How We Test & Review

Last updated: July 29, 2026

The short version

We don't review anything we haven't used. Every exchange, wallet, casino and betting site on this scale gets a real account, a real deposit of our own crypto, real use — and a withdrawal, timed. What happens in that loop is the review.

The process

• Sign-up. We register from scratch and note exactly what the platform asks for — including how KYC is triggered and when.
• Deposit. Our own coins, on-chain. We record how long crediting takes and whether hidden fees appear along the way.
• Use. Trades on exchanges, play at casinos, bets at sportsbooks. Enough volume to see how the product behaves, not a screenshot tour.
• Withdrawal. The step operators fail most. We time it, compare the fee to the advertised one, and try it at more than one amount when limits look suspicious.
• Support. A real question through the normal channel, response time noted.

What the score is made of

Licensing and security first — an unlicensed operator with a slick app is still an unlicensed operator. Then fees and limits as measured, payment speed, product depth, and support quality. Scores get revisited when an operator changes its terms, and periodically even when nothing seems to have changed, because in this industry something always has.

Geography matters

A site that's excellent in Canada can be unavailable — or illegal — in Australia. Our lists adjust to the country you're browsing from, and we don't recommend an operator in a country where we can't verify it accepts players. The same list is shown to everyone in the same country, search engines included.

What money can't buy

Operators can't pay for a higher score, and they can't pay to soften criticism. Commissions we earn (see the affiliate disclosure) affect whether we can keep testing with real funds — not what the tests conclude. When a partner's product got worse, the review got worse. That's the deal.