Satstreet Review : OTC Crypto In Canada

What Is Satstreet?

Satstreet is a Toronto-based Bitcoin trading desk. It’s designed for clients trading high volumes of cryptocurrency, from $25,000 up to $10 million and more. Launched in 2020, Satstreet has been rapidly gaining steam with a growing client base and nearly $1 billion in transaction volume as of March 2022. 

Each member of the platform’s team has over a decade of experience in their respective fields, and during that time, they have held important positions at large crypto exchanges in Canada (such as Coinsquare), and they have also processed hundreds of millions of CAD in transactions. 

Additionally, the team is leveraging industry-leading APIs with smart order routing and domestic banks in order to grant users access to a secure and automated way for them to access the platform’s liquidity. 

Let’s take a closer look at what Satstreet has to offer.

Satstreet Features

#1 Extremely Deep Order Book

Here’s what the order book looks like at most retail exchanges:

As you can see, there are a bunch of buyers and sellers all looking to transact different amounts of Bitcoin at different prices.

But what happens when a much larger player — someone looking to buy or sell 10x or 100x these smaller players — comes in and places an order? When that happens, the order book essentially falls apart. 

Think about it using the example above. If you were to come in and try to buy 5 Bitcoin, you’d buy your first 0.1516 BTC at $8,662.1, your second 0.2886 BTC at $8,662.4, and so on, since that is what the order book is currently offering. In other words, you’d pay a progressively higher price the more you bought, since your large order would remove so much liquidity from the market. 

With Satstreet, that doesn’t happen. They’re tapped into much deeper liquidity pools that make transacting $1 million feel like transacting $1,000 on the retail exchanges. That’s why Satstreet’s pricing gets more and more advantageous the more you’re transacting: as the retail liquidity pools dry up, Satstreet still has plenty of liquidity to offer.

#2 Speed Of Settlement

If you were to send a wire transfer of $100,000 to a retail exchange, it would be processed in chronological order alongside thousands of other transfers of all sizes. It would likely take 1-3 business days to appear in your account and might require additional verifications before you’re able to trade with it.

If you had a question about that wire, you would likely have to send an email to the retail exchange’s customer support team and wait up to 24 hours for a response, which feels like an eternity. 

Since Satstreet maintains a smaller group of clients than the retail exchanges, though, it can process incoming wire transfers much faster, often within an hour, allowing you to make trades as the market is moving, not after it’s already moved.

#3 Dedicated Support Rep

Because Satstreet tends to work with a smaller group of clients, the platform always goes one step further to ensure excellent service, and one way it does that is by assigning every Satstreet client a dedicated support representative that they can reach directly via phone and email. 

Considering just how common it is to see retail exchanges have lacking customer support that takes days to answer inquiries (or rely way too heavily on their extensive FAQ sections), it’s great that you can always count on having someone ready to answer any questions that you might have about the platform. 

#4 Bank-Level Security

In line with the high volumes the platform is trading, Satstreet takes security extremely seriously. Satstreet clients can choose to store their crypto holdings with a hardware wallet, Coinbase Custody, or with their own multi-sig security setup involving multiple hardware wallets and co-signers. 

Satstreet also offers video verification on withdrawals and whitelisted wallet addresses, both of which ensure that only you can withdraw your funds. 

It’s also worth noting that Satstreet is backed by Round13 Capital and several of Canada’s most renowned venture investors, such as Stephen Lister and John McBride, which lends an additional layer of confidence that they’re a trustworthy company. 

#5 Satstreet Mobile App

Satstreet also offers a slick and easy-to-use mobile app that will allow you to do everything you can do on the desktop platform, as well as track your portfolio on the go. 

The mobile app is private, however, and you won't be able to see the app's ratings as it is only accessible once you fund your account or do a transaction with the platform.

Satstreet Fees

It's also worth pointing out that Satstreet excels in the fees department as well. For starters, you don't have to worry about paying any deposit and withdrawal fees when using the platform, and its trading fees are also some of the lowest in the industry, at 1%.

There are also no fees to worry about in regards to custody/storage if you store your assets on the platform, and you don't have to pay anything extra for taking advantage of the team's many specialists, tax advisors, and dedicated support reps. What's not to love?

Tax Implications Of Working With Satstreet

In Canada, profits from trading crypto are taxable, so having crypto tax software to keep track of it all is important. As much as I would love to offer tax advice here, everyone’s tax situation is unique and deserves special care, which is why I suggest reaching out to Satstreet directly by scheduling a call with them. One of their specialists will call you within an hour or two (during business hours) to answer any questions you may have, including guidance on tax matters.

Getting Started With Satstreet

Getting started with Satstreet is easy: you just fill in your name, phone number and email address into this form, and one of their client care representatives will give you a call. To be clear, it won’t be an outsourced customer service agent calling you; expect to hear from a highly trained specialist who can answer all of your questions about the platform’s ins and outs, fees, and more. If you’re lucky, it might even be one of Satstreet’s founders reaching out directly, so make sure that you have a thorough list of questions at hand.

Related: If you're not looking to trade hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of crypto, take a look at some of the best retail exchanges in Canada like VirgoCX, CoinSmart and Bitbuy, as well as other good, albeit more expensive options like Shakepay and Newton.

In Summary

If you’re looking for a platform that will allow you to trade between $25,000 and $10+ million in Bitcoin (BTC), you should be using Satstreet, a white-glove trading experience for high-volume investors. They take a highly personalized approach to crypto investing, focusing their efforts on offering excellent service to a small number of big accounts.

Satstreet has an extremely deep order book that allows it to offer fixed prices on large orders with zero slippage. With dedicated account managers available whenever you need them, Satstreet offers a level of customer service no other exchange can match. If you’re ready to invest $25,000 or more, Satstreet is for you.