Coinfield Vs Shakepay: Which Is Better For Canadians In 2026?

How Do Coinfield And Shakepay Compare, Fact By Fact?

Every row below comes from each company’s own pages and the Canadian registries, checked October 2026. Where a row has no fair winner, it says so.

What Are The Key Differences Between Coinfield And Shakepay?

How Do You Fund And Cash Out Coinfield And Shakepay In Canada?

Platform closed in 2023. Never send funds to a site using the CoinField name. Shakepay joined Interac e-Transfer as a Participant in July 2026, so e-Transfer now runs on its own connection. Bank-side sending limits and name matching still apply. Weekend timing: Not published.

What Does It Actually Cost To Buy On Shakepay?

Shakepay: Published target band of 0.5% to 2.0% over the benchmark price, which may widen by up to 1.5% in adverse conditions (help article checked 2026-10-03). Neither publishes a maker and taker schedule because there is no order book: the spread is the fee. If cost matters most, NDAX (flat 0.20%) or Kraken Pro are cheaper places to buy in Canada. Ranges reflect each platform’s published band, not a single quote. Bank and network fees are not included.

What Do Coinfield And Shakepay Offer Beyond Buying And Selling?

Shakepay Only

• Shakepay Card (prepaid Visa): Issued by Peoples Trust Company, no annual fee, no credit check, free to get once fully verified. Cashback 1% at Base and Bright, 1.5% at Blue; foreign fee 3%, 1.5% or 0%. Limits $5,000 per transaction and day, $50,000 per month. Apple Pay and Google Pay supported.
• BLOC (bitcoin-backed line of credit): Borrow up to $50,000 against bitcoin through Shakepay Credit Inc. APR 11.5% Base, 10.5% Bright, 9.5% Blue. No fixed payments while LTV is 50% or lower. Terms and margin levels are shown in-app. Loan proceeds may not buy crypto. Margin notice 80%, liquidation 90% with a 3% fee and a CAD 100 minimum: Not verified on a primary page.
• Interest and USD: CAD interest 1.5% Base, 2% Bright, 3% Blue; savings 1.5%, 2% and 5% (Blue, first $100,000). The crypto page advertises 3.5% on USD. Rates are variable and not guaranteed.
• ShakingSats: Shake your phone once a day for sats. Cap by status: 10 sats a day at Base, up to 100 at Bright, up to 500 at Blue, growing with your streak.
• Referral: You and the friend each get $20 when the friend invests $100 in crypto within 30 days.

What Happens To Your Money If Coinfield Or Shakepay Fails?

Coinfield: Coinfield is the failure case: the platform shut in 2023 without meeting customer withdrawal requests, and the tribunal found it lacked the crypto assets to satisfy them. The sanctions are a permanent Ontario market ban, a CAD 2.4M penalty, CAD 537,034.46 disgorgement and CAD 89,538 costs. No CIPF or other scheme covers crypto, so affected customers should watch for official notices and ignore anyone offering paid recovery.

Shakepay: CIPF covers the cash and USD you hold at Shakepay, advertised as up to $1 million, but crypto is explicitly not covered. Customer crypto is held in trust with Coinbase Custody (at least 80% cold) and Fireblocks and BitGo hot wallets, and Shakepay's own risk statement warns that insurance may be inadequate and points users to withdraw to a private wallet. A hack, a custodian failure or a freeze can still hit crypto balances. BLOC adds liquidation risk if bitcoin falls, and Shakepay Credit operates under time-limited exemptive relief that runs three years from April 9, 2026, not full registration.

How Are Coinfield And Shakepay Treated For Tax In Canada?

Coinfield: Trades on Coinfield were dispositions for CRA purposes. Keep your records, and speak to an accountant about any crypto you could not withdraw. Export formats: Not published.

Shakepay: Selling crypto, swapping it (including auto-swap), spending it with the card or repaying with it are dispositions; card cashback in bitcoin is income when received and your cost base starts at that value. Shakepay emails two CSVs (crypto and cash) but issues no tax slips, so you need Koinly or similar.

Selling, swapping or spending crypto is a disposition for the CRA on any platform. This is not tax advice: see my guide to crypto taxes in Canada.

Which Should You Choose, Coinfield Or Shakepay?

Choose Coinfield If

• You want a registered platform that serves Canadians today: Coinbase is our number one replacement, with free Interac e-Transfer funding and a Canadian restricted dealer registration.

Choose Shakepay If

• You want the simplest Interac-funded way to buy Bitcoin or Ethereum from a CIRO-registered firm.
• You want a bitcoin cashback card or a bitcoin-backed credit line in the same app.
• You will keep the account active each month to reach Bright or Blue and lower the card and loan costs.
• You do not need many coins, limit orders or Lightning.

What Happened To Coinfield?

Coinfield was an Estonia-based exchange, run by Manticore Labs OU with a Canadian arm called Manticore Labs Inc., that began serving Canadians in 2018. It shut down in 2023. In January 2025 Ontario's Capital Markets Tribunal permanently banned its operators from Ontario's markets and ordered a CAD 2.4 million administrative penalty.

The tribunal also ordered CAD 537,034.46 in disgorgement and CAD 89,538 in costs, according to the tribunal decision and advisor.ca. The record shows at least 1,275 Ontario clients held about CAD 2.5 million on the platform at the end of 2022. The regulator's central complaint was that Ontario users could not withdraw.

On the registration side, Coinfield is not on the CSA list of authorized platforms. FINTRAC shows its money services business registration for Manticore Labs OU as revoked on November 10, 2023, and two earlier Coinfield registrations as ceased in 2021 and 2019. It does not appear on the CSA banned list page either, but the tribunal order is the stronger record.

For more detail, see my Coinfield page. I do not link to Coinfield for sign-ups, because it is not an option for Canadians.

What Should Coinfield Users Use Instead?

The short answer is Shakepay, the other half of this match-up. It is available to Canadians, and it is people who only want Bitcoin or Ethereum and value simplicity over the lowest possible spread. If you want the closest like-for-like match to Coinfield, my notes name NDAX.

How Much Does Shakepay Cost, And How Do You Fund It?

Since Coinfield cannot be compared on current fees, here is what Shakepay charges today, taken from its own published pages.

Is Shakepay Safe For Canadians?

Shakepay Inc. has been a CIRO investment dealer member since January 8, 2025, with a CSA decision of the same date. It holds FINTRAC registrations as well.

Shakepay says USD funds are protected up to USD 1 million by CIPF as an investment dealer; crypto is not covered by CIPF.

The app rates 4.62 on the Canadian Apple App Store from 24,349 ratings, and 4.1 on Google Play from 13.5K reviews.

Whichever platform you use, I still say the same thing: do not keep more on an exchange than you are prepared to lose, and move long-term holdings to your own wallet.

Who Should Choose Shakepay?

Shakepay suits people who only want Bitcoin or Ethereum and value simplicity over the lowest possible spread. It is a weaker fit if you need something its list or fee structure does not cover: only 3 assets, and spread can reach 2.0% or more.

Not sure which platform fits you? Take my 60-second quiz or see my full ranking.

What Should You Do If You Still Have Something With Coinfield?

Coinfield: If you still had money on Coinfield, the Ontario tribunal's January 2025 decision is the public record to read, and it is the place to start for anything about recovery. I would not deposit anything into a site that uses the Coinfield name today. The original platform is gone.

A simple rule applies after any platform change: keep your own records of every purchase, because the CRA treats crypto as a commodity and you need the history for your tax return.