Pepperstone Crypto 2026

Our Verdict

I’ve spent the last few weeks testing Pepperstone Crypto, a new crypto exchange founded in 2026, run by popular CFD broker Pepperstone. Having reviewed over 20 crypto exchanges for FXEmpire and trading crypto for over 7 years, I know exactly what to look for and what makes a good exchange.

Testing the exchange in early 2026, I found the platform was still in its early stages but delivered a smooth trading experience with an intuitive interface that’s great for beginners. It gives you access to major coins and offers free, instant AUD deposits and low trading maker/taker fees of 0.1%. This makes it great for investing in Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Solana. While it doesn’t have a PoR, there’s the reassurance of Pepperstone’s reputation and AUSTRAC licensing.

The desktop and mobile platforms are beginner-friendly, making them suitable for new traders. However, the lack of leveraged trading and staking products, along with the smaller coin selection, might be a dealbreaker if you’re an experienced trader.

📊 Offers spot trading for major coins like BTC, ETH, LTC, SOL, USDC, USDT, and XRP

🏦 Fully licensed in Australia with direct AUD support

🪪 KYC is mandatory for all users

🚫 No Proof of Reserves or insurance coverage

⚡️Instant AUD deposits with unlimited withdrawals

Pepperstone Crypto Pros and Cons

Is Pepperstone Crypto Right for You?

Not all traders are the same. You could be seeking easy apps for trading on the go, or need more depth and look for advanced features like multipliers or social trading. When reviewing exchanges, we cater to all types of traders, from occasional to frequent. We divide traders into seven main target groups.

Our method ensures a clear understanding of trading strategies and their requirements. We assess, rank, and record key factors, and we determine how well the exchange meets the needs of each target group. We know that traders aren’t “one-size-fits-all” and through our research, we aim to showcase each exchange’s highlights and their potential shortcomings. We essentially assign three types of rankings: perfect match, acceptable choice, or not suitable. Here’s our verdict:

Supported Countries and Regions

Pepperstone Crypto launched as an Australia-only exchange. This means if you live anywhere other than Australia, you won’t be able to register and use the exchange. This is unfortunate, but their website says they are “actively working on expanding”, yet there aren’t any confirmed plans as of the time of writing (April 2026).

Pepperstone Crypto Bonuses and Special Offers

Welcome Offers and Sign-Up Bonus: Pepperstone Crypto doesn’t offer any welcome offers in the traditional sense, where exchanges give bonuses for making larger deposits and hitting trade volume targets. However, Pepperstone Crypto has a Promotions & Rewards section on their Announcement page that you can check to see which offers are on at any given moment.

Referral or Affiliate Program: Pepperstone Crypto doesn’t currently have a referral or affiliate program, so unfortunately, you won’t be able to earn rewards for referring your friends.

Pepperstone Crypto Background

Pepperstone Crypto was founded in 2026 by leading CFD broker Pepperstone. It’s headed by Pepperstone Group CEO, Tamas Szabo, who has decades of experience in the trading industry, having worked his way up from being a Futures Dealer to Asia Pacific CEO of IG. The crypto side of things is led by Hsann Naing, who served as Head of Operations at Binance and COO of Coins.ph, before joining Pepperstone Crypto.

As you’d expect from an Australia-only exchange, the platform is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. It’s good to see the exchange openly list every senior member of its leadership, along with links to their LinkedIn profiles. I find it reassuring to be able to see exactly who’s in charge of a platform before I decide to trust them with my hard-earned money.

Security & Transparency

Proof of Reserves & Insurance Coverage

Pepperstone Crypto does not have Proof of Reserves for its spot tokens, given it’s still new to the market. It also doesn’t offer any insurance coverage on user deposits of crypto or fiat. Although this is standard across other exchanges, being a new platform explains the lack, and I hope to see these features added in the future for total peace of mind.

Account Security

At launch, Pepperstone Crypto supports two-factor authentication using Google Authenticator in addition to SMS and email. You’ll need verification codes from all three when trying to make withdrawals or add whitelisted wallets. I find that requiring three 2FA codes makes the exchange extra secure, though I’d love to see biometric passkeys added in the future to speed up the process.

Licensing & Regulation

Pepperstone Crypto is AUSTRAC registered, so it’s fully licensed in Australia and complies with anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) regulations. Since Pepperstone Crypto is an Australia-only exchange, this shows they’ve taken all the steps to offer fully compliant crypto services to users in Australia.

General Reliability

Pepperstone Crypto performed well throughout my testing; it was stable, and I didn’t come across any bugs or glitches. It’s also ISO 27001 certified, which is great to see, especially on such a new exchange. This certifies that Pepperstone Crypto meets the highest standards for data security and management, so you never have to worry about your personal or banking information being mishandled by the exchange.

