Hotbit is a relatively new cryptocurrency exchange that is poised to offer crypto investors the ability to trade a long list of coins. It offers a digital asset exchange platform that is well designed, intuitive to use and has support for the major cryptocurrencies.
The global team at Hotbit has experience in the cryptocurrency industry as well as the traditional financial industry. The team’s entrepreneurial experience and cooperative partners should help the platform attract liquidity from numerous sources.
The people behind Hotbit outlines on their website that they believe in the core values of blockchain technology and Bitcoin. They feel that these principles, along with those of smart contracts and a distributed ledger, change the way that people trust each other. The team also feels that via blockchain technology, there will be an increased transactional efficiency, fewer barriers in place to stop transactions, and eventually, a large impact on the global economy. Hotbit outlines its mission as providing an asset exchange service that is safer as well as more convenient while constructing a world-class exchange platform and integrating the leading blockchain assets.
Hotbit Technology
Some of the advanced technologies that the exchange uses include a high-speed trading engine that is memory-based with backups in multiple machines, hot wallets featuring offline private keys, cold storage locations, distributed storage, global server load balancing, and distributed server clusters.
Hotbit is available via its website, making it possible to access the exchange from any device. There are also PC terminals available, as well as mobile applications for better ease of use.
Hotbit Account Registration
You can register with Hotbit from nearly any page on the website, including the homepage. On the homepage, the “Register” button is in the top-right corner. You will be asked to enter your email and agree to the terms and policies. From there, you fill in account information. At this point, you will need to confirm your account with the key code you receive in your email. From there, you will go to two-factor authentication, with your choice of Google Authenticator or Mobile Text Message. Enter the authentication code you receive to finish setting up your account. Now, you will be ready to log in and use Hotbit in the future.
How to Trade on HotBit
All trading with Hotbit is done via the “Exchange” page. Begin by selecting the cryptocurrency pair you wish to trade on the left side of the screen. Then scroll down slightly to the buy/sell section immediately below the graph.
Trading is done via limit orders, with the option to buy on the left and sell on the right. In the case of the ETH/BTC pair, for example, your choices will be “Buy ETH” or “Sell ETH.” In either case, the price is automatically filled in at the market level, with plus and minus buttons for you to adjust the figure to your chosen price. Then, either enter the amount of the cryptocurrency you wish to buy or sell or select a percentage of the total amount in your account (25, 50, 75, or 100 percent). The total in the target currency will automatically update.
What Information Does Hotbit Provide Traders?
Keep in mind that all trading pairs on Hotbit involve either ETH or BTC since those are the two most popular cryptocurrencies. When you go to the “Exchange” page of the Hotbit website, the default currency pair is ETH/BTC. This appears near the top of the page, along with the last price, both in terms of cryptocurrency and dollars. To the right of that, you will see the 24-hour change, the 24-hour high, the 24-hour low, and the 24-hour volume. In the center of the page is a graph displaying the relationship between the cryptocurrencies in the pair with the ability to move the mouse to see the exact value at a specific point in time.
This chart has numerous options for customization, including the choice of a bar graph, candles, hollow candles, Heikin Ashi, line graph, or area. The default option is candles. There is also the option to change the intervals displayed, with options including 1, 5, 15, and 30 minutes; 1, 2, and 4 hours; and 1 day. Advanced traders can click on the symbol of a graph immediately above the graph and find dozens of indicators to look at. You can also completely customize the graph in terms of colors, price line thickness, scale location and type, backgrounds, and time zone.
To the right of the graph, you will find the order book, with the option of viewing just “buy” orders, just “sell” orders, or both, and your choice of decimal places from five to eight. Below the order book is the trade history, including the price, amount, and date and time.
To the left of the trade history and under the graph, you will find the section for placing orders with your personal order history and open orders directly below it.
Along the left side of the “Exchange” page, you will find all of the cryptocurrency pairs supported by Hotbit. Select either the BTC or ETH tab or go to your favorites that you have marked with a heart. You can sort the crypto pairs by price, volume, or USD, and each one will display your chosen sorting method with the percent change next to it. There is also the option to search for a crypto pair, so you do not have to scroll through the expanding list. Clicking on any of these cryptocurrency pairs adjusts all the charts, graphs, and 24-hour information accordingly.
What Cryptocurrencies Does Hotbit Support?
Hotbit is constantly working to improve the exchange and is quickly adding cryptocurrencies to the list. At the time of writing, there were 28 supported cryptocurrencies listed on the fees page: BTC, ETH, ACAT, ATN, BOOL, BOX, BXX, EKO, ELF, EOS, EOSDAC, GVT, HAND, HOT, HTB, ICX, OMG, ONT, QASH, QUN, SPHTX, TCASH, THETA, TNB, TOMO, TRX, WICC, and ZIL.
Hotbit has also announced support for additional cryptocurrencies that it has not yet added to the fee page, including: ENG, LOOM, NEXO, SKM, SS, and ZRX. Based on the news page, it is clear that Hotbit is actively working toward expanding its cryptocurrency offerings, particularly since the recent announcements of added cryptocurrencies were all within the last few days. As such, you can expect the listings to grow continuously.
At the bottom of the page, Hotbit has a link to apply to list, including instructions and an application form. Unfortunately, the link takes you to a page in Chinese, but the link to the form itself is in English and the website translation for the page is enough to understand the basics. Simply fill out the form and email it to the listed email address. The certification process takes two business days. After this, you will hear back within a day.
