Cryptocurrencies are becoming more and more popular, and many are thinking about buying and investing in bitcoin and other assets. To do this, you need cryptocurrency exchange platforms. In this article, you can find all types of exchange platforms, no matter if you are a beginner or an expert. You get the most important information about every company with a short review.
What are the best cryptocurrency exchange platforms?
Cryptocurrency exchanges are online marketplaces where you can exchange crypto coins for other currencies or vice versa, like Bitcoin to US Dollar. On these platforms, you can find many different features that show various prices with price charts and market data. It is also possible to earn interest and do other forms of trading and investing.
To better understand some of the important terms, here is a short explanation:
- Brokerage is a service to trade with assets like cryptocurrencies.
- Fiat currency is the traditional government-issued currency like the euro, us dollar, and other global paper currencies.
- Liquidity is the ease with which an asset can be converted into cash without affecting its market price.
- Leverage is the use of debt (borrowed capital) to make an investment.
- A taker fee is when you create an order that is immediately matched with the existing orders. Then you take liquidity from the market.
- A maker fee is charged when you do an order that doesn´t match existing offers, and you add liquidity to the market.
- Over-the-counter (OTC trades) is for traders that want to trade amongst themselves. There you can find dealers who trade based on particular parameters like currency, payment options, and amount. Over the counter, trades are often used by traders that want to exchange currencies over 100k.
- Margin trading is borrowing money to buy crypto assets. You only pay for a percentage of the asset´s value and borrow the rest from the broker service.
Here you can find a selection of the best crypto exchanges with reviews, information, and trading fees of the different marketplaces:
Bitfinex
- Fees: Withdrawal fees 0.0004 BTC • 0.2% Taker Fee • 0.1% Maker Fee
- Supported Currencies: EUR, JPY, GBP, and USD
- Payment Methods: Wire Transfer
Bitfinex was founded in the British Virgin Islands in 2012, with headquarters in Hong Kong. The platform offers a variety of services, including:
An advanced trading platform that has the most liquid order in the world. The high volume is important for traders because it ensures a low spread ( the difference between the best bid and ask prices). You get an advanced and customizable interface to do plenty of order types like stop limit, trailing stop, fill or kill, and scaled orders.
Another service is margin Trading and Funding, where you can borrow and trade with up to 3.3x leverage. The borrowing terms (amount, duration, and interest) can be determined by the user or automatically through Bitfinex.
With over-the-counter services, it is possible to privately trade a major amount of over $100.000 of cryptocurrency. This service matches and secures major private deals.
Bitfinex offers derivatives trading contracts where traders can speculate on asset prices without buying or selling them.
You also get a staking and lending service, making it possible to stake or lend cryptocurrency holdings easily.
The withdrawal fee is 0.0004 BTC for Bitcoin, and for bank wire, the withdrawal fee is up to 1% for a faster withdrawal.
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| Features: |  (5.0 / 5) |
| Ease of Use: |  (2.0 / 5) |
| Fees: | (4.0 / 5) |
| Average: |  (3.8 / 5) |
Changelly
- Fees: 0.5% Taker Fee • 0.5% Maker Fee
- Supported Currencies: Cryptocurrency, USD, EUR, GBP, and many other Fiat Currencies
- Payment Methods: Credit and Debit Cards, Bank transaction
Changelly allows you to trade over 140 cryptocurrencies instantly and without an account or identity verification. The platform has operated since 2015 in Malta.
What is special about Changelly is that it uses an automatic trading robot that makes bids and asks on popular exchanges to suggest the best available rates for the trading pairs.
You get an instant, simple, and relatively anonym crypto to crypto exchange service that also offers an Android app. The buying limits are between $50 to $10.000 depending on the region you live in and if you use a credit card. If you purchase crypto coins via fiat currencies, the buying fees can be higher than the stated 0.5%.
