10 Best Cryptocurrency Exchanges for 2020: Fees, Currencies, Reviews

After you decide that you want to join the cryptocurrency world, you would most likely start with the selection of an exchange. It is important that the service is comfortable and profitable. Choosing a service is not that easy as it seems to be. You need to keep many different details in mind, which we will touch on in this article.

How to choose a cryptocurrency exchange?

First of all, you have to know that there are mainly two kinds of exchanges. These are:

• Fiat to crypto
• Crypto to crypto

In our article, we shall review both types. There are also some other details you need to pay attention to. They create the overall picture that helps you understand whether it is the service you need or not.

• Reputation
• Security
• Volume
• Insurance funds
• Liquidity
• Transparency and many other aspects.

Not all cryptocurrency exchanges can show off by having high marks for each of these features. However, you must remember that some features are often compensated by something else.

10 Best Cryptocurrency Exchanges for 2020

We have prepared a list of 10 cryptocurrency exchanges that have different features and provide the most high-quality service available.

Coinbase

Coinbase is an American exchange that is believed to be the most user-friendly option. The website is often recommended for beginners because of its simple interface and profitable terms.

This exchange is also popular for its low fees in comparison with alternative services. For instance, for a transaction that is from $50 to $200 you have to pay $2.99. The fees are variable and depend on the user’s location and payment method. They start at 1.49% and go up to 3.99%.

Coinbase supports more than 50 cryptocurrencies, bank cards, transfers, and is available in most countries.

The website shows cryptocurrency prices with their recent changes even to unregistered users. You are also shown the market cap which is an important analysis criterion. It has mobile applications for the exchange service and wallet. Therefore, the platform can be accessed from almost any device.

Coinbase is very simple and secure. It is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange with many satisfied customers. If you do not trust this service, then we doubt that you can trust any other website.

Binance

Binance is a coin exchange based in Malta. Unlike the previous service, it does not offer fiat trading at all. It was launched in 2017, and in that same year, the service managed to become the biggest exchange by trading volume. Binance is also popular for being hacked in 2019. The organization didn’t forget about its clients and used its security fund to cover all losses.

Binance offers 187 coins and 609 trading pairs. You will find both popular and unpopular cryptocurrencies, which is a good thing because the latter cannot be found in most exchanges. The basic trading fee is 0.1%, but you can get a discount if your work regularly with big amounts. Also, there is a payment fee of 3.5% but no less than $10. Withdrawals charge 0.0004 BTC.

Binance has many positive reviews because it is also a simple and secure service. There are two versions of it, a basic and pro one. These change the website’s interface. For beginners, the basic version is recommended.

FTX

FTX is a quite new exchange. It was launched in 2019 and has been able to reach the top-5 position among other services in a very short time. This cryptocurrency exchange is a partner of Binance, which invested a large amount in FTX. This is already a reason to trust it.

With FTX, you can work with futures for more than 20 popular cryptocurrencies, leveraged tokens, MOVE contracts, options, spot, and prediction markets. As you can see, the number of possibilities is immense. The service is good for people who prefer having different kinds of investments in one place.

There are some different types of fees. The main fees are 0.02% for “Make” and 0.07% for “Take”. If you use a 50x leverage, 0.02% is added. If the leverage is 100x or higher, then the fee is 0.03% more than usual. You are not charged anything for making a deposit or withdrawal.

Kraken

Kraken is an American cryptocurrency exchange which claims to be one of the biggest BTC exchange in Euro volume and liquidity. It also includes margin trading and OTC options. The interface is not very user-friendly, so if you are new to cryptocurrencies, this is something you should be aware of.

The fees depend on your trading volume. The minimum is 0.16% for “Maker” and 0.26% for “Taker”. The charges can be minimized up to 0.00% and 0.10% if your 30-day trading volume is higher than $100 000 000. The more you trade, the higher your discount is. The fees are only based on a per-trade basis.

The Kraken exchange supports three types of fiat currencies: Euro, US dollar, and Canadian dollar. Also, the service works with 20 cryptocurrencies which are both popular and not so much. The exchange is unavailable in only 7 countries. You can find out more about that on the exchange’s official website.

Most users appreciate the low fees and advanced features offered by Kraken. However, there are also many negative opinions because of the poor work of the customer support service.

Bitstamp

Bitstamp has been online since 2011. It is one of the oldest cryptocurrency exchanges that can be found now. The main idea of Bitstamp is that quality is better than quantity. The number of available cryptocurrencies is quite low: BTC, ETH, LTC, XRP, and BCH. Nothing new, only the popular choices. As for fiat money, Bitstamp works with Euros and United States Dollars.

