ChangeNOW review: Is it legit or trustworthy?

In early 2020, ChangeNOW did an AMA on Publish0x where I participated and won some 10,000 NOW tokens.

That’s how I discovered the project, and have been using and even promoting their platform intermittently since then.

Over the years, I’ve had both good and bad experiences with them, all of which I will be sharing with you in this review.

Hopefully, you find it useful as you do your own research and decide whether to use the platform or not.

What is ChangeNOW?

ChangeNOW is a non-custodial instant cryptocurrency exchange that allows you to convert an unlimited amount of one crypto to another without registration or KYC.

The exchange also allows you to buy crypto with fiat using your bank card among other services, all of which we will be discussing in this review.

ChangeNOW is said to be a subsidiary of CHN Group Limited, a Seychelles registered company located at Global Gateway 8, Rue de la Perle, Providence, Mahé.

And with the postal address, Newtonlaan 115, Utrecht, 3584 BH, Netherlands.

So, if you live within that area, you can check them out yourself to verify that the company truly exists.

ChangeNOW review: Pros and Cons

Pros:

1. Wide range of coins and trading pairs. Over 480 cryptocurrencies and 100,000+ trading pairs are available on ChangeNOW.
2. Dozens of fiat currencies: ChangeNOW supports buying crypto with over 60 different national currencies.
3. Swap as low as $2: The minimum amount of coins you can swap is as low as $2 to $20, depending on the coin involved.
4. Fast transaction processing: The average exchange time on ChangeNOW is 5 minutes.
5. No limits: You can swap an unlimited amount of supported cryptocurrencies to another on ChangeNOW.
6. No account creation: You don’t need an account to use ChangeNOW. It’s basically a drive-through crypto exchange.
7. No KYC: There’s no KYC requirement on ChangeNOW. But as per their terms of service, if your transaction appears questionable or involves flagged or sanctioned addresses, you may be required to verify your identity.
8. Non-custodial: ChangeNOW does not hold your crypto assets. As such, there’s no risk of a hack. However, they have some control over the coins within the brief period when you send them to their address and when the swap is completed. During this small window, they can steal your coins if they want to or hold them and request KYC if the transaction is deemed suspicious.
9. Supports both fixed and floating rates: With a floating rate, your swap will be processed at the best prevailing market rate. But with a fixed rate, your trade will be executed at the initially displayed exchange rate when you initiated the transaction. If the rates change before the transaction could be processed, it will fail and you’ll have to try again.
10. Great support: The ChangeNOW support is very responsive, friendly, and supportive; especially the live chat on their website.
11. Great service: ChangeNOW is one of the leading instant crypto exchanges that’s stood the test of time and consistently delivers great service. That gives it some credibility.

Cons:

1. ChangeNOW will require you to verify your identity if your transaction is considered to be specious or flagged.
2. Fiat purchases on ChangeNOW are a bit more expensive compared to the rates you get on major exchanges like Binance.
3. You can only buy a maximum of $20,000 worth of crypto daily and $50,000 monthly from the same account. So, if you want to buy more on the platform, you may need to spread your money across multiple accounts and pretend to be different people.
4. Though ChangeNOW does not “store” your coins on their platform, there’s a short window in which the exchange has some level of control over the funds. This is the time between when you transferred your coin to the designated wallet address and when you receive the corresponding coin in your wallet.

With that out of the way, if you decide to go ahead and use the platform, here’s a simple guide on both how to swap or buy crypto with fiat.

How does ChangeNOW work?

ChangeNOW is a platform you can use to convert one crypto to another or buy crypto with fiat, using your bank card.

Below is an outline of how ChangeNOW works in practice.

• You select your trading pair and the system automatically finds the best rate for you.
• Give them your wallet address where you want to receive the token that you want.
• Send them the coin you want to swap.
• They receive and then transfer your coin to their liquidity provider and convert it to the one you want.
• Then send it to your designated wallet address.

That’s it. In a few minutes, the token will be in your wallet.

How to swap one token to another on ChangeNOW

Here, I will walk you through the process of swapping one cryptocurrency for another on ChangeNOW.

Step 1: Go to the ChangeNOW Website

Then select your trading pair and enter the amount of the token you want to swap as shown above.

In the above screenshot, I’m swapping 10 ETH for BNB.

The amount of BNB I get is automatically calculated using the best rate from across various exchanges or liquidity sources that ChangeNOW uses.

If you’re happy with the rate, then click the Exchange button to proceed with the swap.

Step 2: Submit your receiving wallet address

On the next screen, you’ll be asked to provide the wallet address where you want to receive the BNB after the conversion is complete.

