Relai, one of the most popular apps for buying Bitcoin via a savings plan, was relaunched at the end of 2021. In addition to a new and cleaner design, the Relai app has also received an important functional update, namely the direct purchase to an external wallet and an independent broker license. As a result, Relai is now able to make its own fee model much more customer-friendly. The Blocktrainer.de team took a closer look at Relai 2.0 and tested it extensively.
The most important facts in brief:
Disclaimer: Relai focuses mainly on the Swiss market.
The start-up Relai was founded in 2019 by CEO Julian Liniger and CTO Adem Bilican with later support from investors Lars Diener Kimmich and Nick Haller. The first version of the Relai app went live on July 3, 2020 and has since become one of the most popular apps for regularly buying bitcoins.
With the current version 2.0, the company was able to score even more points in our test, as it has made significant improvements in terms of design, functionality and, above all, fees.
While Relai was not necessarily on a par with the competition in all aspects in the past, these disadvantages have now almost all been eradicated and the Relai app is virtually unique in its current form when you look at the overall package.
The service and the product fromRelai(especially since the relaunch with version 2.0) is very suitable for both beginners and advanced users.
However, the likeable young start-up is far from having reached the end of its journey. There are plenty more plans for the future, including new functions, a debit card and the option to generate interest income on your own bitcoins.
Relai 's vision is very far-reaching and every Bitcoin fan and regular Bitcoin buyer should definitely keep the Zurich-based company on their radar for the long term.
To be fair, it has to be said that the design or user interface (UI) and the user experience (UX) in general was not really bad in the Relai 1.0 version either. However, the company was still able to take it up a notch and improve it. The app looks much cleaner, clearer and more mature after the relaunch.
Especially for beginners who are new to the market and might want to buy their first bitcoins/satoshis with Relai, such a user-friendly design immediately allays some fears. Overloaded applications with lots of different buttons and views often cause newcomers to have doubts and feel overwhelmed. The Relai app, on the other hand, is designed in such a way that anyone can make a Bitcoin purchase, regardless of age or experience.
Relai also continues to score points in the registration process, which of course still does not require any verification procedures such as uploading ID documents or entering lots of personal data.
However, there is also a small negative point in terms of user-friendliness. This concerns a feature that is likely to be of particular interest to advanced users. Namely, those who want to send a purchase via Relai directly to their own hardware wallet.
For legal reasons, the provider Relai must obtain a cryptographic signature from its customers for the corresponding payout address. However, to carry out the signature process, users usually use software that is located on their PC/Mac - and not on their smartphone. This means that the message to be signed must first be sent from the Relai app to the PC, where the signature is created and then sent back to the smartphone or app. Unfortunately, this somewhat spoils the user experience at this point, as Relai 's competitors have solved this process better in some cases.
Nevertheless, our experience of using the app is generally positive. A simple and user-friendly design is an absolute plus point that Relai has over many other services.
Video tip: If you want to know how the message signature works, you should watch this video.
To demonstrate how easy it is to buy bitcoins via Relai, we would like to briefly describe the process here. Especially when buying to the internal wallet, the entire purchase process takes less than three minutes.
The menu opens with a tap on the blue plus symbol at the bottom center of the app. Under "Buy", you can then set the desired amount and choose whether you want to make a one-off purchase or invest as a savings plan at regular intervals.
Tip: If you use the savings plan function and transfer at least €100, you can save a lot on fees. More on this in the "Fees" section.
Enter your bank details, add a referral code (theBLOCKTRAINER code reduces the fees by 0.5 percentage points), confirm your investment and you're done.
Note: To activate the "Add external wallet address" function, you must activate the advanced functions via the profile settings.
The order details and the bank details to which you should now transfer the money are then displayed.
As Relai 's IBAN belongs to an account in Switzerland, you should check with your own bank beforehand whether they charge extra fees for transfers there. To solve this problem, Relai is planning to offer a EUR account in the near future.
Incidentally, payments are allocated via an individual IBAN and the corresponding amount, not via the long order number as you might expect.
As soon as the money arrives at Relai, it is converted into bitcoins minus the fees and sent to the user's own wallet (either internal or external). The reference rate for the conversion is usually the rate of the popular exchange Kraken.
Relai CEO Julian Liniger told us the following:
"We buy the BTC from Kraken or FTX. Since Kraken usually has the better prices, the majority of them are there. However, we plan to integrate more exchanges in the future, ideally three to five, so that we can always guarantee the best execution prices."
In order to evaluate the functionality of the Relai app fairly, it is necessary to consider what the actual use case for the Relai app or service is. The focus should be on the simple and regular purchase of Bitcoin, which is why the app should mainly be compared with other broker services.
Nevertheless, there are some functions that are also desirable for a DCA app like Relai.
Relai already fulfilled many of these points in version 1.0, for example that a user has the option of managing their own mnemonic phrase (12 words). This means that not even Relai has access to the purchased and stored bitcoins.
Note: Always make sure that you have written down the 12 mnemonic words exactly. These words are the backup for your bitcoins!
The fact that there is no internal wallet (managed by Relai) might be a bit problematic for beginners, as they first have to get to grips with the concept of private keys and mnemonic phrases.
