Pionex: beginners friendly review

Attention! This article is for informational purposes only and does not contain recommendations or calls to action.

The review has been prepared by the CScalp terminal team. You can get CScalp by leaving your e-mail in the form below.

Although commonly thought of as a “Crypto exchange,” Pionex isn’t exactly that. It acts as a cryptocurrency brokerage and draws liquidity from Binance and Huobi Global and is essentially a market-making surface for those exchanges. Even with that in mind, it still offers a broad and functional crypto trading toolkit.

Pionex has over $10 million in backing from Gaorong Capital, Shunwei Capital, and ZhenFund. It also has an MSB (Money Services Business) license from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) — an American organization battling financial crime and ensuring the safety of users of financial products. However, it’s not yet clear what kind of encryption Pionex uses to thwart data hacks.

To start trading on Pionex, you need to sign up: enter your email and create a password. Then you can enter your username and set a picture, but these steps are optional. Pionex has 3 KYC tiers. You can access the website without verification, but you can’t deposit or trade that way.

1. No verification: Can Access the website & trading terminal, can’t deposit, can’t trade
2. Country or Region & SMS confirmation: Limited deposits, limited trading. $2000 daily withdrawal limit
3. ID/Face confirmation: Higher limits on deposit, trade, and fiat, $1,000,000 daily withdrawal limit

With the KYC out of the way, you can head straight to your Account page to deposit funds and start trading. To do so, head over to Username -> My Balance in the top-right.

Here, you can access basic accounting functionality, such as Overview, Deposit, Withdraw, and Address Book. Also, you can access your Trade and Earn balances here (trading and staking, respectively).

Choose your pair from the dropdown in the downward triangle section, then choose the network, and confirm. Pionex supports depositing and withdrawing via OMNI, ERC-20, TRC-20, BEP-20 (BSC), and HECO networks.
It also offers an address book so you can withdraw your funds to multiple accounts without having to state the details each time. Keep in mind that you cannot fund your Pionex account with fiat currency.

Pionex allows you to trade manually and/or use bots, although the platform is clearly meant for the latter. Trading options are available in the “My Orders” tab in the top-right. You can choose to view your bot window and your manual trading window.

Click on the one that interests you, and you’ll be taken to the main trading terminal.

Pionex only supports trading crypto-to-crypto, although you can top up your balance with a credit card (the Buy Crypto button in the top-right).

Here, you can see the real-time market chart with customizable options, including switching between simplified and pro views. The panel on the right contains all the trading tools offered by Pionex, and here, you can switch between manual and algorithmic trading modes.

To date, Pionex offers 17 bots, spanning all popular trading types & strategies. For user convenience, the bots are broken up into the following categories:

• Basic: Grid Trading, Martingale, Spot-Futures Arbitrage, and Rebalancing Bot (best for HODLing)
• Moon (ultra-wide range trading): BTC Moon & ETH Moon
• Advanced Grid Bots: Leveraged Grid, Margin Grid, Reverse/Leverage Reverse Grid, Infinity Grids
• Smart Trade: Smart Trade, Trailing Buy/Sell
• Other: DCA (Dollar-cost averaging), TWAP (meant for whales), and Stop-Limit

While trading with algorithms, you can use an AI Strategy or set up your own manually. The manual trading toolkit includes Limit, Market, and Grid Buy/Sell orders.

In the Market tab, you can view and monitor all markets available on Pionex and filter them by price, volume, % of price change in 24H, etc.
Pionex Fees & Pricing

Pionex has a flat 0.05% fee on all trades and no costs on using the bots. However, the platform uses a maker-taker fee model, in which fees occur each time you put up trades that create or reduce liquidity on the market. If you put up an order and it's not immediately outmatched by another one, you pay the maker fee. If the order is immediately matched with an outstanding order, you’ll pay the taker fee. The total fees are deducted from the total outstanding balance after your trade closes.

The platform also has various withdrawal fees that depend on the KYC tier and currency. You can see the detailed breakdown of withdrawal fees via the “Fee” section in the footer of the main page.

For those seeking to trade high volumes, Pionex has a Market Maker program. Market Makers are required to fund your account by at least $300,000 in USDT (or the equivalent in another coin). If you qualify as a Market Maker, you pay a 0% maker fee, but still have to pay a 0.05% taker. Mind that applications for the program are only open during the first 10 days of each month. Once qualified, you need to keep the $300,000 on your account at all times. In case of disqualification, further applications will be closed for at least thirty days.

Pionex offers multiple channels of support for all users. You can request help in the live chat or via email, join the community to share and acquire knowledge.

New users can take advantage of a comprehensive list of tutorials to get going. You can watch video guides, read blog posts, and educate yourself on strategies and the bots employed by the platform.

Pionex is a comprehensive cryptocurrency brokerage that has a lot to offer to many traders. You can trade manually and use bots with pre-made settings, or set up your own. It offers comprehensive user support and is good for both advanced and beginner traders. The only minor downside might be the current inability to fund your Pionex account with cash, although that might change at some point.