Our crypto exchange reviews
If you're looking for the best crypto exchanges, look no further. I have put together a number of cryptocurrency exchange reviews. I have an account myself in most of them, so besides providing general information, these reviews come with first-hand experience.
It's not easy to decide on which crypto exchange to choose and which might be the best exchange. Before you can actually find the best exchange, you need to figure out what are the differences between various crypto exchanges.
After that you can compare those elements. I have tried to make it even easier for you by creating a simple crypto exchange comparison page where you can compare popular crypto exchanges based on different factors.
Which is the very best cryptocurrency exchange?
Best is a very subjective word and the best cryptocurrency exchange for one person might not be the best exchange for the other.
Right now I am personally using Binance because of its simplicity.
But even they have their kinks which you can read in my Binance review.
My second favorite exchange is currently Gate.io. The reason is mainly their wide variety of altcoins. You can read my Gate.io review here.
The best cryptocurrency exchange for you might be something totally different depending on what you are looking for. Maybe you are looking for the best crypto exchange for us residents, maybe all you care is the crypto selection the exchange offers. Maybe you're simply looking for the least expensive crypto exchange.
Whatever the case, I hope you will find what you are looking for by going through the crypto exchange lists and then reading my crypto exchange reviews.
Best exchanges with high volume
Why is the trading volume important?
Imagine you want to sell a house. If you live in a big city, you can just put up a sign and hopefully sell it in no time. There are lots of people around who might be interested.
But imagine if the house was on a deserted island with nobody else around. And you didn't even have a way to let anyone know you're selling a house.
The difference is the same with cryptocurrency exchanges.
You want to have people around who would be interested in selling you cryptos or buying cryptos from you.
And you want the people in there to have enough money so you could quickly buy or sell any amounts.
High volume exchanges make it easy.
Find the best high volume crypto exchanges here.
But here are just a few great high volume exchange to mention:
Largest crypto exchange provide high trading volume and high liquidity, and that makes it possible to make fast trades.
Best exchanges with low fees
Every deposit or withdrawal you make, every transaction you complete, it all costs something. The more trades you make, the more important it becomes to find a crypto exchange with as low fees as possible.
Base trading fees normally vary between 0.1% and 1%. Some crypto exchanges with the lowest fees can even offer lower than 0.1% fees. At the same time, some regulated crypto exchanges might ask for 2%.
So if you're looking for a reliable crypto exchange, and fees are of concern for you, make sure you find exchanges with as low fees as possible.
Here are just a few crypto exchanges with 0.1% fees:
All of these are safe crypto exchanges that I am using myself as well.
Find more low fee crypto exchanges here.
Best no KYC crypto exchanges
Most popular crypto exchanges ask you to verify your identity and go through the KYC process. But if full anonymity is important for you, you can choose an exchange that doesn't require you to verify your identity.
They can be a little more risky, as if you lose access to your account, it's nearly impossible to restore your access to your account.
But sometimes anonymity is important.
Here are just a few of the best no-KYC exchanges:
One thing you need to keep in mind though, is that in most cases no KYC means that they are unregulated crypto exchanges. Simply because regulated cryptocurrency exchanges are usually required by law to request the verification of your identity.
Learn more about no-KYC exchanges here.
Best fiat crypto exchanges & best exchanges for beginners
If you're just getting started with cryptos, then you want everything to be as simple as possible, and you want to find the easiest crypto exchange you can find.
I remember when a friend of mine first told me about cryptos a decade ago, I couldn't understand a thing about it, as things like good exchanges for beginners didn't exist, I mean crypto exchanges as such didn't even exist yet.
So I stopped looking into cryptocurrencies for a number of years. I needed to find the easiest crypto exchange which would not require me to learn nuclear physics.
These days things are way simpler, and you can find recommended crypto exchanges that have everything a beginner trader needs. These are easy to use crypto exchanges that don't require any technical knowledge from your side.
This includes easy to use interface, easy registration, enough helpful how-to guides, and possibly most importantly, it would have to be a crypto exchange with fiat deposit and withdrawal option.