Pepperstone Crypto doesn’t have its own bug bounty program with any of the major partners like BugCrowd or HackenProof. It also doesn’t mention any rewards, which could reduce the incentive for users to report vulnerabilities.

Verified Trust Scores

Since it’s such a new platform, as of the time of writing (April 2026), Pepperstone Crypto has yet to receive any rankings from the leading independent auditors I usually refer to. This means I have no meaningful way of comparing its safety and security with other leading exchanges. Yet I’ll reiterate that since the main Pepperstone broker is one of the most reliable and regulated on the market, I feel comfortable depositing my money on Pepperstone Crypto knowing it’ll be kept in segregated accounts with full transparency.

Know Your Customer (KYC)

KYC is mandatory for all users, and you have to pass KYC checks during the sign-up process. There’s no tiered KYC, so everyone has to submit the same documents, which include a government ID along with a bank statement or utility bill for proof of address.

When I went through the KYC process with the Pepperstone Crypto team, I found the KYC was handled by Sumsub, which means the process is fairly straightforward and hassle-free. You send over pictures of your documents, take a selfie, and Sumsub handles the rest, verifying your account in just a few minutes.

Is Pepperstone Crypto Safe to Trade With?

Based on my experience, Pepperstone Crypto is a safe exchange to trade with and deposit funds to. Despite being a brand-new exchange, it offers strong security measures that do a good job of helping you keep your account safe. Even if hackers guess your username and password, Pepperstone Crypto’s strict 2FA requirements mean they won’t be able to withdraw your assets.

However, there are a few areas with room for improvement, particularly in the asset custody department. Adding Proof of Reserves and deposit insurance will instantly put Pepperstone Crypto on par with industry leaders for asset security and transparency.

Trading Experience

Trading Test

For my trading tests, I evaluate each exchange thoroughly. My process includes signing up, completing the KYC (Know Your Customer) verification, logging in, depositing funds, and making withdrawals. I also test the trading functionalities by exploring different trading pairs and conversions, and assess the associated fees for transfers and withdrawals. This comprehensive test allows me to provide an informed and reliable review of the exchange’s usability, features, and actual costs. Here’s my detailed analysis of Pepperstone Crypto based on my first-hand account testing the platform with members of the Pepperstone Crypto team over video conference:

Step 1: Setting Up and Funding Your Account

Signing up for Pepperstone Crypto is fairly straightforward to complete. You need to use an email address, since it doesn’t currently support third-party sign-in using an Apple or Google account. It asks you to verify an Australian phone number via SMS as part of the sign-up process, something I hadn’t seen before.

Then the team took me through the KYC verification process, which uses Sumsub, the same provider as most other leading exchanges. The questions are straightforward, and you just have to send them a picture of your passport along with a selfie. The whole process takes less than 5 minutes, and you can do it all on your phone.

Depositing crypto is fairly straightforward, though I found the number of supported networks is smaller than some competitors. You can only deposit USDC via the Ethereum network, which can cost you more in gas fees than networks like BSC or Solana. During testing, I was able to easily make deposits, with the platform generating a QR code so you don’t need to spend time typing the deposit address.

Fiat deposits are also simple. From your banking app, simply initiate a deposit to the account details provided by the platform. Fiat deposits are near-instant if your bank supports OSKO transfer, with Pepperstone Crypto processing deposits 24/7 for added speed and convenience.

Step 2: Trading

Trading with the Pepperstone Crypto app is a breeze. However, since the exchange is still in its early stages, I did my trading test on a testnet environment as opposed to the live platform. Despite this, I was easily able to create a limit order to buy BTC using my AUD balance, and it executed exactly as the market reached my limit price.

One big difference between Pepperstone Crypto and other exchanges is the fact that you don’t have USDT or USDC-denominated trading pairs. Your trades are all denominated in AUD, which can take a while to get used to if you’re coming from a traditional exchange that trades using mainly stablecoins.

Step 3: Withdrawal and Review

Making withdrawals is also quick and easy. You can make a crypto withdrawal in just a few steps, with the platform asking for three forms of verification using SMS, email, and Google Authenticator before confirming the withdrawal. You can add your address to the whitelist, allowing you to skip the 2FA each time you make a withdrawal.

While I couldn’t test the withdrawal speeds for myself, processing speeds should be comparable to other major exchanges, as Pepperstone Crypto processes both crypto and fiat withdrawals 24/7. The speed of fiat withdrawals will also depend on your personal bank. If your bank supports OSKO, you can expect your withdrawal to hit your account in minutes. However, if it doesn’t, then this can take 1-2 working days.

Desktop Version

Pepperstone Crypto’s desktop platform offers the same features as other top-tier exchanges. It features intuitive, easy-to-use order forms while following the same general layout as other platforms, making it easy to get used to if you’re moving from another exchange.

