Many crypto platforms let you trade digital coins and not much else. Uphold takes a wider swing by letting you trade more than 250 cryptocurrencies, four precious metals, and dozens of national currencies. It even allows you to directly trade one for another.

What makes that possible is what Uphold calls its anything-to-anything model, which moves you directly from bitcoin to gold, or from silver to euros, without forcing a sale in dollars in between. Very few platforms work this way.

That wide selection costs you, though. Uphold folds its fee into a spread on every trade, so the price you see already includes its cut, and that all-in price runs higher than several rivals. You also won’t find the advanced…