Here are some of the best fiat exchanges:
Based on my personal experience the best crypto exchange for fiat withdrawal is probably Binance. At least out of the exchanges I have written cryptocurrency exchange reviews about.
Find more crypto exchanges with fiat payment option or head over to find the best crypto exchanges for beginners.
What I pay attention to when writing crypto exchange reviews
Whenever I write a new crypto exchange review, or update an old one, I try to focus on similar topics. Topics that I feel are important for me.
- Background - is it a trustworthy crypto exchange, or does it seem to have some sort of problems all the time
- Coins selection - as a beginner it's okay to use an exchange with just a handful of cryptos available. But most of you will soon want a lot bigger selection.
- Exchange fees - The more you trade, the lower fees you want to see. While in most exchanges the fees can go down the more you trade there, there's a big difference whether it starts going down from 2% or from 0.1%.
- KYC - does the exchange require verifying your identity or not? And if it does, how easy is the process.
- Deposit and withdrawal options (and fees) - how can you make deposits and how can you withdraw money from the exchange? And of course, the fees for deposits and withdrawals matter as well.
These are the most important factors to keep in mind in my opinion, BUT my crypto exchange reviews actually cover way more topics as well.
What is a cryptocurrency exchange
Cryptocurrency exchange is a basically an online business that allows you to buy, sell, or hold cryptocurrencies.
In most cases you can buy cryptos there for real money (so for fiat currencies like EUR or USD) as well as trade one cryptocurrency for another.
Types of crypto exchanges
If we were to categorize the most used crypto exchanges, we could put them in three main categories - centralized crypto exchanges, unregulated crypto exchanges, and hybrid exchanges. Some cryptocurrency exchange review sites also add P2P exchanges.
CEX - Centralized crypto exchanges
Centralized cryptocurrency exchanges are sort of crypto hubs with buyers and sellers where the crypto exchange functions as a middleman.
Centralized exchange is owned by a some company (or individual) and that company is responsible for making sure everything works smoothly.
Centralized crypto exchanges are meant to provide traders an easy platform to trade, without having to worry about anything else like the technical side or anything else.
How to centralized cryptocurrency exchanges work?
Most centralized crypto exchanges function the same way.
- You register an account
- You go through the KYC process - in some most trustworthy crypto exchange it might be required, in some exchanges you can trade for a limited amount without KYC as well. In some exchanges you can deposit crypto (not fiat), and trade without the KYC, but the moment you want to make a withdrawal, the verification is required.
- You deposit money (either crypto or fiat) to the exchange
- The exchange provides you a list of cryptocurrency pairs that you can trade, and shows you the prices other users are willing to sell or buy cryptocurrency for.
- You place your order and that order is then matched to the sell or buy orders of other traders in that exchange.
- Once match is found, your order is executed
Centralized crypto exchanges hold your money as if it was your bank account. These are generally reliable crypto exchanges that are the easiest to use.
Pros and cons of centralized exchanges
As with everything, centralized crypto exchanges have both their plusses and minuses.
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
They are easy to use crypto exchanges that are user-friendly | Governed by single entity (or single point of failure) |
They often have insurance against potential theft of your funds | CEX charge trading fees |
They often require KYC | They might be vulnerable to hacking |
CEXs offer a multitude of trading tools | You often need to use the exchange's custodial wallet |
Support for fiat currencies (You can normally use fiat in them in one form or another) | The centralized entity holds and controls your funds, and could theoretically revoke your access at any time |
They have high trading volumes and because of that can offer fast transactions | Because of KYC you lack privacy, and you need to share your personal info with them |
They are normally regulated cryptocurrency exchanges |
Most popular centralized exchanges
- Binance
- Bybit
- Gate.io
DEX - Decentralized crypto exchanges
Decentralized exchanges are pretty much the opposite of centralized ones. These are unregulated crypto exchanges that operate in peer-to-peer (P2P) network and don't count of central authority.
DEXs could be considered the type of safe crypto exchanges that stay true to the philosophy behind cryptocurrencies, with no central authority, and just buyers and sellers that trade with each other.
