts to provide excellent customer support via email, Twitter and Facebook:

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: https://twitter.com/xapo
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/xapoapp

However, it’s worth noting that poor customer support is the single biggest complaint against Xapo when you search for Xapo reviews. People with a wide range of issues have problems getting appropriate help from Xapo.

With that said, this is a common find for nearly every cryptocurrency exchange. This is likely due to being a rapidly growing industry, combined with “angry voices being the loudest”.

Supported Countries

Xapo operates globally. The Xapo team has worked hard to support a massive amount of countries and FIAT currencies, ranging from Bhutanese Ngultrums (BTN) to Zambia – Zambian Kwacha (ZMK). This means Xapo supports everything from less popular fiat currencies to popular ones such as USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, RUB, and CNY.

Buy and Sell Limits

Xapo does not have any publicly available information about buying limits.  Make sure that your account is fully verified before you make any purchases. Xapo charges a 1% fee on all buy orders, with additional processing fees based on your payment method (disclosed when making your purchase).

Presently, Xapo does not allow you to sell Bitcoin. Instead, they suggest using their Xapo Debit Card to spend your Bitcoin, rather than selling it for a FIAT currency directly.

Sending Bitcoin from Your Xapo Wallet

You can send Bitcoin purchased on Xapo to any Bitcoin wallet. This is done from within your Xapo account. However, there are fees for sending Bitcoin from Xapo to your wallet. Instead of breaking down their ever-changing fee structure, take at their fee breakdown directly.

The minimum amount you can send from Xapo is 55 bits, also known as 0.000055 BTC.

Receiving Bitcoin to Your Xapo Wallet

To receive Bitcoin to your Xapo wallet from an external source, obtain your wallet address from within your Xapo account. Then, use this Xapo address as the ‘send to’ address in your external wallet. If this is confusing, check out this guide on sending and receiving Bitcoin.

Xapo does charge a fee for receiving small amounts of Bitcoin, so check their fee page before you send to make sure you won’t be charged extra.

Xapo Review Summary

Xapo is a reputable company who prioritizes security. If that’s important to you (hint: it should be), then Xapo is well worth your time.

Most of the complaints found on Bittrust and other Xapo review sites revolve around their customer service not granting every request and being slow to respond. However, in this reviewer’s opinion, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It means that they care about the overall security of their business over bending over backward for every customer.

The Xapo Bitcoin Debit Card is a unique feature that isn’t available with many other exchanges and wallets. While there is a fee to acquire the card ($20 USD), it presents an interesting way to bring Bitcoin into the real world.

Overall, Xapo is worth your time, especially if you value security. 

[wp-review id=”3547″]