The Best Cryptocurrency Exchanges and Their Main Features

In recent years, the crypto industry has been developing at a rapid pace. Many blockchain startups appear, new cryptocurrency funds are launched, high volatility in the market attracts the attention of many traders, and as a result, the list of world cryptoexchanges is regularly updated with more and more new platforms for trading digital assets.

Exchanges are becoming financial centers where the bulk of cryptocurrency funds in circulation are concentrated and where there is active interaction between market participants. But how from all this variety, to choose a trading platform that is right for you, and will not become a subject of disappointment in the future? A quick overview should help you navigate which exchange to choose.

Coinbase

Founded in 2012, Coinbase Exchange is a centralized platform and has a high reliability rating. The purpose of creating Coinbase was an attempt to prove to society that the future belongs to digital assets. The Coinbase platform is focused on working in an international format. For this purpose, the site has been translated into several foreign languages. The interface is simple and straightforward even for beginners.

The Coinbase exchange is one of the safest places to buy, sell and store cryptocurrencies. Most of the exchange users' funds are stored offline. And those stored online are insured.

Coinbase's customers can only have one personal account. Registration and account maintenance are free. Since the Coinbase exchange positions itself as the most reliable cryptocurrency platform, identity verification is carried out with the observance of all precautions. There can be no question of copies of documents sent by e-mail. All documents are verified through the Coinbase website or app:

23 types of coins.
The rates charged for all operations under $200 are as follows: $0.99 - $2.99 - for operations from $0 to $200; for over $200, a fixed interest rate comes into play. Its size depends on the payment method.
Free mobile and online wallet. The advantage of this wallet is that transactions can be made off-blockchain.
You can pay funds that can be deposited and withdrawn using a bank card, transfer and a range of payment systems. SEPA transfers are available for EU residents.
Two-factor authentication. All website traffic is encrypted using the SSL cryptographic protocol.
All wallets keys are protected by AES-256 encryption. Only 2% of her clients' cryptocurrency funds are stored online, and they are insured in case of loss.
Android and iOS app.

Binance

Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2017. The exchange has earned the trust of the crypto community, first of all, thanks to a strong team of developers who know their business very well. In August 2017, one of the leading financiers and the most influential people in China's online economy, Yi Hee, joined the company. At the moment, Binance regularly attracts new investors and sponsors for the continuous development and improvement of the platform.

Binance has the widest list of cryptocurrencies and is open to cooperation with new coins. Only the most promising cryptocurrencies are listed.

Quick registration can be attributed to a pleasant advantage of the company. The main priority of the company is to protect its traders. Account security is represented by two-factor authentication. This means that to enter the account, the user will need to enter not only a username and password, but also an individual key or code.

In addition to the trading platform, Binance provides additional services that will be of interest to many in the community. You can find out more about them on the website. This site is rightfully considered one of the best cryptocurrency exchanges:

740 different crypto and fiat pairs, including own token BNB.
Binance offers competitive trading fees (commissions): 0.1% on each side of the trade, or 0.075% if you are using your Binance tokens (BNB).
Trust Wallet mobile application.
Bank transfer, debit/credit cards, various P2P payment channels.
The exchange launched CryptoSafe Alliance (CSA). This initiative will bring together exchanges, blockchain protocols, cybersecurity experts, and regulatory compliance companies. It is the first comprehensive threat monitoring and protection tool in a decentralized data exchange environment.
A free app is available in Google Play Store or the App Store.

Kraken

Kraken is an international cryptocurrency exchange, which is considered one of the largest resources in terms of trading volume in a pair with the euro. The main goal of this site is to make digital currency accessible and useful for users from all over the world.

At first, the exchange offered a meager selection of cryptocurrencies (BTC, ETH and LTC) for trading. However, since 2017, when the cryptocurrency market has shown impressive growth. The trading platform is aimed at both retail investors and institutional traders. A lot of time has been spent adding margin, futures and OTC trading, as well as darkpool:

8 tokens are available for.
Transactions under 50,000 units of a particular currency are subject to a commission of 0.16% for the seller and 0.26% for the buyer. For sums over 50,000 units, commissions are reduced to 0.14% and 0.24% respectively.
No crypto wallet is offered on the site.
Crypto wallets and money transfers via bank transfer. Deposit/withdrawal via bank cards is not available.
The exchange offers users two-factor authentication, PGP encryption, and global settings lock, which prevents any account changes within a certain period of time.
Kraken Pro and Kraken Futures applications.