While CEX requires you to use their custodial wallet, in DEX you need to have your own non-custodial wallet (e.g. Metamask) which you can connect to the DEX. All private keys are your own compared to CEX where the exchange holds all the private keys.
Pros and Cons of DEXs
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
No central authority | Easier to lock yourself out from your money |
More anonymity and autonomy | Low or lower volumes |
You retain full control over your funds | Low liquidity |
More transparency | Slower trades |
More secure - more resistant to potentialhacks | Not so easy for beginners |
Lower fees | Usually no fiat (although this has started to change, slowly) |
DEXs are unregulated crypto exchanges |
Most popular decentralized exchanges
- Uniswap
- PancakeSwap
- Sushiswap
- Raydium
- dYdX
- Jupiter
Hybrid exchanges - the best from both worlds
Hybrid exchanges aim to take the best from both worlds, merge the benefits from both trusted centralized exchanges, and safe unregulated exchanges.
The concept is simple - hybrid exchanges aim to offer the functionality and easy interface of CEXs and privacy and security from DEXs.
So they are simple to use, they offer high liquidity, yet offer the privacy, anonymity, offer you full control over your private keys and funds.
Hybrid exchanges are potentially where the world of cryptocurrency is heading.
Then again, so far there are no very good examples of hybrid exchanges, so we'll have to wait and see where hybrid exchanges are heading.
Pros and cons of Hybrid exchanges
The main potential problem with hybrid cryptocurrency exchanges is regulatory uncertainty - since they operate in a sort of a grey area.
Hybrid cryptocurrency exchanges might also store both your fiat currencies as well as your cryptos in hot wallets, and this could pose a security threat.
Additionally they might have higher fees than both CEXs and DEXs.
And while in one hand, hybrid exchanges may offer the best from both centralized and decentralized exchanges, they might not offer the same level of positive things as their counterparts. For example while they offer privacy and anonymity, they are not as private or as anonymous as DEXs.
Most popular Hybrid exchanges
- X4T.com
- 1inch.io
- rocketx.exchange
- nash.io
Crypto exchange payment options
What payment options do the popular crypto exchanges offer? The most common deposit options in reliable crypto exchanges are the ones you most likely assumed already:
- Cryptos - obviously you can always make crypto deposits and withdrawals in any safe crypto exchange
- Credit & debit cards
- Bank transfer
These are the most popular deposit and withdrawal methods in the largest crypto exchanges.
There is something you should be aware of though - some trusted crypto exchanges have implemented their own systems to make the fiat deposits through card payment or bank payment possible. They are usually using third-party providers, but they have been integrated into their platform, and the payment fees in this case are normally low.
Other platforms are using third-party providers, but to use them you actually need to make the deposit/withdrawal through the third-party provider's website. This normally means two things - firstly, even if you have gone through the KYC process in the exchange, you might need to do it again at the payment provider as well. Secondly, the payment fees are normally higher.
Crypto exchange fees
All cryptocurrency exchanges charge fees - and it doesn't matter if if they are centralized cryptocurrency exchanges of unregulated exchanges.
Deposit & withdrawal fees
Fees in Centralized exchanges
In centralized crypto exchanges, when you deposit cryptocurrencies, you don't pay deposit fees at the receiving end. But you always pay transaction fees when you withdraw cryptos. And the fees vary depending on which cryptocurrency you are withdrawing. Crypto exchange fees can vary a LOT from one exchange to another. For example - even when we talk about withdrawing USDT - one exchange might ask for 40 USDT to get the transfer done while another exchange might ask for 1 USDT. And that doesn't necessarily mean that the first one is more expensive exchange - the fees for some other cryptocurrency can be the opposite.
Fees in Decentralized crypto exchanges
In DEXs you pay the transaction fee when you withdraw money, and the cost usually depends on how busy the network is at the time. In Ethereum network this fee is called gas fee, in other networks it can be called the same, or just referred to as transaction costs.
Fiat deposit & withdrawal fees
If the crypto exchange offers fiat deposit/withdrawal option, then there are always fees involved. And as mentioned above under payment methods, the fees can depend based on whether the exchange is using a third-party provider or not.
