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From financial institutions to everyday investors, more and more people are interested in cryptocurrency these days. To get in on the action, you need a crypto exchange account where you can buy and sell digital currencies, like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin.
To help you pick the right account for your needs, Forbes Advisor combed through the leading platforms to determine the best crypto exchanges available today.
Forbes Advisor reviewed the top 10 centralized cryptocurrency exchanges on CoinMarketCap.com based on their web traffic, liquidity, trading volume and availability for U.S.-based customers.
We collected more than 20 data points per exchange to assess important features, including the types of cryptocurrencies available, fees, cybersecurity features—per crypto exchange security rating agency CER.live—user reviews and educational resources, among others.
To determine rankings for these exchanges, Forbes Advisor weighted each data point in accordance with their importance to different types of cryptocurrency investors. All data, analysis and rankings were conducted independently in May 2021.
A crypto exchange is a marketplace where you can buy and sell cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, Ether or Dogecoin. Cryptocurrency exchanges work a lot like other trading platforms that you may be familiar with. They provide you with accounts where you can create different order types to buy, sell and speculate in the crypto market.
Some crypto exchanges support advanced trading features like margin accounts and futures trading, although these are less commonly available to U.S.-based users. Others have features like crypto staking or crypto loans that allow you to earn interest on your crypto holdings. The best exchanges offer educational offerings to keep you up to date on all things crypto.
Broadly speaking, there are two categories of crypto exchanges: centralized exchanges and decentralized exchanges. Each category comes with its own advantages and disadvantages.
Centralized crypto exchanges (CEX) are managed by one organization. Centralized exchanges make it easy to get started with cryptocurrency trading by allowing users to convert their fiat currency, like dollars, directly into crypto. The vast majority of crypto trading take place on centralized exchanges.
Some crypto enthusiasts object to centralized exchanges because they go against the decentralized ethos of cryptocurrency. Even worse in the eyes of some crypto users, the company or organization may require users to follow Know Your Customer (KYC) rules. These require each user to divulge their identity, much as you would when you apply for a bank account, to combat money laundering and fraud.
There’s another concern with centralized exchanges: hacking. With a CEX, the exchange holds the crypto traded on its platform—at least in the short term, while trades go through—raising the risk of hackers stealing assets.
To address this risk, centralized crypto exchanges have beefed up security over recent years. Among other strategies, they now store most customer assets offline and take out insurance policies to cover crypto losses in the case of hacking.
If you like the convenience of a centralized exchange, you can reduce your risk by transferring crypto to a separate, off-exchange hot or cold wallet.
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.
To buy cryptocurrency, you’ll need to create an account on a crypto exchange. You may need to obtain a crypto wallet to hold your cryptocurrency, or your exchange may provide one.
Be careful when picking a crypto exchange. Some platforms provide wallets that do not let you transfer your coins off of the platform. This may create security risks if the exchange is hacked, or tax issues if you ever wanted to move your crypto off of the platform. You’d have to sell and rebuy your coins, which might cause you to realize some capital gains.
Once you’ve picked an exchange and a wallet, you’ll be able to buy crypto by transferring U.S. dollars into your account via an ACH or wire transfer. You may even be able to buy crypto with a credit or debit card, though this may carry additional fees, some of which can get quite high, possibly up to 5% of your transaction. Some crypto exchanges will let you use other cryptocurrencies or their own branded stablecoins to fund transactions.
Note: If you want to use crypto to save for retirement, you’ll need to open a self-directed individual retirement account (IRA) or a Bitcoin IRA.
Exchanges have different requirements, depending on the type of cryptocurrency you want to buy. You may be able to buy fractional shares of coins for pennies or just a few dollars. Be sure to check your chosen crypto exchange’s requirements for the coin you want to buy.
To open a crypto exchange account, visit the exchange’s website or download its app. Each crypto exchange has its own unique registration process, and with some, you may be able to make an account and buy and sell small amounts of crypto without verifying your identity or submitting much sensitive information. But as the industry has evolved, the U.S. government has introduced certain Know Your Customer regulations to prevent money laundering and fraud. In general, you’ll need to provide:
You may also have to verify your identity by submitting a photo or scan of a government-issued ID.
Gate.io offers the most coins of the exchanges we reviewed, providing almost 1,300 as of Feb. 10, 2022. However, not all of these coins may be available to you, depending on your location.
Binance.US, KuCoin and bitFlyer provide the lowest fees of our surveyed exchanges, charging 0.10% for spot trading. You may be eligible for further discounts based on how much you trade or how much of the platform’s native token you hold.
Kraken is the safest crypto exchange, according to third-party crypto cybersecurity evaluator CER. While CER provides a good place to start when evaluating crypto exchange safety, you’ll also want to consider if your crypto exchange stores most customer assets offline, if it has security measures like two-factor authentication and if it insures coins to protect their value in the event of a hack.
