With every passing month, an increasing number of people are starting to get interested in trading or investing in cryptocurrencies. One of the primary elements of the crypto life is a great crypto exchange that enables you to buy and sell crypto and other digital assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other entry-level cryptos.Every crypto trader is built differently, and so are crypto exchanges.
To help you find the best crypto exchange for your needs, the Cryptonovae team dived deep to create a resource that helps you find what you need quickly and easily.
CZ (Changpeng Zhao), the man who some suspect may be the richest one in the world (although considering his assets are mainly unviewable, it's impossible to confirm), has led the exchange he owns to the title of the 'world largest crypto exchange' with aplomb. Binance has a monthly volume of nearly $2 trillion, and there is no sign of them surrendering its position at the top of the hierarchy soon.
And for users? Binance has gone further than its competitors. A vast range of tokens and pairings, easy access to futures trading, and a reasonably impenetrable but easy-to-learn UI.
Binance aggressively showers its users with incentives and gifts to make them explore the platform. For both crypto and fiat, its withdrawal times are notably quicker than its competitors and its stated expectations. Despite insisting it will close down accounts operating from 'restricted IPs,' it also rarely takes such action with particular haste.
It all combines to make Binance the exchange with the most extensive feature set, the widest variety of tokens, and the most efficient on and off-ramp mechanisms - with easy access. And in the world where liquidity is king, the best keeps getting better.
If you're new to crypto but have a trader's mind - or have been trading crypto for a while, then FTX is the best exchange for you. If you're comfortable with volatility indexes, derivatives, RSIs, leveraged tokens, and forex currency pairings, then FTX offers you the widest variety of advanced trading products.
If you know your stuff, FTX gives you the widest variety of financial instruments into which to plunge your cash.
Created and owned by Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX explicitly caters to traders looking to employ advanced strategies that mirror traditional financial markets more closely and put them to use in the crypto market. FTX's UI is clean and easy to use, but if you're only looking to purchase a bit of crypto and spot here and there, FTX is overstocked with features for your needs.
One note, FTX's feature set is still somewhat restricted in the US, as regulations overseeing derivatives trading are more strict. Yet, for the rest of the world, FTX offers the broadest array of methods to invest your money and is highly suitable for those who like to play, quite literally, on the margins.
If crypto exchanges were memes, then Kraken is Good Guy Greg. Its customer support is world-class, as is its public-facing communications. Kraken is the kind of exchange whose representatives lurk (and reply) on Reddit; it puts together aid packages for Ukraine and even tells its users to get their coins off exchanges - such as their own.
As well as this consumer-friendly approach, Kraken also boasts outstanding low trading fees, ranging between 0% and 0.26% - if you are using Kraken Pro. Using the basic version aimed at beginners does come with higher, almost gratuitous, fees, so be careful. They also offer futures, but they don't have the "crypto degenerate" level of leverage compared to Binance.
Combined with a UI aimed explicitly at beginners or those who find crypto overwhelming, Kraken is a superb choice for those just starting their adventures in Web 3.0.
Beyond the simple UI, experienced traders can access a powerful and efficient trading engine, indicators, and charting tools.
Established in March 2018, Bybit is one of the fastest growing cryptocurrency derivatives exchanges, with more than 1.6 million registered users. Built on customer-centric values, we endeavor to provide a professional, smart, intuitive and innovative trading experience for retail and professional clients around the world. Bybit is committed to creating a fair, transparent and efficient trading environment, and offer 24/7 multi-language customer support to provide assistance in a timely manner.
Derivatives products currently offered on the Bybit platform are inverse perpetual contracts (BTCUSD, ETHUSD, XRPUSD, EOSUSD), linear perpetual contracts (BTCUSDT, ETHUSDT, BCHLINK, LINKUSDT, LTCUSDT, XTZUSDT, ADAUSDT, DOTUSDT, UNIUSDT) and inverse futures contracts (BTCUSD quarterly).
The latest upstart exchange is the rush to capture the retail market. Crypto.com has invested massive amounts of marketing dollars into luring users to its business. It was the first and fastest exchange to offer visa cards that let users spend their crypto as 'cash.' Indeed, Crypto.com looks and functions more like a traditional payment app than a crypto exchange - nevertheless, a crypto exchange is still what it is.
That said, the user experience is very stilted for anyone used to using crypto exchanges. It can be a minor nightmare trying to find pairings, the app is pretty slow to respond to button presses, and the availability of coins is limited. The trading view is fundamentally basic, and it does not allow users to browse pairings expectedly.
It makes an experience that is decent enough for the most casual investor who has no desire to chart watch and usually buys their coins with fiat. It also has insanely fast off-ramping, processing fiat off-ramps often in under an hour. Yet, for anyone wanting even a semi-professional approach to their trading strategies, Crypto.com is best avoided.