Trading fees
Every time you make a trade in a centralized crypto exchange there's a trading fee. It's called Maker and Taker, or in other words one fee is for buying, and for selling.
This fee can be sometimes as cheap as zero, or as high as 2% even. Most commonly the size of this fee is 0.1% or 0.2%.
Bonuses offered by cryptocurrency exchanges
Crypto exchange promotions are one way for crypto exchanges to attract the attention of potential new traders. However, in most cases the crypto exchange offers come in a form of trading fee vouchers, and shouldn't really influence your decision on which exchange to use.
Of course, sometimes the exchange promotions can also actually give you cash. I try to keep an eye on those offers, and whenever I see something interesting, I'm writing about them in the crypto exchange promotions oage.
Crypto exchange licenses
Not all cryptocurrency exchanges have a license, but most trusted crypto exchanges do have a license from at least one country, and they use that license to operate in other countries as well.
Crypto exchanges licensed in Europe
There are a number of safe crypto exchanges with a European license.
Just to mention a few:
- Binance
- Coinbase
- Huobi
- Kraken
American crypto exchanges with a license
Some of the biggest crypto exchanges USA which are licensed to offer their services there:
- Coinbase
- Binance US
- Kraken
- Gemini
Australian crypto exchanges with a license
Some Australian crypto exchanges worth mentioning are:
- Bybit
- Coinspot
- Kraken
- Bitfinex
- Swyftx
Canadian crypto exchanges with a license
- Bitbuy
- Coinsmart
- NDAX
Asian crypto exchanges with a license
Top crypto exchanges in Asia include the following names:
- Bybit
- Mexc
- Binance
- OKX
Japanese crypto exchanges with a license
The list of crypto exchanges with Japanese license includes the following crypto exchanges:
- Binance
- Coinbase
- OkKoin
- Coinhub
These are just a few jurisdictions with a select crypto exchanges with a license needed for operating in these areas.
Getting started
Once you have done your research, hopefully with the help of my cryptocurrency exchange reviews, and found the exchange or exchanges you feel are the best fit for you, how would you get started these?
- Sign up: First thing - in order to get started, you need to create yourself an account in the exchange(s).
- KYC: In most cases, especially if you have chosen a centralized exchange, you should now also go through the KYC or identity verification process.
- Fund your account: Now it's time to fund your exchange account. Depending on their payment options, you might need to transfer cryptos from your crypto wallet or another exchange, or you use fiat money on your credit card or bank account to buy cryptos directly, or make a fiat deposit.
- Place an order: Once you have funded your account, it's time to choose cryptocurrency you want to buy, and make an order. There are many different order types to choose from, but the easiest one is to use market order - in this case your request is matched with the first sales offer.
Top 10 cryptocurrency exchanges 2024
This is the list of the best cryptocurrency exchanges that I use myself. Go through Cryptolorium crypto exchange reviews to find the best trading platform for crypto that works for YOU.
While it's difficult to say if these are the safest cryptocurrency exchanges, they have all had their share of issues, they can definitely be considered safe cryptocurrency exchanges in general.
As mentioned, all of these crypto exchanges differ in some aspects and by the end of the day, the choice of the best crypto exchange depends on whether you are looking for the best place to buy crypto, the best place to keep crypto, the best exchange to HODL or anything else.
Some top crypto exchanges can have the best crypto selection but higher than average fees. Some exchanges might have low crypto trading fees but high crypto withdrawal fees. Just as one example.
If you are just looking for a big cryptocurrency exchange or just one of those most popular cryptocurrency exchanges, then go with Binance. That would be your safest bet.
If you're looking for US based crypto exchanges, then your choice would be Kraken, or Coinbase.
So the exchange you decide to go for really depends on what you are personally looking for.
If you want to buy just a few random cryptocurrencies, then the crypto trading fees don't really matter that much. But if you intend to use some crypto trading robot for trading there, even small trading fees can fast add up.
Cryptocurrencies & safety - is trading cryptos safe?