Spot Trading

Pepperstone Crypto’s spot trading interface gives you all the key information and trading tools you need, without being overwhelming or complex. The integrated TradingView charts let you easily flick between timeframes and also give you a range of advanced indicators and drawing tools for in-depth technical analysis. You’ve also got real-time orderbook data and recent trades, so you can easily gauge current market sentiment.

Desktop Market Discovery

The markets page gives you a nice overview of all the coins available on Pepperstone Crypto. You can scroll through the coins with clear information on price, 24hr change, as well as recent highs and lows. At the top, you also get an overview of which coins are hot, recently added, top gainers, and top losers. In the future, I’d like to see a filter added so you can quickly sift through coins by categories like AI, L1/L2, etc.

Conditional Orders

At launch, Pepperstone Crypto offers limit and stop limit orders with Good-till-Cancelled (GTC), Immediate-or-Cancel (IOC), and Fill-or-Kill (FOK) time in force settings. This gives you a reasonable amount of flexibility when placing orders, but lacks key order types like trailing stop and TP/SL. It’s also missing advanced order types like TWAP and Iceberg, so if you trade strategies that rely on these order types, you may have to wait and see if Pepperstone Crypto adds these in the future.

API Access

Pepperstone Crypto offers enterprise-grade API access with REST/WebSocket APIs. This gives you access to real-time market data, as well as full conditional order settings for placing orders. One key feature is its high rate limit of up to 200 requests per second, making it ideal if you’re trading high-frequency strategies.

My Key Takeaways After Testing Pepperstone Crypto Desktop

Overall, I’m pleasantly surprised by Pepperstone Crypto’s desktop platform. It offers an intuitive interface that’s easy to use while still providing all the tools and information advanced traders need. The order forms make it easy to place orders with a fair amount of control using its conditional orders. It offers a great balance between having advanced features and still being accessible for new traders.

As a new platform, there are a few areas Pepperstone Crypto could look at improving in the future. Most notably by adding more conditional order types, like trailing stop, TWAP, and Iceberg. This would perfectly complement its already strong platform and add more usability for API traders. Lastly, I’d love to see some staking and earn products added, letting you earn some passive income on long-term holdings and stablecoins, which would really put it on par with other top-tier exchanges.

Mobile App

Pepperstone Crypto has really focused on its mobile app and trading experience, and it shows. The app is easy to use and offers a seamless trading experience. It’s available on both Android and iOS, but is currently restricted to the Australian versions of the App Store and Google Play Store.

It doesn’t have dedicated Lite and Pro modes, but its standard interface does a great job of being easy to navigate, without having to sacrifice advanced features like TradingView charting and order forms. This makes it a great option whether you are a new trader or a seasoned professional.

Coin Search: The search bar lets you search for specific coins available on Pepperstone Crypto. It shows you the trading pairs along with their current prices and 24-hour change. The only thing missing is the daily trading volume, which adds an extra step of clicking into the specific coin when I want to see the 24-hour trading volume.

Trading Experience: Since I don’t live in Australia, I tested the Pepperstone Crypto app on a testnet environment, which mirrors the experience you’d get on the live app, with a few beta features that aren’t fully available yet. I found it instinctive to browse coins and place orders using the easy-to-use order forms and charting tools.

Market Discovery: The markets page is great for exploring the coins available on Pepperstone Crypto. It shows you the hot cryptos and new tokens at the top, followed by the top gainers and losers. Below that, you have the full list of coins available on the exchange, with convenient filters that let you filter coins by categories like stablecoins, RWA, and politics.

Watchlist Management: Adding coins to your watchlist is easy; all you have to do is click the star in the top right of any coins page. This adds the coin to your favourites, which you can find on the markets page or inside the search bar.

Price Alerts: Unfortunately, the mobile app doesn’t offer custom price alerts, so you can’t set alerts for specific price levels or percentage change. This is the only key feature I found missing from the mobile app, and it’s something I hope they add in the near future.

Portfolio Clarity: The homescreen on the Pepperstone Crypto app shows a live account value of all the assets and cash deposited in your account, converted into AUD. You can also click the Wallet button on the bottom bar, which takes you to your portfolio overview. Here you can see a detailed breakdown of which coins you hold, their 24-hour price change, and equivalent AUD value.

My Key Takeaways After Testing Pepperstone Crypto on Mobile

All in all, I think the Pepperstone Crypto mobile app is a solid platform to trade on, though it comes with a few drawbacks. If you’re someone who primarily trades using your phone, it has all the advanced trading tools and features, like TradingView, advanced order forms, and real-time market data, so if you wanted, you could solely rely on the app for your trading.

However, there are a few downsides, most notably the lack of custom price alerts. Having custom price alerts that send push notifications when your chosen coin hits a specific price or price change would really help put the app on par with industry leaders. Also, having a graph or chart on the portfolio page to visualize your account growth over time and portfolio allocation would be a nice quality-of-life addition.

