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SimpleSwap has been around since 2018. That is eight years of swapping crypto for people who would rather not hand over a selfie holding their passport next to yesterday’s newspaper. It lists thousands of coins and carries one of the most recognized names in the no-account swap space. CoinVast launched in 2026 with 136 coins and zero reviews. If this page pretended that contest was close, you should close the tab.
So why compare at all? Because swapping crypto when everything goes smoothly is easy. Every service can do that. The question that actually matters is what happens when a compliance system flags your transaction, and that is where these two take very, very different paths. SimpleSwap checks after your coins arrive, inside a pipeline of 20+ liquidity providers, any of which can stop your swap. We check before you send. We went through Trustpilot reviews, kycnot.me reports, BestChange listings, independent fee analyses, and a genuinely concerning number of Reddit threads to put this together. No spin, no cherry picking.
The one-sentence verdict: pick SimpleSwap for raw coin variety, fiat purchases, and eight years of history; pick CoinVast when you want a swap that, by design, cannot be frozen mid-flow, with a flat 2% spread printed on the quote and locked the moment you create it.
✓ and ✗ mark what’s better or worse for you, not a feature checklist. Every SimpleSwap cell traces to its own published pages, public watchdogs and review logs, or our June 2026 research sweep; the URLs are in the Sources section.
| Feature | SimpleSwap | CoinVast |
|---|---|---|
| Accounts and KYC | ||
| Sign-up required | ✓ No, swaps run without an account | ✓ No, and there is no account to create |
| KYC required | ✗ Marketed as no KYC, but kycnot.me logs it at KYC Level 3: documents can be demanded mid-swap | ✓ Never requested, pre-send screening replaces them |
| Who can flag your swap | ✗ SimpleSwap itself, or any of the 20+ liquidity providers it routes through | Screening runs before the exchange, inside our own system, and the result shows on your order page |
| If a flag lands | ✗ The swap pauses for a compliance review and identity documents may be requested | Nothing to pause, the swap never started |
| What happens to a flagged deposit | ||
| When screening happens | ✗ After your coins arrive | ✓ Before the exchange starts |
| Flagged outcome | ✗ Held while support and a liquidity provider sort it out, possible KYC demand | ✓ The swap never starts; coins auto-return minus the network fee |
| Possible limbo state | ✗ Yes, and the entity holding your coins may be a provider you have never heard of | ✓ None. Pass or refund are the only two outcomes |
| Completed swaps | ✓ Final in practice once paid out | ✓ Final by written policy, never clawed back |
| Sanctions-list match | Held under AML law | Held and reported, the single stated exception to auto-refund |
| Rates and fees transparency | ||
| Published spread | ✗ None; independent 2026 analyses peg the embedded markup near 1.2% floating, 2.0% fixed | ✓ A flat 2% spread, printed on every quote and locked at quote time |
| Network fee | ✗ Deducted from the final amount, no separate line | ✓ Its own line, shown in the payout coin |
| Cost on a $500 swap | Roughly $6 of embedded markup, hidden inside the rate | Roughly $10 of printed spread, plus the visible network fee |
| Loyalty program | ✓ Cashback up to about 0.4% in BTC for frequent users | ✗ None |
| Coins and networks | ||
| Assets listed | ✓ Roughly 1,500 to 2,800+ depending on the source, via 20+ liquidity providers | ✗ 136 coins on 20+ networks, every pair live |
| Monero (XMR) | ✓ Listed, and it rides the same post-deposit screening as everything else | ✓ Native XMR, screened before you send |
| Buy crypto with fiat | ✓ Card purchases via third-party providers | ✗ No fiat, crypto to crypto only, on purpose |
| Own blockchain nodes | Not disclosed | ✓ Self-hosted BTC, LTC, BCH and DASH nodes |
| Speed | ||
| Happy-path swap | ✓ 5 to 30 minutes, mostly blockchain confirmations | ✓ 5 to 30 minutes, depending on the deposit chain |
| Worst documented case | ✗ A swap stuck between SimpleSwap and a provider's compliance team, on no timeline you control | ✓ A refund, minus the network fee |
| Trust signals | ||
| Operating since | ✓ 2018 | ✗ 2026. We are the new kid and we know it |
| Trustpilot | Mixed as of June 2026; positives on speed, sharp negatives on mid-swap stops | No reviews yet, and we will not invent any |
| kycnot.me | ✗ KYC Level 3, defined as KYC can be requested during risk checks | Not yet listed |
| Regulator warnings | ✗ Listed by the UK FCA as an unauthorized firm in March 2025; registered in the Marshall Islands | ✓ None as of June 2026 |
First, the fair framing. SimpleSwap calls itself non-custodial, and in the long-term-balances sense that is accurate. But during a swap, your coins pass through SimpleSwap-controlled addresses and then through one or more of its 20+ liquidity providers. While the swap is in progress, those coins are under someone else’s control. Most swaps complete in minutes and nothing here is a gotcha. What follows is the documented record of one specific failure mode, the post-deposit compliance stop, with sources you can click.