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| Support: | (5.0 / 5) |
| Features: |  (3.0 / 5) |
| Ease of Use: | (5.0 / 5) |
| Fees: | (2.0 / 5) |
| Average: | (3.8 / 5) |
FTX
- Fees: 0.00043 Withdrawal Fee • 0.07% Taker Fee • 0.00% Maker Fee
- Supported currencies: USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, HKD, SGD, ZAR, CAD, CHF, BRL
- Payment Methods: Credit and Debit Cards, Bank Transfers, Cryptocurrencies
FTX is a cryptocurrency exchange that is registered in Antigua and Barbuda and has been running since 2019. The focus of the company is on derivatives exchange, which values the prices of specific cryptocurrencies. The derivatives trading connects around 20 different cryptos.
You get with FTX Trading view a variety of different views where you can see price charts and current prices of various cryptocurrencies.
The platform offers leveraged trading with a maximum leverage of 3x. This form of trading can lead to massive returns but also to massive losses.
It is also possible to make large crypto trades with Over a counter (OTC) desk, connecting private buyers with sellers.
FTX doesn’t allow US-investor on their exchange platform. There are no withdrawal fees except the network feed paid to the miners.
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| Support: | (3.0 / 5) |
| Features: | (3.0 / 5) |
| Ease of Use: | (4.0 / 5) |
| Fees: | (5.0 / 5) |
| Average: | (3.8 / 5) |
Cex.io
- Fees: 0.0005 Withdrawal Fee • 0.25% Taker Fee • 0.16% Maker Fee
- Supported currencies: USD, EUR, GBP, RUB,
- Payment Methods: Credit Card, Bank Transfer, Skrill
CEX.io is a British crypto exchange that makes crypto transactions possible by offering card payments and bank transfers to clients. The site has a brokerage service that supports multiple coins and a trading platform for trading BTC, BCH, ETH, XRP, and much more.
The brokerage service allows new users to buy cryptocurrencies through an easy process with more expensive fees of up to 7%. Transactions are based on Fill-or-Kill orders, which are executed immediately and in full.
The trading platform is for more advanced users, but you get extremely low fees, only 0.25% at max. You get pretty advanced features such as market and limit orders. It is possible to do cross-platform trading via mobile apps and several APIs. There is also advanced reporting included.
Buy Limits are for identity-verified accounts of up to $1000 worth of Bitcoins per day, only possible via credit card. If your Address verifies your account, you can buy up to $10,000 worth of Bitcoins per day and withdraw $50,000 per day.
Enhanced Corporate verified accounts have no limitations on the number of Crypto coins they can buy.
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| Support: | (4.0 / 5) |
| Features: | (4.0 / 5) |
| Ease of Use: | (4.0 / 5) |
| Fees: | (2.0 / 5) |
| Average: |  (3.5 / 5) |
Binance
- Fees: 0.0005 Withdrawal Fee • 0.10% Taker Fee • 0.10% Maker Fee
- Supported Currencies: EUR, USD, AUD, AED ARS, and many more
- Payment Methods: Credit and Debit Cards, Bank Transfers, Cryptocurrencies
Binance is a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange that was launched in 2017. The platform offers a large variety of different services.
With the Binance exchange, you can exchange fiat currencies for bitcoin or other coins. It is also possible to buy through a peer-to-peer (P2P) trading service that directly connects cryptocurrency buyers and sellers. P2P trading gives users the option to use a wide variety of payment methods.
The Binance trading platform is user-friendly and fairly easy to use. The user can choose between 3 interfaces the “basic,” “classic,” and “advanced” interfaces.
The interfaces are based on experience level, so the basic gives a simple trading option to convert coins at the market rate. While the classic shows a quick view of the market and trading pairs, the advanced view gives users access to different charting tools.
Binance allows Margin trading for selected pairs to trade with a leverage of up to 10x on coins. A user can select between cross-margin and risk the entire margin account balance and isolated margin, restricting the potential loss to a single trading pair.
It is also possible to do future trading with Binance Futures and speculate on the price of bitcoin and other popular altcoins. The balance is held separately from the user’s regular trading account and must be funded with Tether. The maximum trading fees of 0.04% are slightly different from their spot markets.