Copy and paste your wallet address as shown above and click the Next button to continue.

Step 3: Confirm transaction details

On the next screen, you’ll be asked to confirm the transaction details as shown above.

If everything looks good, click the Confirm button, otherwise, click Back to go back to the previous step.

Step 5: Make a deposit

On the next screen, you’ll be asked to transfer your token to a designated wallet address.

As you can see from the above screenshot, you can fund the wallet directly with MetaMask or Brave Wallet or through a Fio request.

Regardless of which funding method you used, once they receive the amount of the token you’re to send, the transaction will be processed.

Furthermore, if you want, you can enter your email address at the bottom of the page to receive a notification when the transaction is completed.

Once your ETH is received, it’ll be swapped to BNB at the best available rate and then automatically sent to the wallet address you provided earlier.

How to buy crypto with fiat on ChangeNOW

Next, let’s go through how to buy crypto with fiat on ChangeNOW using your bank card.

Step 1: Go to the ChangeNOW website.

From the homepage, click the buy crypto with Visa or MasterCard as shown above.

Step 2: Specify the fiat amount you want to spend

On the next screen, you’ll be asked to select the currency and the amount of fiat you want to spend, and the coin you want to buy.

In the above screenshot, I want to buy $20,000 worth of Bitcoin using the USD.

The system will automatically calculate and show you the amount of Bitcoin you’ll get for your money.

If you’re ok with the rate shown, then click the Buy button to proceed.

Step 3: Provide your wallet address

On the next screen, you’ll be asked to provide the wallet address where you want to receive your purchased coin.

Paste your wallet address accordingly and click the Next button to continue.

Step 4: Confirm transaction details

If everything is good, click the Confirm button to continue.

Step 5: Make payment and pass verification

Once you click the confirm above, you will be redirected to Simplex which handles fiat payments for ChangeNOW.

Just wait, you’ll automatically be taken to the payment provider website where you’ll enter your card and other personal details for payment and verification, as shown below.

Enter your card details and click the Next button to continue to verification.

Upon successful payment and verification, the Bitcoin will be sent to the wallet address you provided earlier in step 3.

Other ChangeNOW products

ChangeNOW is more than just an instant crypto exchange.

The project has a growing ecosystem consisting of 7 different products that are aimed at providing businesses, developers, and users multiple ways to engage with crypto.

These include:

1. Token Swap
2. NOWPayments
3. Mobile Exchange
4. LighteningNOW
5. NOWNodes
6. Telegram Bot
7. Now Wallet
8. Crypto Loan
9. NOWTracker

Let’s briefly discuss each of them below.

1. Token Swap

Token Swap is a fast, easy, and fully customizable way for developers to migrate their token to a mainnet.

For example, if a project has been on Ethereum and they decided to build their own independent chain, Token Swap helps them convert their old token to a coin on the new chain.

This service is claimed to have been successfully used by Binance (BNB), Tether (USDT), and Atomic Wallet (AWC).

2. NOWPayments

NOWPayments allows merchants and organisations to start accepting payments and donations in crypto.

It was launched in 2019 and claims to be super easy to implement on any online store through plugins, API, invoices, etc.

3. Mobile Exchange

The ChangeNOW mobile app allows you to swap on the go. The app is available on both AppStore and Google Play.

4. LightningNOW

LighteningNOW is a zero-fee public Lightning Network node that provides instant payments secured by smart contracts and cross-chain atomic transactions.

It aims to provide a reliable and free Lightning Network node to help users easily create and manage channels.

5. NOWNodes

NOWNodes is a blockchain-as-a-service solution that allows users to connect and interact with multiple full blockchain nodes and block explorers via API.

NOWNodes claims to support over 50 blockchain networks that users can easily connect to through its API.

6. Telegram Bot

The ChangeNOW Telegram bot gives you access to all ChangeNOW functions from anywhere in the world.

You can use the bot to swap crypto in a few steps right on Telegram.

7. NOW Wallet

NOW Wallet is a multi-chain cryptocurrency wallet that allows you to store, buy, exchange, and store your crypto assets seamlessly.

The wallet supports simple transactions as well as connects to DeFi and web3 applications. It’s available for both iOS and Android users.

Other notable and useful features of ChangeNOW include

8. Crypto Loans

ChangeNOW allows you to take overcollaterised loans on its platform with an LTV rate of 50%.

9. NOWTracker 

The NOWTracker is a free cryptocurrency portfolio tracking app that allows you to add your wallet address and automatically update your balances live.

