What is Liquid Cryptocurrency Exchange? – A Guide for Using the Liquid Cryptocurrency Trading Exchange in 2021
You might have heard recently of Liquid, the WordBook, or the QASH token. You might be wondering just what they all are? Well thankfully we’re here to shed some light and help make sense of it all.
What is Liquid Cryptocurrency Exchange?
Liquid is a fiat-to-cryptocurrency exchange based in Japan. The name ‘Liquid’ gives a nod to the wider mission for Liquid to become the best place for liquidity in the cryptocurrency markets.
Similar to a lot of cryptocurrency exchanges, Liquid lets you buy, sell and trade Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. It also lets you buy those currencies using your preferred ‘fiat’ currency. That might be £GBP, $USD, or Japanese Yen, the native currency of Liquid’s home base.
Liquid is a great crypto exchange. It provides quick and easy access to a huge range of Cryptocurrencies and pairings – whether that be USD/BTC, GBP/ETH, or JPY/BCH for example.
According to recent figures (early 2018), Liquid currently facilitates over $12 billion USD in transactions annually. It is also fully regulated in Japan, something that sets it apart from its peers.
*Updated Jan 2023: The Liquid Exchange was acquired by FTX in 2021-22, and then ceased trading in November 2022 when FTX filed for Bankruptcy.
Liquid has been around for a while now, having been initially launched back in 2014 under the early brand name Qryptos. It is well regarded, well secured and trusted by a large and growing user base. Large players in Japanese and Asian venture capital back the parent company, Quoine. On top of this, the founding team includes some really heavyweight personalities, with a wealth of experience in financial firms and exchange technologies.
What is Liquid Cryptocurrency Exchange? – Ok, so who are Quoine?
Quoine are a well established and leading FinTech company (financial technology). They are based out of Japan, but have offices in Singapore and Vietnam also. They provide a range of financial products focussed on the growing cryptocurrency market, and their wider mission is to make financial services accessible to all.
What is Liquid Cryptocurrency Exchange? – Quoine’s existing product range includes:
- Liquid – the online fiat-to-crypto exchange,
- The WorldBook – Liquid’s proprietary global trade matching engine
- QASH, which is their token (currently trades predominantly on the Liquid exchange),
- Liquid ICO Market – a great place to find and take part in upcoming Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) from great Blockchain projects
- Liquid Prime Brokerage (soon to launch)
Quoine aren’t like a lot of other cryptocurrency based businesses that have sprung up in recent years. They aren’t just a bunch of young developers out to capitalise on recent market interest and make a quick profit from launching yet another exchange or ICO.
Instead, Quoine are a FinTech growth start-up. They we’re founded by a core team of very experienced and highly ranked professionals who all hail from the traditional banking and finance world.
The founders of Quoine realised that a lot of new cryptocurrency exchanges we’re being built by young, highly enthused developers and early adopters from the cryptocurrency community.
Those developers have quickly captured great market share and established some excellent exchange platforms. Understandably though, their trade and expertise is in developing the crypto technology. They don’t necessarily have the background or experience to deliver great financial products and a level of customer service to match.
The founders of Quoine saw this opportunity, and decided that they would be the ones to improve and simplify the crypto exchange experience. They have built financial products and fiat exchange platforms before, and now they are doing the same with crypto and Liquid.
Better products and levels of customer service are desperately needed in the crypto space. This is especially true now as mass-market adoption grows and more discerning customers enter the space. Customers who are all expecting great consumer-grade products and experiences. Similar to what they would receive over on a traditional stock or foreign currency exchange.
What is Liquid Cryptocurrency Exchange? – I want to try Liquid
Brilliant! You won’t be disappointed. As has always been the case, Liquid is free to join and it’s very simple and easy for you to setup a user account.
We recommend you use our referral link here *(now defunct).
If you signup using this code and begin trading on Liquid – then you’ll earn 3 free QASH tokens as a welcome gift! (Old offer, possibly out of date).
Who can say no to that? The QASH token itself is a very exciting prospect in the cryptocurrency world right now. You read more about it below.
What is Liquid Cryptocurrency Exchange? – Signing up to Liquid
Once you arrive at the Liquid website, you’ll be guided through a quick signup process. You’ll need to add your email address, chose a password, provide a few other basic details and then you’re in and have an account!
Later on though, to verify your account and enable you to deposit and withdraw funds, you’ll also have to provide some other documentation. Typically this might be a passport or drivers licence photo. This is quickly becoming the default requirement now across all crypto exchanges.
Don’t be too alarmed by this, its much the same anywhere else and on any other cryptocurrency exchange. In fact what Quoine are doing here is fulfilling their KYC (Know Your Customer) obligations as a registered business and exchange. This in itself is all part of ‘smartening-up’ the crypto world, making it more secure and safe to transact.
What is Liquid Cryptocurrency Exchange? – Remind me again what QASH is?
QASH is the cryptocurrency token, which Quoine launched to the market back in November 2017. Like a lot of other Altcoins or tokens, Quoine conceived QASH, to provide utility and enable a new Blockchain based technology which they are bringing to market. In this case QASH will be used to power and transact on the Liquid platform.
One of the key benefits of using QASH on the Liquid platform is a 50% reduction in trading fees if you pay using QASH.
- Try Liquid for free and signup here *(now defunct).
What is Liquid Cryptocurrency Exchange? – Where to next – more reading and Cryptocurrency Exchanges to try…
Looking for other Cryptocurrency Exchanges to try? A good starting point would be our post on How To Buy And Sell Bitcoin – 4 Steps To Trading Bitcoin.
If you’d like a second opinion and a review of some of the best exchanges currently out there, then check out Which Cryptocurrency Exchange should I trust in 2023? which is a great read.