CEX.IO review: a 2013-era exchange Hong Kong users can open — and what they give up

This CEX.IO review is written for people in Hong Kong. The short version: CEX.IO is a 13-year-old international exchange that lets you buy crypto with a Visa or Mastercard, Apple Pay or Google Pay in minutes, with spot fees from 0.15%. It is not licensed by the SFC. Hong Kong users sign up with its Nevis-registered entity, so disputes, custody and any protection run through a foreign company, not the Hong Kong regime.

This review sticks to published terms, flags what we could not verify, and ends with a comparison against two SFC-licensed platforms. The score is an editorial assessment, not an average of user ratings.

Verdict at a glance

Who is behind CEX.IO

CEX.IO started in London in 2013, when the whole crypto market was worth less than US$1 billion. Its UK company, CEX.IO Ltd, is registered at Companies House under number 08757996. The founder named on its About page is Oleksandr Lutskevych.

Older Bitcoin users know the name from GHash.IO, the mining pool CEX.IO ran in the early years. In 2014 GHash.IO briefly approached half of Bitcoin’s hash rate, which set off a real debate about a “51% attack”. The company says the pool mined around 583,000 bitcoins over its life and that it stopped taking new participants in 2015 to avoid controlling a majority of the network. It also claims to have been the first exchange to let people buy Bitcoin with a card, in 2014.

Today CEX.IO says it has more than 15 million registered users, serves more than 30 US states, and has handled US$7.5 billion in customer deposits since 2019. These are the company’s own figures, not audited ones, but they fit a large, long-running retail platform rather than a fly-by-night site.

Licences and registrations

CEX.IO works through several legal entities, each registered where it operates. Here is what we could confirm, and how firmly:

• United States: CEX.IO Corp. (Miami) holds FinCEN money services business registration 31000209195846, shown on its contacts page. The company says it has held 30+ state money transmitter licences since 2019; our research brief counted 35–36 state licences under NMLS ID 1804170. Check the NMLS Consumer Access site for the live list.
• Gibraltar: CEX.IO Limited is authorised by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission as a DLT provider, licence FSC0686FSA, covering a secondary market venue, broker, custody and staking services.
• Spain / EEA: CEX.IO Europe, S.L. (Madrid) is registered with the Bank of Spain as a virtual asset service provider (reference E028 per our research brief).
• Lithuania: a Lithuanian entity opened in 2023 and is registered as a VASP there.
• United Kingdom: CEX.IO Markets UK Limited appears with FCA reference 1007192, reportedly added to the FCA cryptoasset register in March 2026. That is an anti-money-laundering registration, not full investment-firm authorisation.
• Cyprus: our research brief also notes a CySEC-regulated entity for CFD products, which are not relevant to spot buyers in Hong Kong.

The site also showed a notice on 30 September 2026 that certain account functions — deposits and trading — are unavailable for some users because of MiCA, the EU’s crypto rules, while funds remain available for withdrawal. That notice concerns European users; it is a useful reminder that each jurisdiction’s rules decide what you can do.

CEX.IO in Hong Kong: what you actually sign up to

This is the section that matters most. CEX.IO does not appear on the SFC list of licensed virtual asset trading platforms, and it does not claim to. Its legal page maps users to entities: the UK entity for the UK, the Spanish entity for the EEA, CEX.IO Corp. for the US, and CEX OVRS LLC for “other jurisdictions” — which includes Hong Kong. CEX OVRS LLC is registered in Nevis (company number L 22275, Charlestown).

In practice that means three things. First, the SFC’s rules on custody, insurance, token admission and conduct do not apply to your account, and there is no Hong Kong compensation arrangement if something goes wrong. Second, a dispute would be handled under CEX.IO’s terms and foreign law, not by a Hong Kong regulator or court as a default. Third, the SFC’s published position is that investors should use licensed platforms, and it has repeatedly warned about the risks of unlicensed ones. Using CEX.IO from Hong Kong is not, as far as we can find, prohibited for individuals — Hong Kong is not on its list of 30 unsupported countries, which does include Canada, Japan and Singapore — but it is a choice to step outside the local safety net.

Our guide to Hong Kong crypto regulation explains the licensing regime, and our list of SFC-licensed crypto exchanges shows the local alternatives.

CEX.IO fees, payment methods and limits

For a Hong Kong user, the relevant costs are the card processing fee and, if you trade on the order book, the spot fee. CEX.IO’s fee schedule varies by payment provider and country, so treat the ranges below as a guide and read the final figure on the confirmation screen.