The ChangeNOW Token (NOW)

ChangeNOW is the first instant cryptocurrency exchange to launch its own native token, NOW.

NOW is a utility token that powers the entire ChageNOW ecosystem and is used to:

• Pay for all ChangeNOW products and services, including listing.
• Promote your project on ChangeNOW.
• Reward registered traders or users on ChangeNOW.
• Stake to get up to 25% APR.

ChangeNOW fees

ChangeNOW charges a 0.4% platform fee. This in addition to the following fees is all calculated and included in the rate you get:

• the blockchain network fees for transferring your asset to an exchange or liquidity provider,
• trading fees on the exchange
• the fees for sending the corresponding coin to your wallet.

The process of exchanging crypto consists of many different steps, and during those steps, various fees are charged.

The fees are usually only noticeable for blockchain networks, such as Ethereum,  with significantly high transaction fees.

Is ChangeNOW trustable

ChangeNOW has over 7,550 reviews on Trustpilot. 89% of them rate it as excellent and 5% say the platform is great. So, yes, it seems the users trust the platform.

In addition to that, the exchange has been operating and expanding since 2017. It’s stood the test of time and continues to grow. Plus they seem to be making a concerted effort to their users satisfied.

Furthermore, from my own experience using ChangeNOW since 2020, I’ve only had a single stuck transaction once, which was resolved within 24 hours.

I’ve not had many interactions with the support but all the times I’ve had to message them, my issue was resolved or I got the answers I needed.

My only problem with them right now is the portions of my affiliate commissions which they’ve been kind of stealing from me.

I’m still fighting this out with them, and hopefully, we can come to good terms on that.

How to earn with ChangeNOW

You know, one thing I always look out for on every platform is the various legit ways to earn some crypto, and ChangeNOW has 2 such opportunities.

These are:

1. Cashbacks in NOW
2. Affiliate Program

1. Cashbacks

You earn 0.1% of your swaps volume back in NOW tokens by trading using the NOW Wallet or registering a ChangeNOW Pro account.

This is a nice way to stack up NOW tokens and pay a lower trading fee on the exchange.

2. Affiliate Program

You can earn Bitcoin regularly through the ChangeNOW affiliate program.

To begin, you need to signup as an affiliate, generate your referral link, and begin promoting and inviting people to use the platform.

For every user who comes to ChangeNOW via your referral link, you get 0.4% of their swap volume, paid out in BTC.

You can withdraw your rewards at any time as long as you reach the minimum payout amount of 0.002 BTC.

I have been randomly promoting ChangeNOW over the past 2 years and have earned and withdrawn some BTC from it.

For example, I’ve used my ChangeNOW affiliate link in this article and when you click through to the platform and make a swap, I earn a commission.

Furthermore, are provided buttons, widgets, and plugins they can use on their site to offer exchange services to their users, just as we have here.

2.1 The ChangeNOW affiliate “scam”

There’s only one major problem with the ChangeNOW affiliate program that you must be aware of.

They have this “amount is too small” thingy which they use to withhold some of your earnings.

This means that some of your duly earned referral commissions will not be credited to your account because the amount is considered too small.

So, you’re not going to earn as much as you should.

The above is a screenshot of my referral commissions which ChangeNOW claims are too small to be credited to my account.

Obviously, some of these amounts are by no means “small”, especially the ones I marked in the screenshot.

For example, I have a pending affiliate reward of 12 MATIC worth $10+, 1 APE worth $7+, $1.4 USDT, and 0.039 SOL worth $1.2+, etc.

ChangeNOW claims that these commissions are too small and refuses to credit them to my account.

Of all the instant crypto exchanges I know, ChangeNOW is the only one that is cheating its affiliates like this.

For the past 6 months, I have been going back and forth with them and they keep saying it’s a known issue and will be fixed, but they never do.

So, I take it that this is a deliberate attempt to deny affiliates their due rewards, as every cent earned should be credited accordingly, just as other platforms do.

The risks of using ChangeNOW

Conclusion

ChangeNOW is one of the most popular instant cryptocurrency changes that you can use to convert one token to another or buy crypto with fiat.

The project has a growing ecosystem of NOW products or tools for both regular crypto investors or users and developers.

Their exchange platform is simple to use and they have the widest range of cryptocurrencies and trading pairs among competing platforms.

Furthermore, the fees and final rates are usually better than other platforms and their support is extremely responsive and helpful.

But the platform is not without risks and question marks, as highlighted above.

So, trade responsibly and don’t do too large volumes without having your KYC details handy in case your transaction gets flagged.

What’s been your experience with ChangeNOW? Join the discussion in our Telegram group.