Although it is one of the earliest crypto exchanges, the Gemini exchange has not expanded as aggressively or quickly as its main rivals - but this seems entirely by design. Gemini markets itself as an institutional gateway, and much of its operations, including its exchange, target these investors. However, that's not to say that the Gemini exchange is not suitable for beginners because it is. It takes a simple, streamlined approach to coin trading that anyone could use.
Yet it does not have as wide a variety of coin pairings, it does not have the vast array of financial products that Binance or FTX does, and the fixed fees are very high for anyone enacting any high-frequency trading strategy.
However, FDIC insures deposits up to $250,000, definitely has a 'regulation-first' approach, and is the US exchange that seems most business-minded. Gemini is an excellent choice for a casual but serious investor if it has the coin pairings you want.
Bitfinex is a great exchange to trade on if you like low fees, which are relatively cheap at 0.10%. It also has an extensive array of trading pairs. The business has a long history in the crypto market and is closely connected to Tether, the most popular stablecoin globally, as evidenced by its market cap.
However, that history isn't all storied. Quite the opposite, Bitfinex has been fined several times by US regulators for having its hands in the proverbial cookie jar. They have been accused of market manipulation throughout the years, raising the rumor that they are frontrunning their customers.
Bitfinex is an exchange stocked with features and a healthy array of financial products if you can look beyond its spotty past. Alongside its low fees, it's an excellent option if you trust that the leopard has changed its spots.
KuCoin's claim to fame is simply the vast array of coin pairings that it offers. Exchanges often gate-keep listing tokens on their exchanges behind massive fees or demanding requirements that make projects getting small, niche, or emerging tokens listed a near-impossibility.
Although KuCoin's policy is not an open door, and while the exchange is serious about its vetting, it has far lower demand than other exchanges. It is willing to list coins with much smaller market caps. It is the best place to find more arcane and 'random' tokens while maintaining the CEX experience.
KuCoin is a global exchange, but it is not listed in the US. The features like phone support that you might expect from a standard corporate operator are also not here. KuCoin, although a professional, upstanding exchange that people trust, is still a little more of a wild west in terms of crypto exchanges when it comes to the tokens on offer and the user experience. For many, that's precisely why they love it.
Cryptonovae has reviewed the top-performing centralized crypto exchanges according to more than 20 data points from the following sources:
The exhaustive research has resulted in this crypto exchange review and comparison tool that enables visitors to quickly and effectively understand if creating an account with any of the exchanges here will be worth the time investment.
The data points we based our research on include, the Maker and Taker Fees, number of supported cryptocurrencies and pairs, KYC requirements, and no KYC possibilities, Deposit and withdrawal options, fees, processing time, support response time, headquarters location, restricted countries, user experience, Cryptonovae integration, and more.
The Cryptonovae rankings are based on the types of cryptocurrency investors and how heavily they weigh each of the available data points. The research and analysis included in this cryptocurrency review report are subject to ongoing updates, with more exchanges being added in the future.
This page was last updated on: July 2022
Crypto exchanges enable individuals and institutions to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. In terms of operations, they are somewhere between banks, stockbrokers, and marketplaces that provide valuable services in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. They are the primary way cryptocurrency buyers and sellers connect and trade with one another, as well as the primary vehicle to facilitate investment by institutional entities looking to make crypto investments.
For retail users, crypto exchanges provide them with an account that can create buy and sell orders in the exchange’s order book. Users can also deposit and withdraw funds from their accounts. Some exchanges also feature derivatives marketplaces (otherwise known as margin or futures trading) where users can lend and loan funds and trade using leverage to speculate on the crypto markets.
Crypto exchanges sometimes have charting tools that enable traders to perform technical analysis within the exchange software, but usually, it is limited. Cryptonovae is an all-in-one trading platform that can provide you with the ability to access powerful charting tools on any of the exchanges integrated on the platform.
Centralized cryptocurrency exchanges (CEX / CEXes) are typical companies based somewhere in the world. They are providing their service as a business and are abstracting most of the technical requirements for users, making it easy to get started with crypto and simple to trade.
Most centralized exchanges are able to accept fiat currency via debit card or bank transfer (but not all of them) making them one of the most important bridges between fiat and crypto economies. Globally, most crypto trading is done on centralized crypto exchanges.
Centralized crypto exchanges are mandated by global financial laws and regulations and are expected to provide data to authorities when provided with a court order. In order to comply with the regulations, crypto exchanges gather Know Your Customer (KYC) data from each user, similar to the experience of opening a bank account.
One of the major concerns regarding centralized exchanges is the cybersecurity threat where your data or your cryptocurrency may be compromised, which is why it’s advisable not to keep substantial amounts of crypto on your exchange, but rather to keep it safe on a hardware or cold wallet. Most exchanges today have very high cyber security standards, as well as insurance policies to cover potential breaches.
