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Cryptocurrency exchanges are decentralized trading platforms for digital currencies.
Crypto exchanges work like any digital stock exchange. Though all crypto exchanges allow buying and selling cryptocurrencies, not all crypto exchanges are the same. Instead, anyone looking to sign up on crypto exchange must consider certain factors. These include service fees, supported assets, security, payment methods, and availability in various countries or regions.
However, considering these factors and finding the best crypto exchange can be difficult for crypto novices. We have compiled a thorough list of all the advantages and disadvantages of the most popular crypto exchanges for our readers. Choosing the best crypto exchange won’t be difficult once you go through this list. So without further ado, let’s jump in and find the best crypto exchange for your needs:
Popular Cryptocurrency Exchanges
The future of money is here. Over 103 million people and businesses trust us to buy, sell, and manage crypto.
Fees (Maker/Taker)
0.50%*/0.50%*
Buy crypto, easily manage your wallet, and maintain your portfolio. Experience our low trading fees. Automatically invest on a scheduled basis.
Fees (Maker/Taker)
0.10%*/0.10%*
One of the largest and oldest exchanges in the world. Excellent service, low fees, versatile funding options and rigorous security standards
Fees (Maker/Taker)
0.16%*/0.26%*
The Best Crypto Exchanges of 2023
1. Binance
Launched in 2017, Binance is among the larger crypto trade platforms. It is also one of the fastest-growing. The popularity of Binance relies on several factors. Binance account can be set up through four simple steps, allowing beginners to join and begin trading cryptocurrencies within minutes. Users are only required to sign up, verify their account, and fund it to begin trading. U.S. customers have to sign up on Binance.US website.
It is one of the biggest crypto trade platforms, with more than 600 cryptocurrencies available for trading. Binance.US doesn’t have as many cryptocurrencies to trade but they have all the major coin pairs available. Many available cryptocurrencies make it easier for beginners to experiment and get the hang of crypto exchange. It has over 90 million users with an average 24-hour trading amount of 76 Billion as of May 2022. This provides Binance users with a highly liquid exchange opportunity at all times. It is secure and stable. It has its own cryptocurrency called Binance Coin, further enhancing its stability.
With Binance Coin, Binance offers an easy way to learn crypto trading to beginners. Binance offers additional Binance NFT, Binance Pay, and Binance Earn services. Binance Pay is a state-of-the-art borderless payment technology that allows businesses and individuals to make or receive payments with cryptocurrencies. On the other hand, Binance Earn allows investors to earn unique rewards and benefits for holding crypto funds. However, some terms dictate the amount and period of holding of crypto funds. Let’s take a detailed look at its advantages and disadvantages to understand it better.
Advantages of Binance
Binance offers several advantages to its users:
- It is available on the most platforms, including iOS, Android, Windows, Linux, and API.
- Binance is available for users in most countries. However, those users who cannot directly fund their Binance accounts through their banks can utilize Binance Visa Card services. Binance Visa Card allows the conversion of fiat currencies into cryptocurrencies of users’ preference.
- Binance popularity can also be attributed to its security. It allows for personalized access control that allows users to restrict addresses and devices to access their accounts. Greater control brings greater security and peace of mind for users.
- It offers advanced data encryption. This means that all transaction records from an account are only accessible through that account, resulting in further protection of user data.
- It offers a unique fund service known as “Secure Asset Fund for Users” or SAFU. Through this service, Binance stores ten percent of trading fees earned from a user in a secure asset fund. Hence, allowing users to receive back a share of their fees in the long term.
- Binance has an excellent 24/7 chat support system where customer service agents resolve user issues and guide them to make the most of the crypto exchange services.
- Binance has a FAQ question for quick user guides and help.
- It has one of the lowest transaction fees of only 0.10 percent per transaction.
Disadvantages of Binance
Though Binance’s advantages greatly outweigh its disadvantages, they still require consideration:
- The fee structure of Binance can get complicated in certain instances. For example, many users can pay up to 4.5 percent and an additional 0.5 percent of the order amount through certain banking services.
- The fee structure can also seem complicated when users buy Bitcoin on Binance.
- Additional instant buying fees can also be added to transactions.
