OTC (over-the-counter) crypto trades are transactions that offer better pricing and greater privacy for crypto investors. One of the top benefits of using an OTC broker over a retail exchange is that they avoid price slippage, giving you access to better, stable pricing on large transactions.
If you’re looking for an OTC broker that allows you to place cost-effective trades between $25,000 and $10+ million, you should be using Satstreet, the premium crypto OTC provider on the market today. Considering Satstreet's years-long reputation as being the #1 crypto OTC desk in Canada—plus its excellent, round-the-clock customer service—we can't recommend Satstreet highly enough.
What Is The Best Crypto OTC Service In Canada?
#1 Satstreet – Best Overall
If you’re trading between $25,000 and $10+ million, you should be using Satstreet. Satstreet is not like the other exchanges on this list: it’s a white-glove trading experience for high-net-worth investors and corporations. They take a highly personalized approach to crypto investing, focusing their efforts on offering excellent service to a specific segment of the Canadian market.
Satstreet has extremely deep liquidity that allows it to offer fixed prices on large orders with zero slippage. Placing a $100,000 buy order is nearly impossible on most Canadian exchanges, but Satstreet handles orders that size (and much larger) every day.
Satstreet clients can choose to take custody immediately after a transaction, get access to an account with a qualified custodian, leverage their proprietary custody solution, or choose a multi-sig collaborative 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.
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.Â
Features
- Very low fees on large order volumes.
- Very deep liquidity to prevent price slippage.
- Supports Bitcoin and Ethereum.
- Allows access to the widest selection of digital assets for accredited investors in Canada.
- Dedicated account managers provide top-notch support.
- Deep security expertise & customized security setups.
- Quick banking settlement (USD & CAD).
Pricing
- Trading Fees: Extremely low (0.5%-1%)
Best For
Crypto investors looking for an OTC service with low fees and VIP treatment on large orders ($25,000 and up).
#2 CoinSmart Premium
CoinSmart Premium is a cryptocurrency over-the-counter (OTC) trading desk offered by CoinSmart, one of Canada's fastest-growing and most trusted crypto exchanges. CoinSmart was founded in 2018 and supports the most popular cryptocurrencies—including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC)—making it one of the easiest ways to trade crypto.
CoinSmart Premium was designed specifically for crypto investors that are interested in making large crypto trades of at least $25,000 or more, and it has a few features to help them do so, such as their deep liquidity pools to prevent slippage on your transactions, exclusive market insights, a Dedicated CS Premium Account Manager, and much more.
Additionally, CoinSmart Premium offers a wide array of supported cryptocurrencies (at 300+ supported tokens in all), and allows you to trade one crypto for another directly. CoinSmart Premium uses Fireblocks for accepting coins as well as sending them out, which makes the trading experience smoother.
Features
- Its deeper liquidity pools are ideal for large crypto trades and transactions.
- Grants the user one-on-one assistance from a Dedicated CS Premium Account Manager.
- Quick KYC/AML verification.
- Supports a huge array of cryptocurrencies (300+).
- CoinSmart Premium is the only OTC desk in Canada or the United States that supports funding via online bill payment (up to $1 million without fees).
- Grants users VIP access to exclusive market insights.
- Publicly traded, licensed, and regulated by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC).
Pricing
- Trading fees: Unlisted, but as close as possible to the spot rate
Best For
Institutions and high-net-worth individuals looking for the best overall crypto OTC desk.
What Is Over-The-Counter Crypto Trading?
Buying crypto over the counter means trading directly with brokers rather than trading on a retail exchange. OTC trading is the best way to settle large orders quickly, making it the preferred method for high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors.
OTC brokers also have far deeper order books that eliminate the risks of price slippage, which occurs when a buyer has to pay a progressively higher price the more they buy because their order is so large that it removes liquidity from the market. Since OTC brokers deal with larger amounts of money, they're able to offer stable pricing for much larger transactions than retail exchanges ever could, which is a very good thing for investors.
In Canada, there are just a handful of crypto OTC brokers who can satisfy the unique needs of investors making large crypto trades. Let’s take a look at the benefits of trading Bitcoin OTC (and how it differs from trading with a retail exchange) and then look at the Canadian OTC brokers I recommend.
Benefits Of Trading On A Crypto OTC
There are several primary benefits of trading crypto OTC when compared to retail exchanges:
#1 Better Pricing & Zero Slippage
When you place a large transaction in a relatively shallow liquidity pool, you end up buying up a significant portion of the order book, starting with the lowest-priced orders and then moving progressively higher. When that happens, the average cost you end up paying per Bitcoin can be significantly higher than you anticipated. This unfavourable price movement, known as slippage, eats away at your profits.
By buying Bitcoin OTC, though, you avoid slippage altogether because your OTC broker will give you a fixed price, something retail exchanges with smaller liquidity pools can’t do.
#2 Personalized Service
The biggest retail exchanges serve hundreds of thousands of users with customer support teams that are spread extremely thin. Reaching someone on the phone can be difficult, and reaching someone with the knowledge and authority to handle a 6-, 7- or 8-figure account can be nearly impossible. Generally, retail exchanges handle support requests in the order they are received, which means you may have to wait for thousands of other requests to be solved before yours is looked at.
