Many crypto platforms let you trade digital coins and not much else. Uphold takes a wider swing by letting you trade more than 250 cryptocurrencies, four precious metals, and dozens of national currencies. It even allows you to directly trade one for another.
What makes that possible is what Uphold calls its anything-to-anything model, which moves you directly from bitcoin to gold, or from silver to euros, without forcing a sale in dollars in between. Very few platforms work this way.
That wide selection costs you, though. Uphold folds its fee into a spread on every trade, so the price you see already includes its cut, and that all-in price runs higher than several rivals. You also won’t find the advanced trading tools that active traders use or any stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Let’s take a closer look at what Uphold delivers and where it falls flat based on our hands-on testing.
Uphold at a glance
Introducing Uphold
Uphold launched in 2015 and now serves more than 10 million users worldwide. Its U.S. arm, Uphold HQ Inc., operates out of Larkspur, California. The platform built its name on the range of assets it offers, letting you hold and trade digital coins along with gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and dozens of national currencies.
Uphold routes each order across a network of external exchanges and quotes one all-in price, so you can swap one asset directly for another. That’s how buying gold with bitcoin takes a single step instead of two separate trades through cash.
Uphold promises never to lend out customer assets and stays fully reserved, meaning it always holds enough to cover every customer balance. It also publishes its assets and liabilities in real time, so you can confirm at any moment that your money is backed. Few exchanges let you check that whenever you like.
Uphold is licensed to operate in 42 U.S. states, leaving out California, Hawaii, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, New York, and Wisconsin.
Uphold pros and cons
What Uphold offers
Here’s what you can actually do with an Uphold account.
Crypto trading
Uphold supports more than 250 cryptocurrencies for U.S. users, and its app listings advertise more than 360 coins worldwide. Its anything-to-anything model treats every asset as a trading pair, so you can swap bitcoin straight for gold or euros in one move. You trade at a single all-in price rather than a separate fee, and Uphold holds that price for 18 seconds before it refreshes.
You won’t find an order book, which is the live feed of buy and sell orders that active traders rely on to judge supply and demand. Nor will you get maker-taker fees, the tiered pricing that rewards traders who add orders to the book over those who remove them, and that shrinks as your volume climbs. You pick a coin, enter a dollar amount, and confirm at the price shown. That keeps things simple, though active traders give up advanced tools and favorable trading fees.
Precious metals and national currencies
Metals and currencies set Uphold apart from a standard crypto exchange. Alongside crypto, you can hold gold, silver, platinum, and palladium, priced by the ounce, as well as 27 national currencies, such as euros and British pounds. Metals trade at a 2.35% to 3.40% spread, and currency conversions run about 0.3%.
Recurring orders and order types
Uphold’s AutoPilot tool sets up automated recurring orders on any asset at a schedule you choose. That enables you to use dollar-cost averaging, in which you buy a fixed amount on a regular schedule to smooth out the ups and downs of the market.
Beyond market orders, you can place up to 50 limit orders at once, even across asset classes, which lets you set the exact price you’re willing to trade at instead of taking the current market price. Uphold also offers take-profit and trailing-stop orders that sell automatically once a target price is hit.
Staking
Uphold brought staking back to U.S. users in March 2025 and now offers it on more than 20 cryptocurrencies. Staking lets you earn rewards on coins you already hold as a reward for helping run the blockchain network behind them. Rewards arrive weekly in the same coin you staked.
You can choose flexible staking, which keeps coins available to trade, or boosted staking, which locks them for a set period in exchange for higher rewards. The trade-off is access to your coins, since flexible staking typically pays less than boosted staking, and boosted staking carries minimums. Uphold charges a 20% to 25% commission on staking rewards.
Crypto wallet and transfers
Uphold holds the crypto you buy in your account, a custodial setup where the platform keeps the private keys for you. You can move coins out to an external wallet, which adds a network fee plus a $0.99 fee on most networks other than bitcoin, XRP, and hedera.
If you want more control, for $4.99 a month, Uphold Vault gives you the keys to a handful of assets while still helping you recover them if you lose access.