- Designed for crypto professionals. Beginners may find it a little harder to use.
Though Binance may not suit everyone, beginners can still utilize Binance for its service Binance Academy. Binance Academy is one of the most detailed learning resources on cryptocurrencies. It is frequently updated. This makes it easier for beginners to trade crypto in no time. Users can get further updates through the Binance blog as well.
2. Kraken
Kraken is another one of the oldest crypto trade platforms. It was founded in 2011. But unlike Coinbase, it is more suitable for experienced crypto professionals. Kraken also offers several features that make it one of the best crypto exchanges.
It supports over 120 cryptocurrencies. Users can start trading on Kraken for as low as $10 initial investment. While Kraken is known for crypto professionals, it does offer many resources and support features for crypto novices. Kraken also offers exclusive features for businesses. It offers easy withdrawal and deposit options. It also provides a portfolio management feature so users can easily track their investments. It allows users to measure their portfolio performance.
Advantages of Kraken
Advantages of Kraken include:
- Kraken is incredibly secure. It complies with all legalities to ensure greater peace of mind for its users.
- Unlike most other crypto trade platforms, Kraken provides excellent customer support service. Its customer support is available 24/7 every day of the year, also worldwide.
- It offers a highly liquid exchange due to its many users and a wide variety of supported cryptocurrencies.
- Kraken also offers learning guides for users. However, these learning guides are mostly focused on buying specific and popular cryptocurrencies.
- Kraken offers unique cryptowatch services. Cryptowatch is the safest crypto portfolio tracker in the crypto world.
- It also offers a one-of-a-kind affiliate program for crypto influencers.
Disadvantages of Kraken
While Kraken’s advantages make it sound like the best crypto exchange, it does come with a few disadvantages:
- One of the major disadvantages of Kraken is its unavailability. It can only be used in limited countries. Even in the United States, Kraken is not available in every state.
- The limited funding options of Kraken can also be disappointed for many potential users. It primarily only supports wire transfers.
- Kraken also has one of the highest transaction fees of up to 1.5 percent of the transaction value.
However, there are two versions of the app: Kraken and Kraken Pro. The high fee of Kraken does not apply to Kraken Pro. Instead, Kraken Pro offers some of the lowest transaction fees ranging from zero percent to 0.26 percent only. The high transaction fee on Kraken does not make it a desirable crypto trade platform for beginners. However, Kraken Pro is undoubted one of the best crypto exchanges for experienced crypto investors.
3. Coinbase
Coinbase is one of the oldest and one of the best crypto exchanges. Since it is one of the oldest crypto trade platforms, it was designed for a time when the concept of cryptocurrencies was fairly new. Hence, Coinbase is comparatively simpler to use than crypto exchanges. Though it has been updated several times since it was founded in 2012, it still features a beginner-friendly interface. Therefore, Coinbase is our top recommendation for crypto beginners. Like Crypto.com, Coinbase is also available for Android and iOS smartphones.
It has over 98 million verified users. It is supported in over 100 countries. The latest quarterly report of Coinbase showed a business of over $300 Billion. The large number of users of Coinbase translate it into a highly liquid market. Liquid markets are more secure and offer quick trade due to more buyers and sellers. Hence, investors can find what they are looking for at a desirable price.
Advantages of Coinbase
Let’s look at the advantages of using Coinbase in detail:
- Coinbase accounts are custodial and non-custodial, meaning that users can hold the private keys to their accounts if they choose to.
- It has a portfolio management feature where users can buy, sell, track, and manage all crypto and digital currencies in one place.
- Coinbase offers automated trading. Users can schedule daily, weekly, and monthly buys and sells. This particular service can especially help beginners invest slowly but regularly.
- Coinbase is one of the most secure and trusted cryptocurrency trading platforms.
- It protects users’ investment with insurance. All user investments as USD cash balances are protected under FDIC insurance on Coinbase. The investment covers an amount up to $250,000.
Disadvantages of Coinbase
Coinbase doesn’t come without some cons. The disadvantages of Coinbase are:
- Similar to Crypto.com, Coinbase also lacks helpful customer support service.
