Crypto Exchanges

Our Crypto Exchange Reviews

In our crypto exchange reviews we highlight the best and worst features of crypto exchanges. Our goal is to simplify the hunt for a decent crypto exchange for you and our reviews should give you a good feeling. Our crypto exchange reviews are detailed and in depth but simple enough to scan if you are short on time. We provide a quick summary along with a quick info box that should give you a good sense of the crypto exchange. Beyond the abbreviated parts, our detailed sections provide simple guidelines on how to sign up, how to buy bitcoin or buy cryptocurrencies like altcoins or stablecoins. We put a lot of effort into making sure that what you read matches the onboarding experience you will have upon signing up for example. Further to that we also list all deposit methods, jump into the details behind the fees so there are no surprises and finally we give you a glimpse of the trading platform. 

What we look for in our Crypto Exchange Reviews

In our crypto exchange reviews, we look for platforms and exchange providers we can trust. We are really sensitive to non-transparent exchanges who might hide behind fancy marketing and gimmicks. We lift the bonnet and get right in there. 

Signing up to a Crypto Exchange 

Signing up to an exchange always requires a certain level of patience, signing up to legitimate crypto exchanges are no different. Exchanges fall under national, European, and international securities and trading law, which although not completely the same, typically all require a certain level of KYC (know your customers) process before opening your account. 

This means that once you add your general personal information like your name and email, most companies will ask you to provide your phone number and a physical address. You might be wondering why they need this at all since the services are completely online, but crypto exchanges require this info to validate who you are. It is at this point that they will kick off their KYC process and ask your to present a passport or ID, and another formal document to prove your address. 

KYC is handled differently by different companies, some digitalise it completely and we must say that this is the quickest and least painful to you as a user. Digital onboarding would include sending a photo of your documents or taking a selfie with your ID and Passport for example. In some instances you will be asked to email documents in, this is a bit painful to be honest. 

The reason this is so important and why we share details about ‘signing up’ to a crypto exchange is because we want you to be prepared.

We would stress two things at this point:

1. If an exchange is NOT asking you for certain details, check the bottom of their site for their licence. They might be an unlicensed exchange and in this case, we suggest you stay away from it.
2. Onboarding and validation of your documents can take 2 minutes to 2 days, we usually mention this in our reviews to help you save time and make the quicker easier choice.

Crypto Exchange deposit methods

Once you have signed up and familiarise yourself with the trading platform it would be time to deposit. This section of our site is super simple. We provide you with the deposit process along with all the different methods you can use to make a deposit, be it online bank transfer, wire transfer credit card and crypto of course! 

Crypto Exchange Fees

One thing for sure that we like to highlight in every crypto exchange review are fees. The worst feeling in the world is when you make an awesome trade, earn some case and realise that the exchange is taking a sizable amount of that in fees. 

Many exchanges work with percentages, which means that they will take a percentage of your earnings, some work with flat fees based on your exchange, some have buyer only fees or seller only fees.

In most cases however we have seen that the more volume you trade the better the percentage, which we consider a bit discouraging for beginners but completely understand. 

Crypto Exchange Experience

In this section of our reviews we look at the overall experience of the exchange. To mention the very first thing we look for is how easy it is for a beginner vs a professional. Further to this we dig into, layout in general, display such as how are the charts shown, level of flexibility within the trading platform in the sense how much can you change to make it more personalised. We find that most crypto exchanges use trading view charts which are our favourite, but sometimes they are supplied by other companies.

We also look at mobile experience, for example do they have an app or a responsive solution for their trading platform

Some crypto exchanges also have special features like their own cryptocurrency like Binance or their own wallet solution, some even run campaigns from time to time which add on to the day to day experience of trading. 

On a more serious note, it is in this section that we also take a look at security along with governance. For us governance means two things: one if and where they are licenced and secondly how their internal company runs its governance around customer fund handling. I don’t think we need to go into the story of Mt Gox or Quadrigacx to explain why this is such an important part of our reviews. If the exchange is offering wallets on top of their trading offering then we also explore how the security is built around this, how keys are stored and so on.

Finally we look at support. As much as we love chatbots, if we are honest they are impersonal and often more than not do not provide you with the answer you are looking for. So we look at all means of contacting and communicating with the exchange. 

How we rate Crypto Exchanges

We rate crypto exchanges based on three criteria

1)Trust

Without Trust we would not be able to recommend a crypto exchange. Essentially this factor is pretty much a deal breaking if it’s not there. We look at transparency around ownership, where they store their customers coins, how they treat customer accounts, how much governance they have around this 

2) Trading opportunities

Let’s be honest, no one wants to trade on an exchange that overs 1 pair or has so little volume that you can’t get creative. Here we look at the volume of trading pairs, the volume of capital being traded on the platform so that you know that when you sign up you can start with one trade but move to 100 if you want to. 

3) Experience

At the end of the day, it all comes down to experience, in other words, does this crypto exchange enable you with ease to trade on crypto…. If yes then this one is going to be right up there on the charts. 

Our Ratings are aggregated from the three points mentioned and enable you to get a nice sense of how we feel. We sincerely hope that these ratings give you a feeling of if this exchange, in particular, is for you or not.