Bitcoin Forum

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There have been several reports claiming the verification process of exchanges take a huge amount of time.
Despite that, some users even say they never get any reply even after contacting the support.

Since i have accounts on multiple platforms and never did a single KYC procedure, i decided to open this thread and create a helpful overview about how long it took to get approved.

What is KYC?

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer

What are public records?

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_records

The table below is well-ordered by timeframe, ascending.

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1. Poloniex

Required: ID / passport / driver's license & selfie
KYC submitted: 06-03-2018 13:46 p.m.
KYC approval: 06-03-2018 14:01 p.m.
Approval timeframe: approx. 15 minutes
Support: https://poloniex.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/folders/1000210912

2. Binance

Required: ID / passport / driver's license & selfie with note
KYC submitted: 06-06-2018 15:59 p.m.
KYC approval: 06-06-2018 21:43 p.m
Approval timeframe: approx. 5 hours, 45 minutes
Support: https://support.binance.com/hc/en-us/categories/115000056052-FAQ

3. Kucoin

Required: ID / passport / driver's license & selfie with signature
KYC submitted: 06-03-2018 15:21 p.m.
KYC approval: 06-04-2018 05:12 a.m.
Approval timeframe: approx. 14 hours
Support: https://news.kucoin.com/en/category/faq/

4. Huobi

Required: ID / passport / driver's license (only frontpage)
KYC submitted: 06-06-2018 17:21 p.m.
KYC approval: 06-07-2018 19:28 p.m
Approval timeframe: approx. 1 day, 2 hours
Support: https://huobiglobal.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/categories/360000007652-FAQ

5. Bittrex

Required: ID / passport / driver's license & selfie
KYC submitted: 06-03-2018 15:33 p.m.
KYC approval: 06-06-2018 17:31 p.m.
Approval timeframe: approx. 3 days, 2 hours
Support: https://support.bittrex.com/hc/en-us/categories/200049234-FAQ-Frequently-Asked-Questions

6. Coss

Required: ID / passport / driver's license & proof of residence
KYC submitted: Coming up next!
Support: https://medium.com/@coss.io/kyc-guide-coss-io-52410d0a706d

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This might be the normal case but I've definitely seen some people waiting weeks, If not months.

I've never passed any KYC before and I'm not willing to simply because I don't like the idea of giving my personal information. So yeah, the complains are probably not because of the wait time but with the fact that people are not comfortable with sharing their ID.

I'm fine with an exchange asking users KYC from the beginning. That way, I can decide whether I want to make an account or not but If you take Bittrex for example, they locked accounts (impossible to withdraw) without prior notice (unfair) and forced everyone to pass a verification. I never did and I still have my funds locked.

Me too! I really hope that some of the approvals will take that long so i can "confirm" those issues.
With this topic, i don't want to protect exchange sites but create an overview about possible circumstances and reputation.


That is absolutely understandable!
Though, from exchanges' point of view it is intelligible to integrate KYC. Facing money laundering and suspicious activities as well as the pressure through regulation & governments, there definitely is a need to know who your customer is.
Additionally, everyone registering on a centralized service should be aware of revealing his personal information - you wouldn't give someone a bank account without solid proof, right?


This actually is a point I can't confirm.
I'm having a non-verified Bittrex account for about a year now and my funds never have been locked, i always was able to withdraw until the publication of GDPR.
Since this is some kind of "force majeure" i don't really want to blame any third party like exchangers for this.

One single case does not represent the population.

While you may have gotten verified on Poloniex in 15 minutes, this does not mean that others were verified this quickly as well. If you wanted to do an actual test, you would need a larger sample size that accurately reflects the entire population.

Thanks for your contribution.

It's absolutely clear that this isn't a empirical survey. It can only give a hint on how long it may take.
Still, i am pretty sure most KYC's fail either because of wrong / bad quality documents or missing support capacities by exchanges. In example: Why should take it Poloniex minutes to approve my account, but months for another one if the user did nothing wrong? Just a food for thought.

I hope i can collect some useful information here, that's all.

It does say something though when comparing it to Bittrex (one could argue that this is currently their "biggest" competitor), where one has to wait for days.

I didn't know Poloniex verifies accounts so quickly nowadays. I used to read complaints from people who had to wait for weeks in order to get their accounts to Level 2 status/out of legacy.
This does seem like an improvement tbh.

Great test, to know which exchanges are actually quite fast in processing their data; even though the data might be quite inaccurate due to multiple possible reasons(e.g. exchange X might have employees for KYC in a different timezone, hence a half day difference in speed). Though I'm definitely going to watch this topic for a bit.

Mind doing one for COSS[1]? Exchange is quite new, and I'm curious how it will go against these bigger guys.

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[1] https://coss.io/

Wow, I didn't know that all of them are so fast, the only time I've tried to pass KYc for an exchange was Exmo, and it took me several weeks to get it approved. That's great that top exchanges have such a high lever of customer service.

Verifying my Bittrex account was very fast for me, I don't remember exactly how long it took, but it was for sure not more than a few hours.
I think it largely depends on the country of residence, and whether or not they can use their automated verification process.

