Digital Surge Review

Digital Surge Review

Robert McDougall

January 9, 2024

Cryptocurrency

What is Digital Surge?

Digital Surge is one of the best Australian crypto exchanges, and it has achieved this ranking because it caters to the everyday Aussie. It was established in 2017 and has attracted the attention of a lot of new users, as it is so simple and safe to use. Even a complete beginner to crypto can work out how to easily purchase over 300+ coins with AUD.

For any issues you can contact customer support via Live Chat or email, with responsive and helpful staff on hand 24/7. If you are experienced with crypto, you will still enjoy using Digital Surge, as they have the lowest fees and spread of an Australian crypto exchange. This real-world test that we conducted shows the results clearly.

  • Web Address: www.digitalsurge.com.au
  • Fiat Currencies: AUD
  • Main location: Australia
  • Deposit fees: FREE for PayID and cryptocurrency deposits. $2 - $3.30 for POLi deposits.
  • Deposit Methods: PayID, POLi, Cryptocurrency
  • Cryptocurrencies: BTC, ETH, XRP, BCH, LTC & 300+ more
  • Mobile app available: Yes
  • Trading Fees: 0.5%, can be as low as 0.1% if your trade volume is higher
  • Free $10 BTC: This is a promo for new users who sign up.

My Overall Thoughts on Digital Surge

I really like the simplicity of Digital Surge, and I can see why it is one of the best exchanges in Australia. While I have extensive experience using crypto exchanges, Digital Surge is so easy to use that I am 100% confident that an absolute beginner would be able to navigate the platform with no issues. Here are the top 3 reasons why I recommend Digital Surge to anyone considering this crypto exchange:

1) Quick and easy to use:  It only took two minutes to set up an account, and depositing with AUD is easy and free if you use PayID. Once you have made your deposit, you can start purchasing cryptocurrency, and there are over 300+ coins to choose from. It is simple to find your way around the exchange, and if you run into any troubles, you can contact customer support easily through Live Chat or email 24/7.

2) Lowest fees and spread:  Digital Surge has low fees of just 0.5%, which can be reduced based on large trading volume. Their spreads are also tight, which was shown in my comparison test using my personal accounts on Digital Surge and 3 other popular crypto exchanges in Australia (Swyftx, CoinSpot and Crypto.com). Digital Surge had the lowest fees and spread by a significant margin.

3) Over 300+ coins available:  For an exchange that is suitable for beginners, you may not expect there to be a wide selection of coins, but you will be pleasantly surprised. Digital Surge offers more than 300+ different cryptocurrencies, and they are regularly updating their list, with new coins added frequently. Of course you will find the most popular cryptocurrencies such as BTC, ETH and ADA, but you can also find many small obscure coins that are not well-known.

One criticism I have heard about Digital Surge in the past is that they do not offer advanced features such as staking or margin trading. These are fair points, but Digital Surge is focused on being accessible to beginner and intermediate crypto traders. If you are a serious day trader, you are better off using an exchange like Bybit.

Key Features & Advantages of Digital Surge

Digital Surge's ease of use makes it the perfect exchange for beginners to the cryptocurrency market. It also has many features that experienced traders and investors look for in the best cryptocurrency exchanges in Australia:

Negatives & Disadvantages of Digital Surge

While Digital Surge is a great exchange for many Australian crypto investors, there are some drawbacks that you need to keep in mind before signing up:

Comparison Table of the Best Crypto Exchanges in Australia

Bybit
CoinSpot
Swyftx
Digital Surge
MEXC
Crypto Exchange
Crypto Exchange
Bybit
CoinSpot
Swyftx
Digital Surge
MEXC
Fiat Currencies
Fiat Currencies
AUD, USD, GBP, EUR, NZD & more
AUD
AUD, NZD
AUD
AUD, USD, TWD, AED, PHP, JPY, CAD, EUR & more
Cryptocurrencies
Cryptocurrencies
BTC, ETH, LTC, XRP, EOS & 280+ more
BTC, ETH, LTC, XRP, BCH, ADA & 430+ more
BTC, BTG, BCH, ADA, ETH, ETC & 320+ more
BTC, ETH, XRP, BCH, LTC & 300+ more
MEXC, BTC, ETH, EOS, BCH, LTC & 1,520+ more
Deposit Methods
Deposit Methods
Visa/Mastercard, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayID, Cryptocurrency
PayID, Direct Deposit, Cash, Card, Cryptocurrency
PayID, OSKO, Bank transfer, Credit card, Cryptocurrency
PayID, POLi, Cryptocurrency
Visa/Mastercard, Bank Cards, Bank Transfer, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Cryptocurrency
Trading Fees
Trading Fees
0.1% for spot, 0.01/0.06% for derivatives
Market order: 0.1%, Instant buy: 1%
0.6%
0.5%
Spot: 0%, Futures: 0.0/0.01% (Maker/Taker)

What Services does Digital Surge offer?

