Know Your Customer checks are identity procedures an operator may require before an account can deposit, trade or withdraw. Whether a product uses KYC, and in which markets, must come from the operator — TopPick does not infer it.
These definitions explain how TopPick talks about products. They are educational, not investment, legal or tax advice, and they do not rank any company.
Know Your Customer checks are identity procedures an operator may require before an account can deposit, trade or withdraw. Whether a product uses KYC, and in which markets, must come from the operator — TopPick does not infer it.
Who can move the asset. Self-custody means you control keys. Custodial products hold assets on an operator balance. Mixing the two hides the main risk.
Published trading-fee schedules that depend on whether an order adds or removes liquidity. They are not a complete cost of trading: spread, funding and withdrawals can dominate.
A decentralized exchange typically routes swaps or orders through smart contracts. Users usually keep keys in a wallet. Smart-contract and interface risks replace venue-custody risk, they do not disappear.
A centralized exchange is an operator-run venue that typically holds customer balances and matches orders. Compare legal entity, custody, withdrawals and market access as separate questions.
Services that convert between fiat and crypto. Country coverage, payment rails and KYC are operator-specific and can change. TopPick will not guess availability.
A published snapshot or attestation about assets an operator claims to hold. It is not a full audit of liabilities unless the operator also publishes a matching liability proof. Missing PoR is treated as unpublished, not as a score of zero or a hidden pass.
A recovery secret used by many self-custody wallets. Anyone with the phrase can move funds. Comparison should cover how backup is designed, not slogans about being “easy”.
A staking design that issues a receipt token while assets are staked. Terms, slashing treatment and the receipt asset are protocol-specific. Yields are only shown when a sourced, current figure exists.
The difference between displayed buy and sell prices. A zero-commission claim can still be expensive if the spread is wide. If a schedule is not published, TopPick leaves the field empty.