Bittrex

Bittrex cryptocurrency exchange was founded in 2014 in Seattle, USA. This marketplace is one of the oldest on the Internet and has won the trust of a large number of users around the world. Very often, Bittrex gets into the top ratings of cryptocurrency exchanges in terms of daily trading volume. Experts call Bittrex one of the most reliable and best cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. And although younger competitors are dividing the market today, Bittrex is confidently pushing them back.

The Bittrex development team states that security is their top priority. Bittrex uses a flexible multi-tier architecture to store funds. 90% of funds are stored in offline wallets in a safe place. The platform also has tools such as two-factor authentication and other basic default settings. Throughout its history, the Bittrex exchange has never been compromised by hackers.

The Bittrex platform is designed in such a way that deposits and withdrawals are very fast. As soon as the transaction is created, you will immediately see its status in the personal account of the exchange. Users can watch the process of crediting and confirming the transaction in real time.

Another advantage is that Bittrex is created in such a way as to give access to cryptocurrency trading even for beginners and people with a low level of knowledge about trading:

250+ trading pairs are available.
Topping up your euro account is available via SEPA credit transfer, international bank transfer, bank card. Fiat funds withdrawal is possible to a bank account using an international bank transfer, and for euros, a SEPA credit transfer is supported. The withdrawal commission depends on the chosen currency: in bitcoin, it is 0.0005 BTC, in Ethereum - 0.00600000 ETH. The site has a fixed trading fee of 0.25% of the total value of the order.
No crypto wallet.
Bank transfers, credit/debit cards.
Two-factor authentication (2FA), IP check, which requires an email confirmation of entry from a new IP-address, IP whitelists, Cold storage for 80%-90% assets.
There are two apps for Android and iOS respectively: Bittrex Global and Bittrex.

BitMex

BitMEX was launched in early 2014 by HDR Global Trading, led by experts with 40 years of experience in finance and high-frequency algorithmic trading.

Bitmex is considered a platform for more experienced market players.

The BitMEX platform specializes in P2P peer-to-peer trading in cryptocurrency derivatives and has no direct competitors. All calculations within the site are carried out in BTC. Asset tickers have the usual symbols, except for bitcoin - its unique identifier XBT is on the exchange.

BitMEX allows you to trade both up and down. Users can open long positions as well as short positions. In order not to make mistakes in calculations, BitMEX provides a convenient calculator in the left corner of the terminal. By indicating the point of entry and exit into the cryptocurrency, the calculator calculates the profit or loss. A very handy tool.

Also, on BitMEX, you can significantly increase earnings by using the margin trading tool, which allows you to conclude transactions not with your own bitcoins, but with borrowed ones:

55 trading pairs.
BitMEX does not charge any fees for deposits or withdrawals. When withdrawing BTC, a minimum Bitcoin Network commission is applied; commissions for takers are 0.075% of the total order value, while makers are paid an additional 0.025% for each trade.
Crypto BitMEX wallet.
Beyond virtual currencies, BitMEX does not accept any other deposits.
Funds are stored in cold wallets; Two-factor authentication; Registration via SMS notifications; Multi-signature wallets for transactions; Email communications are encrypted using PGP encryption.
BitMEX Mobile launched in September 2020.

Bitfinex

Bitfinex is one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges. Founded in 2012, Bitfinex was one of the first professional platforms created in response to the great interest in cryptocurrency trading.

The Hong Kong exchange bitfinex.com positions itself as a platform for professionals. It impresses with a variety of trading tools, provides the ability to create multiple order types, as well as leverage and sponsor other traders.

Here you will not find dubious coins, there are only about 40 of the most popular and reputable coins on the exchange. Bitfinex is famous among users for its reliability and security.

There are no demo accounts on the exchange. On the main page, there is a "Demonstration" button. It allows you to familiarize yourself with the interface before registration, but it does not allow you to perform any operations. Bitfinex provides a diverse and complex functionality, some of which have no analogues:

Over 140 coins and 300 trading pairs.
No additional payments for deposits and withdrawals in digital coins. When you deposit USD, you will have to pay a commission of 0.1%, but not less than $20;Minimum fee for withdrawing fiat money is $60; With the minimum currency turnover per month, the trading fee is 0.1% for the maker and 0.2% for the taker.
Users are offered three wallets to choose from - Exchange Wallet, Margin Wallet, and Financing Wallet.
In addition to digital currencies, bank transfers and card withdrawals are available to users.
Only 0.5% of crypto assets are kept online to support daily transactions. The rest of the coins are kept in cold wallets out of the reach of hackers. For these wallets to become available, manual authorization of several members of the management team is required.

