A Beginner's Guide to Using Crypto in Singapore

Singapore is becoming one of the biggest crypto market players in the world. In fact, a recent survey suggests that 43% of Singaporeans own crypto.

Multiple factors are making it a crypto-hub, namely due to its pro-crypto regulatory stance, the large amount of fintech startups and crypto exchanges that operate there, and some of the biggest fintech events and conferences in the world taking place in the country.

However, with all these crypto products on offer in Singapore, you want to make sure you pick the best.

Who are Wirex?

We're a worldwide digital payments platform that have forged new rules in the digital payments space. We’ve operated in Europe since 2014, and expanded our highly respected services to APAC in 2019.

We currently have nearly 4 million customers worldwide, and have developed an industry-leading product that allows customers to easily store, buy and exchange multiple currencies instantly at the best live rates on one centralised mobile app. We’ve gained a reputation for our innovation; we developed the world’s first crypto-enabled payment card that gives users the ability to seamlessly spend crypto and traditional currencies in real life, as well as the first crypto rewards programme, Cryptoback™.

We’ve already been making waves in the APAC region, and have seen customer registrations there rise by 70% in the past year compared.

Why are Wirex the Best?

• Multicurrency travelcard
• Consistently low fees
• Best in-market rates - zero FX fees
• Low-to-no commission on crypto purchases - live access to OTC rates
• No monthly fees
• Up to 2% Cryptoback™ rewards on card purchases in-store and online
• Up to 12% AER savings bonus on your WXT balance with Wirex’s X-tras rewards programme
• Ability to hold up to 20 crypto and fiat accounts with a single intuitive app
• In-app live chat support
• Fast instant transfers to your contacts

Let’s deep dive into some of these a bit further!

Exchange & Wallet

Exchanging currencies with Wirex could save you some serious time and money. Our users already know this, because between December 2020 and January 2021, Wirex saw 70% growth in its monthly exchange volume in APAC, and in May recorded our highest exchange transaction volume on a single day since launch.

We offer 8 major cryptocurrencies whose market cap equal 67% of the total! These include Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP), Stellar (XLM), Wirex Token (WXT), Dai (DAI) and Nano (NANO). 

We believe that the best exchange rates shouldn’t be reserved for banks and financial institutions. That’s why we offer exclusive OTC rates for all cryptocurrency exchanges. What’s more, for fiat-to-fiat exchanges, it’s zero fee!

We’ve also got 12 fiat currencies available in app for Singapore users, including US Dollar (USD), Singapore Dollar (SGD), Australian Dollar (AUD), New Zealand Dollar (NZD), Japanese Yen (JPY), Hong Kong Dollar (HKD), Euro (EUR), British Pound (GBP), Czech Krona (CZK), Mexican Peso (MXN), Canadian Dollar (CAD), and Swizz Francs (CHF) so pick the ones you like and exchange instantly wherever you are and whenever you want 24/7.

It’s easy to top-up instantly. You can do this by linking up to 5 of your other debit/credit cards or transferring the funds from an external crypto wallet.

Want to find out how to exchange crypto? Get the info here.

Multicurrency Travelcard

Our multicurrency travelcard is revolutionising the payments space, and it’s more versatile, more flexible and more powerful than ever before.

We were the first company in the world to product a crypto-enabled debit card, allowing users to utilise crypto in everyday life. With the Wirex Visa card, Singapore users can spend all 20 crypto and fiat currencies instantly, anywhere in the world that Visa is accepted. Designed to be the perfect travel companion, the multicurrency Wirex card lets you pay the way you want whether you’re heading abroad for business, leisure or anything in between.

Cryptoback™ & X-Tras Rewards Programme

Wirex’s innovative features and next-generation product mean that anyone and everyone can save with us.

We created the world’s first crypto rewards programme, Cryptoback™, that allows you to receive up to 2% crypto rewards for any purchase made with your Wirex card, in-store or online. It’s a ground-breaking concept, but there’s really nothing to it.

Your rewards are earned instantly as WXT (Wirex’s native token) and go straight into your X-tras account in the Wirex app. Then you can exchange, spend or HODL them as you see fit!

You may have also heard that we recently upgraded our rewards system. With the launch of Wirex X-tras, customers can get more out of their Wirex accounts than ever before. Three flexible price plans – Standard, Premium and Elite – offer different tiers of rewards and benefits, including supercharged Cryptoback™ rewards, up to 12% annual Savings Bonuses on WXT account balances and exclusive merchant offers.

Want to know what plan works best for you? You can find out all the details here.

Even so, we’ve done the maths, and it’s a big deal. Over the years, Wirex users have earned millions of dollars of Cryptoback™, so whether you’re a city break traveller, frequent shopper or time-constrained professional, find out how much you can save here.

Other Great Features

• Send crypto to contacts - We introduced the Send Money to Contacts feature back in March to provide you with a simple way to send crypto funds to your friends and family. All you have to do is synchronise your phone’s address book and you can pay your contacts in a couple of taps!
• External deposits - to other crypto wallets
• WXT - in case you didn’t know, WXT is our native token. There’s a huge range of things you can do with it, including exchanging it to other currencies, or spending it anywhere in the world with your Wirex card
• Live in-app chat – Need help or want to ask us a question? We recently relaunched our Live Chat in the Wirex app, giving you 24/7 support at the touch of a button. You can now instantly connect to our customer support team and get the help you need quickly and efficiently
• Status page - Our new status page keeps you updated about any disruptions to our services. Check this page for live status updates and information in real-time about what we’re doing to resolve any issues

Safety and Security

Here at Wirex, we prioritise protecting and supporting our customers and their funds. We’re a licenced and regulated platform, and have gained a reputation for seeking out licenses where they exist. Where they don’t, we lead by example for the rest of the crypto industry and apply gold-plated standards.

We’ve been working closely with the Money Authority of Singapore (MAS) to obtain the recently introduced Payments Services Act (PS Act). We fully support regulatory tightening in countries; this will ensure that the digital economy grow in a safe and secure way for both consumers and businesses, and separate the regulated and unregulated players in it. That’s why we’ve been granted a temporary exemption whilst we apply for the PS Act, and hope to receive the full licence shortly.

We know that crypto doesn’t always get the best reputation, but Wirex customers can rest assured that their data is safe with our sophisticated and resilient technology. This includes using a cold storage multi-signature security model on our customer’s crypto wallets, TLS and 256-bit AES encryption to keep your sensitive data safe, as well as an extensive risk-engine tool to monitor suspicious payments or unauthorised access to customer accounts.

Find out more about how we keep your money safe here.

How do I Sign Up?

It’s pretty straightforward to get started. All you need to do:

1. Register on the Wirex website here, or download the Wirex mobile app
2. Follow the link in your confirmation email
3. Follow the onscreen prompts to confirm your address, personal information and phone number.
4. Verify your identity by uploading the required documents. This should only take a few minutes.
5. Once verified, order your card!

For a limited time, you could get US$15 when you verify your account!

What are you waiting for? Open the app and verify your account now!