The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide On Cryptocurrency Exchanges

Do you want to get started buying and selling Cyptocurrencies? Are you using the best exchange out there? In this post, I will discuss availability, ease of use, security, trading pairs offered, deposit/withdrawal methods and fees for some of the most popular exchanges. At the end of the post you can find my personal opinion on which exchange is the best depending on your situation and a ratings table pitting exchanges against each other. Coinbase/GDAX was launched in 2012 and is one of the biggest and most reputable Cryptocurrency exchanges. It is (including the US) and currently . Coinbase available in 32 countries serves over 10 million customers Coinbase is because it makes selling and buying digital currencies extremely easy. It also offers a mobile application for both iOS and Android which some people might find handy while on the go. very user friendly Coinbase offers 4 coins — (BTC), (BCH), (ETH) and (LTC). It supports trading/purchasing with (USD), (EUR) and the (GBP). It allows customers to deposit and withdraw FIAT via a . Additionally, you can immediately purchase digital currencies using a . Digital currencies can also be deposited/withdrawn to/from exchanges or wallets. Bitcoin Bitcoin Cash Ethereum Litecoin United States Dollar Euro Great British Pound bank transfer debit/credit card Its transfer fees are , however, its trading fees are vastly more expensive than the competition. A detailed break-down of the fee structure can be found . reasonable here Coinbase has in the past. It also on the FIAT and cryptocurrency deposits, which many other exchanges do not. not suffered any security breaches offers insurance Coinbase also offers a fully fledged advanced exchange called . GDAX offers most features an advanced trader would expect from an exchange. It can be accessed with your Coinbase account. Transferring FIAT and cryptocurrencies to/from Coinbase is instant with no fees. One thing to note, GDAX offers than Coinbase. GDAX different and better trading fees If you would like to read more about GDAX, how to use it and how to leverage its features for trading, drop me a message in the comments below or a tweet. Bitstamp is based in Luxembourg with offices in the US and UK, and is one of the oldest exchanges, having been established in 2011. It is available worldwide and boasts . Bitstamp excellent customer support Bitstamp is relatively easy to use whilst also offering more advanced features via its A mobile application is available on both iOS and Android. Tradeview. Bitstamp has a variety of coins on offer — (BTC), (ETH) (LTC), (XRP) and (BCH). It supports and which can be used to purchase the coins previously listed, regardless of locale. Bitcoin Ethereum , Litecoin Ripple Bitcoin Cash USD EUR Just like Coinbase, it offers FIAT deposits via , in addition to, immediate purchase of digital currencies via . It also allows . Similarly, it allows , as well as . bank transfer debit/credit card cryptocurrency deposits withdrawals via bank transfer cryptocurrency gold Bitstamp’s fees are than the competition; you can find a more detailed break-down . Personally, I do not mind the slightly higher fees in return for excellent customer service they provide. slightly higher here Bitstamp has suffered in its 7 years of operation. On the 4th of January, 2015 it suffered a security breach in which 19,000 BTC were stolen which were worth $5.1 million at the time. No customer incurred any losses during this breach, with Bistamp taking the full loss on themselves. Bitstamp undergoes annual audits by one of the “big four”; you can find more details about this . one security breach here Gemini was launched in 2015 by the famous and is based in New York. It is regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS) and has the highest level of capital reserve requirements and banking compliance standards. Unlike others (which have a Bitlicense to operate in the US), it’s also registered as a New York State chartered limited liability trust company meaning they can deal with both institutional clients and individuals. Gemini Winklevoss twins It is in most U.S. States, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and the U.K. available Gemini is , especially for beginners, one of the reasons being, it focuses on order-book depth rather than price chart. Unlike its competition, it does not offer any mobile application. not particularly user friendly It only offers 2 coins and 1 FIAT currency — and . You can trade both coins using USD regardless of region. It supports deposits and withdrawals via and . BTC, ETH USD bank transfer digital currencies Gemini offers and — often these are calculated based on your trading volume. very competitive transfer trading fees Gemini is committed to and has not suffered any security breaches in the past. All customer USD deposits are eligible for . More information about Gemini’s security practices can be found . very strict security practices FDIC insurance here Kraken is another exchange to have stood the test of time, having been founded in 2011. It is based in San Fransisco and is the . It is available worldwide (including the US) Kraken biggest exchange in terms of volume and liquidity for EUR trading pairs Kraken is exchange out there, one of the reasons being that there is no price chart on the trading screen. not the most user friendly Kraken offers a vast amount of coins, including, , , , (XMR), (REP) and many more. It also supports a number of FIAT currencies including , , and . Kraken’s deposit/withdrawal methods include and . BTH, BCH ETH LTC Monero Augur USD EUR GBP, CAD JPY bank transfers cryptocurrencies Its and are inline with the rest of the market. Kraken offers on most trading pairs — a detailed fee schedule can be found . deposit fees withdrawal fees competitive trading fees here Kraken has any security breaches, however, it has been struggling with stability and performance issues over the past few months. These issues are especially notable during times where there is a significant increase in volume. not suffered Bitfinex was launched in 2012 and is the Ironically, it is available worldwide except for US customers. Bitfinex world’s largest exchange by volume for trading Bitcoin against the US Dollar. Bitfinex is to use and offers a number of advanced features (margin trading, margin funding, etc.). It also offers an extremely good iOS and Android