Well for me, I've submitted my driver's license for KYC on bittrex, only for the application to be denied because it wasn't clear. Tried sending a scanned copy up to no avail, and it's been last January since they replied to my queries. Bittrex is the only exchange that I wanted to get KYC'd for but apparently, the verification team doesn't want to do business with me. All the credentials and IDs I've submitted are valid and can be verified if they really wanted until I just gave up. I'll try again and see whether I'll get confirmed now.

yes, I already try many time verify KYC on bittrex, but denied my application  Many have seen that they have been trying for the last 5-6 months but they have also failed because it is not clear to many, but can anyone say anything about it?

Coss will be the next one for verification! (though it gives me headaches - the limit for filesize is only 1 MB (!) and i am going to need an english written & notarized proof of residence)

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I am also wondering what took them this long - they are using the exact same system for KYC like poloniex (easily seen since the UI is similar) and i used the same documents as well. I can only imagine that Bittrex is confirming manually in addition to the automated process. By the way, i'm citizen of Germany.

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So far, i only used my ID for verfification. The frontpage is most important, and following facts have to be absolutely clear: Date of Birth, Full Name, Nationality, Date of Expiration. You both my try to do the KYC again now - in January, the hype about cryptos was at its peak and probably lead to a lot of new registrations & an overwhelming amount of KYC applications each day.

The second thing i can think of are public records. If there are differences or fresh changes (i.e. marriage, moving, criminal activites), this might be a problem.
I am going to put this information in the OP as well.

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Guys, i am really thankful for your appreciation & participation in this thread! Glad to see my efforts have a use!

The worst case ever I have encountered is after I provided all my personal information and the exchange just went disappeared.

Thanks for the list. It'll be pretty useful for sure for those who want to have the smoothest and quickest verification process that is possible when choosing their exchanges, in that they are able to base their choice off these criteria with actual data backing it up.

I'd like to see you experiment with localbitcoins - recently they have started to force traders with significant volumes to start verifying their accounts, and I have no idea how long their verification process would take.

However, it's important to note that individual cases will still vary between the time taken for verification, and that's the ultimate flaw of this table. I've seen cases where it took weeks for users to get verified on poloniex, even though it was almost instant for you.

Great! Appreciate it. I suggest using an image optimizer like imagesmaller[1] for this. using an picture editing software like paint or Gimp to decrease the image size to decrease the filesize. Best of luck, and thanks again.

I wouldn't use any online tool to upload and edit your private documents. You should always assume any online service keeps records of everything you upload.

For some reason I actually forgot we were talking about personal documents. I got used to using image optimization on stock images for websites all day so suggesting an online tool was kind of a reflex move to me. My bad. Edited my  previous eply.

Many exchanges can only have 2fa, it is safe and withdrawals are not affected, they can trade normally, but the amount of withdrawals on the day is relatively low. For me, investment is not enough, basically enough. And I'm more and more fond of decentralizing exchanges. I only need one address.

Time you need to wait to get approval is heavily dependant on registration time. I mean if you try to use this guide in times of a bubble, multiply this times provided at least 10 times.
If its time without bubble like now, you have quick times like you tested already :)

Exactly, just as I was trying to say on one of my previous replies. Sure you probably registered at early in the morning on your country, but it might be night time/midnight on the exchange's timezone. But yea, it's still a cool experiment nonetheless.

What.

I think KYC will be on all exchanges in near future, because they need to pay taxes to his countries and regulation should be

Sorry for the late response guys!

It was weekend & today is my birthday, so my thoughts currently are not really around KYC.  :)


You might be right with that, though i think the timeframe will not be x10. Several exchanges are using an automated process without manual confirmation, so, as long as their severs aren't overloaded, it should approx. take the same time.


Unfortunately, i can't do it for localbitcoins since it is restricted in germany.


Thanks for that, i am planning to do so.
Despite that, i am wondering why they can't use a filesize of 3 MB like most exchanges offer. This would guarantee a good image quality and therefore less issues.

I am still figuring out how & when to get the english-written, notarized document in my spare time (regarding KYC on coss.io).

To keep this thread running, i will probably add Kraken & Okex as well.

Fast is not always secure. Secure is not always fast.

Sure, an exchange can do the KYC in 2 minutes, but if that means that you can get in with a picture of your grandma hiding in a closet, it does not really inspire faith in that platform.

On the other hand, I waited for like 3 weeks to get a reply from Bittrex, so...

Great initiative first of all.


However, I echo the same sentiment that a lot of others hold. I mean, the issue that you're trying to address is good. People need to base their choice of exchange off of the quickness at which they are able to be verified, and start trading/withdrawing at. However, you can simply never expect the times to be remotely close to the vicinity of the times listed here if verification can't be completed automatically. If you throw in factors such as account holder residing in banned states on legacy accounts, etc., the situations become extremely complex, and ultimately comes down to the speed of support over anything really.

This is good as a reference, but it's definitely not a definitive guide. If you know what I mean.

Perhaps also have a tested list on how fast exchanges are responding to support tickets?

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P.S. I'd like to see CEX.io being tested, it's one of the exchanges that beginners seem to like to use a lot.