Digital Surge is a user-friendly exchange with a simple interface, but it doesn't mean there is a compromise with the services it offers. Here are some of the best services available on the exchange:

Buy crypto with AUD: This is one of the biggest drawcards of using Digital Surge, the ability to buy crypto straight away with a simple bank deposit from your Australian bank. There is no need to worry about losing a percentage of your money on exchange rates from AUD to USD and vice versa.

You can purchase any of the coins on Digital Surge using AUD. Some exchanges require you to purchase altcoins using Bitcoin, but with Digital Surge, that's not necessary. You don't need to worry about the hassle of buying Bitcoin first, or think about fluctuations in Bitcoin price when you just want to purchase an altcoin.

Depositing your money into the exchange is simple and instant, using PayID (my personal choice, as there are no fees) or POLi.

Buy & sell with low fees: Digital Surge aims to make crypto accessible to regular Australians and businesses, and the low fees are a reflection of this. 

If you want to buy or sell instantly, the fee is only 0.5%. If you want to trade, the fees are a maximum of 0.5% and can be lowered to only 0.1% if you are trading in large volumes over a 30 day rolling period. 

The table below shows a fee comparison between Digital Surge and some other popular crypto exchanges. The fees are calculated and based on the average across 5 popular coins (BTC, ETH, Link, Comp and OMG). This is the fairest way to compare these exchanges as it includes high, mid and low traded coins. You can also look at my test on combined fees and spreads, where Digital Surge beat the competitors (Swyftx, CoinSpot and Crypto.com).

Instantly buy & sell 300+ cryptocurrencies: Buying and selling crypto on Digital Surge is quick and easy. Simply click on the 'Buy & Sell' tab and you can choose which coins you would like to buy or sell. It has important information about the coins, such as price (AUD), change in price, and market capitalisation, without having too much clutter which may confuse users. You can also find a particular coin, using the search function in the top right corner.

Trading crypto: If you prefer to get a better price on a coin, you can use the trade feature, located by clicking the 'Markets' tab. This allows you to select a price that you want to buy or sell at. For example, let's say the price of Bitcoin is $40,000 but you want to buy it at $39,000, you can select $39,000 as your 'Buy Price'. When there is a seller that is happy to sell Bitcoin at $39,000, your order will be filled. 

Pro Tip: You don't need to purchase a whole Bitcoin. If you only want to spend $200 on Bitcoin, that's ok! You can own a small piece of Bitcoin which will still increase in value as the price of Bitcoin increases. For example, if you purchased $200 of Bitcoin when the value of Bitcoin was $40,000, and Bitcoin's price reached $80,000, your $200 will have doubled in value to $400.

Pay bills using Bitcoin: An extremely cool feature with Digital Surge is the ability to pay any Australian bill or credit card that has a BPAY biller code, using your Bitcoin. This saves you the trouble of converting your Bitcoin back to AUD (and saving fees) just to pay a bill.

Pro Tip: Check the price of Bitcoin before paying your bill - the higher the price of Bitcoin, the less Bitcoin you have to spend to pay your bill.

Price alerts: This is a very useful feature of the Digital Surge exchange. If you want to know instantly once a certain crypto hits a particular price, you can set up alerts to SMS and/or email you. This can be used to buy crypto at a good price, sell at a high price, or just be ahead of the game as you can may see trends happening before others, who do not have alerts set up.

Pro Tip: For advanced traders, there is the option to set up Trigger Orders. This means you can select an order to be activated automatically if a certain pre-defined condition is met. For example, let's say the current price of BTC is $40,000 and you think that if it reaches $45,000 then the price will continue to shoot upwards. You may set a buy order at the market price, once the price of BTC reaches $45,000. This means you will automatically purchase BTC at the market price once it hits $45,000.

Simple overview of your crypto: It is easy to manage your crypto in Digital Surge, with the Dashboard and Wallets tabs. The Dashboard shows your portfolio, and you can see how it is trending over the last 24hrs, 1 week, 1 month, 1 year, or the entire time period. It also shows the Top Gainers which can help you decide what crypto to invest more in.

The Wallets tab shows your total balance, as well as all your cryptocurrencies and the corresponding balances of each. You can also click to buy or sell straight from the Wallets as well as send and receive crypto.

