Uphold

Is Uphold safe?

Uphold's security record is good, but its record on what it sold to customers is not. We found no hack of its own wallets, and it shows its obligations to customers against its reserves on a live public page. But it promoted a third-party yield product, CredEarn, that cost its customers millions when Cred went bankrupt in 2020, and in April 2026 it agreed to pay $5 million to settle New York's case over it. It also has no EU MiCAMiCAThe EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, which requires crypto exchanges and other providers to be licensed and supervised.More in the glossary licence and no accountant checks its reserve numbers. We score it 64/100, with medium confidence: the settlement, licences and registers come from regulators and Uphold's own legal pages, but the reserve figures are Uphold's alone and the UK and US registers block automated checks.

What was CredEarn and why does it matter?

From January 2019 to October 2020, Uphold offered CredEarn on its website and app. It promised high interest on crypto deposited with Cred LLC. According to the New York Attorney General, Uphold advertised it as a reliable savings product and said Cred had "comprehensive insurance". In reality, Cred earned its yield by lending to video game players in China with low incomes and no credit history, and no insurance protected retail investors from losing their crypto. The office also found that Uphold promoted CredEarn without registering as a broker.

Cred filed for bankruptcy in November 2020. On 29 April 2026 the Attorney General announced a settlement: Uphold HQ Inc. pays $5 million to harmed customers, more than five times the fees it earned, adds anything it recovers from its $545,189 claim in Cred's bankruptcy, tightens its checks on third-party products and registers as a broker with the Attorney General's office. Uphold's chief executive called the office's statement "profoundly inaccurate". The company said the Justice Department had found Uphold was a victim of Cred, that it cut off Cred's access within hours of learning of its losses, and that it settled without admitting liability.

For a saver, the lesson is about products, not hackers. Coins you hand to an exchange's yield partner are no longer simply in custody. That is the same risk that hurt Gemini Earn customers when Genesis froze withdrawals in 2022.

Is Uphold licensed in the EU and UK?

The EU gap matters most for European users. Uphold Lithuania UAB, the company named in Uphold's EEA user agreement, held only an anti-money-laundering registration, and its own terms said crypto services were not supervised by the Bank of Lithuania. MiCA's transition period ended on 30 June 2026, and firms without a licence may no longer serve EU customers. Neither that company nor any other Uphold entity was on ESMA's register when we checked in October 2026, and we found no public statement from Uphold about an application or an exit. If you hold a balance on Uphold from an EU country, read any notices in the app and consider moving to a MiCA-licensed exchange such as Bitpanda.

The UK registration checks anti-money-laundering controls. Uphold's own UK terms say it "does not indicate any approval by the FCA" of its crypto activities and that customers cannot go to the Financial Ombudsman Service or claim from the FSCSDeposit insuranceA government-backed scheme that repays bank customers up to a set limit if their bank fails, such as the FDIC in the US or the FSCS in the UK.More in the glossary if something goes wrong.

Can you check Uphold's reserves?

Partly. Uphold's transparency page shows, in near real time, what it owes customers in each currency and the assets it holds against that. Uphold says the platform is "always 100%+ reserved", that it never lends out customer funds unless a customer opts into staking or DeFi lending, and that it is subject to regular audits by US states.

The problem is that these are Uphold's own numbers. We found no attestation by an accounting firm, no Merkle-treeMerkle treeA way to combine many records into one short code, so that each person can check their own record is included without seeing anyone else's.More in the glossary tool that lets you confirm your balance was counted, and no audited accounts, since Uphold is a private company. State examinations of money transmitters are not published. Compare Coinbase, whose audited filings with the SEC show customer assets, or Kraken, which has its proof of reservesProof of reservesA report in which a crypto exchange shows that it holds enough coins to cover all customer balances, ideally checked by an outside firm.More in the glossary checked by an accountant.

How to use Uphold more safely

1. Use an authenticator app for two-factor authenticationTwo-factor authenticationSigning in with a second proof of identity on top of your password, such as a code from an app, a security key or a passkey.More in the glossary rather than SMS, and turn on any withdrawal confirmation options.
2. Be very wary of yield products offered through the app. Ask who holds the coins, who borrows them and what happens if that firm fails.
3. Ignore unexpected "Uphold support" calls, texts or verification codes you did not request. They are a common start to account takeover scams.
4. If you live in the EU, check whether your account is still fully supported after the MiCAMiCAThe EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, which requires crypto exchanges and other providers to be licensed and supervised.More in the glossary deadline and move funds early rather than late.
5. Keep long-term holdings in a wallet you control.

How we scored it

Security history (85) is the strongest factor: no reported theft from Uphold's own wallets. Reserves (50) is the weakest, because the live figures are self-reported and not attested. Legal record (60) reflects the 2026 New York settlement over CredEarn, and licensing (55) the missing MiCAMiCAThe EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, which requires crypto exchanges and other providers to be licensed and supervised.More in the glossary licence and New York licence, which a broad set of US state licences only partly offsets. Compare Binance.US, another US exchange with state licences and no attested reserves.