Localbitcoins

LocalBitcoins is a peer-to-peer decentralized exchange that specializes in bringing together who sells and who buys cryptocurrencies. A distinctive feature of the exchange is the ability to purchase MTC offline. In this case, a selection of those offers is carried out that are most suitable for a trader by territorial location.

In the process of operating on the basis of this site, it is very important to accept the fact that transactions are carried out directly, that is, with the counterparty itself, and not on the basis of the exchange. That is why it is worth constantly reviewing his profile in order to analyze and search for positive customer reviews, the history of transactions carried out, information regarding the lifetime of the account, the number of traders who added it to the list of fraudulent or, on the contrary, to the list of whites.

Among the advantages are a comfortable and clear interface that even a novice trader can understand, the ability to purchase MTC at the expense of the national currency in 248 countries of the world, thanks to the exchange, you can find the most reliable and secure counterparty with whom you will be able to cooperate directly in the future:

The service does not charge a commission from the buyer. For sellers, there is a set commission of 1% on each sale.
Bank transfers, banking cards, electronic systems.
The security of the transaction is ensured by the escrow method, which has proven to be highly effective; User accounts are protected by two-factor authentication.

Poloniex

The Poloniex cryptocurrency exchange, which was created in 2014 in the United States, remains one of the most popular platforms among traders and investors. It should be noted that the Poloniex crypto exchange has a beautiful soft design, a convenient and intuitive interface, which is perfect for both experienced traders and beginners. In addition to the traditional spot exchange, on Poloniex you will find options (section) for margin trading, as well as a section for those wishing to lend their funds.

According to the announcement of the new owners of the Poloniex exchange, they plan to work towards scaling this business, adding new tokens to the listing and integrating support for fiat currencies.

Previously, to work with the Poloniex exchange, it was enough just to register. Now, in order to carry out trading activities on this site, you definitely need to go through verification on the exchange. According to the Poloniex team, this was done in order to combat fraud on the stock exchange and increase the transparency of the company's activities:

100+ currency pairs.
All deposits are allowed without any additional charges; The withdrawal fee is fixed, and it depends on the type of the currency; commissions are from 0 to 0.25%. Maker commission is from 0% to 0.15%; taker commission is from 0.1% to 0.25%. The higher is the volume of completed transactions in one month, the lower is the commission for all subsequently completed transactions.
Own Wallet.
Replenishment of an account with a bank card or withdrawal to a card are not available for users of some countries.
The administration highly recommends adding two-factor authentication to your account.
Mobile application.

Kucoin

KuCoin was formed as a service provider in the cryptocurrency market in 2017. Over the past few years, this cryptocurrency exchange has become one of the most famous, and therefore popular. Although Kucoin is a relatively new project in the world of cryptocurrency exchanges, its team has already proven itself to be excellent, and the exchange has been working without any problems since its launch.

This was facilitated by several factors, among which one can note the reliable protection of customer accounts from hacking and the introduction of unique systems for making money on digital coins.

For beginners, the crypto exchange does not have any bonuses for registering an account, just as there is no demo account, so you will have to try to trade immediately for real money. Registration on the Kucoin exchange is as easy as it gets. It all starts with entering your email address and choosing a password. You will then receive a confirmation email with further instructions:

200+ coins and 450+ trading pairs.
All deposits are free on the site, and there is a fixed fee for withdrawals; KuCoin offers a flat commission of 0.10%, which is less than the industry average.
Inner site crypto wallet.
A variety of payment methods supported by P2P fiat services.
The exchange offers you the option to set up two-factor authentication by Google Authenticator.
Mobile application .

Bitpanda

Bitpanda is a digital currency investment service launched in 2014 by Eric Demuth, Paul Klanschek and Christian Trummer. Bitpanda is registered in Austria, with its head office in Vienna. In short, it is a cryptocurrency exchange specializing in buying and selling bitcoins and other altcoins in the Eurozone.

The exchange is focused mainly on residents of the countries of the European Union. For example, traders from the United States of America will not be able to open an account, pass verification and use the services of the service.

The exchange is completely open and does not hide information about the license and the team, so many people trust it. More than a million people visit the official website of the exchange every day. In addition, the service has a simple and quick registration and an absolutely convenient and intuitive interface:

Bitcoin, Ethereum and 30+ digital assets.
The trading commission of the service depends on the type of currency and the nature of the transaction. When buying bitcoins, you pay 1.49%, when selling - 1.29%.
Commission for replenishment and withdrawal is fixed for each coin and is debited from the account.
Bitpanda crypto wallet.
You can make a deposit either by bank transfer, credit cards or electronic payment systems.
Bitpanda refers to systems that independently manage user wallet keys. Besides, the following security measures are offered: fund cold storage session control. Every login attempt from a new device requires two-factor authentication confirmation, authentication and validation via email.

