Digital Surge Exchange Reviewed – Is It A Home For Beginners?

Digital Surge provides a unique trading experience for Aussies looking to trade cryptocurrencies in a one-click intuitive environment. The exchange is fast-rising in adoption among Australians due to its approach to trading assets.

There is a lot to learn about this highly-rated and fast-growing crypto exchange. We will walk you through all you need to know about the platform, its offering, pros, and cons. Plus the required steps to join and begin trading cryptocurrencies on the platform.

At a Quick Glance

Digital Surge is generally a great crypto exchange. However, most advanced traders may not find it resourceful, especially with its lack of alternative investment options available in exchanges like Binance, Poloniex, Gate.io, etc.

Its user interface is excellent, and beginners would find it easy to use and access because of its well-structured and aligned features. High fees and region of operation also limit the exchange’s services.

Pug Score	4.5/5
Fees (Maker/Taker)	0.5%/0.5%
Cryptocurrencies Traded	250+
Most Suitable For	Beginner/Advanced Traders

Key Findings

Pros	Cons
Reasonable trading fees for Australian residents	High trading fees compared to most exchanges
Tight spreads	Not available to US residents
Has a unique model of trading crypto	Limited investment options
250+ crypto assets available for trading	No staking offering
Easy to use and access
Interactive user interface
Great customer support

What is Digital Surge?

Digital Surge is an Australian-based crypto exchange available to Australian residents and some jurisdictions in the Asia-pacific region. The company has its headquarters in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, where it operates fully as a registered company.

Digital Surge started operations in January 2017. Under the leadership of its two founders, Josh Lehman and Dan Rutter, it has grown considerably to become one of the popular crypto exchanges in Australia.

Lehman and Rutter are IT professionals with over ten years of experience in the industry, respectively. They came up with Digital Surge primarily to make buying and selling of cryptocurrencies simple for Australians.

Now we have an overview of what Digital Surge is, let’s learn about the exchange’s offerings and services.

Range of Offering

Buying and Selling Crypto

Digital Surge doesn’t just support fiat deposits; it also allows users to trade cryptocurrencies directly using fiat. Selling cryptocurrencies is also as easy as buying them on the exchange. 

Alternatively, you can transfer crypto assets to an external wallet or withdraw fiat to different bank accounts from the exchange.

Crypto Trading

Digital Surge offers a unique model for trading cryptocurrencies. This style of trading makes it stand out from other competing exchanges, such as Swyftx or Coinjar.

Unlike creating order books or trading derivatives, it offers an instant buy/sell crypto trading model, applying fees in-between and in tight spreads. We’ll discuss how to trade cryptocurrencies in the subsequent sections.

Multi-Coin Wallet

Digital Surge offers an in-built digital wallet for users, supporting over 250 crypto assets and allowing users to buy or sell cryptocurrencies at ease.

The digital wallet is very secure for holding and spending crypto assets, and users can use it as a standalone wallet for holding their cryptocurrencies. However, it’s not as secure as hard wallets.

Pay-Your-Bills

The Pay-Your-Bills option is an option that allows users to spend their cryptocurrencies digitally. It is a software-as-a-service portal for using cryptocurrencies like BTC or ETH to pay bills in Australia.

However, only Australian residents and environs can access this feature. You can pay bills through credit cards, bank transfers, crypto wallet, or BPAY, a money service in Australia.

You can easily spot this functionality on your Digital Surge dashboard and choose the occasion for spending your assets. It is easy to use and navigate.

Commission and Fee Structure

Digital Surge charges one of the lowest fees compared to other top Australian crypto exchanges. Its commission structure is clearly defined, and users may question additional fees they dislike: the kind of fees most exchanges charge subtly in the guise of offering lower trading rates.

Digital Surge’s fees spread across sections, including:

Trading Fees

Digital Surge adopts a tiered fee structure. Instant trades between 0 – $100k on a 30-day scale stand at 0.5%. This value drops when users increase their trading volume.

For instance, if the user trades $100k-250k trading volume or more, Digital Surge drops the fee to 0.4% or lesser.

The exchange charges you 0.5% as maker and taker fees. In comparison to exchanges such as Swyftx, and Coinspot, you may observe that this fee is quite reasonable.

Besides the trading fees, Digital Surge has a tight spread with an average percentage of 0.4% when buying or selling cryptocurrency on its platform. In addition, it guarantees price quotes, unlike competitor exchanges that usually estimate theirs.

Deposit Fees

As a fiat-to-crypto exchange, Digital Surge charges a deposit fee for users who use the POLi deposit method. This deposit method has a commission range between $2 – $3.30, which could vary based on the amount deposited.

However, PayIDs, which are traditional to Australian traders, and Crypto deposits are generally free.