Binance offers several interesting financing options:
- Binance Saving allows users to make a return on idle funds through flexible(yield variable interest rates) or locked accounts (higher interest rates on fixed-term deposits).
- Stacking service allows users to earn returns on proof of stake and decentralized finance coins without technical knowledge. The staking account also has similar saving account flexible and locked options.
- Binance Smart Pool is for miners to contribute to a large mining group that splits rewards. The hash power is automatically redirected to the most profitable cryptocurrency.
- Binance Visa Card makes it possible for users to spend crypto holdings in places where only fiat currencies with credit card payments are accepted. The holdings will be converted when you make a purchase with zero fees.
- Crypto loans allow users to loan in the form of BUSD and USDT with BTC or ETH. It provides an easy way to maintain your cryptocurrency holdings and avoid taxable selling of crypto.
- Binance Liquid swap is an automated market maker where users can trade coins with minimal losses or provide their liquidity in return for a share of fees.
The Binance withdrawal limit structure is very simple level 1 verified account can withdraw up to 2 BTC every 24 hours, and level 2 can withdraw 100 BTC every 24 hours. To verify, you need to fill out a basic customer form and do an id proof.
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| Features: | (5.0 / 5) |
| Ease of Use: | (3.0 / 5) |
| Fees: | (4.0 / 5) |
| Average: |  (3.3 / 5) |
Liquid
- Fees: 0.0007 BTC Withdrawal Fee • 0.3% Taker Fee • 0.3% Maker Fee
- Supported currencies: USD, SGD, EUR, AUD, HKD, JPY,
- Payment Methods: Credit and Debit Cards, Bank Transfers,
Liquid is a cryptocurrency exchange platform based in Japan and Singapore that offers trading of more than 100 different cryptocurrencies with several big fiat currencies like USD and JPY.
You get a nice and simple navigation trading interface with popular Tradingview charts.
It is possible to do margin trading with up to 25x leverage and lending out your asset to margin traders for an interest rate fee.
Liquid also offers contact for difference trading through the “infinity trading feature. It is similar to futures trading because traders are betting on the price of the asset. Leveraged trading is possible up to 100x on BTC-USD and BTC-JPY trading pairs.
The platform offers its very own “Liquid Pro” mobile app with all the important trading features.
Verified accounts have a buy limit of $2000 on instant cryptocurrency purchases via credit card. And can withdraw $30.000 worth of cryptocurrencies daily and up to $300.000 per month. And for unverified accounts, it is capped at $2.000 per day or $20.000 per year.
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| Support: | (3.0 / 5) |
| Features: | (4.0 / 5) |
| Ease of Use: | (4.0 / 5) |
| Fees: | (2.0 / 5) |
| Average: | (3.3 / 5) |
Huobi
- Fees: 0.001 BTC Withdrawal Fee • 0.2% Taker Fee • 0.2% Maker Fee
- Supported Currencies: Cryptocurrency
- Payment Methods: Cryptocurrency
Huobi is headquartered in Singapore and was founded in 2013. The platform describes itself as a “digital asset exchange.” It supports ICO Stokes and over 100 cryptocurrencies.
On Huobi, you get a professional platform interface with price feeds, charting, market depth data, and profiles describing individual cryptocurrencies. It offers enough functionality for the experienced trader while still remaining accessible for beginners.
You get three different trading platforms:
- The Huobi OTC market is for traders that want to trade amongst themself with Over Counter (OTC trades). There you can find dealers who like to trade based on particular parameters like currency, payment options, and amount.
- With the standard exchange platform, you can place orders and trade coins based on your wallet balance.
- The third one is the margin trading platform, where you can trade with transferred margin funds on the margin.
To use Huboi on the smartphone, you also get an easy-to-navigate app for Android and iOS.
The withdrawal limit is $600 per day for unverified users, which is very small. But for verified accounts, the withdrawal limit is higher.