Since the relaunch of version 2.0, Relai has also provided a function for advanced users - simple payout or, in the best case, direct purchase to your own (hardware) wallet - and has thus been able to catch up with the competition or even pull ahead in some cases.
Touch/Face ID, push notifications and other functions are of course also on board as standard.
However, there are also functions that are still to come in the future but are unfortunately still missing at the moment and which we unfortunately missed somewhat in our test.
In particular, a function for exporting tax-relevant data is something that should be integrated into the app sooner rather than later. It would also be great to be able to use the service in the browser on the PC, especially to make the signature process for address verification easier. In addition, other providers already offer the option of going through a KYC procedure in order to raise the maximum daily limit of €900.
Functions such as the generation of interest or daily recurring savings plans are already being planned, according to the Relai.app website.
All in all, the app's range of functions is perfectly fine, although there is still some room for improvement.
Relai 's fee model probably underwent the most significant changes in the course of the relaunch. The service has become significantly cheaper and is now definitely very competitive in terms of prices and fees.
While until recently the company charged a fixed fee of 0.00002BTC and a variable fee of 3% of the purchase price for the service, the fees could now be reduced to a variable 2.5% and optionally even to a possible final fee of just 1%.
When setting up a savings plan, transactions over €100 (or CHF) and using a referral code (BLOCKTRAINER), the fee is reduced by 0.5% points in each case.
So if you set up a savings plan for at least €100 and use our referral code BLOCKTRAINER , you can really save money!
As competing companies usually charge fees of 1.5% - 3%, Relai is clearly ahead on this front!
Relai 's licensing as a Virtual Asset Service Provider, through membership of the Association for Quality Assurance of Financial Services, has made the relaunch and this enormous price reduction possible. The company can now operate as an independent broker and is no longer dependent on cooperation with other services. These services naturally wanted to earn money, which is why Relai was previously forced to charge these high fees.
The fact that Relai, as mentioned above, chooses Kraken as the reference exchange for the purchase of BTC is also positive for the end customer. This is because, as our Blocktrainer crypto exchange comparison also shows, Kraken is generally one of the most favorable addresses for the purchase of BTC.
In order to make a payout to your own wallet, so-called network fees are due, which depend on how heavily the Bitcoin blockchain is used at the time of payout. To keep these fees as low as possible, Relai uses so-called transaction batching and combines the payouts of many people into a single transaction. This also allows massive savings on fees.
The CEO told us:
"Our goal is to always choose the fee so that the payout finds its way into the blockchain within the next six to eight blocks at the latest. If it is still not confirmed after eight blocks, we use the 'replace-by-fee' function to speed up the process.
We also use transaction batching. We currently have around 1000 to 2000 payouts per day and group them into four batches per day. The more payouts we add, the more batches we will be able to merge. Our goal is to transfer the collected payouts once an hour in a summarized form."
Julian Liniger, CEO at Relai
We can also praise the support at Relai at this point. Firstly, there is a relatively extensive helpdesk on the website. The most important questions are answered there in a way that is easy to understand.
However, if you have an individual problem and need help, the company even offers a chat function that connects you to an employee who can usually help solve the problem quickly and easily.
However, this function is only available during normal office hours. If a problem occurs late in the evening or at the weekend, you still have the option of sending the support team a message by email.
We ourselves have had good experiences with the support team and we have hardly heard any negative comments from the Blocktrainer community.
Forthis reason, we can award Relai the maximum number of points for their support at this point without hesitation.
In any case,Relai is a service that we can recommend to both beginners and advanced users without hesitation. However, beginners should at least familiarize themselves with the concept of mnemonic phrases, seeds and private keys beforehand. This is because the Relai team does not have access to its customers' wallets and they are therefore responsible for themselves.
The "KYC-light" model, on the other hand, which does not require time-consuming verification and ID checks, is ideal for getting newcomers on board quickly and is of course also popular with experienced Bitcoiners and is often the method of choice.
Thanks to the new design and, in particular, the new fee structure, Relai has been one step ahead of many of its competitors since the relaunch of version 2.0. Inexpensive, simple, secure - the perfect combination for buying bitcoins.
In addition, there is an introductory promotion until the end of the year where you can buy Bitcoins from Relai completely free of charge using our referral code BLOCKTRAINER.
What is Relai 2.0?
Relai 2.0 is the new version of the app, which boasts a beautiful new design and very low fees.
Which cryptocurrencies can I buy with Relai?
Relai currently only offers the purchase and sale of bitcoins. There are no plans to integrate other cryptocurrencies for the time being.
Can I also use the service on my PC?
No. The Relai service is currently only available in the corresponding app.
Why does my bank contact me when I transfer money to Relai?
This is a normal process with many banks. For transfers abroad (Relai is based in Switzerland), it often happens that banks ask for confirmation before releasing the transfer.
How high are the fees at Relai?
The basic fee for Bitcoin purchases is 2.5%. However, this can be reduced to up to 1% through various options. Setting up a savings plan, transferring more than €100 or CHF and using a referral code (e.g. BLOCKTRAINER) each reduce the initial fee by 0.5 percentage points