USD Interest Account
You can put idle dollars to work through a USD Interest Account, which Uphold runs through a partner brokerage. Balances of $10 or more earn interest, and Uphold sweeps your balance across partner banks for Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) coverage of up to $2.5 million.
Educational tools
Uphold runs a learning library and a crypto glossary called Cryptionary that explains wallets, staking, and market basics in plain language. It covers the essentials for newer users, though it is lighter than the structured course catalogs some larger exchanges maintain.
Where Uphold stands out
After testing most major U.S. exchanges side by side, a few Uphold features stand out for the right investor.
Crypto, metals, and currencies under one login
Many exchanges stop at crypto. Uphold adds gold, silver, platinum, and palladium, plus 27 national currencies, to the same account. While Kraken, Coinbase, and eToro all let you trade crypto and stocks, none of them lets you trade one asset for another the way Uphold does. For an investor who wants crypto and a metals holding in one place, Uphold may save the hassle of juggling separate platforms.
(Disclosure: Yahoo Finance has a partnership with Coinbase.)
Reserves you can check in real time
Proof of reserves is how an exchange shows it actually holds what customers deposit. Uphold publishes its assets and liabilities in real time through Reserveledger and Reservechai, and says it never lends customers’ assets.
That frequency beats most rivals. OKX reports monthly and Kraken quarterly, while eToro doesn’t report at all. Live updates won’t stop a hack, but they let you confirm your balance is backed at any moment.
Up to $2.5 million in FDIC coverage on idle cash
Park cash in an Uphold USD Interest Account, and the platform sweeps it across as many as 10 partner banks, which stretches FDIC coverage to $2.5 million, or $250,000 at each bank. Many crypto platforms that offer FDIC protection cap it at the standard $250,000. The catch is that this applies only to the interest account, not your regular trading balance, and crypto itself carries no insurance coverage.
Where Uphold falls short
Uphold’s strengths come with real limits, and a few are worth weighing before you commit.
Spread-based pricing that runs higher than rivals
Uphold’s biggest drawback is cost. Bitcoin and ethereum trade at a 2.05% to 2.20% spread, and altcoins run 2.85% to 3.80%. On a $1,000 bitcoin buy, that’s about $20.50 in cost.
The same $1,000 trade runs $10 on eToro at its flat 1% fee. Even the beginner-friendly modes elsewhere cost less. OKX charges a flat 1% fee, or $10, for the same trade, while Coinbase charges about 1.84%, or $18.40. Uphold also charges a $0.99 fee on trades under $500, which stings on small orders.
No advanced order book, and no stocks or ETFs
Uphold has no maker-taker pricing, which is the volume-based fee tiers that drop as you trade more, so frequent traders never unlock a discount. A $10,000 bitcoin purchase costs roughly $205 at the 2.05% spread.
By comparison, Kraken Pro charges 0.25% at its base tier for maker orders and the rate falls from there, which works out to about $25 on a $10,000 trade, while Coinbase Advanced uses a similar schedule starting at 0.60%.
Additionally, Uphold doesn’t offer stocks or exchange-traded funds, so it can’t serve as an all-in-one brokerage.
Uphold is licensed to operate in 42 U.S. states. The eight it leaves out are California, Hawaii, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, New York, and Wisconsin. Staking carries its own limits on top of that, which restricts users in Washington from using it.
A 2026 New York settlement over CredEarn
In April 2026, the New York attorney general announced that Uphold agreed to pay $5 million to harmed investors to resolve claims it misleadingly promoted a third-party product called CredEarn run by a separate firm, Cred, which collapsed in 2020. As part of the deal, Uphold agreed to register as a broker with the attorney general and to improve how it vets third-party products.
Uphold has publicly disputed the attorney general’s characterization of its conduct. The episode involved a partner’s lending product rather than Uphold’s own trading platform, but its recent history is worth weighing.
Uphold’s fees
Uphold keeps its fee structure simple, but simple doesn’t always mean cheap. The platform folds its cut into the price you see rather than charging a separate commission. Here’s what you actually pay.
Crypto trading fees
Uphold prices crypto through a spread, which means the fee sits inside the buy or sell price instead of showing as a separate line.