The pattern from public reports goes like this: you set up a swap, you send your crypto, the transaction enters the pipeline, and something flags. The swap stops, your coins sit in limbo, and you are told the transaction is under review. A Trustpilot review from March 31, 2026 describes exactly this scenario: a swap started on March 30 was “immediately stopped” and “flagged by security” after the deposit was sent, with the user then waiting on support for resolution. A 2026 Monero-focused review in our research sweep noted occasional holds, which sounds benign until you remember that “hold” means your money is in someone else’s wallet. trustpilot.com/review/simpleswap.io, read June 13, 2026.
SimpleSwap is marketed as “no registration, no KYC,” and for most swaps that is true. But kycnot.me, the community registry the privacy crowd actually uses, classifies it as KYC Level 3, which specifically means KYC can be requested during risk checks. In practice: a mixer three owners back, an amount over some internal threshold, or a liquidity provider’s own rules can stop your swap and turn it into a document request. That turns “no KYC” from a guarantee into more of a suggestion. It is no KYC most of the time, probably, unless it isn’t. kycnot.me/service/simpleswap, read June 13, 2026.
Here is the part specific to SimpleSwap’s architecture. It aggregates from 20+ liquidity providers, which is great for coin variety and bad for accountability. When your swap gets flagged, it might not even be SimpleSwap’s decision: the provider handling your particular transaction may be the one applying the hold. That creates a situation where SimpleSwap can truthfully say “we did not freeze your funds” while your funds are, in fact, frozen. User comments logged on Cryptoradar describe “extremely poor support and zero transparency” and worry that once a deposit is taken there is “zero accountability afterward.” One-sided accounts, and we treat them as allegations. But the structural point stands: you are trusting not just SimpleSwap, but every intermediary it uses. cryptoradar.co, read June 13, 2026.
In March 2025 the UK Financial Conduct Authority issued an official warning that SimpleSwap is not authorized to operate in the UK and advised people to avoid dealing with it. SimpleSwap is registered in the Marshall Islands, so UK users with a problem have no regulator to complain to and no formal consumer protection. Outside the UK the warning is not legally binding, but when a major financial regulator tells people to steer clear, that is worth knowing regardless of your country. CoinVast has received no equivalent warning as of June 2026, which, to be fair, is partly because regulators have had only months to look at us. fca.org.uk, read June 13, 2026.
Our own fine print, stated just as plainly: CoinVast screens every deposit before the exchange starts. Pass means the swap runs and is final. Fail means it never starts and your coins auto-return, no documents. The one exception is a government sanctions-list match, which the law requires us to hold and report. We print that exception everywhere, including here, because a no-freeze promise without it would be a lie.
If we only wrote nice things about CoinVast and trashed SimpleSwap for 3,000 words, you would rightfully close this tab and never come back. SimpleSwap has genuine strengths, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest.
Somewhere between 1,500 and 2,800+ assets depending on which source you trust and how you count, pulled from over 20 liquidity providers. If some obscure token exists on any major exchange anywhere, there is a decent chance SimpleSwap can swap it. Our 136 coins cover the majors, BTC, ETH, LTC, USDT, USDC, XMR, SOL and so on. But if you need a token that had its moment in 2023 and is now living on two DEXs and a prayer, SimpleSwap is more likely to have it. This is not a close call.
SimpleSwap launched in 2018. That is eight years of processing swaps, building infrastructure, and not disappearing overnight, in a space where services come and go like seasonal allergies. CoinVast launched in 2026. It is new. There is no way around that, and wanting a long track record before trusting a service is a completely reasonable position.
SimpleSwap offers fiat-to-crypto purchases via credit and debit cards through third-party providers, in USD, EUR, GBP and other currencies. It is not their core product and the card processor adds fees, but it is there. CoinVast is crypto to crypto only. If your starting point is dollars rather than coins, SimpleSwap gives you a path and we do not.
A loyalty program paying cashback up to about 0.4% in BTC for frequent users, and an affiliate program where partners earn a share of fees from referred trades. Nice perks that add up over time. CoinVast does not currently offer equivalent rewards.
SimpleSwap screens your transaction after you send your deposit. If something gets flagged, your coins are sitting in an address you do not control, at the mercy of SimpleSwap’s support team, or worse, the compliance team of whichever liquidity provider actually has your money. CoinVast screens before you send. Pass, and the swap executes and completes. Fail, and you get an automatic refund minus the network fee. You are never in a position where someone else is holding your funds while deciding what to do with them. This is not a subtle distinction. It is the whole reason this page exists.
Our pricing is a flat 2% spread, printed on every quote next to a separate network fee line and locked the moment you create the swap, so the rate you see is the rate you get. SimpleSwap bakes its margin into the rate; independent 2026 analyses peg the typical markup at about 1.2% floating and 2.0% fixed. On headline percentage that can land near ours or below it, but the transparency angle is the real difference: checking our number takes ten seconds against any price index, while checking theirs means reverse-engineering the quote from a market rate, and ours never moves between quote and settlement.
CoinVast requires no account, no email, and no KYC. Period. The pre-screening model means there is never a point where we are holding your money and need to verify who you are before releasing it. If the screening passes, the swap happens. If it fails, the refund happens. Neither outcome involves your passport. SimpleSwap’s KYC Level 3 classification means its “no KYC” comes with an asterisk that activates exactly when you can least walk away.
