CEX.IO Review for The Bahamas: Card Buying, Limits and Licences

The hard part of buying crypto here is finding a platform that accepts a Bahamian address and debit card. CEX.IO does both. It has operated since 2013, claims more than 15 million registered users, and The Bahamas is not on its unsupported-country list.

Can you use CEX.IO from The Bahamas?

Yes. CEX.IO’s list of 30 unsupported countries and territories includes Canada, Haiti, Honduras, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, but not The Bahamas. Earn, its savings and stakingStaking Locking up certain coins to help secure a blockchain in exchange for a yield. DARE-registered staking providers must warn clients about the risks in writing. Glossary product, is also listed for The Bahamas. CEX.IO says a Nevis company, CEX OVRS LLC, serves customers outside the excluded countries. That is probably your contracting entity, but we could not read the terms to confirm it, so check the name on your agreement.

What CEX.IO’s SCB status means for you

CEX.IO is not on the SCBSCB The Securities Commission of The Bahamas, the regulator that registers and supervises crypto businesses under the DARE Act. Glossary register of digital asset businesses (35 firms on the latest list), and neither are Kraken, Coinbase or Binance. Under the DARE ActDARE Act The Digital Assets and Registered Exchanges Act 2024, the Bahamian law that requires crypto businesses operating in or from The Bahamas to register with the Securities Commission. Glossary 2024 the registration duty sits with the business, not with you. What you give up is local recourse: the SCB cannot take your complaint, so your protection rests on CEX.IO’s licences abroad and on how much you leave on the platform.

Those licences are checkable: CEX.IO Markets UK Ltd is FCA-registered (FRN 1007192, March 2026), CEX.IO Corp. is a FinCEN money services business (NMLS 1804170), and CEX.IO EUROPE, S.L. is on the Bank of Spain’s virtual asset registry. Gibraltar and Bermuda registrations are claimed but unconfirmed. Our SCB register guide lists who is registered locally.

Funding from a Bahamian bank

CEX.IO takes Visa and Mastercard debit and credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and crypto. SEPA, ACH and Faster Payments are tied to Europe, the US and the UK, and no SWIFT option is listed, so from Nassau you are paying by card. Your bank treats the purchase as a foreign card transaction: CIBC, Fidelity and Scotiabank list no fee, Bank of The Bahamas charges 1.25%, Commonwealth 1.50% plus VAT and RBC 2.50% (Central Bank schedule, December 2025). Then add 1.5% stamp dutyStamp duty (FX) A 1.5% government tax on converting Bahamian dollars into foreign currency, charged by your bank. Glossary on the conversion. Declined? See our card buying guide.

CEX.IO fees and limits

Card purchases cost 0.49% to 4.99% plus a service charge, fixed on the checkout screen before you confirm, depending on coin, card and amount. Flat rates quoted elsewhere, such as 2.99%, are out of date. The minimum is US$20. For three months after ID verification, cards are capped at US$1,000 a day and US$3,000 a month; Apple Pay and Google Pay run from US$20 to US$1,000 a day. On the Spot Trading order book, entry-tier fees are about 0.15% for makersMaker / taker fee Exchanges charge less if your order waits on the order book (maker) and more if it fills instantly against an existing order (taker). Glossary and 0.25% for takers; check the live schedule, as CEX.IO’s pages vary.

Example: B$500 on a CIBC debit card adds no bank fee and B$7.50 of stamp duty, plus CEX.IO’s quoted fee. On an RBC card, add another B$12.50.

Verification and products

There are four KYCKYC “Know your customer”: the ID checks (passport or driver’s licence, a selfie, proof of address) that regulated platforms must run before you can trade. Glossary steps: email, phone, identity and address. Identity is the key one: government ID, residential address, a taxpayer identification number (TIN) and a live selfie scan. It unlocks cards and phone wallets. The Bahamas has no personal income tax, so many residents have no TIN; ask support what to enter rather than guessing.

Products include Instant Buy and Sell, Spot Trading, the app, Earn, loans, Prime and CEX.IO Pay. The CEX.IO debit card launched for the UK and EU and does not appear to be offered here; see our crypto cards guide.

Selling and cashing out

You sell on CEX.IO and withdraw to a Visa or Mastercard card, a listed withdrawal method. Whether payouts work on every Bahamian card is unconfirmed, so test a small amount first. Our cash-out guide compares the routes.

What to check before you deposit

Confirm the contracting company in your agreement, and make a small first purchase, since older CEX.IO posts mention a separate card-only restriction list we could not check. Also know the record: on 6 June 2023 the British Virgin Islands FSC issued Advisory Warning No. 1 of 2023, saying CEX Overseas Ltd and other CEX.IO entities using cex.io were not licensed by the FSC. We found no later update. It concerns BVI licensing, not customer funds.

Compare before you choose

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