Fleming Airunugba
8 minutes
Updated:
4 may 2022

What is the ZenGo platform?

The ZenGo exchange mainly allows selling, buying and trading cryptocurrencies.

General

First of all, you should know that ZenGo is only available as a mobile application on Android and Apple . In other words, with ZenGo you can do crypto trading anywhere, you just need your smartphone!

ZenGo ‘s management team is as follows:

  • Ouriel Ohayon, co-founder and CEO
  • Tal Be’ery, co-founder and CTO
  • Omer Shlomovits, Co-Founder and Vice President of Research

The main strengths put forward by ZenGo are the following:

  • ZenGo is a mobile application and is therefore adapted to the new needs and habits of consumers
  • ZenGo makes life easier for its users with its “password-free” application, which reduces the risk of attack or human error
  • ZenGo relies on simplicity and user-friendliness
  • ZenGo facilitates access to cryptocurrencies for beginners
  • ZenGo never leaves its customers alone and provides efficient customer service

“  We dream of a world where owning and using your money is no longer complicated and investing and transacting is as easy as sending an email. ZenGo’s mission is to end financial exclusion and break down the barriers of complexity by creating the most accessible and secure wallet service that enables anyone to thrive in the digital economy. » Ouriel Ohayon, co-founder and CEO of ZenGo

Currently, the ZenGo application is present in more than 188 countries and has several thousand customers.

History

The ZenGo exchange was launched in 2019. It was created by the Israeli company KZen Networks Ltd. To develop, this start-up successfully organized several fundraisers with major investors. For example, in 2021, the startup raised $4 million from Elron Electronic Industries, Benson Oak, and Samsung Ventures. That same year, during a second fundraiser, the Israeli start-up did even more by raising $20 million . This latest fundraising has included new investors such as:

  • Insight Partners
  • Distributed Global
  • Austin Rief Ventures

The ZenGo ecosystem

Even though ZenGo only comes in the form of a mobile application, ZenGo offers its users many crypto services. Discover the ZenGo ecosystem.

Crypto trading

The ZenGo application allows you to acquire cryptocurrencies. Depending on the chosen crypto and your preference, you can do this in two ways: by making an exchange or by buying the crypto directly with fiat money.

The crypto exchange

Crypto exchange is a service that allows you to exchange cryptos for other cryptos or fiat money. It all depends on the chosen trading pair. The cryptocurrencies available on the exchange are those managed by the ZenGo wallet. However, it is difficult to find information on the number of cryptocurrencies currently available for trading. There seem to be dozens of cryptocurrencies on ZenGo . Some sites talk about more than 80 cryptocurrencies present on ZenGo. For example, you find the following cryptocurrencies:

  • Bitcoin (BTC)
  • Ethereum (ETH)
  • Dogecoin (DOGE)
  • Binance Coin (BNB)
  • Dai (DAI)
  • Maker (MKR)
  • USD Coin (USDC)
  • Tezos (XTZ)
  • Tether (USDT)
  • Aave (AAVE)
  • Uniswap (UNI)
  • Kyber Network (KNC)
  • The Sandbox (SAND)
  • Paxos Standard (PAX)

Buying cryptocurrencies with fiat

With the ZenGo app , you can directly buy cryptocurrencies with fiat money. The authorized means of payment are credit card (Visa or MasterCard) and Apple Pay. The following coins can be purchased directly this way:

  • 0x (ZRX)
  • Aave (AAVE)
  • ApeCoin (APE)
  • Augur (REP)
  • BandToken (BAND)
  • Basic Attention Token (BAT)
  • Binance Coin (BNB)
  • Bitcoin (BTC)
  • ChainLink (LINK)
  • Chiliz (CHZ)
  • Civic (CVC)
  • Compound (COMP)
  • Dai (DAI)
  • Decentraland (MANA)
  • Dogecoin (DOGE)
  • Ethereum (ETH)
  • FunFair (FUN)
  • Maker (MKR)
  • Ocean Protocol (OCEAN)
  • OKB (OKB)
  • OmiseGo (OMG)
  • Paxos Standard (PAX)
  • Polygon (MATIC)
  • Shiba Inu (SHIB)
  • Terra (LUNA)
  • TerraKRW (KR)
  • TerraUSD (UST)
  • Tether (USDT)
  • Texos (XTZ)
  • The Sandbox (SAND)
  • Uniswap (UNI)
  • USD Coin (USDC)
  • Utrust (UTK)
  • Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC)

The principle is simple, you just have to choose the crypto you want, define the desired amount and indicate the currency with which you pay. Dozens of currencies are accepted including of course the euro and the dollar. Once you have given this information, all you have to do is provide the address of your wallet. Your cryptocurrencies will then be credited to your wallet. Note that at present, ZenGo grants you $10 in Bitcoin cashback on your crypto purchase.

