Pepperstone Crypto review: the AUSTRAC-registered spot exchange from the Pepperstone group
Pepperstone Crypto is a new AUSTRAC-registered spot exchange from the Pepperstone group, and a credible low-fee option for Australians who want direct coin ownership on a major-pairs-only list. Operated by Pepperstone Digital Pty Limited (AUSTRAC DCE100889269), it offers a flat 0.1 percent spot fee, ISO 27001 custody, and ring-fenced client money. The catch is youth: launched in 2025, it has no multi-cycle track record and lists only around 14 coins. It is the spot exchange (you own the crypto, eligible for the 50 percent CGT discount), not Pepperstone's crypto CFD product. Rating: 3.7 out of 5. A sensible secondary account for low-fee major-pair buying; not yet a replacement for a CoinJar or CoinSpot primary.
About Pepperstone Crypto
Pepperstone Crypto is the spot cryptocurrency exchange operated by Pepperstone Digital Pty Limited (ACN 683 263 836), the digital-assets arm of the Pepperstone group. Pepperstone itself is one of the better-known CFD and forex brokers serving Australia, operating since 2010 under ASIC AFSL 414530. The spot exchange is a separate, newer entity that launched in 2025 and trades at pcrypto.com.
The proposition is straightforward: a clean, low-fee venue for buying and owning major cryptocurrencies, with the institutional backing of an established broker behind it. That backing is the differentiator. Most independent Australian exchanges are standalone businesses; Pepperstone Crypto sits inside a well-capitalised group with an existing compliance and treasury operation.
Corporate facts worth verifying
Pepperstone Crypto operates as an AUSTRAC-registered Digital Currency Exchange provider, registration number DCE100889269, verifiable on the public register at austrac.gov.au. The operating entity is Pepperstone Digital Pty Limited, ACN 683 263 836, headquartered at Level 16, Tower One, 727 Collins Street, Melbourne.
It is not an Australian Financial Services Licence holder, and it does not claim to be. A spot exchange does not need an AFSL; it needs AUSTRAC DCE registration, which it holds. This is the same regulatory baseline as CoinJar, CoinSpot, Binance Australia, and every other spot exchange on the SatoshiMacro table.
Sign up at Pepperstone Crypto
AUSTRAC DCE100889269. Flat 0.1% spot fee. ISO 27001 custody. Backed by the Pepperstone group. Direct coin ownership with 50% CGT discount eligibility.
Sign up at Pepperstone CryptoSpot exchange vs the Pepperstone CFD product
This is the single most important thing to understand before signing up, because the two products share a brand but are completely different.
Pepperstone Crypto (this review, pcrypto.com) is a spot exchange. You buy the actual coin, you can withdraw it to your own wallet, and you own it. It is regulated as an AUSTRAC Digital Currency Exchange. Long-term holdings qualify for the 50 percent CGT discount.
Pepperstone crypto CFDs (the main Pepperstone platform) are synthetic derivatives. You trade price exposure on MetaTrader, cTrader, or TradingView under ASIC AFSL 414530, with leverage, but you never own the underlying coin and cannot withdraw it. CFD profits are taxed as income or CFD gains with no CGT discount.
If you want to accumulate and hold Bitcoin, you want the spot exchange reviewed here. If you want leveraged short-term directional trades inside an ASIC AFSL framework, see our separate Pepperstone crypto CFD review. The two are not interchangeable.
Who Pepperstone Crypto is for
Three profiles fit Pepperstone Crypto well.
First, cost-sensitive major-pair buyers. If your activity is mostly buying BTC, ETH, SOL, and a handful of large-caps, the flat 0.1 percent fee is as cheap as it gets in Australia, and the narrow coin list is irrelevant to you.
Second, traders who value institutional backing. Some users are uncomfortable holding balances on standalone exchanges with thin balance sheets. Pepperstone Crypto sits inside a group that has run a regulated brokerage for 15 years. That is a reasonable comfort factor, within the limits of any exchange being a custodian.
Third, anyone diversifying counterparty risk. Spreading holdings across two or three AUSTRAC-registered exchanges is sensible above about AUD 20,000. Pepperstone Crypto is a viable second or third venue for the low-fee major-pair slice of that allocation.
Who should pick something else
Investors who want broad coin selection. Around 14 listings is the narrowest list on the SatoshiMacro spot table. If you rotate into altcoins, new listings, or memecoins, CoinSpot (510+) or Digital Surge (340+) are the right venues.