CoinVast runs its own full nodes for BTC, LTC, BCH and DASH, so those swaps are verified on infrastructure we control rather than routed through third-party providers who might log data or impose their own compliance rules. SimpleSwap does not disclose its infrastructure and aggregates from 20+ liquidity providers, which is great for variety but means your transaction passes through systems you know nothing about, any of which can have its own freeze procedures.
Four steps, no onboarding. Start with a small amount, that is what we would do with a service we had just met.
Choose what you send and what you receive. The rate, the printed spread, and the network fee are on the card before you commit to anything.
Payout address plus a refund address. Screening runs at order creation, so the decision about your swap is made before a single coin moves.
From any wallet, to the deposit address on your order page. No account, no email, nothing to verify.
Most swaps complete in 5 to 30 minutes depending on the chain. Every step shows on the order page with transaction hashes. Bookmark the link, it is your receipt.
No. CoinVast and SimpleSwap are completely separate and unrelated services. Both offer no-account crypto swaps, but they use fundamentally different approaches. CoinVast screens before you send your deposit and never holds funds in a compliance queue. SimpleSwap screens after you send and can pause or freeze swaps mid-process during security reviews. They have different fee structures, different infrastructure, and different risk profiles.
Not usually. For most standard swaps, SimpleSwap does not ask for identity documents. However, kycnot.me classifies SimpleSwap as KYC Level 3, which means KYC can be requested during risk checks. In practice, some users have had their swaps stopped mid-process and been asked to provide ID documents to release their funds. Treat SimpleSwap as generally no KYC, but KYC is possible if flagged.
No. CoinVast requires no account, no email, and no KYC. The service uses pre-screening to check deposits before you send. If screening passes, the swap completes. If it fails, you get an automatic refund. No identity documents are ever requested.
Yes, temporarily. While SimpleSwap is technically non-custodial in the sense of holding no long-term account balances, funds can be held during the swap process if flagged by security checks. A March 2026 Trustpilot review describes a swap being immediately stopped and flagged by security after the deposit was sent. A 2026 Monero-focused review noted occasional holds. Users have reported needing to go through support to get funds released.
No. CoinVast's pre-screening model means your funds are either swapped, when screening passes, or refunded, when it fails. There is no mid-process hold, no compliance queue, and no manual review. The only exception is a direct sanctions-list match, which is a legal requirement.
CoinVast charges a flat 2% spread, printed on the quote and locked the moment you create the swap, so the rate you see is the rate you get. SimpleSwap embeds its fee into the exchange rate, with independent analyses putting the typical markup at about 1.2% for floating and about 2.0% for fixed. On headline percentage, SimpleSwap's measured markup can sit below our 2% on a given pair, but its number is hidden inside the rate and yours is not: you can check ours against any price index in seconds, while theirs has to be reverse-engineered. SimpleSwap does also offer a loyalty program with up to 0.4% BTC cashback for frequent users.
Yes. SimpleSwap supports XMR and is popular among Monero users for its generally no-KYC approach. However, the kycnot.me KYC Level 3 classification applies to all coins including Monero, meaning risk checks and potential KYC demands can still occur. CoinVast also supports Monero, along with other privacy coins like ZEC and DASH, and runs self-hosted nodes for added infrastructure privacy.
In March 2025, the UK Financial Conduct Authority issued a warning that SimpleSwap is not authorized or registered in the UK and that consumers should avoid dealing with it. SimpleSwap is legally registered in the Marshall Islands. This means UK users have no regulatory protection if something goes wrong. For users outside the UK, the warning is informational but still noteworthy.
CoinVast supports 136 coins on 20+ networks, covering the major cryptocurrencies and privacy coins. SimpleSwap supports between 1,500 and 2,800+ assets by aggregating from over 20 liquidity providers. If you need rare or obscure tokens, SimpleSwap has a massive advantage in variety. For mainstream coins like BTC, ETH, LTC, XMR, and USDT, both services have you covered.
You get an automatic refund minus the network fee. The refund processes automatically because the screening happened before the swap, not after. No emails, no documents, no waiting for a compliance team. Your coins come back to your wallet, and you can try a different transaction or use another service.
For most users and most transactions, SimpleSwap works fine. The service has been operating since 2018 and has many positive reviews. The risk is specifically with flagged transactions. If SimpleSwap or one of its liquidity providers flags your swap after you have sent your deposit, the experience can involve extended holds, KYC demands, and slow support. The March 2025 FCA warning is also worth considering, especially for UK-based users. If you use SimpleSwap, keep transaction sizes moderate and understand that compliance holds are a documented possibility.
Every external claim on this page traces to one of the pages below, all read on June 13, 2026, or to our June 2026 research sweep where noted in the text. The sweep also covered the independent fee analyses, a Monero-focused swap review, and a live video fee test cited above. If a fact changes, tell us at [email protected] and we will fix the page.
The spread is on the quote and the decision is made before your coins move. Test it with a small swap.
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