Remunerated Savings

The ZenGo application provides access to remunerated savings services . How does it work ? Concretely, you lend your cryptos to Nexo, a partner of ZenGo and an approved and registered financial institution for loans and investments in crypto. Interest on your crypto funds is calculated and added to your balance daily, giving you compound interest in the same currency as your assets. Note that your funds are not blocked, so you are always free to withdraw your cryptos at any time.

In a period of inflation such as the one we are currently experiencing, these solutions show returns that no traditional savings account could offer. For example, ZenGo offers the following returns:

  • Bitcoin (BTC), 4% APY
  • Ethereum (ETH), 4% APY
  • USD Coin (USDC), 8% APY
  • Tether (USDT), 8% APY
  • Dai (DAI), 8% APY
  • TrueUSD (TUSD), 8% APY
  • Nexo (NEXO), 7% APY
  • Texos (XTZ), 5.75% APR
  • ChainLink Token (LINK), 4% APY

Staking

Another way to earn passive income is through staking. That’s good, it’s possible to do staking on ZenGo!

What is staking  ? Simply put, staking is lending your cryptos in return for income. Your cryptocurrencies will then be used for the management of the blockchain network and its security. At the time of writing this guide, ZenGo offers Tezos (XTZ) staking with their partner Chorus One. But ZenGo affirms it, many other cryptos will be available for staking soon.

Wallet

We would almost forget it but at the base, ZenGo is a wallet  ! In addition to managing many cryptocurrencies, what are the particularities of the ZenGo wallet?

First of all, the ZenGo wallet is part of hot storage in the sense that it stores your cryptos online. But the ZenGo wallet is different from a classic hot wallet. For what ? The ZenGo crypto wallet uses an innovative technology called Multi-party Computation (MPC). Concretely, a classic hot wallet involves two keys:

  • A public key that you provide to make the transactions and which is registered on the blockchain
  • A private key which, as its name suggests, belongs to you and should not be shared

The ZenGo wallet differs somewhat from this standard. Indeed, this wallet involves not one but two private keys. One key is stored on ZenGo’s servers, the other on your mobile. In other words, to carry out a transaction, you therefore need the two keys and therefore the ZenGo servers and your mobile. For added security, ZenGo offers the option of setting up a backup of your second private key on their servers. So even if you lose or have your smartphone stolen, you can recover your second private key. This backup system uses the cloud as well as biometric identification (facial recognition).

Convert payroll to crypto

The ZenGo app stands out from many other exchanges with this service. Indeed, ZenGo has created a financial partnership with OnJuno in order to allow its users to… convert their monthly pay (or part of it) into Bitcoin, Ethereum or even USD Coin! Note, however, that this service is currently only available to users located in the United States.

To convert your payroll to crypto, you need to follow these steps:

  • Create an account on OnJuno
  • Initialize your payroll conversion. At this stage, you must indicate what percentage of your payroll you wish to convert into crypto. Then you must choose the desired cryptocurrency. With OnJuno, the possible cryptocurrencies are: Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and USD Coin (USDC)
  • Prepare the transfer of funds. You must set up a transfer that will automatically transfer the desired portion of your pay to the OnJuno account. Note that in the United States, OnJuno is present in 90% of the territory. Employees of large companies such as Uber, Amazon, Google, Lyft or Doordash can thus benefit from it.
  • Provide your crypto wallet address

Currently, you get a $50 bonus in Bitcoin and Ethereum for any deposit of at least $250.

How to trade crypto on ZenGo?

You are now more familiar with the ZenGo universe. You still have to find out how to trade crypto on the ZenGo mobile exchange.

Opening an account

To open an account, the first step is to download the application. As a reminder, it is available on Android and Apple. Next, the application will ask you to provide your email address. You will then only have a few seconds to check your emails and confirm your address. You can do this by opening the automatic email sent by ZenGo and clicking “Tap to confirm”. Once you have completed these few operations, you can start using the ZenGo application.

The application is therefore not lying when it highlights that opening an account on ZenGo takes less than 20 seconds! In this, it differs from other exchanges where the steps to open an account are rather laborious!

Deposit funds

As explained above, you have two ways to acquire cryptocurrencies. The direct method is to buy the cryptos with fiat money using your bank card for example. In this case, you need to select the “Buy” option on the app.

The other way is to use ZenGo’s exchange services. In this case, you need to fund your ZenGo account beforehand. For this, you need to go to the “Trade” option of the app.

Crypto trading

Cryptocurrency trading happens on the app’s “Trade” menu. As mentioned above, you will find many cryptocurrencies available. In addition to traditional cryptos, you will have access to meme coins (Dogecoin), metaverse cryptos (The Sandbox), DeFi tokens (Uniswap), stablecoins (USD Coin, Dai, Tether), etc.