Investors who weight operating track record heavily. CoinJar and CoinSpot have both operated continuously since 2013, through multiple full crypto cycles. Pepperstone Crypto launched in 2025. For a primary long-term-holdings account, that history matters.
SMSF trustees and large-ticket investors. Independent Reserve has the dedicated SMSF onboarding, OTC desk, and auditor-ready reporting that Pepperstone Crypto does not yet offer.
Fees and spreads
Pepperstone Crypto's headline is a flat 0.1 percent spot trading fee. That is genuinely competitive: it matches the entry-tier maker/taker rate at Binance Australia and Bybit, and it matches CoinSpot's Market pairs (0.1 percent) while undercutting CoinSpot's Instant Buy (around 1.0 percent) and CoinJar (1.0 percent) by an order of magnitude.
As with every exchange, a market spread applies on top of the headline fee, so the all-in cost of a round trip is the fee plus the bid-ask spread at execution. On BTC/AUD the spread observed at review was tight, consistent with a venue pricing aggressively to win market share. Promotional 0 percent fee windows have been run around launch; treat those as temporary and budget for the standard 0.1 percent.
Coins listed
Pepperstone Crypto lists around 14 cryptocurrencies at the time of review: BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, LTC, DOT, LINK, UNI, AAVE, APT, RENDER, plus the USDC and USDT stablecoins. This is a deliberately conservative majors-and-large-caps list.
For a buyer focused on the top of the market-cap table, the list is adequate. For anyone who wants exposure to the long tail, it is restrictive, and the gap versus CoinSpot (510+) or Cointree (260+) is large. Expect the list to grow over time as a new exchange matures, but at review it is the platform's clearest limitation.
Security, custody and regulation
Pepperstone Crypto holds an ISO 27001 certification, the externally audited information-security management standard also held by CoinSpot and Independent Reserve. It describes client money as ring-fenced and transactions as multi-verified, and it operates under AUSTRAC DCE registration DCE100889269.
The honest framing on security is that a 2025-launched exchange has no long public record under stress, in either direction. It has not suffered a reported breach, but it also has not yet weathered a full volatile cycle as a custodian. The ISO 27001 certification and group backing are meaningful positives; they are not a substitute for time. For long-term holdings of any size, the standard advice applies: move the portion you are not actively trading to a hardware wallet.
AUD deposits and on-ramp
As an Australian-domiciled AUSTRAC-registered exchange, Pepperstone Crypto supports AUD funding for Australian customers. As is common with newly launched venues, the public documentation around specific deposit rails, limits, and clearing times is thinner than the mature incumbents, where PayID and Osko clearing in under 60 seconds is well established and widely documented. Confirm the current supported methods and any deposit fees on the funding page before committing larger balances, and start with a small test deposit, which is good practice on any exchange you have not used before.
Tax, CGT and ATO records
Because Pepperstone Crypto is a spot exchange, every buy and sell is a capital gains tax event under Australian rules, and holdings kept for more than 12 months generally qualify for the 50 percent CGT discount. This is the structural tax advantage of spot ownership over crypto CFDs.
As an AUSTRAC-registered exchange, Pepperstone Crypto participates in ATO data-sharing: assume the ATO can see your activity, and file accurate returns. For record-keeping, export your transaction history and run it through dedicated crypto tax software. See our reviews of Koinly, Summ, and Syla, and the full crypto tax Australia pillar for the framework.
Pepperstone Crypto ratings breakdown
Pros and cons summary
Pros
- Flat 0.1 percent spot trading fee, matching the cheapest entry-tier rates in the Australian market (Binance, Bybit, CoinSpot Market pairs)
- AUSTRAC-registered Digital Currency Exchange (DCE100889269), so it operates inside Australia's AML/CTF framework with ATO data-sharing
- ISO 27001 certified, with ring-fenced client money and multi-verified transactions
- Backed by the Pepperstone group, a well-capitalised CFD broker operating since 2010 - more institutional backing than most independent AU exchanges
- Direct spot ownership: you hold the underlying crypto and qualify for the 50 percent CGT discount on 12+ month holdings (unlike crypto CFDs)
- Clean, fast mobile app aimed at active buyers
Cons
- Launched in 2025, so it has no multi-cycle operating record - none of the 2017/2021/2022 survival history the top-ranked AU exchanges carry
- Narrow coin list of around 14 assets (majors plus a handful of large-caps); no long-tail altcoins, memecoins, or new-listing breadth
- Not an AFSL holder - it is an AUSTRAC DCE only, the lighter of the two Australian regulatory frameworks (the same baseline as its spot peers, but worth understanding)
- No staking yield at launch
- AUD on-ramp and support documentation is thinner than long-established incumbents, as expected for a new venue
- Too new to have a public breach history either way - the ISO 27001 certification is reassuring, but track record is unproven under stress
Final verdict
Pepperstone Crypto is a competent, low-fee spot exchange that earns its place in the top 10 on cost and backing, and is held out of the top tier by youth and a narrow coin list. The flat 0.1 percent fee is as good as anything in the Australian market, the AUSTRAC registration and ISO 27001 certification clear the regulatory and security bar, and the Pepperstone group behind it provides more institutional ballast than most standalone exchanges carry.