Coinmama

Founded in 2013, Coinmama is a long-standing choice of consumers looking to buy cryptocurrencies with a credit / debit card. The company was the first to offer this payment method and quickly became one of the segment leaders. The site is accessible to almost everyone, serving 226 countries and most of the US states.

Coinmama provides a service that is one of the easiest to use. For customers who quickly want to buy Bitcoin or Ethereum with a credit / debit card and do not have to wait a few days for a bank transfer to complete, this site is a good choice. Another important advantage: your currency is not stored on the site, but is immediately transferred to the wallet.

There are no complaints among clients about the work of the exchange. Most note the simplicity, accessibility and functionality of the resource:

The website sells Bitcoin, Ethereum. Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Qtum, Ripple, Ethereum Classic, Cardano, Tezos and EOS.
The use of credit or debit cards implies a service charge of 5%. Besides, the charges 3.90% for buying coins and 0.9% for selling these.
No Wallet.
Credit/debit cards and bank transfers; It supports SEPA and SWIFT payments.
Coinmama is a reputable company with a secure site using Trust Guard and Comodo technologies. Both services have confirmed that 256-bit SSL encryption is actively used on pages containing personal information.
Mobile app.

Paxful

As the demand for bitcoins and other virtual coins continues to grow, there are more and more platforms for buying / selling cryptocurrencies. The market seeks to optimize and simplify this process, therefore, most of the new services provide convenient peer-to-peer services. With this approach, transactions are made directly between users, and the site acts as an intermediary regulating the process. Paxful is one such platform. The owners have made sure to offer the most transparent and convenient service.

The exchange was founded in 2015 in the USA. Ambitious developers Arthur Shabak and Ray Yousef decided to create a peer-to-peer marketplace that would allow sellers and buyers to contact directly.

Paxful has a very responsive tech support that can be reached either by email or by phone. In addition, there is an online chat on the site for quick communication. The site has no restrictions on the location of users. Buyers and sellers from all over the world can register and use Paxful's services:

Bitcoin and Tether as assets.
Commissions are applied for crypto selling:0.5% for bank transfers; 1% for bank cards and e-payments; 3-5% for gift cards; No commission is charged for buying cybercurrencies; Paxful will charge a transfer fee for sending funds to an external wallet. $0 - $9.99 = 0.0001 BTC$ 10 - $19.99 = 0.0002 BTC;More than $20 = 0.0005 BTC.
The Paxful Wallet App makes it easy to store and manage coins with your mobile wallet.
More than 300 ways to buy coins, including bank transfer, credit and debit cards, PayPal, Western Union, and even Amazon, iTunes or Steam gift cards.
The security of the system is ensured by two-factor authentication, depositing and the obligatory verification procedure when working with large amounts.
Paxful Wallet for Android and iOS.

HitBTC

HitBTC confidently ranks among the TOP cryptocurrency exchanges in terms of daily trading volume. And although liquidity is a very important indicator for a trading platform, it is far from the only advantage of this platform.

The trading interface of the HitBTC exchange does not fundamentally differ from any other exchange. If you have ever worked with other sites, then everything will be intuitively clear. However, it should be said that all blocks of the trading window are very functional and thought out to the smallest detail. In addition, you can independently adjust the positions of all blocks on the screen as you need.

The registration process is simplified as much as possible, literally one minute or even less separates you from the first visit to the site to the start of the auction. There is verification on HitBTC, but it is optional. As indicated in your personal account, the exchange's management recommends going through the KYC procedure if you are going to trade on a large scale or withdraw large amounts of cryptocurrency.

Another feature that distinguishes HitBTC from the list of other popular exchanges is the set of cryptocurrencies supported by the site. Today, the exchange provides the opportunity to trade more than 200 tokens and cryptocurrencies. There are coins on the exchange that are not available on other top platforms. This makes the platform unique and provides traders with additional liquidity.

The entire list of cryptocurrencies is traded in pairs with BTC, ETH, USDT, DAI, EOS, TUSD, EURS. And although there is no way to deposit or withdraw fiat money on HitBTC, there are several stablecoins on the platform:

800 currency pairs.
No commissions for deposits and a fixed commission for withdrawals depending on the coin; HitBTC uses a multi-level trading fee calculation system. The more a user trades, the lower his commission will be.
No crypto wallet.
The HitBTC exchange can be replenished exclusively with digital currency.
The platform provides 2-factor authentication, high-end encryption technology and cold storage of funds.
No application.

Remember! Exchanges are dynamic developing systems, so the list of services and conditions for them may change regularly.