Bitcoin and ethereum carry a 2.05% to 2.20% spread. Altcoins run higher, from 2.85% to 3.80%.
On a $1,000 bitcoin buy, you pay around $20.50. On a $1,000 altcoin trade, the cost climbs to between $28.50 and $38. While the pricing is all-inclusive, keep an eye out for one extra charge: Trades under $500 add a flat $0.99 fee, which hits small buys hardest. On a $50 trade, that $0.99 works out to nearly 2%.
Other asset fees
Crypto isn’t the only thing you can trade, and the rates shift by asset class.
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Precious metals: gold, silver, platinum, and palladium trade at a 2.35% to 3.40% spread.
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National currencies: major fiat currencies carry a 0.3% spread, far below the crypto rate.
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Stablecoins: most stablecoins trade at under 0.25%, the cheapest category on the platform.
When you trade between two asset types, say bitcoin into gold, Uphold applies the higher of the two spreads.
Funding and withdrawal fees
Moving money in and out brings its own set of fees. Here’s the cost of each route.
Cash deposits
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Automated Clearing House (ACH) bank transfer: Free, and the funds are ready to trade right away
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Debit or credit card: 3.99% per transaction
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Wire transfer: $10 on transfers under $2,000, and free at $2,000 and above
Cash withdrawals
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ACH bank transfer: Free for standard withdrawals, which take up to five business days
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Instant withdrawal: 1.75%, with a $1 minimum
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Debit card: 1.75%, with a $1 minimum
Crypto deposits
Crypto withdrawals
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Most networks: the blockchain network fee plus a flat $0.99 per withdrawal
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Bitcoin, XRP, and hedera: the network fee only, with no added Uphold fee
Network fees vary by asset. When we checked, a bitcoin withdrawal cost about 0.00004 BTC, and a solana withdrawal about 0.0006 SOL.
Uphold FAQs
What’s the minimum to start on Uphold?
Opening an Uphold account costs nothing, and the smallest cash deposit is $10. Money you send by ACH bank transfer becomes available to trade right away. From there, you can buy crypto, metals, or currencies in small amounts, since Uphold lets you buy a fraction of an asset rather than a whole unit.
Can I move my crypto off Uphold to my own wallet?
Yes. Uphold supports external crypto withdrawals to outside wallets. You pay the blockchain network fee plus a flat $0.99 on most networks, though bitcoin, XRP, and hedera skip the $0.99.
Is my money safe on Uphold?
Uphold is registered with U.S. financial regulators and licensed in the states it serves. It publishes its holdings in real time and says it never lends out customer funds. Your crypto isn’t insured, though idle cash in a USD Interest Account gets FDIC coverage up to $2.5 million. As with any platform, only invest what you can afford to lose.
Methodology
Our Uphold review is based on hands-on testing and independent research across five categories.
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Fees and costs: We tested trades at several sizes to see what the spread costs in practice. We also checked every deposit, withdrawal, and transfer charge tied to ACH, card, wire, and crypto funding.
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User experience: We opened an account, cleared identity verification, and worked through both the app and the web platform, paying attention to how quickly we could surface fee details, staking terms, and account settings. We also tested the anything-to-anything flow across crypto, metals, and currencies.
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Available assets and features: We looked at how many coins, metals, and currencies Uphold lists, what staking it offers and where, and the order types available. We also weighed additional features like its AutoPilot orders, Uphold Vault, and the USD Interest Account.
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Security and regulatory compliance: We reviewed Uphold’s real-time proof of reserves, how it stores and protects customer crypto, its insurance coverage, the states it serves, and the licenses it holds. We also factored in recent regulatory actions.
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Customer support and reputation: We contacted Uphold’s support, weighed the speed and quality of the replies, and the channels on offer. We considered the platform’s record since 2015.
We scored each category independently with no input from or compensation by Uphold. Fees and security carry the most weight in the final rating, since those affect the typical user most.
Editorial disclaimer: The information on this page is for educational purposes and isn’t meant as investment advice. Cryptocurrencies are volatile assets, and past performance doesn’t indicate future results. Research any platform independently and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decision.