If you are looking for for a safe investment opportunity, then investing in cryptocurrencies is not for you. Crypto market is extremely volatile and pretty much anything can happen.
So if you are looking for safety, don’t buy Bitcoin, close Cryptolorium website, and just keep your money under the mattress. And while it sounds like an insult, it's not - that's how it is. Although, these days even the mattress might not be a good idea, considering the rapid inflation.
Even the best trading platform for crypto can't guarantee any income or make sure you won't suffer any losses.
Are cryptocurrencies safe in general? If you’re doing your due diligence and don’t invest in obvious scams, then yes, cryptocurrencies are safe.
The volatility part still remains high though.
If you’re looking to make fast money in crypto market, it’s definitely possible, but at the same time you shouldn’t count on it, as sometimes, during bear market, you might have to wait for years to get your money back plus earn some.
And even that is not guaranteed.
But based on historic price movements, if you’re able to HODL for years, chances or multiplying your money are good.
Choose safe crypto exchange and crypto wallet
When it comes to safety, then in addition to making sure you don’t fall for crypto scams, you also need to use reputable crypto exchanges and ideally store your crypto holdings in safe crypto wallets.
You want your money to be safe, so make sure you do it in the safest possible way.
- Invest only money you can afford to lose
- While searching for cryptocurrencies to invest in, before buying random crypto coins (altcoins) make sure to do enough research. Using Cryptolorium is a good start!
- Additionally, it’s safer to choose crypto coins that are traded a lot (high volume).
- Choose the safest crypto exchanges where to buy cryptos
- Don’t store your large crypto holdings in crypto exchanges, but use an external safe crypto wallet for that
I try to review only safe crypto exchanges on Cryptolorium, since I only review cryptocurrency exchanges where we have an account ourselves as well. But even the safe crypto exchanges can sometimes have issues, so you need to do your best from your side as well. One or two crypto exchanges I have reviewed have actually closed down by now.
Which should you buy - BTC or altcoins?
This is a good question. Before you decide to buy cryptocurrencies in any crypto exchange, you should make a plan.
In general it is actually suggested to diversify your crypto portfolio as much as possible. It’s a very good idea not to invest more than 5% of your entire capital in any coin. So instead of thinking whether you should buy altcoins or bitcoin, you should buy both.
And when it comes to the question how many altcoins you should own, again, in general it’s the safest idea not to invest more than 2-5% of your capital in any individual crypto coin.
What do you need to get started with cryptocurrencies?
So what do you need to get started with cryptocurrencies?
1. Extra money
As with any kind of risky investment, put aside some money to invest in cryptos. This is your risk capital. Money you can afford to lose. While the earning potential here is high, nothing is guaranteed. As such you should only use money you can afford to lose, money you are willing to keep in cryptos for years to come should bear market arrive.
2. Familiarize yourself with cryptos
Do your homework! Cryptolorium can help you with that, but you should still do your own homework as well. Look at the market as a whole, read the crypto news, what’s the current expectation? Does it make sense to start investing in crytos right away or should you wait for crypto prices to go down first? Which crypto coins do you want to buy? Make sure they are not dead coins and that they have potential.
3. Find the best crypto exchange for you
Now it's time to decide where to buy cryptocurrencies. The general answer to that is that you should do that using one of the most reputable crypto exchanges. But obviously, it's never that simple.
- Different crypto exchanges differ from each other in multiple ways.
- First you need to decide what do the best crypto exchanges mean to you. If you don't know much about crypto trading yet, you want to find best crypto exchange for beginners, ideally a fiat exchange. Cryptolorium crypto exchange reviews and exchange comparisons page can help you a lot here as well.
- Are people from you country accepted?
- What are the deposit and withdrawal option?
- What are the exchange fees like? Best crypto exchange fees start from roughly 0.1% per trade. In our opinion one of the best low fee crypto exchange is Gate.io. But Cryptolorium low fee exchanges page can help you find more exchanges with low fees.
- How many cryptos does the cryptocurrency exchange have? How long is their crypto list? Do they often add new cryptocurrencies?