The fees at Bitstamp are not high. For wire transfer deposits, the fee is 0.05%. If you trade less than $20 000, you will be charged 0.25%. You can lower this number down to 0.10% if you work with much larger amounts. Using bank card deposits for small amounts is not profitable at all. You have to pay 8% when depositing less than $500. BTC, LTC, and ETH withdrawals do not charge additional money.

Bitstamp operates in all European countries and the USA. It has a fast-answering customer support service that answers tickets not longer than in 72 hours. If you check out the reviews on TrustPilot, you will see that there is an equal amount of positive and negative opinions. This is quite normal for any cryptocurrency-related services.

Gemini

Gemini is an exchange platform that has 15 trading pairs, no deposit fees, and combines both exchange types: crypto to crypto and crypto to fiat. The service has a mobile platform, its own cryptocurrency wallet, and user-friendly design.

The fees depend on the order amount. For instance, if you trade $10, then your fee is $0.99. However, if the order amount is more than $50 but less than $200, the fee will be $2.99. It is a bit different if you use the ActiveTrader platform. Here, the minimum taker fee is 0.35%, and it can be reduced to 0.03%. The maker fee is 0.25%, and it can be reduced to 0%.

The platform is very secure, but you have to upload a lot of personal information. Also, when the volume is very high, the service can simply go offline and block any profit-making deals. This is not a new “feature”, such stuff has been frequently noticed with Coinbase too.

Changelly

Changelly is a place where you can easily trade cryptocurrencies with a low 0.5% fee. It is a good choice for crypto to crypto exchanges, but a bad one for fiat trades because of the really high fees. Another positive side of the service is that you can anonymously change the currencies using the website, mobile application, or a 3d-party wallet.

The exchange currently works with more than 140 cryptocurrencies. Any pair can be made up immediately. Crypto to crypto transactions have no limitations. However, when using fiat, there will be some restrictions. For instance, the first trade for users in Canada, the USA, or Australia can be no more than $50. The next exchange can be done in 4 days with a maximum amount of $100, and then you can use it again in 7 days with a $500 limit. After one month of usage, all limitations disappear. This is made for security reasons.

It has a very big number of positive reviews on TrustPilot. The customer support service answers tickets usually less than in 24 hours. It is good to know that the company actually works how it is supposed to.

Bitpanda

Bitpanda is an Austrian exchange that works within the Eurozone. It operates since 2014 and had no issues. This is the cheapest place where a European citizen can buy cryptocurrency. Bitpanda has a number of services: currency exchange, savings plan, metals investment, cryptocurrency purchase with better terms. Soon, the company plans to launch its own trading platform.

Bitpanda supports 27 cryptocurrencies and 4 fiat currencies. There are 12 payment methods. Each method has a different fee, so remember to check that out when you make a deposit or withdraw your earnings.

For purchases, the fees are 1.49%. For selling cryptocurrencies, you have to pay a 1.29% fee. Fiat deposit fees can reach 3.60%.

Bitpanda has a huge number of positive reviews – 76% of all reviews on TrustPilot are “Excellent”. What people do not like about the company are the support answer delays and verification process.

Coinmama

Coinmama is an Israeli cryptocurrency exchange that was launched in 2013. It supports 8 cryptocurrencies and 5 fiat currencies. It is popular among users for its immediate exchanges.

There are several fees at Coinmama. First, there is a 5% fee for credit card processing, then you have to pay 5.9% on top of that. Overall, you have to pay 10.9% higher than the market rate value.

The user reviews are mostly positive. People like that support tickets are answered in less than 24 hours. However, people just hate the verification process. They do not like that the service requests a lot of personal information.

CEX.io

CEX.io is a British cryptocurrency exchange with increased security and high liquidity. It is an old name on the market and therefore is well-known among experienced traders. It currently supports 20 cryptocurrencies for purchase. Some of them can only be purchased for United States dollars, some for RUB, GBP, and EUR.

If you want to trade, only BTC, ETH, XRP, and BCH are available for this. The fees at CEX.io are very high. That is the main reason users leave negative reviews. You might have to pay up to 7% in fiat, which you use to buy crypto on the brokerage platform. Credit cards are charged at 2.99%. When ordering a withdrawal, be ready to pay up to 3% of the original amount.

Overall, you could say that the reviews are mostly neutral. You cannot say that this cryptocurrency exchange stands out with either a positive or negative aspect.

The bottom line

We hope this rating was useful to you. Thank you for your attention!