What it cannot offer yet is track record or breadth. It launched in 2025, so the multi-cycle survival history that defines the top of this table does not exist, and a 14-coin list rules it out as a primary account for anyone who trades beyond the majors. That is why it ranks 8th rather than higher: the fundamentals are sound, the maturity is not there yet.
The sensible use is as a secondary account for cheap major-pair buying and counterparty-risk diversification, alongside a long-established primary like CoinJar or CoinSpot. Reassess its ranking in 12 months: if the coin list widens and it banks a clean operating year through a volatile market, it has a clear path up the table. For the full landscape, see the Best Crypto Exchanges Australia pillar.
Visit Pepperstone Crypto
AUSTRAC DCE100889269. Flat 0.1% spot fee. ISO 27001 custody. Backed by the Pepperstone group. Spot ownership with 50% CGT discount eligibility.
Visit Pepperstone CryptoFrequently asked questions
No. Pepperstone Crypto (pcrypto.com) is a spot exchange operated by Pepperstone Digital Pty Limited under AUSTRAC DCE registration DCE100889269 - you buy and own the actual cryptocurrency. Pepperstone's crypto CFDs are a separate product on the main Pepperstone platform under ASIC AFSL 414530, where you trade synthetic price exposure without owning the coin. They are different products with different regulators and different tax treatment. Spot holdings qualify for the 50 percent CGT discount on 12+ month holds; CFD profits do not.
Yes. Pepperstone Digital Pty Limited (ACN 683 263 836) is registered with AUSTRAC as a Digital Currency Exchange provider, registration number DCE100889269. You can verify this on the public AUSTRAC register at austrac.gov.au. AUSTRAC registration means it operates inside Australia's AML/CTF framework, with KYC and ATO data-sharing obligations.
Pepperstone Crypto charges a flat 0.1 percent spot trading fee, which is among the cheapest in the Australian market and matches the entry-tier rates at Binance, Bybit, and CoinSpot's Market pairs. A market spread applies on top of the fee, as on every exchange. Promotional 0 percent fee windows have been offered around launch - check the current pricing page before assuming the promo still applies.
Around 14 cryptocurrencies at the time of review, covering majors and large-caps: BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, LTC, DOT, LINK, UNI, AAVE, APT, RENDER, plus USDC and USDT stablecoins. This is a deliberately narrow major-pairs list. If you want broad altcoin or memecoin selection, CoinSpot (510+) or Digital Surge (340+) are far wider.
Pepperstone Crypto holds an ISO 27001 information-security certification, ring-fences client money, and is backed by the Pepperstone group, a CFD broker operating since 2010. Those are genuine positives. The honest caveat is that the exchange launched in 2025, so it has no long public track record under market stress. For large long-term holdings, a hardware wallet remains the lowest-counterparty-risk option regardless of which exchange you buy on.
Yes, because it is a spot exchange where you own the underlying cryptocurrency. Australian investors who hold a crypto asset for more than 12 months generally qualify for the 50 percent CGT discount on the gain. This is a structural advantage of spot ownership over crypto CFDs, where the profit is treated as ordinary income or a CFD gain with no CGT discount. Confirm your specific position with a registered tax agent.
On the SatoshiMacro spot exchange table it ranks 8th for 2026. The flat 0.1 percent fee and ISO 27001 custody are strong, but a 2025 launch date and a 14-coin list keep it below established venues like CoinJar, CoinSpot, Binance Australia, and Independent Reserve, all of which have multi-cycle operating histories and wider coin selection.
About this analysis
