What happened to Easy Crypto — and what to do now

Is Easy Crypto still open in New Zealand?

No — not for trading. Easy Crypto, the Auckland-founded broker that introduced a generation of Kiwis to Bitcoin, stopped trading in New Zealand by 30 March 2026. Its new owner, the Australian exchange Swyftx, asked customers to open Swyftx accounts and move their coins across, and services in the Easy Crypto Wallet app, including trading, were wound down from the end of March.

The company hasn’t vanished from the record, though. When we searched the Financial Service Providers Register in October 2026, ECNZ Limited (FSP691871, trading as Easy Crypto) was still registered, as it has been since September 2019. That’s normal during a wind-down — but it doesn’t mean you can still buy or sell there. Plenty of “best exchange in NZ” lists still rank Easy Crypto near the top; they are simply out of date. Our current shortlist lives on the home page.

What happened: the Swyftx acquisition

Swyftx announced the deal in March 2025. Easy Crypto was then New Zealand’s largest local crypto broker, with around 350,000 customers and, according to trade press, more than NZ$3.5 billion of transactions processed. Terms weren’t disclosed. At first the two brands were meant to run side by side until Swyftx could offer the same services to everyone.

That changed in February 2026. Easy Crypto told customers that trading in New Zealand would end by 30 March and that Swyftx would be their new home. Swyftx offered a sign-up incentive for customers who verified before 15 April and released a Portfolio Migrator inside the latest Easy Crypto Wallet app to help people move coins. Because Easy Crypto’s wallet was self-custodial, nothing transferred automatically: each customer had to move their own funds. Swyftx has since registered its own NZ company, Swyftx NZ Limited (FSP1010662) — see our full Swyftx review for fees and how its NZD transfers work.

What to do now if you had an Easy Crypto account

What you need to do depends on where your coins were and what records you have. Most former customers fall into one of these situations:

You don’t have to move to Swyftx. The migration made it easy, but you are free to send your coins to any exchange or to your own wallet. If you plan to hold long term, a self-custody wallet — software or hardware — keeps you in control; our wallet guide covers options you can buy in New Zealand. Whatever you choose, send a small test amount first and double-check the network: sending a coin on the wrong network is one of the most common ways people lose crypto during a move.

Is the Easy Crypto Wallet safe to keep using?

Your coins in the Easy Crypto Wallet were never “at” Easy Crypto. A self-custodial wallet stores the private keys on your phone, backed up by a recovery phrase of 12 or 24 words, and the coins themselves live on their blockchains. So the closure doesn’t put the coins at risk directly — but it does change the risk around them. An app that is no longer actively maintained may stop receiving security updates, may break after a phone operating-system update, and won’t get support for new networks or tokens.

That’s why we’d treat the wallet as somewhere to move out of, not somewhere to stay. Before you uninstall it or change phones, check that you have your recovery phrase written down on paper, stored offline and never photographed. If the phrase is lost and the app stops working, nobody — not Easy Crypto, not Swyftx, not a “recovery expert” — can get the coins back. If you held NZDD or other less common tokens, check that your new wallet or exchange supports that exact token and network before sending, because not every platform lists them. When in doubt, move a small amount first and wait for it to arrive.

Export your transaction history for IRD

This is the step people forget. If you bought crypto through Easy Crypto, your cost records live in its order history, and you’ll need them when you eventually sell, swap or spend those coins. IRD generally treats crypto bought by individuals as acquired for the purpose of disposal, so a gain is taxable income — and to calculate the gain you need to know what you paid in NZD.

1. Log in to your Easy Crypto account (or the wallet app) and download every order, deposit and withdrawal you can, ideally as CSV.
2. Save matching bank statements showing the NZD you paid, especially for POLi or bank-transfer purchases.
3. Record the wallet addresses you used and the date you migrated, so the move to Swyftx or another wallet isn’t mistaken for a sale.
4. Store everything somewhere safe for at least seven years, as IRD expects for tax records.

It matters more than it used to. From 1 April 2026 New Zealand applies the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), under which crypto platforms serving NZ residents collect information that is reported to IRD. A transfer between two wallets you own isn’t taxable, but you want to be able to prove that. Our crypto tax guide walks through worked examples.

Easy Crypto fees, coins and app: how it used to work

For anyone comparing old and new costs, here’s how Easy Crypto operated. It was a broker rather than an exchange: you didn’t trade on an order book, you bought from Easy Crypto at a quoted price that included its margin. A third-party comparison put that at about 0.89% plus FX, with a NZ$50 minimum, and older listings mention POLi payments at 1% capped at $3 and waived above NZ$500. Easy Crypto’s own site blocked our automated checks, so we can’t confirm those figures — treat them as indicative.

The service was famously simple. It listed more than 160 coins, accepted NZD by POLi and bank transfer, and originally sent purchases straight to the customer’s own wallet rather than holding them — an unusual, non-custodial model that later became the Easy Crypto Wallet app. Reviews were generally warm; its Trustpilot profile sat around 4.2 out of 5 from roughly 2,000 reviews when we last looked, with praise for friendly local support. For a sense of how today’s options compare on cost, see our guide to buying crypto in NZ.

Easy Crypto’s place in NZ crypto history

Easy Crypto launched in early 2018 in Auckland, founded by siblings Janine Grainger, who became chief executive, and Alan Grainger, who built the technology. It arrived at the tail end of the 2017 boom and survived a period in which most local platforms didn’t: BitNZ closed after losing banking in 2017, Cryptopia was hacked and liquidated in 2019, Bitprime halted in 2022 and Dasset was liquidated in 2023. Janine Grainger became one of the most visible voices in New Zealand crypto, regularly in the media on regulation, scams and the high cost of crypto ATMs.

Its last notable project was NZDD, a New Zealand-dollar stablecoin issued by the group company ECDD Holdings Limited. It came out of the FMA’s fintech sandbox, and from 11 March 2026 the FMA declared it not to be a financial product under the Financial Markets Conduct Act — a first-of-its-kind designation, though fair-dealing and FSPR obligations still apply. Press reports in March 2026 described talks about divesting NZDD; we couldn’t confirm the outcome. Our NZ crypto regulation guide explains why the designation matters.

The best Easy Crypto alternatives for Kiwis

Swyftx is the natural successor: it runs an NZ-registered company, offers free NZD bank deposits and withdrawals, and already holds many former Easy Crypto accounts. Its costs are a 0.6% trading fee plus spread, and coin-to-coin swaps are charged twice, so it is cheapest when you buy straight from NZD.

If you mostly bought small amounts by card, CEX.IO is a long-running global platform registered in the UK and US that accepts Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay and Google Pay, though it doesn’t take NZD bank transfers. Beginners who liked Easy Crypto’s simplicity may prefer Sharesies Crypto, a Wellington-based app that sits alongside shares and funds but doesn’t let you withdraw coins to your own wallet. More experienced users might look at Kraken or Binance.

Our take

Easy Crypto made buying crypto feel ordinary for a lot of New Zealanders, and its closure as a trading platform marks the end of the home-grown era of NZ crypto brokers. If you were a customer, the priorities are simple: make sure your coins are somewhere you control or on a platform you’ve chosen, export your records for IRD, and ignore anyone who contacts you offering to “help”. Then pick a replacement on its merits, not on whichever app sent you an email. Our review method explains how we compare them.