Withdrawal Fees

Digital Surge does not directly charge withdrawal fees from users, especially for AUD withdrawals. However, inter-wallet crypto transfers may cost you a standard network fee whose value depends on the crypto market and blockchain ecosystem.

Ease of Account Opening

Digital Surge is pretty much easy to join and access. Unlike exchanges such as Independent Reserve that has a complex sign-up process, Digital Surge is so easy that in 2 minutes, you may begin trading on its platform.

• Simply visit Digital Surge’s official site and locate the “Get Started” button at the top right corner of the page if you’re using a desktop.
• Enter your email and create a strong password, and if referred, you can also include the affiliate link or code.
• Read and agree to the exchange’s terms of service, and boom, you’re live on the platform.

But it doesn’t end at simply entering these details to sign up. Digital Surge requires extra measures to secure your account and maintain its KYC and AML compliance. The next steps to take include:

• Confirming your email address
• Verifying your account
• Depositing funds
• And start trading

You confirm your account email by simply clicking the unique link sent to your mailbox, redirecting you to the Digital Surge page. 

It is just as simple as that. In the next sections, we talk about the remaining steps in detail.

KYC Verification

KYC is an important step every Digital Surge user must do, and without it, the exchange may not permit you to trade cryptocurrencies therein. 

KYC is as easy as the sign-up process, no big deal. All you must do is provide the necessary documents stipulated by the platform. To make it easier here is some information you should present during KYC Verification, especially level 2 verification:

• Government-issued ID document
• “Digital Surge” sign, handwritten on a blank paper with a current date of verifying the account.

There are two levels of verification:

Level 1 gives you access to trade, deposit, and withdraw fiat. However, you may not access the pay-your-bill feature from your Digital Surge wallet, except, maybe, from an external wallet.

Level 2 gives additional access to the pay-your-bill feature, where you can spend your funds. You can also add new banks and withdraw fiat to different bank accounts or send cryptocurrencies to an external wallet at this level.

However, you can get started with level 1, which would take only a couple of minutes, depending on your internet speed. All it takes to be level 1 verified is your basic information.

You can always upgrade to level 2 when you need these additional features. Level 2 requires you to provide additional useful information and the aforementioned documents.

Here’s the step to do your level 1 and 2 verifications.

• After you confirm your email address, click on “verify your account.”
• Choose your account type: personal, business, SMSF, or Trust account. The personal account is very straightforward to apply. However, you may undergo extra steps for the remaining corporate accounts.
• Assuming you begin with the personal account: on choosing it, Digital Surge provides you with a phone number column where you must enter your valid phone number and the verification code sent to the number.

• Next is “identity verification,” in which you enter your basic information.

For the level 2 verification, you may need to provide your passport or government-issued ID documents. You can go ahead to deposit money into your account after this process.

Deposit and Withdrawal

As said earlier, you can deposit and withdraw fiat, but this may depend on your verification level. That is why you should be level 2 verified to enjoy all Digital Surge services.

That said, let’s walk you through the deposit and withdrawal process, starting from the deposit/funding.

How to Deposit Fiat and Crypto on Digital Surge

One way to make this easier is to add your bank account. This service may be exclusive to Australian residents. Other regions may use the POLi method to fund their fiat accounts.

To add a bank account, simply use the PayID to deposit fiat from your bank account, and Digital Surge will add it to your bank account list. Adding multiple bank accounts is possible but accessible by level-2-verified accounts.

Otherwise, you can fund your trading account with cryptocurrencies using an external wallet. This method is way easier and faster. Deposit fees are usually standard network fees.

The daily deposit limit for crypto and fiat transactions is $20k, but you can upgrade it on request via a support ticket or mail.

How to Withdraw Funds on Digital Surge

Withdrawing funds is easy, and Digital Surge’s UX makes it even simpler.

• Locate the three lines at the top right corner next to Deposit funds to view the dropdown box.
• In the dropdown menu, choose “Withdraw funds.” Then follow the next user-friendly steps.

Digital Surge’s default daily withdrawal limit is $20k, but you can upgrade it to $100k on request through the help center’s support ticket.

Platform User Interface and Trading Experience

A good user interface is one of the prerequisites of an excellent trading experience, and this is an area Digital Surge excels above some competitors in Australia. 

Blockpug deduces that Digital Surge’s UI/UX is generally great, following its unique distribution of features. It is easy to navigate the environment and access functionalities.

You can also deposit, trade, and withdraw cryptocurrencies without hassles. Let’s further highlight the platform’s trading experience.

Digital Surge trading experience contributed to building a good reputation for the exchange. Users can comfortably choose a variety of cryptocurrencies to buy or sell on the BUY/SELL section.

For an even more unique trading experience, the “Markets” section offers only BTC and ETH in a one-click fiat-to-crypto transaction. Instead of creating order books, as in most exchanges like Binance or Coinbase, you can buy or sell cryptocurrencies instantly.