application. very intuitive It offers a variety of digital currencies — , , , , , , and many more. You can deposit/withdraw using and (via bank transfer), in addition to, cryptocurrencies. BTC BCH ETH LTC IOTA XMR NEO USD EUR Bitfinex offers transfer and trading fees. For more details check out their fee structure . extremely competitive here Bitfinex has suffered to date. The first one was in May 2015 where its “hot wallet” got hacked, resulting in more than (worth $330,000 at the time) to be stolen. two security breaches 1,500 BTC The second breach happened on August 2016 where were stolen (worth ~$72 million at the time). Bitcoins were taken from users’ (which were introduced after the 2015 hack) and the hacker’s withdrawal transactions were signed off by Bitfinex’s security provider (BitGo) without full security. This resulted in “generalised” losses for all customers amounting 36.067%. This was the second largest loss of Bitcoin history ( ). To read more about this incident, the Financial Times have written a great article . 119,756 BTC multi-signature wallets the first being Mt. Gox here Bitfinex is also closely correlated to (USDT) — a cryptocurrency pegged to the US Dollar. There are concerns on how well backed up is and what relationship there is with Bitfinex. If you want to read more about this, Bloomberg has written an excellent article which you can find . Tether USDT here Bittrex was founded in 2014 and its headquarters are located in Las Vegas. It offers over 190 cryptocurrencies for trading, making it one of the largest exchanges with regards to this. It is available worldwide (including US customers). Bittrex Bittrex sits in the middle of the pack with regards to user experience. It doesn’t excel in anything in particular but doesn’t lack in anything either. Bittrex offers an enormous choice of coins to trade with — , , , , , and many many more (~200 coins). Deposits and withdrawals need to be carried out in cryptocurrencies as Bittrex currency. BTC ETH LTC XMR NEO WAVES does not support any FIAT It is than the competition, but it makes up for this by offering coins that aren’t offered on many exchanges. to trade on Bittrex slightly more expensive It has a with regards to security breaches. clean record Binance is one of the in the cryptocurrency space. It was launched in July 2017 and has gone from strength to strength ever since. It is available worldwide (including US customers). Binance newest exchanges Binance is and . It also offers an iOS and Android application — the only mobile application of an exchange I use day to day. very user friendly extremely fast As with Bittrex, Binance offers a huge amount of coins (over 90), including, , , , , , and many more. FIAT is not supported on Binance, hence, all deposits and withdrawals are via digital currencies. BTC BCH ETH LTC IOTA NEO Binance offers trading . It also has its own coin (BNB) which can be used to reduce the trading fees by half (you need to buy BNB beforehand). very competitive fees Binance has any hacks in its short lifetime. not suffered EtherDelta EtherDelta is a (DEX) meaning that there is no party holding customers’ funds but trades happen and . In EtherDelta’s case, the funds are held in a (on the Ethereum network) which you are solely responsible for depositing and withdrawing from. EtherDelta only supports and (ERC20) tokens. decentralized exchange automatically directly peer-to-peer smart contract ETH Ethereum-based Deposits and withdrawals can only be made using or any token. ETH ERC20 A $1500 error EtherDelta is where many people have lost money because of this. For example, in this particular occasion, someone tried to buy 750 Kyber (KNC) for 0.007 ETH each. However, he/she ended up buying 0.007 KNC at 750ETH. not particularly user friendly EtherDelta’s user experience has improved over time but still has a compete with Coinbase and others. long way to go to The only fees that apply when trading on EtherDelta, are the Ethereum . These depend on how congested the network is, but are usually minuscule. network transaction fees EtherDelta’s smart contract has . However, hackers have managed to leverage other methods to steal coins from users. One hacker used a and another hacker stole private keys from unsuspected users by injecting JavaScript to URLs which then redirected them to EtherDelta (as described by ). Just yesterday, another hacker managed to hijack EtherDelta’s DNS configuration making it point to a malicious site instead. not had any breaches to date fake smart contract Robert Leshner here Summary If you made it so far, I congratulate you! I know this is alot to take in, but it’s vital to be aware of what exchanges are out there and what purpose they surve. I will give my personal recommendations and ratings below to help you make an easier choice. If you are looking to deposit/withdraw FIAT in/from exchange I would recommend . If Coinbase is not available for you, I would advise to go with . Coinbase Bistamp For trading coins not available on Coinbase/GDAX or Bitstamp I would highly recommend . If Binance does not have the cryptocurrency you are looking to buy, then I would urge you to try Bittrex. If its not available there either and it’s an ERC20 token, is your last option. Binance EtherDelta Ratings I give for each exchange How many claps does this post deserve? How about a follow? If you enjoyed this post, please feel free to 👏 👏 many times (you know you want to!), give my blog a 👣 👣 and 🤲 🤲 with your friends. There’s a limit of 👏 👏 you can give to each post, so I urge you not to try and exceed that limit… you might break Medium! clap follow share 50 claps Speaking of which… If I still have your attention, please leave a comment and let me know what else you would like to see me writing about. You can find links to my social media and sign up to my newsletter below. ermos.crypto+medium@gmail.com You can also show your support by donating to the following address: : ETH 0x4c7195E074cf0Ab6F77Bdb7C97Fd2567066Bb712 . Disclaimer: All information and data on this blog post is for informational purposes only. My opinions are my own. I do not provide personal investment advice and I am not a qualified licensed investment advisor I make no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity, of any information. I will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or any losses, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided as is with no warranties and confers no rights.