BTC Markets vs Swyftx | What Exchange Should Australians Use?

When it comes to trading fees, BTC Markets and Swyftx offer different fee structure for it's users. BTC Markets charges varying fees depending on the trading pair, with maker fees as low as -0.05% and taker fees up to 0.2% for BTC pairs.

For AUD market pairs, the trading fee starts at a high 0.85% and can be lowered based on 30-day trading volumes. The minimum threshold to begin paying lower fees starts at trading volumes that exceed $500 AUD per month.

On the other hand, Swyftx charges maker and taker fees of 0.6%, which is quite high compared to most exchanges out there. For those that conduct swaps, the minimum fee applied is 0.6% for the buy order and 0.6% for the sell order. Thus a total fee of 1.2% which is on the high side once more, not great.

Overall, BTC Markets offers lower trading fees than Swyftx only for those that trade with BTC. For those that buy and sell using AUD, they will be paying a higher trading fee than users on Swyftx. Having said that, both BTC markets and Swyftx charge fees that are 8 to 12 times higher than alternative exchanges such as OKX, Pheme and Bybit.

When it comes to depositing funds on BTC Markets and Swyftx, there are a few options available to users. Let's take a closer look at what each exchange has to offer.

BTC Markets supports fiat currencies such as AUD and cryptocurrencies, so users have a variety of options to choose from.

For those who wish to deposit AUD, they can do so free of charge with either BPay or OSKO payments.

For those that prefer to deposit cryptocurrencies, they have over 30 coins and tokens to choose from, and deposits are free of charge.

As for Swyftx, they offer AUD deposits via PayID, Poli, bank transfers, and credit/debit card deposits with Visa and Mastercard.

There are no fees when depositing AUD via PayID and bank transfers, but there is a 3.6% fee and up to 4% spread for those depositing with credit/debit card.

That is ridiculously expensive and something that we would recommend people avoid paying.

In terms of withdrawal methods, BTC Markets offers free AUD withdrawals via BPay and OSKO.

And for those that wish to withdraw their cryptocurrencies, the fees are 0.0003 BTC for Bitcoin, 0.005 ETH for Ethereum, 0.01 SOL for Solana and 7 USDT for ERC-20 USDT. These are decent fees overall, not great, not terrible.

On the other hand, users on Swyftx can withdraw two fiat currencies in AUD and NZD. While there are no fees for AUD withdrawals, the fee for NZD withdrawals are $10 excluding any possible fees charged by the bank.

For those that withdraw AUD with a bank that supports Osko, the withdrawal time is 1-2 minutes. For banks that don't support Osko, those have to wait up to 2 business days to receive their funds.

Cryptocurrency withdrawals on Swyftx come with a fee that varies based on the blockchain used, such as 0.0002 BTC for Bitcoin, 0.0018 ETH for Ethereum and 0.008 SOL for Solana. ERC-20 USDT withdrawals on Swyftx come with a fee of 7 USDT.

In conclusion, both BTC markets and Swyftx are two small local exchanges that target Australian beginners.

While BTC markets offers 30 cryptocurrencies to buy and sell, Swyftx offers more than 10X that amount.

While the user experience on BTC markets is more appealing to beginners, Swyftx has somehow managed to make their interface look complicated even though they offer very few product and services.

In terms of trading fees, BTC markets is cheaper than Swyftx is users trade with BTC but more expensive if they trade using AUD as their trading pair.

Whereas on Swyftx, users pay 0.6% when using the spot exchange but up to 1.2% where swapping cryptocurrencies.

While both exchanges can be a decent starting point for beginners who live in Australia, both exchanges are too basic, limited and expensive to recommend compared to alternatives in the market that offer wider offerings with much lower fees.