We set out on an adventurous journey to open a Crypto Account….
In our line of business, we’re used to ups and downs in daily business but in the Crypto, we get caught by many more surprises.
1. Get ready for a lot of paperwork, though Crypto is a digital world.
2. Have a lot of patience!
3. Prepare to share a lot of personal information and company data (KYC)
…. and still, be able to fail.
We have a lot of experience in the FinTech sector but this journey has proven itself quite difficult.
From ocean of options, we selected 3 top ones in the market to set up a Crypto account.
– The market Leader never got in touch with us and our inquiries with several attempts. They simply referred to their online account.
– The second largest Company offered a meeting in person and realized that the responsible Management Members weren’t in town after all.
– With the third one, we finally got a personal meeting and started the application process.
On the flip side
– We had a personal contact and always got immediate responses to our questions via e-Mail and Zoom meetings.
On the flop side
– After finalizing the paperwork, we made the first payment as investment, which somehow after one week was rejected by their bank as “Beneficiary Bank states funds not intended”.
Ø Net result: refund with 85$ deduction.
But we don’t give up!
We reached out to one more of the top players. The website was down that day. On the next day we send e-mails to their sales@… and info@… e-mail addresses. They’ve immediately returned with the message “sender could not be reached” …. No phone number was provided on their website.
Filling out their contact form also got us nowhere. We hadn’t been contacted.
Finally, we got through to them via a partner company and secured a video conference .
And got a surprising offer to open an account within 24 hours and to save 1’000$ fee. We still don’t know if this happens to every customer or a marketing trick or it was a generous promotion.
The application was very smooth and our contact person was very supportive.
However, the difficulties start onwards. The KYC goes deeper and deeper into private information. You have to be sure to share bank account details, and surprisingly the Taxi identity number.
To be able to open a company account you’d have to open an individual’s account first. And so, it started again. The level of private information that has to be provided. From the name, address, bank details up to the Tax identity number left alone all the documents to be prepared and send in.
Finally, after 2 months and several attempts with 4 vendors, we managed to open a Crypto account!
Here you find a list of documents/information you’d have to be ready to provide.
As experienced by us initial requirements for a corporate account (Service Provider 1)
– Business License / Extract from Company Register (for verifying the authenticity of the company’s registration)
– Company’s website
– Certificate of Incorporation and Business Registration
– Memorandum and Articles of Association (which defines the structure and rules that govern and bind the company)
– Source of Funding
– List of shareholders (Passport & ID copies)
– List of all Directors, Ownership and Control Structure
– Proof of Registered Office and Business Address (Tenancy contract or latest utility bill)
– Bank Letter with Registered Company Name Account
– Authorized representative (Passport, ID Copy and Authorization letter from company)
As experienced by us initial requirements for a private and corporate accounts (Service Provider 2)
Information to be provided:
– Name, date of birth, birthplace
– Proof of address
– Passport or ID copies
– Reason for opening an account
– Expected amount for the first payment
– Personal TIN (Tax Index Number)
Documents to be provided:
– Extract from Company Register
– Website
– List of authorized signatories of the Company
– Articles of Incorporation
– Proof of address
– Copies of the Passports of all the authorized Directors
– Copy of passport of the UBO of the company
– KYC UBO (several pages form)
– Proof of Address of UBO
Cost orientation
The costs vary from 0-1500$ to open an account and in some situations or large values the fees are charged from 1-3%
Conclusion
All the best for your Crypto Odyssey you may be lucky to do it faster and at a lesser cost.
Please share your experiences with us.