- Is it a reputable crypto exchange? Meaning, is it safe to deposit money there? Where your hard-earned money is involved, you want to use only the safest platform to buy cryptocurrency.
- What other features does the exchange offer you? Do they offer you quant trading option? Can you do margin trading? Can you earn free crypto?
- Does the exchange have a good crypto app as well? Just in case you want to trade cryptos using your smartphone.
4. Decide on where to store your crypto!
While it is possible to keep your crypto on the exchange, it’s often suggested that it’s safer not to do that, just in case.
I suggest you do the same.
Create yourself a special crypto wallet and transfer all the cryptos you buy on the exchange in there. And when it comes to crypto wallets, decide whether you want to have your crypto in hot wallet (online crypto wallet) or you are willing to complicate things a little further and have your crypto in a cold wallet (offline crypto wallet).
The benefit of a cold wallet is that it’s a lot safer as nobody can hack it. The downside of a cold wallet is that it’s normally slightly more complicated to use and it can also cost you a bit.
How to buy crypto from a crypto exchange
Now that you’re ready to go, let’s talk about how to buy crypto. How to buy Bitcoin and altcoins.
Assuming your have found the best trustworthy crypto exchange, now it is time to learn how to buy cryptocurrency.
At first glance, after joining a crypto exchange, even the top cryptocurrency exchange might look very complicated at first. And some of them actually are.
In our case, we have found that in case of crypto exchanges like Binance, buying cryptos through a mobile crypto app can be actually easier than using your computer. That’s because Binance has simple and advanced mode in their crypto app. Meaning they have thought about beginners as well.
But in essence, to buy bitcoin or any other crypto coin, this is what you need to do:
Join the best cryptocurrency exchange you find and go through their crypto KYC process. While it is usually possible to buy cryptos without doing the latter as well, at some point it will definitely be needed.
So it’s better to go through the KYC process right away to avoid negative surprises in the future.
A few fairly big crypto exchanges offer the option to trade crypto without KYC, but on those crypto exchanges and cryptocurrency platforms please be more careful as this often means there’s not much oversight there.
So even when you do join an exchange where it’s possible to buy and sell crypto without SSN or any kind of KYC process, make sure you do your research and join only the most reputable cryptocurrency platforms.
Decide on which crypto you want!
Go to crypto exchange trading section and find that crypto. In case of Binance the easiest way to do it is click on Trade → Classic. This is (almost) the easiest way of trading cryptos there, but at first glance even that might look complicated. So before actually buying anything, look around without buying anything. Just to familiarize yourself with the environment.
After that you see the option to either use “limit” or “market” option.
In case of limit option you set the price you want to buy the crypto for and the amount you want to buy. Executing this order might take time as sellers have to be ready to sell for that exact price.
In case of market order the order is normally executed momentarily as market order means you are willing to pay the current market price.
And you’re done. You have just bought your first cryptocurrency.
Note that only a limited number of cryptos can be bought in fiat (i.e. USD or EUR). Many other cryptos can only be bought for major cryptocurrencies, i.e. BTC or ETH, not fiat money.
So in order to buy those cryptos you first need to buy Bitcoin or Ethereum and then use that cryptocurrency to buy the crypto you actually wanted to buy.
Verifying your identity - what does the KYC process look like?
KYC stands for Know Your Customer and you normally need to go through it before you buy Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrencies. And you generally need to do it in all cryptocurrency platforms, all cryptocurrency exchanges and crypto trading sites. Unless it’s a crypto platform that promotes itself with crypto without kyc phrase. But we mentioned the no KYC crypto sites above and they are generally less trustworthy. Then again, not necessarily, and they to give you more anonymity.
During the KYC process you are normally asked for a copy of your ID card (front and back) or passport, a photo of you holding your ID or passport (sometimes together with a hand-written note of some sort) and they can also ask for proof of address. This would be in a form of a recent utility bill with your name and address on it.
Choose the best crypto exchange and start trading or HODLing!
Now that you have the basics, it's ready to get started.
But as always - only invest money you can afford to lose.