Sofi Wallet

SoFi (which stands for Social Finance) or SoFi Invest is an online personal finance company.

Originally founded in 2011 and based in San Francisco, it initially offered financial features such as savings, personal or student loans, mortgages, credit cards, and more.

In 2019, they introduced Cryptocurrency trading with their program SoFi Invest following a number of requests received from their users.

Here are a few cryptocurrencies supported on their platform: Algorand (ALGO), Avalanche (AVAX), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Dogecoin (DOGE), Uniswap (UNI).

You can of course trade the most known cryptocurrencies such as: Bitcoin (BTC), Cardano (ADA), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Polygon (MATIC), and others.

They offer multiple types of investments such as Cryptocurrency, Stocks, Fractional Shares (while you can invest and own a full share of stock, you can also own just a segment of a share), ETFs (Exchange-traded funds, which consist in the gathering of different companies representing a sector or industry), and finally IPO (Initial Public Offering, ‘Investors can get allocated shares before they start trading on the public stock market’).

Although SoFi allows you to buy crypto on their platform, it isn’t a wallet as such, since you can’t transfer your crypto assets to an external wallet.

We analyzed their features and platform to help you get familiar with the services offered.

Who Is SoFi Wallet For?

SoFi is a great crypto investment platform for novices. In fact, they have lots of educational content in their SoFi Learn section.

There are articles with various topics to be introduced to cryptocurrency smoothly and easily.

Here are a few of the covered topics:

  • What is Bitcoin?
  • How to invest in Bitcoin
  • The different types of cryptocurrency
  • and more.

It is also straightforward in terms of cryptocurrency as there are just a few features available.

It can also be an interesting platform for investors looking into multiple types of investments such as crypto, stocks, and ETFs.

However, crypto professionals or advanced traders may find it too limited in terms of trading features.

In fact, you can only invest in cryptocurrencies (buy or sell), you can’t transfer them to an external wallet which is quite restrictive.

Pros & Cons of SoFi Wallet

ProsCons
Multiple investments supported (Crypto, Stocks, Fractional shares, ETFs, and IPO)Only available in the United States
Receive 10 dollars when you start trading cryptocurrenciesNot a wallet as such (you can’t send your crypto assets from an external wallet to your SoFi account and vice versa)
2 Factor-Authentication securityOnly 30 cryptocurrencies are available
Only 1.25% fee for trading cryptocurrenciesNew York residents can only buy 5 cryptocurrencies out of the 30 supported on the platform. (Due to the agreement SoFi currently has with New York).
Free financial counselingLimited trading options

SoFi Wallet Fees

As a whole, SoFi may be too limited in terms of cryptocurrency trading features for professional investors, especially knowing that users cannot transfer their assets from one wallet to another.

On the other hand, it is a great platform for novice investors, there is plenty of educational material, and it is also straightforward since they only have 30 cryptocurrencies available at the moment.

Moreover, the fees are reasonably low, which makes it easier to place your first crypto investments.

It is also a very interesting platform for users investing in different type of assets such as crypto, stocks, or ETFs since they can have all three in one place.

SoFi users can buy crypto 24/7 on their platform. The minimum amount of money to be invested is $10 and the maximum amount per day is $50,000.

The fee for trading cryptocurrencies is only 1.25% which makes it affordable especially when you start investing in cryptocurrency for the first time.

You can either make one-time deposits or you can set up recurring deposits if you wish to invest on a more regular basis.

Safety Of the SoFi Wallet

They state on their platform ‘SoFi takes security seriously and uses a number of tools to keep investors’ crypto holdings secure. Our systems and security controls are reviewed by third parties against security standards’.

In fact, this is one of the reasons why they don’t offer the possibility to transfer crypto from their platform to another wallet, they want to protect their users against all types of fraud.

You can set bio-metric logins such as fingerprint or face ID on the mobile app depending on your device.

However, they strongly advise their users to add a 2 Factor-Authenticator too, in order to enforce the security of their account.

You also have the possibility to edit your 2FA method and receive a 6-digit code by text, email, or voice call (this can be edited in your security settings in your profile).

SoFi Wallet Features

If your SoFi account is locked or if you forgot your password, you can simply click on the ‘forgot password’ option right under ‘Sign in’.

This will lead you to another page where you will have to enter your email address in order to reset your password.

You will also be asked to enter your 2FA to regain access to your account and to confirm that it’s you and not someone else.

As mentioned before SoFi isn’t a crypto-wallet as such.

A crypto wallet should allow you to store securely but also to send, receive and spend your crypto assets which isn’t the case with SoFi’s platform at the moment.

However, they educate their users about what a wallet is and other topics.

You can buy up to 30 of their supported cryptocurrencies (except for New York citizens who can only buy 5 of their cryptocurrencies which are the following: Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic (ETC) and Litecoin (LTC)).

They frequently and constantly diversify their coins availability. In the past, you could only buy less than 20 cryptocurrencies on their platform.

Please note that the US Dollar is the only fiat supported on their platform at the moment.

Wallet Mobile App Experience

You can download their mobile app SoFi – Invest, Trade, Borrow from their website by clicking on App Store or on Google Play.

Signing up for SoFi should only take a couple of minutes, you’ll need to add your details such as your full name, state, and email address, and set a password.

Navigating through their mobile app is straightforward and simple.

They have a clear platform where it is pretty easy to find what you are looking for. At the bottom of your screen, you’ll find the different sections: home, money, credit card, invest, and loans.

Since they offer various services and not only cryptocurrency, you’ll have to click on the search button at the top of your screen then go to the ‘collections’ section and click on the ‘crypto’ option.

From there, you will be able to see the list of the supported coins, but you’ll also have the possibility to consult a watchlist of unsupported coins with their price for information purposes only.

You will also have access to educational content with SoFi Learn. To buy crypto you just have to click on the coin of your choice.

You can either buy (or sell) in dollar amounts or in coins.

If you already have an account with SoFi you can directly add money from that account otherwise, you also have the possibility to do so with a different bank account.

Wallet Site Experience

Just like the mobile app, you can sign up easily and quickly via their online form.

The layout of the website is clear and pretty easy to use. You have access to the same options with a bit more content.

However, the menu differs slightly, here are the different options that can be found at the top of your screen this time: home, money, invest, loans, and relay, there is also a ‘contact us’ section at the top right-hand corner.

SoFi Customer Service

SoFi has a very complete help center (which can also look complex if you’re not used to it).

All of the features that they offer are covered by their customer support teams and these are divided into sections to narrow down your search so they can assist you in the best way possible.

These sections include checking and savings, personal loans, student loans, invest, and more.

The one you want to look at when investing in cryptocurrency is the ‘Invest Support’. Here are their opening times:

Monday to Thursday: 5 am – 5 pm PT

Friday: 5 am – 4 pm PT

Closed on Saturday and Sunday

The fact that they aren’t available every day can be an issue since we know that crypto never sleeps.

Users may have a question or an issue at any time of the day, but they will have to wait until their next opening time.

When you click on ‘Chat with invest support’ it leads you to another page where you actually need to log into your account.

Once again, this could be an issue, if for any reason you can’t have access to your account at that precise moment.

The customer support team can only be contacted by phone, otherwise, you can also refer to their FAQ sections for detailed content and answers to your questions.