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| Support: | (2.0 / 5) |
| Features: | (3.5 / 5) |
| Ease of Use: | (3.0 / 5) |
| Fees: | (2.0 / 5) |
| Average: |  (2.6 / 5) |
Coinbase
- Fees: 2% Taker Fee •2% Maker Fee
- Supported currencies: USD, EUR, GDP
- Payment Methods: Credit and Debit Cards, Bank transactions, Cryptocurrency
Coinbase was founded in 2012 and is one of the oldest exchange platforms around, and is fully regulated and licensed. It is a well-known beginner-friendly platform, thanks to the company’s reputation and marketing.
The main service of coinbase is the brokerage service for buying and selling cryptocurrencies. The other service is coinbase pro, which is aimed at more experienced users but has considerably lower fees.
The withdrawal limit depends if you verify your account with a phone number, personal information, and photo id. A fully verified US account can reach up to $25.000 a day. The fee of up to 2% seems high, but it includes 0.5 percent of crypto purchases or sales and transaction fees. So it is relatively cheap in comparison to other platforms.
You can find the full fee structure here.
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| Features: | (3.0 / 5) |
| Ease of Use: | (5.0 / 5) |
| Fees: | (4.0 / 5) |
| Average: | (3.3 / 5) |
Coinmama
- Fees: 0 Withdrawal Fee • 5.50% Taker Fee • 5.50% Maker Fee
- Supported currencies: USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, CAD, JPY
- Payment Methods: Credit card and Debit cards, SWIFT or SEPA bank transfer, Apple Pay
Coinmama was founded in 2013 in Israel. The company’s focus is on customer experience and customer service, which makes Coinmamas brokerage service transactions super quick.
It is a good platform for beginners to buy their first cryptocurrencies. But advanced users should use an alternative platform to save on transaction fees.
The minimum amount of Bitcoins to buy is $60, while the buying limit depends on your account level. The buying limit for level 1( Valid Id with a photo of yourself holding a note with Coinmama and today’s date) is $5.000 daily and $15000 monthly.
Level 2 requires a secondary ID and a utility bill, and for level 3, you need to fill out a short form. Coinmama has no additional fees for withdrawing coins.
It is recommended to use bank transfer because the credit card fee is 5% which is relatively high.
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| Support: | (3.5 / 5) |
| Features: | (2.0 / 5) |
| Ease of Use: | (5.0 / 5) |
| Fees: | (2.0 / 5) |
| Average: |  (3.1 / 5) |
Kraken
- Fees: 0.0005 BTC Withdrawal Fee • 0.26% Taker Fee • 0.16% Maker Fee
- Supported Currencies: EUR, USD, CAD, AUD, GDP, CHF, JPY
- Payment Methods: Bank Transfer, Cryptocurrencies
Kraken is an American-based crypto exchange that was founded in 2011. The Company offers users an advanced trading platform for experienced users and currently supports around 40 coins. The interface has plenty of options but isn´t the most beginner-friendly.
For high-volume trades over $100k, you get an Over Counter (OTC) service with a 1-on-1 service. Additionally, frequent high-volume trades can get a dedicated account manager that takes care of their trading needs.
Kraken also offers a dark pool where traders anonymously place large buys or sell orders without revealing their interest to others. Often when other traders see big orders, it can cause the market to move unfavorably, which makes it more difficult to get the order to the desired price. This can be avoided with a dark pool that has a fee range from 0.36 -0.2%.
A staking service is also provided; it allows users to earn a return on assets.
The leverage trading makes it possible to trade futures at Kraken with leverage of up to 50x
Deposits and withdrawals can be made via Bank Transfer( SEPA, SWIFT, and Wire) and can take up to 5 business days. The withdrawal fee is 0.0005 when you withdraw bitcoins.
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| Support: |  (2.5 / 5) |
| Features: | (4.0 / 5) |
| Ease of Use: | (2.0 / 5) |
| Fees: | (3.5 / 5) |
| Average: | (3.0 / 5) |