HotBit Fees
Depositing to Hotbit is fast as well as free, making it possible to deposit without concerns about your token quantity decreasing. There are minimal withdrawal fees, which vary based on the token in question. When viewing withdrawal fees, keep in mind that each is listed in the cryptocurrency being withdrawn, so a fee of a greater quantity of tokens might actually be relatively small.
You can find an updated list of the fees via the Hotbit website by clicking on “Fees” link at the bottom of the page. At the time of writing, the fees were as follows: 1.00E-03 for BTC; 0.01 for ETH; 0.1 for ONT; 0.11 for GVT; 0.28 for OMG; 0.5 for EOS; 1 for QASH and ICX; 1.5 for TOMO; 2 for WICC; 5 for ELF; 7 for ATN; 8 for BKX and SPHTX; 10 for THETA and ACAT; 15 for BOX; 20 for TCASH, EKO, and TRX; 21 for EOSDAC; 30 for QUN; 50 for HTB and TNB; 1,700 for HOT; and 40,000 for HAND.
Hotbit makes its profit via transaction fees and follows a maker-taker model. Makers who add liquidity to the market have zero transaction fees, including for offers to buy in and offers to sell out. Takers pay a transaction fee of 0.0025, whether they take buy-in orders or sell-out orders. Because of the limited decimal digits with HAND tokens, makers do not pay transaction fees for this token, and takers pay a 0.2 percent fee to process the transaction.
The fees page also provides a quick refresher on the maker-taker model. Makers place limit orders or make requests to buy in at prices less than listed or sell out at prices higher than listed. As a reward for increasing liquidity, they do not have to pay transaction fees. Takers place orders targeted at orders within the order book, meaning they decrease the liquidity. This does lead to transaction fees. Keep in mind that hidden orders as well as limit orders that match hidden orders do still require transaction fees.
Hotbit Competitions
Hotbit offers a number of competitions, typically announcing them on the homepage and in the news section. By looking at the exchange’s news page, you can get a feel for some previous competitions. In early May, it wrapped up a competition in which users were ranked based on transaction volume involving HAND and then shared 300 million in rewards among them based on rank placement, with the winner receiving 100 million HAND. In April, it had a similar competition for ATN transaction volume with the ability to win up to 3,000 ATN tokens for the top-ranked trader. Following the launch of HOT tokens in early May, there was also an event where users who deposited at least 1,000 HOT into their accounts in one transaction received 5 HOT tokens in the form of a reward, up to 10,000 HOT in rewards in total per person.
Is HotBit Safe?
There is a not a lot of information on the site about the company behind HotBit, just some brief information and some info about utilizing cold storage for customer funds. Their about page has this to say
The core members of our team have all gained in-depth experience in both traditional financial and cryptocurrency industry. With successful entrepreneurial experience, experienced global investment consultation team and various cooperation partners, our platform is set to attract liquidity from various resources, which in turn provides support for the smooth operation of our platform as well.
It is important that centralized exchanges provide as much information as possible about their platform and the company, you are trusting them with your funds so it’s essential to feel secure in the platform you are using. With this in mind, until more is known and the platform has time to mature and gather more online reviews we recommend only using it by transferring small amounts, making your trades and withdrawing back to your own wallets. Never hold a large balance on any exchange and only keep a small trading stack their – their purpose is a trading exchange, not a wallet.
What Other Services and Programs Does Hotbit Offer?
Since Hotbit is still a relatively new exchange, the website is not yet complete. In the future, it will add details about an Affiliate Program and an Elite Program. At the time of writing, each of these programs has an empty page on the Hotbit website with a message that information is coming soon. Based on similar programs from other platforms, we can anticipate that both the Affiliate and Elite programs will lead to rewards, with the latter most likely being a program geared toward those who trade larger volumes.
One especially useful section of Hotbit is the “Coin Information” page, which is within the Support Center. Here you will find detailed information about most of the cryptocurrencies the exchange supports. Click on any of coins to learn about the features of the project, the token distribution and status, and useful links, such as to the token’s website and/or whitepaper.
HotBit Customer Support
Hotbit has a frequently asked question section with a reasonable number of questions and answers, although not as much detail as some other cryptocurrency exchanges. One particularly useful link on this page is the “New User Guide,” which is available both via a help article and a video tutorial to accommodate all learning styles. There is the option to submit additional questions or to search the FAQ section. At the top-right corner of the Support page, you will find a button to “Submit a request.” As Hotbit is new, there are few reviews on their customer service yet. Submitting a request is straightforward, just including your email address, the request type, a description, and the option of an attachment.
Conclusion
Hotbit is still a relatively new cryptocurrency exchange, but it has a great deal of potential. The number of cryptocurrencies they have added within the last few days indicates a genuine effort towards expanding the offerings, something that traders will certainly appreciate and can lead to a competitive number of cryptocurrency pairs.
The exchange is simple and intuitive to use and the trading screen is modern and well designed.
Trading fees are reasonable but withdrawal fees are quite high when compared to others.
The lack of details and transparency about the company are of some concern – when trusting a centralized exchange such as HotBit, in helps to know more about the company you are trusting your coins with. This is something we would like to see improved.
Overall we would recommend testing out HotBit if they have some coins or tokens you are looking to acquire, we recommend not keeping a large balance on the exchange though and making sure you enable the 2FA security option.
HotBit
Pros
- Attractive Interface
- Range of Markets
- Reasonable Trading Fees
Cons
- No Fiat Payment Options
- Lack of Transparency
- High withdrawal fees