Two practical points. Because there is no HKD rail, your card is charged in a foreign currency or processed abroad, and many Hong Kong banks add an overseas transaction fee of their own; some issuers also treat crypto purchases differently from ordinary spending, so check with yours. And the card fee range is wide: on a HK$5,000 purchase, 0.49% is about HK$25 while 4.99% is about HK$250, before the service charge. Either way, that is far below the 13% plus HK$100 published by CoinHero’s Bitcoin ATMs, and it avoids the cash-handling risks of a walk-in crypto shop.

Security and custody

CEX.IO lists PCI DSS compliance among its security documents; our research brief records this as PCI DSS Level 1, the card industry’s highest tier for merchants handling card data. That speaks to how card details are processed, not how coins are stored. The company has also been quoted as keeping around 98% of customer crypto in cold storage; we could not find that figure in a current primary document, so treat it as a claim. We found no public SOC 2 report.

Standard account protections apply, including two-factor authentication and identity checks. The Gibraltar regulator has also published a public warning about a look-alike website using a similar domain, a reminder to type the address yourself or use the official app. Whatever the exchange, the strongest protection for coins you intend to keep is moving them to a wallet whose keys you hold.

How to open a CEX.IO account from Hong Kong

1. Sign up with emailRegister on the official site or app, set a strong unique password and turn on two-factor authentication straight away.
2. Verify your identityUpload your HKID or passport and complete the selfie check. Address verification may be requested for some services.
3. Add a payment methodLink a Visa or Mastercard, or use Apple Pay or Google Pay on your phone. There is no FPS option.
4. Buy a small amount firstTry a modest purchase and read the fee, service charge and amount received on the confirmation screen.
5. Decide where the coins liveKeep trading balances on the exchange if you must, but consider withdrawing long-term holdings to your own wallet.
6. Keep recordsDownload statements for your records. Our crypto tax guide explains what Hong Kong individuals need to know.

CEX.IO vs HashKey vs OSL

The fair comparison for a Hong Kong reader is against the two best-known SFC-licensed platforms. Both accept HKD directly from your bank; neither is quite as simple for a one-off card purchase from overseas.

If you want to fund from a Hong Kong bank by FPS and keep everything under SFC rules, the licensed route wins, and our reviews of HashKey Exchange and OSL go into their fees and onboarding. If you want a broader coin list or a fast card buy without a local bank link, CEX.IO is the more flexible tool — with the trade-offs above.

When CEX.IO makes sense for Hong Kong users

CEX.IO makes sense for a small, quick purchase with a card or Apple Pay — the kind of HK$500 or HK$5,000 buy where you would otherwise walk to a machine and pay a double-digit percentage. It suits people who want coins that licensed Hong Kong platforms do not offer to retail, or who already hold crypto and want an established order book with clear base fees. It is also a practical option for expatriates and visitors who have a card but no Hong Kong bank account.

It makes less sense if your priority is regulatory protection, if you plan to hold large amounts on the exchange, or if you want to fund cheaply from an HKD bank account. In those cases the SFC-licensed platforms are the regulator’s recommended route and usually the cheaper one for bank-funded buys. For a wider view of the options by speed, see our quickest ways to buy crypto in Hong Kong; if you are cashing out, compare routes in our guide to selling crypto for HKD. And whatever platform you use, read our scam warning signs — fake exchange sites and “account managers” are the most common way people lose money.

Our 8.6, the top score on this site, reflects a platform that does what it says — fast card purchases, a long record, sensible base fees, a wide coin range, several foreign registrations — with a deduction for Hong Kong: no SFC licence, an offshore contract and no local banking rail.

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Frequently asked questions

Sources & further reading

1. SFC — Lists of virtual asset trading platforms · updated 29 May 2026
2. CEX.IO — About us · accessed 30 Sep 2026
3. CEX.IO — Contacts and legal entities · accessed 30 Sep 2026
4. CEX.IO — Fee schedule and limits · accessed 30 Sep 2026
5. CEX.IO — Legal & security · accessed 30 Sep 2026
6. CEX.IO Support — Countries and territories not supported · accessed 30 Sep 2026
7. CEX.IO Support — Earn supported countries · accessed 30 Sep 2026
8. Hassans — CEX.IO granted a Gibraltar DLT operator licence · accessed 30 Sep 2026

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