- The transaction fee varies according to the transaction value. While smaller transactions may not have any fee, large transactions can have a fee of up to 0.6 percent.
Besides having greater advantages than disadvantages, Coinbase also provides a library of learning resources that beginners can find beneficial. These resources cover basic and advanced cryptocurrency questions and answer them in simple and easy-to-understand formats. But Coinbase is not only suitable for beginners. Experienced or expert crypto traders can also use Coinbase’s learning resources as the resources are updated frequently. Moreover, Coinbase Pro is Coinbase’s advanced trading platform which is also now available on regular Coinbase account caters to crypto professionals.
4. KuCoin
KuCoin is one of the unique crypto exchanges as it allows anonymous trading. Launched in 2017 as a crypto exchange, it has expanded to the NFT trading, lending, and blockchain projects investing platform. Let’s take a closer look at KuCoin to see why we have included it on our list.
It has one of the largest user bases, with over 18 million users. One in every four crypto holders uses KuCoin for crypto exchange. It is accessible in over 200 countries, meaning you can access it almost everywhere. It offers more than 50 cryptocurrencies for exchange. These currencies include some of the most stable and popular ones, such as Ethereum, Bitcoin, Binance Coin, Ripple, USD Coin, Dogecoin, Tether, Cardano, etc. It also keeps adding new coins.
KuCoin is incredibly secure. It utilizes multi-factor encryption and authentication to ensure maximum layers of security. Every action on KuCoin requires a separate password. KuCoin requires users to set up different passwords for every step to add another layer of security.
It has the largest social media platform among all crypto exchanges. This allows users to stay updated with the latest news regarding the crypto world. Users can also interact with each other on the platform.
Advantages of KuCoin
There are many advantages to opting for KuCoin.
- Since KuCoin is available in almost the entire world, it can be used in several local and regional languages.
- The KuCoin app is accessible on Android and Apple both.
- It has a 24/7 customer support program.
- It offers several additional products, such as spot trading, KuCoin earn, trading bot, futures trading, and margin trading.
- It has an easy-to-understand beginner’s guide.
- It offers the lowest deductible out of all crypto exchanges: only 0.1 percent.
- As mentioned earlier, KuCoin also allows users to trade crypto anonymously or without account verification. This option can be handy for many users.
Disadvantages of KuCoin
Like other crypto exchanges, KuCoin also comes with some disadvantages. These include:
- The anonymous trading option can be handy, but it does come with heavy transaction fees. Moreover, authorizing the account on KuCoin brings in many benefits that users who want to trade anonymously cannot enjoy.
- The trading volume on KuCoin is highly restricted. While the low trading volume limit of KuCoin adds stability to the crypto world, many users can find it limiting.
However, KuCoin is popular for all the right reasons. Besides other advantages, the platform has a simple interface that anyone can understand and use.
5. Bitstamp
Bitstamp is another one of the oldest crypto exchanges. It was launched in 2011, and since then, it has only evolved into one of the most stable and secure crypto trading platforms. Bitstamp supports lesser cryptocurrencies than most other crypto exchanges on this list. However, it is a great platform to trade the most sought-after cryptocurrencies.
It allows users to trade the most stable cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD Coin, Tether, Cardano, Avalanche, Ripple, XRP, etc. Overall, it supports over 70 cryptocurrencies. It can be accessed and used through a desktop with its website. Users can also utilize the apps available on iOS and Android when trading on the go. Bitstamp real-time insights into the crypto trade. Users can utilize live insight and other analytical tools to make better, profitable decisions.
Bitstamp has revolutionized crypto exchange by making it accessible for institutions. Brokers, neo banking, banking, fintech, aggregators, prop traders, hedge funds, and even family businesses can utilize Bitstamp to access crypto markets and use it in their services. Let’s take a deeper look into what Bitstamp has to offer to its users:
Advantages of Bitstamp
Bitstamp users enjoy the following advantages:
- Bitstamp provides satisfactory security to its users. It has military-grade, advanced security features that help prevent access to funds from unauthorized accounts. These features include Crime insurance for all accounts and cold-wallet technology. Furthermore, Bitstamp has 15 banks around the world as partners. These banks allow safer fiat to cryptocurrency exchange, securing the user fund even more.
