Security
In your Wealthsimple account you can use Touch ID or Face ID instead of entering a username and password each time you log in. Currently, there is no Two-factor authentication available.
Since Wealthsinple does not allow you to withdraw crypto assets, there is no option to whitelist addresses.
To secure your Uphold account, you can enable two-factor authentication.
Both trading platforms utilize cold storage, with Wealthsimple choosing the Gemini Trust Company LLC™ to take custody of the assets.
Regulatory compliance
Both Uphold and Wealthsimple are secure and compliant trading platforms. Wealthsimple is insured by the Gemini Trust Company LLC™ which covers $200 million. Wealthsimple is fully regulated in Canada and has been a staple for Canadian investments since 2016.
Uphold, on the other hand, is fully regulated in the USA. They are compliant with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and record keeping regulations with the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). It's Canadian-friendly as well.
Customer support
Both Wealthsimple and Uphold have had good reviews about their customer service teams. Both platforms offer help centres on their websites and within the apps.
Wealthsimple has live chat support, email support and phone support, all available 24/7.
You can contact Uphold’s customer support via their online ticketing system on their website.
Conclusion
Both Uphold and Wealthsimple are great choices for cryptocurrency trading. Uphold offers free debit purchases while Wealthsimple offers free bank transfers. Transaction fees at Uphold are 1.8% for crypto purchases and at Wealthsimple they range between 1.5-2%. Fees are therefore about the same.
Uphold and Wealthsimple are both compliant, secure and reputable trading platforms, so there’s not much need to worry about security when using either one.
You can keep all of your investments in one place when using these trading platforms, which makes investing with them simple and convenient. The major difference is that with Wealthsimple, you can only move funds from one account type to another (e.g. crypto funds to your TFSA). You cannot directly swap assets types.
Uphold has a big advantage over Wealthsimple because of the multi-asset trading capabilities. Uphold allows you to trade one crypto for another and trade crypto to stocks or metals directly. Uphold, therefore, works more like a traditional crypto exchange with the added benefits of being able to trade US stocks and precious metals.
Uphold has a much larger choice of assets, plus it offers double the amount of cryptocurrencies as Wealthsimple. Additionally, you are free to move your assets to a private wallet, something which Wealthsimple is yet to implement. For these reasons, when it comes to Uphold vs Wealthsimple, we think Uphold is the winner here.
