The Best Crypto Exchanges In The World
If you started playing around with crypto back in 2017, one of the biggest challenges was to figure out how to buy your crypto currencies. For that you needed a wallet address (I used the ShapeShift Wallet, now bought by Coinbase) and find a way to send money to that thing. A process that might take days to complete!
After 5 years, luckily, it has gotten a lot easier to buy and sell your cryptocurrencies. As of November 2022, there is 251 active exchanges being monitored on CoinMarketCap! In this article I will give you an overview of the Top 5 worldwide. There might be other exchanges that might make sense for you, depending on where you live (for example, Bitvavo in The Netherlands, or Bitso in Mexico, Gemini in the US etc.).
The Top 5 are determined based on a trust score ranking exchanges based on web traffic, average liquidity, volume, as well as security. Weights are assigned to these factors and a score from 0.0 to 10.0. The total is averaged out.
According to this scoring system, our Top 5 are:
- Binance (9,9)
- FTX (7,7)
- Coinbase (7,7)
- KuCoin (7,1)
- Kraken (7,1)
Top 5 Crypto Exchanges In Comparison
#1 Binance | #2 FTX | #3 Coinbase | #4 Kucoin | #5 Kraken | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Volume (24h) | $12,7 billion | $895 million | $1,2 billion | $758 million | $204 million |
Visits (Weekly) | 16,3 million | 2,3 million | 1,2 million | 2,0 million | 1,1 million |
Base | Cayman Islands | Nassau, Bahamas | San Francisco, CA | Seychelles | San Francisco, CA |
Since | 2017 | 2019 | 2012 | 2017 | 2011 |
Offer | Cryptocurrencies, derivatives, NFTs, defi-protocols | Cryptocurrencies, derivatives, NFTs, defi-protocols | Cryptocurrencies, derivatives, futures, NFTs, defi-protocols | Cryptocurrencies | Cryptocurrencies |
Available (Spot) Crypto | 389 | 285 | 228 | 760 | 214 |
Maker Fees (Low/High) | 0,02% / 0,10% | 0,00% / 0,02% | 0,04% / 0,50% | 0,00% / 0,08% | 0,00% / 0,16% |
Taker Fees (Low/High) | 0,04% / 0,10% | 0,04% / 0,07% | 0,00% / 0,50% | 0,04% / 0,08% | 0,10% / 0,26% |
Supported (Fiat) Currencies | AUD, BRL, COP, EUR, GBP, GHS, HKD, KZT, KES, PHP, PEN, RUB, TRY, UGX, UAH, USD directly, and 60+ fiat currencies through various integrations and P2P marketplaces | USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, HKD, SGD, TRY, ZAR, CAD, CHF, BRL | USD, GBP, EUR | 50+ currencies supported through integrations and various methods | USD, EUR, CAD, AUD, GBP, CHF, JPY |
Deposit Options (EU) | Wire Transfer, PayPal, and Credit/Debit card | Wire Transfer, PayPal, Credit/Debit Card | SEPA, 3D Secure Card, Ideal/Sofort (deposit only) PayPal (withdraw only) Apple Pay (buy only) | SEPA Bank Transfer, Debit/Credit card, P2P, Apple Pay, Simplex, Banxa | Debit/Credit card, SEPA, SWIFT |
Native Token | BNB | FTT | – | KCS | – |
Usability | Not so easy for beginners, great for trading | Good for beginners, with advanced trading options | Good for beginners, with advanced trading options | For traders | For beginners |
Crypto Exchanges I Use
After playing around with many crypto exchanges, I settled with basically two:
- FTX to build up my main portfolio due to its ridiculously low fees,
- Binance for any token I cannot find on FTX. Then if it’s not on Binance, I shouldn’t invest in it in the first place. You can read more about Binance in my previous article.
By signing up through the links above you will receive discounts on trading fees or free cryptos to get started.
Final Thoughts
There is one little thing I want to make you aware of when using the crypto exchanges I mentioned in this article. These are centralized exchanges. They make it very easy for you to own crypto, but this comes with a cost.
For you to be able to own cryptocurrencies, you need a wallet address, public and private keys of this address, a ledger, etc. Crypto exchanges are offering you a service that takes all of these obstacles away: just open an account, like on any other websites, and you are ready to go. But on the flip side, they manage your private keys (for you to access your wallet) and then are the custodian of your cryptocurrencies as well (managing your ledger). This is not any different than you having your money at a bank. But it does come at a risk, especially in a market that is less mature and regulated than banks.
If you want to take ownership of your crypto assets, you are going to have to use something called a “Hardware Ledger” and transact using “Decentralized Exchanges” (an exchange where you can only perform transactions between different cryptocurrencies). More on this in my next articles.
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Disclosure
These are unqualified opinions, and this newsletter, is meant for informational purposes only. It is not meant to serve as investment advice. Please consult with your investment, tax, or legal advisor, and do your own research.
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