Decentralized crypto exchanges (DEX) distribute responsibility for facilitating and verifying crypto trades. Anyone willing to join a DEX network can certify transactions, much like the way cryptocurrency blockchains work. This may help increase accountability and transparency as well as ensure an exchange can keep running, regardless of the state of the company that created it.
The trouble is that decentralized exchanges are much less user friendly, not only from an interface standpoint but also in terms of currency conversion. Decentralized exchanges, for instance, don’t always allow users to deposit dollars and exchange them for crypto. This means you either have to already own crypto or use a centralized exchange to get crypto that you then use on a DEX.
You’ll also likely be engaging in direct peer-to-peer trades. This means it may take longer for you to find someone looking to buy what you’re selling and, if liquidity is low, you may have to accept concessions on price to buy or sell a low-volume crypto quickly.
There are nearly 600 cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide inviting investors to trade bitcoin, ethereum and other digital assets. But costs, quality and safety vary widely. With an emphasis on regulatory compliance, Forbes Digital Assets ranked the top 60 cryptocurrency exchanges in the world.
You pay two types of fees when you buy and sell crypto: trading fees and withdrawal fees.
Trading fees may be charged as a flat percentage of the amount of crypto you buy or sell, or an exchange may differentiate between orders that are makers and those that are takers, charging a different percentage accordingly.
On a basic level, makers are orders that add liquidity to an exchange, meaning they do not fulfill standing orders. Takers, meanwhile, remove liquidity from an exchange by completing orders that are waiting for a trade. Depending on the exchange, maker fees are usually slightly less than taker fees, although this isn’t always the case.
While you’re ideally picking an exchange with the lowest costs, dwelling too much on the ins and outs of maker and taker fees can be counterproductive. That’s because you can’t choose whether your order is processed as a maker or a taker. Instead, you’re better served considering overall fees and any discounts available for trading a certain amount each month or holding an exchange’s native cryptocurrency.
An important note: Some crypto investment apps claim to charge zero fees, but this isn’t entirely accurate. Instead of charging you an outright, they charge a spread—that’s the difference between the rate at which they buy or sell crypto. Spreads can, and frequently do, wind up being much more expensive than if you paid a percentage trading fee.
Many exchanges charge fees to withdraw coins from their platform. This can be an issue if you prefer to move your crypto to a secure third-party wallet or onto another exchange. Withdrawal fees typically vary by cryptocurrency.
If you anticipate moving your crypto off of an exchange, you should choose a platform that allows a certain amount of fee-free withdrawals, like Gemini.
If you engage in more advanced trading strategies, like margin trading, there are additional fees associated with borrowing money. Beginner-friendly exchanges like Coinbase and Gemini offer quick buy features that charge higher fees. You can avoid them by learning how to buy and sell on an exchange’s trading platform.
If you make purchases using a credit card or debit card, you may be charged a premium by both the exchange and your card issuer. That’s why it’s best to buy crypto with cash or wire transfers.
Beyond fees, when choosing the best crypto exchange for your needs, consider things like security, trading volumes, educational resources and whether an exchange lists the cryptocurrencies you’re interested in buying.
As crypto has grown more popular and valuable, it’s become a big large target for hackers. Leading exchanges like Binance and KuCoin have been hacked, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in losses. While exchanges often reimburse those whose coins are stolen, nobody wants to be in that position in the first place.
You can minimize your risk by spreading your crypto purchases across multiple exchanges. Alternatively, make it a habit to move your crypto holdings out of an exchange’s default wallet to your own secure “cold” wallet. These are storage options that are not connected to the internet, making them nearly impossible to hack—although you’ll need to carefully record your passcode or you could lose access to your crypto forever.
Carefully consider the cryptocurrencies available on a given exchange. You might be perfectly fine using a crypto exchange that only trades a few coins. Conversely, if you’re a crypto fiend, you may want access to all of the more than 600 available on Gate.io.
The availability of coins alone isn’t sufficient if there are no trades happening. You’ll ideally want to verify that there’s sufficient trading volume in your target coins to ensure liquidity, so you can easily trade your coins and dollars.
Low-volume markets could cost you on sales. If there’s not a lot of volume and you put an order in, that’s called slippage. You could end up buying at a higher price or selling at a lower price than you’d want.
If you’re an advanced crypto trader, you may want to make sure your preferred exchange offers the trading types—like limit orders, which can prevent slippage by setting a hard price—and margin you want. Remember trade types involving the latter are still evolving in the U.S., so different exchanges’ offerings may vary over time.
If you’re just getting started with cryptocurrency, look for an easy-to-use platform with plenty of educational resources to help you understand this complex, rapidly developing market.
Finally, don’t assume that an exchange is available in your country, or even state, just because you can access its website. Many state and federal governments are still figuring out how exactly they want to treat cryptocurrencies from a legal and tax standpoint.