- It is compliant with the crypto laws of the US and Europe.
- It provides 24/7 support to its users.
- Bitstamp Blog is a great source of crypto insight from the most experienced crypto players in the market.
- Bitstamp offers some of the most exciting rewards to investors who hold the funds in their accounts. Holding cryptocurrencies in the Bitstamp account can be as beneficial as crypto trading for some users.
Disadvantages of Bitstamp
The disadvantages of Bitstamp are as follows:
- Bitstamp has one of the highest fees. Users paying through a card may sometimes bear up to 5 percent of the transaction amount as a fee.
- Bitstamp also charges high amounts of commission fees from users. This can mean up to 15 percent of their rewards for some users.
Bitstamp fee structure may seem complicated to many users. It starts at 0.5 percent for users trading less than $10,000 per month. However, the higher amount you trade, the lower this fee gets. But many users, especially beginners, may not have enough funds or may not find it worthwhile, especially after the commission deduction and high fees for bank transactions.
Best Crypto Exchange Conclusion
Cryptocurrency exchanges are trading platforms that facilitate the exchange of cryptocurrencies. These platforms have become increasingly popular over the past few years and now they are widely available. A cryptocurrency exchange works like any other stock exchange. You buy and sell your coins based on the market price. The best part is that you can use them from anywhere in the world.
For many people, especially the younger generation, investment begins with cryptocurrencies. However, the crypto exchange they choose significantly impacts their experience and potential earnings. While our list has covered the five most popular crypto exchanges in detail, we recommend Coinbase for beginners and intermediates and Binance for intermediate to expert crypto professionals.
However, some other crypto exchanges that can also be used, according to user-experience level, are:
Best Crypto Exchanges for Beginners
Besides Coinbase, beginners can greatly benefit from Robinhood, Bakkt, KuCoin, Gemini, Pionex and also Binance. All these apps have simple interfaces, which can help beginners stay focused on trading.
Best Crypto Exchanges for Intermediate-Experience Professionals
Besides our top 5 list, professionals with moderate experience can benefit from bitFlyer, Bithumb, BurgerSwap, Venus, 0x Protocol, and ChangeNOW. However, we recommend KuCoin from our list as the best crypto exchange for those with intermediate experience in crypto.
Best Crypto Exchanges for Experts
Expert crypto professionals can easily utilize any crypto exchange, depending on their needs. However, we highly recommend Coinmama, Bisq, FTX and Coinsmart. We also recommend Binance to experts. Experts should put their experience to good use and begin dealing in Bitcoin and Altcoins. Bitcoin is the most dominant cryptocurrency and can bring great profits when traded.
Last but not least, no matter which crypto exchange you end up using, we recommend you make an account and observe it before you begin trading. Observing the crypto trade and learning to predict the exchange market is the only skill you need to succeed and make profits from it. Learn as much about crypto trends as you can and read insights from experts as much as possible to make wise and worthwhile investments.
Due to the recent crypto market crash, many investors are looking for other, more secure ventures for investment. But it shouldn’t be the case. While investors have lost money on crypto exchange, many other investors have also earned it. Hence, if anything, the crypto market crash proves that crypto is not much different from stock exchange markets in that sense.
FAQ's related to Best Crypto Exchanges:
Crypto Exchanges are somewhat regulated by law and they provide secure transactions and storage. Crypto Exchanges must follow strict Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) guidelines before opening for business. They must also obtain licenses in each country where they operate.
Binance has the largest number of cryptocurrencies. Binance launched on July 28, 2017 and claims to be the first major cryptocurrency exchange. Its platform allows users to trade a wide range of cryptocurrencies and fiat currency pairs. With over $1 billion in daily trading volume, Binance is currently the third biggest cryptocurrency exchange after OKex and Huobi.
There are several ways to purchase coins. The first way is to use a bank account. Most major banks will allow you to deposit funds into an exchange account. You can then use this account to purchase your coins. However, it is important to note that you will be charged a fee for doing so.
Another way to purchase your coins is through credit cards / debit cards. Some of the top card companies such as Visa and MasterCard will allow you to purchase your coins on an exchange.