Mobile and desktop app: With the Digital Surge mobile and desktop app, it is easier to stay in control and up to date with your investments, no matter where you are. The app is available to download directly from Google Play store or Apple Store, and is one of Australia's best crypto apps.

Excellent customer support service: The personalised customer support provided at Digital Surge is exceptional, which can be accessed via Live Chat or email. The support team is Australian based, so you do not need to worry about language barriers. The support staff are friendly and knowledgeable, and they even provide educational resources to help beginners get into the world of crypto.

Multi-layered security: Digital Surge has regularly updated multi-layered security for your protection. You can rest assured that your crypto is safe, with the vast majority of assets held in secure offline storage. All your deposits via PayID and POLi are secure and instantly received in your account 24/7. Your withdrawals have an added layer of protection, with two-factor authentication required.

What I Don't Like About Digital Surge 

There are some downsides with Digital Surge. While this may not be an issue for many Australian crypto investors, you need to decide for yourself whether this affects your experience.

No advanced features such as margin trading or trading bots:  Digital Surge was built to be a user-friendly exchange making it simple for everyday Aussies to buy and sell crypto, so it isn't designed for advanced crypto trading. If you are looking for advanced features you can read my articles on the best margin trading platforms and the top crypto trading bots.

No staking or Earn features available:  Digital Surge used to have an Earn product where you could receive interest on some cryptocurrencies that you held on the exchange. However, as of the time of writing, this has been suspended due to regulatory uncertainty.

Digital Surge Fees

Digital Surge is very upfront with its fees, offering a transparent and fair fee structure. They do NOT have any hidden fees, like some other exchanges do. Some exchanges may boast about low fees or even zero fees, but they increase their spreads meaning they give you a lower rate on any coin. Alternatively, they may have trading fees, currency conversion fees, and deposit/withdrawal fees that are not mentioned clearly upfront. Digital Surge won my real-world test of lowest combined fees and spreads, making it cheaper than SwyftxCoinSpot and Crypto.com.

Digital Surge has the following fee structure:

Instant Buy & Sell: The fee for instant buying & selling is a low 0.5%.

Trading fees: When trading on the exchange, the fee is based on your trade volume over a rolling 30 day period. The trade volume is calculated each hour. The maximum fee you will pay is only 0.5%. As you can see in the image below, if you are a big trader, with over $1M volume, then the fee is an extremely low 0.1%.

Withdrawal fees: There are zero fees for any AUD withdrawals. If you are sending coins to an external wallet, there is a standard network transaction fee. The fees for each coin vary based on how busy the network is, and the current applicable fee is displayed when you withdraw a coin.

Deposit fees: There are zero fees when you deposit using PayID or cryptocurrency. If you deposit using POLi, the fees start at only $2 and are capped at $3.30.

Pros and Cons of Digital Surge 

Some of the pros and cons of using the Digital Surge exchange include: 

Pros
  • Simple user interface, perfect for beginners
  • Low fees and transparent fee structure
  • Over 300+ coins available
  • Price alerts, trigger orders and recurring buys available
  • 24/7 support available through chat and email
Cons
  • AUD is the only option for fiat deposits
  • Credit card deposits are not supported

Security: Can I Trust Digital Surge?

Security is one of the big concerns within the cryptocurrency industry, and users want to know that they can trust the exchange that is holding their assets. Digital Surge is a safe platform that has a variety of security features to protect your money.

They regularly update their multi-layered security, and store the vast majority of assets in secure offline storage which protects against hacking. Deposits are instant and secure, and withdrawals require 2-factor authentication to increase security. There has never been any reports of hacks or theft of funds from Digital Surge.

Digital Surge is a legitimate Australian-based exchange that is registered with ASIC & AUSTRAC.

You may have heard about Digital Surge's voluntary administration in December 2022. A few months later in Feb 2023, they reopened their doors to customers. See my interview with Dan Rutter, the CEO and co-founder of Digital Surge, to explain why we can continue to trust and use this exchange.

Verdict

Digital Surge is definitely an exchange you should be considering if you are based in Australia, and especially if you are new to the cryptocurrency market. You may also be interested in seeing a comparison of the best cryptocurrency exchanges in Australia.

Its minimalistic interface, yet wealth of advanced options make it a great all-rounder exchange for anyone that wants to trade or invest in cryptocurrencies. The 24/7 customer support is a real benefit for beginners as the staff are extremely knowledgeable and friendly, and can get you on your feet.

With Digital Surge's instant deposits, low trading fees, the ability to buy any of 300+ coins using AUD, and free AUD withdrawals, it's hard to look past it if you're based in Australia.


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