Fees

Pepperstone Crypto Spot Maker/Taker Fees

In my review of spot fees, I examine spot fees across three tiers, focusing on trading volume differences. I highlight basic fees, possible savings with native tokens, and other discount schemes. This method offers a clear view of fee structures and savings for traders of all levels, comparing them to industry standards to assess affordability.

With spot fees of just 0.1%, Pepperstone Crypto has put itself on par with the likes of Binance and Bybit, which also charge 0.1% for spot trading. The only difference is that Pepperstone Crypto doesn’t have a tiered pricing structure that rewards you with lower fees as your trading volume increases.

Spread Fees

Spread fees are the difference between buy (bid) and sell (ask) prices on an exchange. Spreads are a hidden trading cost and affect your profits when you trade a coin frequently. Since Pepperstone Crypto has a much lower daily trading volume than its more established competitors, the spreads on most markets are much wider. BTC spreads on Pepperstone Crypto have ranged from 0.10% to 0.17% during my testing, whilst other top-tier exchanges have BTC spreads of between 0.001% and 0.00001%

Deposit Fees

Pepperstone Crypto supports AUD Bank Transfers and crypto deposits, both of which are completely free of charge. It’s great to see free fiat deposits, since it makes it easy and cost-efficient to buy crypto.

Withdrawal Fees

Withdrawals are also completely free and available via AUD Bank Transfer and crypto networks. Free fiat withdrawals put Pepperstone Crypto ahead of most major exchanges, which charge small fees for fiat withdrawals.

Are Pepperstone Crypto Fees Competitive?

From my experience looking at fees on countless exchanges, Pepperstone Crypto definitely ranks as one of my top picks for low fees. Zero deposit and withdrawal fees make it the most cost-effective exchange for buying or selling crypto with AUD. Its 0.1% spot trading fees also place it among the top exchanges, with the only missing feature being tiered pricing for high-volume traders.

Cryptocurrencies Available on Pepperstone Crypto

Liquidity

Since it just launched, CoinMarketCap doesn’t have a liquidity score for Pepperstone Crypto just yet. It also means that it inevitably has a lower daily trading volume than established competitors with tens of millions of users.

Deposits & Withdrawals

Pepperstone Crypto Deposit Options

Pepperstone Crypto’s deposit methods are limited compared to other leading exchanges. The near-instant OSKO transfers are a plus, but the lack of third-party payment providers is hard to get over.

Quick Buy

One of my issues with Pepperstone Crypto is the lack of a quick buy option for quick, convenient crypto purchases. While OSKO deposits are processed instantly, you still have to go onto your bank app, enter the details, and initiate the deposit, as opposed to a quick buy, where you just enter how much you want to buy and use a saved bank card for instant purchases.

Pepperstone Crypto Withdrawal Methods

Withdrawals are available via the same methods as deposits. Here, the lack of a bank card or Apple/Google Pay isn’t as significant, since most other competitors also don’t allow fiat withdrawals via these methods. Pepperstone Crypto instantly processes fiat withdrawal 24/7 via bank transfer, so if your bank supports OSKO, you’ll have the money hit your account within minutes.

Pepperstone Crypto Daily Withdrawal Limits

Pepperstone Crypto gives you a lot more freedom when it comes to withdrawals compared to most of its competitors. There’s no limit on daily crypto withdrawals, making it ideal if you need to withdraw large amounts in one go. There’s also no explicit daily limit on fiat withdrawals. There is a limit of 10,000 AUD per transaction, but you can make multiple transactions per day as long as it doesn’t flag internal or regulatory inspections.

Customer Service

Pepperstone Crypto Customer Service Test

To assess customer service quality for diverse users, I perform a unique test. I contact customer support through all available channels, presenting hypothetical problems users might face. I focus on response speed, response quality, and whether I speak to a real person or a bot. This tests customer support for both active traders and casual investors.

Live Chat Test

While the website lists live chat support, the live chat is just an automated chatbot that retrieves answers from its FAQ and support pages to answer your queries. This is handy if you have basic questions about the exchange, but if you have something specific you need answered, you will be better off speaking to a human. If you ask the chatbot, it will pass you over to a human, but this creates an email ticket instead of a support agent joining the live chat.

During my testing, I messaged the chatbot asking to speak to a human, and it created a ticket for me. I did this at around 9:30 am Australian time and got a reply within 15 minutes, which was relatively quick. I then asked the agent my standard set of questions, and they were able to reply with detailed responses to each of the questions.

Overall, I’m impressed with Pepperstone Crypto’s customer support. Although I had to wait a few extra minutes for a reply via email. However, once I did get a response, it was thorough and answered my questions with plenty of detail and context, more than can be said for other exchanges.