What are the fees on ZenGo?

The use of the services of the ZenGo exchange may incur certain fees. It is best to find out in advance so as not to be surprised by the fees charged by ZenGo when making a transaction. Fees can be broken down into several categories:

  • Transaction fees pay for the completion of the transaction. They are expressed as a percentage of the transaction amount.
  • Network fees are variable depending on the blockchain used and the state of the network Note that these fees are not paid to ZenGo but to the operator of the blockchain network
  • The spread is the difference between the price at the time you place the order and the market price at the time the order is executed.
  • Currency conversion fees are due if you buy crypto with a currency other than the following: USD/CAD/AUD/EUR/GBP

On ZenGo, you can anticipate the following fees and conditions, among others:

To send or receive crypto:

  • Processing fee: Free
  • Network charges: Yes (for sending)

To buy cryptos by bank transfer

  • Processing fee : 1,99 %
  • Spread : Yes
  • Network charges : Yes
  • Conversion fee : Yes (if applicable)

To buy cryptos by credit card :

  • Processing fee : 5,99 %
  • Spread : Yes
  • Network charges : Yes
  • Conversion : fee (if applicable)

To sell cryptos :

  • Processing fee : 1,99 %
  • Spread : Yes
  • Network fees : Yes

To trade cryptos :

  • Processing fee: 0.5%
  • Spread: Yes (usually up to 2%)
  • Network charges: Yes

To deposit or withdraw funds from remunerated savings (Nexo):

  • Processing fee: Free
  • Network fees: Yes (except 1 free withdrawal per calendar month).

Is the ZenGo exchange safe?

Although it is a mobile application , ZenGo applies strict security measures. For example, if you are familiar with crypto exchanges , you are surely familiar with the two-factor authentication method or 2FA. Basically, with 2FA, you need your password to connect but also a code sent to you by email, SMS or via an application like Google Authenticator . This prevents someone from usurping your identity and connecting in your name and then carrying out financial transactions that would be harmful to you. Well, ZenGo uses the principle of 2FA but goes even further by using the 3FA method!

ZenGo’s 3FA method therefore offers three levels of authentication which are:

  • 1st level: When you enter your email, a “magic” link is sent to you to verify your address.
  • 2nd level: You have the possibility of storing your key on the ZenGo cloud to be able to recover it in case of loss.
  • 3rd level: ZenGo offers to register your face on their servers so that you can use facial recognition to find your funds if you lose your smartphone or if you accidentally delete the ZenGo application.

Regulations of the ZenGo platform

ZenGo is registered in Israel and is subject to the jurisdiction of the district courts of Tel Aviv and Jaffa. On the other hand, this is not the case in Europe and in France. Does this mean that you cannot use the ZenGo application in France? No ! You can download it and use it. Just don’t be surprised not to see ads on ZenGo for the moment in France!

Advantages and disadvantages of ZenGo

What we like

Extreme simplicity to open an account

Application suitable for crypto beginners

Very responsive customer service

Relatively developed ecosystem

Possibility of using a 3-level authentication method which allows you to find your funds in the event of loss or theft of your smartphone or if you inadvertently delete the ZenGo application

Flexibility of use since it is a mobile application

Highly rated mobile application on Android Store or Apple Store

What we don't like

Interface not translated into French

Relatively high fees compared to competitors

Despite all the security measures put in place, ZenGo remains a mobile application subject to the classic risks of cyberattack

About the author

Fleming Airunugba

Fleming Airunugba has been learning about cryptocurrency and blockchain since 2017. He first began as a small investor and soon became passionate about the industry, the technological innovation and the evolution that it could bring to the world. He believes Bitcoin is the natural currency of the internet. Fleming has been an educational content writer in the crypto space for several years and aims at accurately delivering complex concepts.

Security

What is the use of the ZenGo app?

ZenGo is a crypto application that offers different services. In particular, ZenGo lets you buy, sell, and trade cryptos. In addition, the application has a wallet that allows you to store your cryptos. Finally, ZenGo offers different crypto solutions to its users to earn passive income.

Where is the ZenGo crypto exchange located?

The head office of the firm ZenGo is located in Israel, in Tel Aviv..

Is ZenGo regulated?

The application is regulated in Israel but not in France. However, you can still use ZenGo services in France.

What cryptocurrencies are available on ZenGo?

The ZenGo application offers dozens of cryptocurrencies. You will find all the major cryptos in terms of capitalization but also DeFi tokens, coin memes, metaverse and NFT cryptos, etc.

Is ZenGo a good crypto wallet?

ZenGo is a good wallet. First of all, it is very easy to use. It will only take you a few seconds to be able to use the app. Next, the ZenGo crypto wallet is very safe thanks to its 3-factor authentication method or 3FA.