Contrast that with the level of service you receive from a Bitcoin OTC broker with a much smaller client list and dedicated account managers you can reach on the phone whenever you need them. As you can imagine, the difference in the service quality is night and day.
This is similar to the difference in customer service between Wealthsimple Crypto and VirgoCX, our best-rated retail Canadian crypto exchange.
#3 Greater Privacy
The order books of retail exchanges are open to the public, so anyone can see when a large order is placed. With a crypto OTC broker, your trades are processed privately, shielding you from any possible negative side effects of having your crypto activities made public. If you’re looking to buy large amounts of Bitcoin anonymously but legally, OTC brokers are the way to do it.
As you can see, if you’re an investor making larger trades, you’ll likely want to work with a crypto OTC broker rather than a retail exchange.
In Summary
OTC (over-the-counter) crypto trades are transactions that offer better pricing and greater privacy for crypto investors. One of the top benefits of using an OTC broker over a retail exchange is that they avoid price slippage, giving you access to better, stable pricing on large transactions.
If you’re looking for an OTC broker that allows you to place cost-effective trades between $25,000 and $10+ million, you should be using Satstreet, the premium crypto OTC provider on the market today. Considering Satstreet's years-long reputation as being the #1 crypto OTC desk in Canada—plus its excellent, round-the-clock customer service—we can't recommend Satstreet highly enough.
Best Crypto OTC Service Canada FAQs
How much does a crypto OTC service cost?
A crypto OTC service costs anywhere between 1% to 5% in fees, depending on what crypto OTC platform you use. If you'd like to pay less in fees, we recommend you use Satstreet, as it has the lowest fees of any crypto OTC platform in Canada.
What is the cheapest crypto OTC service?
The cheapest crypto OTC service in Canada is Satstreet, as its pricing is as close as possible to the spot rate at any given time. They have aggressive pricing and will beat any competitive quote. To see for yourself, create an account.
What is the best free crypto OTC service?
Currently, there aren't any free crypto OTC services available. However, the Canadian OTC service with the lowest fees is Satstreet, which eliminates all price slippage and always seeks to give you a better rate than others OTC providers.
Is a crypto OTC service worth it?
Yes, a Crypto OTC Service is worth it because it will allow you to trade very large amounts of cryptocurrency while avoiding price slippage and with considerably low fees. For this purpose, we recommend that you use Satstreet, as it's the crypto OTC service with the lowest fees in Canada.
Are Crypto OTC Services Safe?
Yes, a Crypto OTC Service is safe because they have standard security measures to protect your funds, just like regular crypto exchanges. Some of these features include 2-factor authentication (2FA), cold storage, and regular security audits to test and strengthen security measures already present on the platform.
Are crypto OTC services legit?
Yes, a Crypto OTC Service is legit because it doesn't differ much from crypto trading in regular cryptocurrency exchanges. Crypto OTC platforms also take security just as seriously as regular exchanges do.
How can I sell large amounts of Bitcoin in Canada?
Everything I’ve said about buying large amounts of Bitcoin in Canada applies to selling it as well: it can be done faster, more cheaply, and with fewer headaches using an OTC. OTC brokers are the best place to buy and sell Bitcoin in bulk in Canada, both because they have greater liquidity than retail exchanges and because their bespoke service offering treats clients like VIPs.
How Much Bitcoin Can I Buy At Once?
There isn't a limit to how much Bitcoin you can buy (except, of course, the total number of Bitcoins in circulation, which is approximately 19 million as of March 2022). For example, Satstreet has access to enormous amounts of liquidity, so you’re certain to run out of cash before they run out of Bitcoins for you to buy.
How Much Bitcoin Can I Sell At Once?
Just like there are no real limits to how much Bitcoin you can buy, there are no practical limits to how much Bitcoin you can sell, either. Whether you want to sell for $25,000 or $25 million, top-ranked OTC providers like Satstreet can help.
How Much Bitcoin Can I Withdraw At A Time?
Most crypto exchanges, whether OTC or retail, have withdrawal limits that don’t let you withdraw crypto past a certain amount daily. Considering Bitcoin withdrawal limits vary from exchange to exchange, you’ll need to check all relevant information in your preferred exchange to find out what their limits are: generally, however, you can expect OTC exchanges to have higher limits.
Do I Have To Buy A Whole Bitcoin?
No, you don’t have to buy an entire Bitcoin to invest in cryptocurrency. Bitcoins can be broken down into smaller units called Satoshis, with 1 Bitcoin = 100 million Satoshis. You can invest in Bitcoin in any increment of Satoshis, though keep in mind that OTC brokers do apply a minimum trade size. In Satstreet's case, the minimum trade size is $25,000.
Why Not Just Buy Bitcoin Using A Retail Exchange?
Canada has several great retail exchanges like VirgoCX, Bitbuy, CoinSmart, Newton, Shakepay, and even Wealthsimple Crypto, but most are designed for retail investors with less than $25,000 to invest. The value propositions of those exchanges largely break down when you start trading larger volumes since the price you'll get from retail exchanges won't be nearly as good as the price you'll get from an over-the-counter broker.