The Buy & Sell is almost similar to the Markets, but with over 250 cryptocurrencies listed. Advanced traders looking for robust asset options may not need to look further.

You can add cryptocurrencies on your watchlist, especially those you feel will perform well or those you’ve bought already but want to track and monitor their results.

Clicking a crypto asset opens additional information about it and helps you make informed purchasing decisions.

Digital Surge shows you information like the coin’s price, price chart, additional data such as market cap, volume, circulating supply, and coin’s all-time high.

Additional information includes some recent news surrounding the crypto, coin ranking on authority ranking sites such as Coinmarketcap, an overview of the coin, and some similar top-performing coins you may like.

The uniqueness of Digital Surge lies in the fact that it does not follow the template pattern of most exchanges like Binance, OKEx, etc.

Instead of Spots, Margin, or Derivatives trading, it offers simple one-click buying and selling of cryptocurrencies with tight spreads and fees.

How to Trade Cryptocurrencies on Digital Surge

As said earlier, trading cryptocurrencies on Digital Surge is easier than it sounds. Follow these steps to make your first transaction:

Locate the Buy/Sell section on your dashboard to view over 250 crypto markets.

Choose an option you wish to trade, and click buy or sell to open the transactions details page.

You may now choose which trading option you wish to use. There is the Instant and Trigger option. The Instant option allows you to trade cryptocurrencies immediately, while the Trigger option schedules a time to execute your transaction.

Assuming you use the Instant Buy or Sell option, you may proceed to trade with funds from your fiat or crypto wallet. Click Buy or Sell Crypto depending on the occasion to complete your transaction.

Note that Digital Surge records your fiat transactions in Australian dollars (AU$) using international exchange rates. It is as simple as ABC, and you can get started and complete your transaction in a couple of minutes.

Mobile and Desktop Application

Digital Surge has a desktop and mobile application for Android and iOS devices. Its interface was first inspired from a mobile perspective, meaning that what you see in the mobile app is similar to its desktop and web applications.

How to Install Digital Surge’s Mobile and Desktop Application

Downloading Digital Surge’s mobile and desktop applications on your devices is easy. You can easily do this via the exchange’s web platform.

• Log into your Digital Surge account, and locate the three horizontally compact lines at the top right corner of the page to view a dropdown menu.
• On the menu, locate the “Install App” button, and click it.
• A pop-up notification requires you to approve the download and add a shortcut to your device screen.
• In a few seconds, your desktop or mobile application is ready.

For Mac and iOS devices:

• Tap the Action tab at the top of the screen, choose the Add to Homescreen, and click Add.

Supported Cryptocurrency

There are many cryptocurrencies to choose from on Digital Surge. However, most of its listed coins are ERC/ Ethereum-based coins.

You may need to use a DeFi exchange to swap between tokens of different standards to the ERC20 standard tokens. 

By adopting the ERC standard token, it becomes easier for users to send and withdraw crypto assets following the popularity of the Ethereum ecosystem.

Educational Tools

Offering premium-type educational tools is another Digital Surge selling point. There are many resources on how to use the exchange and also go about your crypto trading journey.

The good news is these resources are free. That said, Digital Surge’s educational materials come through the news section, crypto description or overview, compact educational tool on its blog section.

Customer Support

Customer support on Digital Surge is excellent. We found out that Digital Surge sends timely feedback to its users compared to most exchanges on the internet.

However, its customer support function comes through the help center, FAQ, and social media channels.

In the help center, you can get support tickets for reporting technical problems and easily check out FAQs for possible first aid solutions. 

The exchange is also active on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Regulation and Security

Digital Surge is a regulated exchange registered with the Australian Transaction Reports & Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC); reg. Number: 100576214, and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC); ACN: 620473109.

The exchange adopts a multi-layered security approach to safeguarding user information and investor funds. Like every other exchange and the standard funds’ security model, it uses the cold and hot wallet storage model.

Other security measures include the 2FA and anti-phishing techniques, which users can use to secure their accounts from their ends.

Is Digital Surge Safe?

Digital Surge appears to be a safe crypto exchange. It is regulated and registered with the Australian securities agencies and must comply with rules that ensure user-funds are secure and follow the AML/KYC rules.

Conclusion

Every indication from this Digital Surge review proves that it is not only a trustworthy exchange but a generally excellent one. It has a unique style of trading cryptocurrencies that is not traditional with other exchanges.

Users who may have used exchanges like Binance or Poloniex may be a little disappointed with its approach to crypto trading because it is not as complex as they appear. 

Another area Digital Surge lags in is its lack of alternative investment incentives such as PoS consensus, yield farming, liquidity pools, etc., as most exchanges. However, beginners and low-volume traders would welcome the exchange with happy faces.

FAQs