Coinstore

Coinstore is a centralized cryptocurrency exchange headquartered in Singapore and incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. Founded in December 2020 and opened for live trading in April 2021, the platform was built around a straightforward premise: making digital asset trading accessible to retail and emerging-market users who have historically been underserved by larger, more complex exchanges.

Founders and Team

Coinstore was co-founded by Johnson Zhao and Jennifer Lu. Zhao, who serves as CEO, brings a background in venture capital on Wall Street and startup incubation in Silicon Valley. Lu contributed expertise in finance, HR, and marketing, having previously served as Finance and Human Resources Manager and Marketing Lead at WBF Exchange. The broader team is drawn from major investment banks, hedge funds, and established crypto exchanges. By 2025, Coinstore operated 15 international centers spanning the UAE, UK, Malaysia, Turkey, India, South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and other markets.

Scale and Geographic Reach

Coinstore reached 10 million registered users in April 2025. The platform operates across more than 175 countries and regions, with particularly strong traction in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Africa — Indonesia, India, and Nigeria have consistently ranked among its largest markets. As of mid-2026, Coinstore lists more than 1,100 tokens across more than 327 trading pairs denominated primarily in USDT. The exchange is not available to users in the United States or Germany.

Trading Products

Spot trading is the core product, with real-time execution across a broad range of cryptocurrencies including Solana (SOL/USDT). Spot trading fees are 0.2% for both makers and takers at base tier.

Futures and perpetual contracts are available through Coinstore's Futures 2.0 platform, supporting more than 32 USDT-margined trading pairs with up to 100x leverage. Futures maker fees are 0.025% and taker fees are 0.06%.

Over-the-counter (OTC) trading is offered for large block trades outside the order book.

Staking (Earn) allows users to generate yield on supported assets held on the platform.

Web3 Wallet integration provides on-chain asset support bridging Coinstore's CeFi environment with decentralized holdings.

Launchpad: Coinstore Startup

Coinstore's IEO launchpad — marketed as Coinstore Startup and Coinstore Prime — is a central differentiator. Unlike many exchange-controlled launchpads, Coinstore Prime incorporates community-driven curation, with project selection influenced by the Prime community rather than solely by internal listing committees. By 2025, the platform had hosted 72 launchpad projects. The company cites an average launchpad ROI exceeding 1,200%. In March 2026, Coinstore supported the global launch of BlockDAG (BDAG), which entered the CoinMarketCap Top 100 within 24 hours of listing.

The platform provides project teams not just listing access but broader support: CS Live in-platform livestreaming, a KOL captain network through the CS League program, and international marketing through community conferences like CS Connect and Cryptalk.

Security

Coinstore stores approximately 70% of user assets in cold wallets and uses AES-256 encryption across its infrastructure. Two-factor authentication is supported for all accounts. No material security breaches have been publicly disclosed. KYC verification is optional for basic use but recommended for users who make frequent withdrawals.

Solana Ecosystem Engagement

Coinstore lists Solana (SOL) for spot trading and has hosted Solana-focused community events. Beyond SOL itself, the launchpad has served as an early listing venue for a range of Solana-based tokens, making Coinstore a discovery and liquidity venue for projects building on Solana that are targeting retail audiences in Southeast Asia and other high-growth emerging markets.

Positioning

Coinstore occupies a position in the exchange landscape between the major Tier-1 platforms and purely regional players. Its strategy is explicitly focused on markets where crypto adoption is still early-stage, providing localized support in multiple languages through its global operational centers. CEO Johnson Zhao has articulated a longer-term vision centered on CeFi-DeFi integration, real-world asset tokenization, and serving as a gateway bridging traditional finance with blockchain technology as global regulatory frameworks mature.