Today, we are seeing numerous fiat currencies failing in places like Turkey, Argentina, Venezuela alongside an overvalued stock market. With these issues running in the background, it is not surprising that more people are becoming aware of cryptocurrencies and are interested in getting exposure. Usually, the first question crypto newcomers ask is ‘which cryptocurrency exchange is the best?’ We’ll jump in and take a look at the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the market today:
- #1 Coinbase
Coinbase is the most popular way for newcomers to enter the cryptocurrency markets. The truth is that there are not many reputable exchanges out there that accept regular currency deposits. The main reason behind this is the massive amount of regulatory compliance required to accept fiat currencies and trade them for cryptocurrency.
The result is that Coinbase dominates the market as a fiat to crypto gateway and now serves over 20 million customers. In fact, Coinbase now manages more accounts than the Fidelity investment firm.
Coinbase certainly isn’t going to win any awards for having the lowest fees or boasting the widest range of cryptocurrencies. However, Coinbase does make buying cryptocurrencies as simple as possible. The platform has been designed to be exceptionally straightforward to use and also has an amazing app.
What Coinbase offers customers is convenience, simplicity, and safety. In the wild west landscape of cryptocurrency, these are usually things that cryptocurrency newcomers are willing to pay higher fees for.
- #2 Binance
Most people first enter the crypto markets using Coinbase. However, many investors are interested in diversifying their cryptocurrency portfolios. This is pretty much impossible on Coinbase because you can only buy Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin or Ethereum Classic on the exchange.
The truth is that many investors are searching for the ‘next Bitcoin’ and getting exposure to coins with higher profit potential. This means buying more exotic altcoins, necessitating a different cryptocurrency exchange to buy them. This is usually when people find out about Coinmarketcap and look for the most popular exchange to buy these riskier cryptos. Naturally, the majority of people are attracted to the biggest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume on Coinmarketcap and therefore end up on Binance.
The Binance exchange has a massive amount of trading volume, offers access to over 100 different cryptocurrencies and is the most popular exchange to get access to riskier crypto assets. You should know that, at present, Binance only accepts deposits in cryptocurrency and has significantly lower fees than Coinbase.
Binance’s stellar reputation, low fees and a wide selection of cryptocurrencies make it one of the biggest and best exchanges out there. It also has a top-rated mobile app too and is perfect for anyone needing to buy or sell cryptocurrencies on the go.
- #3 Bitmex
Binance has the biggest trading volume for buying and selling actual cryptocurrencies. However, Bitmex has nearly three times the trading volume on their Bitcoin derivatives market.
Bitmex is not the place for inexperienced crypto traders to go ahead and create an account. The exchange offers sophisticated futures contracts on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. This allows investors to bet on the price going either up or down. Not only this, but Bitmex allows leverage trades of up to 100x. This means if the price of Bitcoin goes up 10%, there will be traders on Bitmex gaining 1000% returns.
Needless to say, leveraged trading is exceptionally risky. However, Bitmex is the most popular cryptocurrency exchange for investors to gain access to this type of service.
- #4 eToro
Let’s face it, actually buying cryptocurrencies is pretty tricky and time-consuming. Once investors buy cryptocurrency, they then have to work out how they want to store it. Usually, this ends up with an investor spending even more time setting up cryptocurrency wallets and trying to work out how to withdraw their coins from an exchange.
Many people just want the easiest way possible to get exposure to cryptocurrency prices. This is where a contract for difference broker like eToro comes in. In short, these types of brokers allow you to buy and sell contracts backed by actual cryptocurrency. This means investors get exposure to the price movements of the cryptocurrency market, without having to worry about how to store their crypto.
eToro also gives you access to more cryptocurrencies than Coinbase and allows customers to buy or sell coins including Ripple, Dash, Neo, Ethereum, Stellar, Bitcoin, Ethereum Classic, Bitcoin Cash & Litecoin. Not only this, but eToro is fully regulated and balances are covered by official Financial Services Compensation Schemes. This makes eToro one of the safest and most convenient ways to get exposure to crypto markets.
eToro has been around for a while and was established in 2007 and has gathered over 6 million users since. The broker also has a special copy trading feature that allows you to search the most successful cryptocurrency traders on the platform and copy their trades. Many investors find copy trading exceptionally useful and prefer it to actually managing their cryptocurrency positions themselves.
Final Word
There you have it, the biggest and best cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. Of course, the most beneficial crypto exchange for you is a personal choice and will depend on your own circumstances.
