All of our content is written by Canadian crypto experts, not robots. We ensure each article is reviewed and updated regularly. Learn More

Listen

Newton vs. Gate.io: What Works Better For Canadians in 2024

Oleg Galeev

Last updated December 27, 2023

Newton and Gate.io are popular cryptocurrency exchanges, each with distinct strengths and limitations. Newton provides a simple, user-friendly interface targeted towards beginners and seasoned traders alike, while Gate.io offers a more complex interface packed with features but unfortunately doesn’t fully support Canadian users.

Description

Newton prides itself on being Canada’s first no-fee cryptocurrency exchange. They claim their exchange is 2-3x lower than most other exchanges.

Launched in 2013, Gate.io is one of the top cryptocurrency exchanges in the world with $12 billion+ daily trading volume. However, Canada is on the list of disallowed countries under Gate.io terms same as the US and many other counties. Because of this, they can randomly block your account at any time so we WOULD NOT recommend using it. If you are looking for a similar exchange, we would recommend using Bitget instead or checking our list of the best crypto exchanges in Canada

Coins

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, XRP, Stellar, Bitcoin Cash, Dogecoin, USDC, USDT, Chainlink, Aave, Uniswap, Polygon, Compound, SushiSwap, Curve, Synthetix, Dai, Polkadot

1000+

Fees

  • 0% CAD funding
  • 0% CAD withdrawal
  • 0% crypto deposit/withdrawals (up to $5 network fee waived)
  • No commissions or trading fees
  • 0.40% to 0.72% spread
  • Free crypto deposits 
  • Some free crypto withdrawals minus network fees
  • Other various crypto withdrawal fees
  • 0.2%/0.2% maker/taker fees
  • 0.15%/1.5% maker/taker fees when paid in GT
  • Lower trading fees when holding 100+ GT or 0.05+ BTC
  • $30 + 3.5% bank transfer for up to $2,000 (USD only)
  • Various third-party fees for card payments

Pros

  • No fees at all
  • Wide selection of coins available
  • You can export a T5 statement
  • Sleek interface
  • Newton Pro for advanced traders in Beta stage
  • Thousands of altcoins available to trade
  • Advanced trading features and tools
  • Unique features
  • Comprehensive help and data available
  • Low trading fees
  • Get additional benefits by holding GateToken
  • OTC Desk
  • NFT marketplace

Cons

  • Very high spreads
  • No live chat support
  • No credit card deposits. Debit must be pre-approved.
  • Not allowed in Canada
  • CAD bank accounts not supported
  • Must use third-party for card purchases
  • Some trading options not available to Canadians
  • Not beginner-friendly
  • Bad app reviews

Account Limits

  • $10,000 max daily Interac e-Transfer deposit/withdrawal
  • $70,000 max weekly Interac e-Transfer deposit/withdrawal
  • $5,000 electronic funds transfer deposit
  • $50,000 electronic funds transfer withdrawal
  • $1M wire transfer deposit/withdrawal
  • $5M daily trading limit

No major limits

Methods to buy

  • Interac e-Transfer
  • Wire transfer
  • Connect bank account
  • Credit/debit card using third-party service
  • USD bank transfer to OTC desk
  • Crypto deposits

Security

  • Daily exchange backups
  • Third-party custody of assets, mostly offline
  • Direct bank intergration to reduce fraud
  • Hot and cold storage to keep customer funds safe
  • 2FA

Mobile and Desktop Trading

Newton provides a mobile app that has high ratings on Apple App Store, reflecting a good user experience. Their web interface also provides a seamless trading experience. Gate.io’s mobile app, on the other hand, doesn't fare as well, with ratings of 4.4 stars on Google Play and 3.6 on the App Store, indicating user dissatisfaction. Gate.io's desktop interface is feature-rich but can be complicated for beginners.

Newton

Newton has a user-friendly interface and a modern, clean look. It’s simple and easy to use.

Newton’s overall design is clean and modern. They also usual casual and friendly language. It doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously, which is refreshing. At first glance, Newton seems user-friendly and fairly simple.

Its iOS app has a rating of 4.4 stars with 5.6k reviews, and its Android app has a rating of 2.8 stars with 800 reviews.

Newton desktop interface

Newton desktop interface

Market order with Newton

Market order with Newton

Newton mobile app #1 (welcome screenshot)

Newton app interface

Newton mobile app #2 (cryptocurrencies available)

Newton app interface while trading

Gate.io App

Gate.io’s iOS app has a 2.5-star rating from 700 reviews and a 2.5-star rating from 10,000 reviews on Google Play. It is quite low, we would recommend using a desktop app. Many reviewers have said that they cannot log in, that the 2FA does not work, you are often sent to blank pages and overall a bad user interface. We never had such issues though. 

Gate.io desktop app interface

Gate.io desktop app interface

Screenshot of “big data” market tracker on Gate.io

Gate.io data screen

Gate.io mobile app screenshot (main page)

Gate.io mobile app screenshot (main page)

Gate.io mobile interface

Gate.io mobile interface

Security Compliance

Newton does daily backups to minimize risk and states on its website that customer data is stored in Canada. They also perform daily site backups, have offline third-party storage for digital assets, and they allow their customers to directly connect their bank account to reduce fraud.

Gate.io is quite a reputable exchange. Forbes Advisor gave it a 4.5-star rating and named it one of the best crypto exchanges. Gate.io utilizes hot and cold storage to keep customer funds safe. On its website, Gate.io says it is the first exchange to invest millions in security and law funds. They also claim to be fully compliant and certain features such as futures trading is not available to Canadians because of regulationsThey can block your account at any time.

Both Newton and Gate.io take the security of their users seriously. Newton uses 2FA, end-to-end encryption, and stores 95-98% of digital assets in cold storage. Gate.io also utilizes 2FA and a mix of hot and cold storage for funds security. However, Gate.io has been known to block accounts from disallowed countries, which includes Canada.

Regulatory Compliance

Newton is fully compliant with FINTRAC regulations in Canada

Gate.io is not compliant crypto exchange in Canada.

Newton is fully compliant with Canadian regulations and works closely with Canadian financial institutions. It's registered with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) as a Money Services Business (MSB). In contrast, Gate.io has restrictions for Canadian users, and it's not entirely clear how they navigate compliance with Canadian regulations. It is important to note that Gate.io reserves the right to block Canadian accounts.

Customer support

Newton has FAQs and a knowledge center on the website. Customers can message the support teams either online via their support pages or through email. Newton does not have a phone and live support.

There is a helpful help centre and blog on the Gate.io website which teaches you how to use their many features. They also have a live chat function and you can submit a support request when you’re logged in. Unfortunately, Gate.io has many bad reviews on Trustpilot with people complaining that they are unable to withdraw or that customer service is slow or does not respond. 

Newton offers strong customer support with prompt email response and a comprehensive help center. Gate.io also has a help center and live chat function, but there have been complaints about slow response times and difficulty with withdrawal issues.

Conclusion

While both Newton and Gate.io offer unique features and benefits, for Canadian users, Newton appears to be the better choice. It provides a user-friendly platform, has robust security measures in place, is fully compliant with Canadian regulations, and offers reliable customer support. On the other hand, Gate.io, despite having a rich feature set and a wide variety of altcoins, doesn't fully support Canadian users and may pose potential compliance and account access issues.

We recommend choosing Newton over Gate.io for your cryptocurrency trading needs. By opting for Newton through our referral link, you support us in conducting comprehensive independent analyses of crypto trading options for Canadians.

If you find that neither Newton nor Gate.io meets your requirements, we encourage you to explore our monthly-updated list of the best exchanges for Canadians to trade crypto. This list provides a range of alternative options that may better suit your specific needs and preferences.

Author

Oleg is a Canadian citizen & crypto expert who has been trading since 2016. He started out with Coinbase, Kraken and Peer-to-Peer exchanges. After some time, centralized exchanges started charging crazy fees to their users.

He decided to review different crypto exchanges that operate in Canada and start a Youtube channel in order to educate Canadians on what kinds of things are going inside each one while giving them unbiased advice. On top of that, Oleg also has experience with NFT, airdrops, and crypto staking and he is constantly checking on new crypto assets.

His writing has been featured in popular Canadian media sources such as Toronto Sun and Ottawa Citizen.