Top cryptocurrency exchange services
We've decided to prepare a list of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges where you can purchase, sell or change without any risk.
Poloniex
Total volume of Poloniex is pretty high — nearly 4 900, 00 BTC — as well as its global market share exceeding 50% of all cryptocurrencies exchange operations. It offers more than 350 trading pairs which is absolutely enough for any user or investor. You can work with pretty all major and minor cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Litecoing, Dogecoin, Dash and more.
The exchange service has rather good interface which wasn't updated for quite a long time though. An inexperienced trader could find it too complicated, however we highly recommend you to not jump to conclusions and take your time.
Soon you will see that Poloniex is a versatile exchange service allowing you to access all cryptocurrencies and tools a trader may need.
In addition, Poloniex is the best exchange platform for buying or selling ether. Ethereum fans will certainly appreciate Poloniex who started trading Ethereum Classic — an alternative token — this summer.
Poloniex is a great choice for both a newbie and an experienced trader.
OKCoin
OKCoin is the favorite exchange service of Litecoin traders. The overwhelming majority of all deals on OKCoin are LTC operations. According to the statistics traders typically buy or sell LTC for Chinese Yuan.
The volume of Bitcoin trading is more than 2 times smaller comparing to the BTC trading volume, but there are still many BTC operations. OKCoin is very popular among traders buying or selling Bitcoin for Chinese Yuan and US Dollar.
According to traders' testimonials OKCoin is a good exchange with great leverage — much higher than other exchange services offer. But they also warn everyone from trading on OKCoin only as the service often experiences various issues with connection. It leads to many unpleasant consequences like skipped orders, delayed orders, problems with logging into your account and so on.
Without a doubt, if OKCoin could improve the technical side of its operation it would make this exchange service even more popular than now.
Quoine
Quoine is a rapidly developing Asian exchange service enabling traders to operate with 29 trading pairs. It's a worthy place for exchanging Bitcoin to Japanese yen, Singapore dollar, US dollar and Indonesian rupiah.
Traders and investors are perfectly aware about huge potential of the Asian market, so if you want to operate there we highly recommend you to create an account on Quoine.
This exchange service is developed by people with many-years and successful experience in banking and finances. Some of them stood at the origins of Forex. Therefore trading on Quoine you have the most recent and clear market information and enough opportunities to earn.
Quoine creators say that are going to add new fiat currencies on the regular basis, but even now you have the access to the most popular Asian currencies.
Funds withdrawal regardless of the currencies takes up to 24 hours as Quoine supports cold wallets only (they are known to be more secure).
Overall trading volume of Quoine exceeds 12 800, 00 BTC which is really impressive. All traders working with Asian markets and currencies are welcome to Quoine!
Cex.io
Cex.io is not a usual cryptocurrency exchange service. Actually, it's mainly a mining platform — a unique one, by the way — than an exchange service.
Here one can purchase gigahash or GHS (gigahash per second) which is a capacity a computer has for cryptocurrencies mining. GHS is now traded like a currency. You can purchase it and start mining or just resell it and earn some money. Actually, it's much more convenient for a miner to buy GHS than to invest in his own equipment.
Just imagine that you have a farm and need to buy a tractor for plowing or anything else. Some time passed and you don't want to live on a farm anymore, you'd prefer to move to a town and now you need to sell the tractor. That's a pretty challenging task, isn't it? It's better to simply lease a tractor then!
GHS is easily sold, it has stable value and it doesn't matter how long you are having and using it — there is nothing that could get broken and decrease the value.
Recently Cex.io has also become a very popular exchange service for such trading pairs like BTC/EUR and BTC/USD. Cex.io offers low fees and some great bonuses for loyal customers. If you are seriously planning to trade Euro, US Dollar and Bitcoin than don't waste your time anymore — Cex.io is a meaningful choice!
Oh, and just a small thing to add — Cex.io is one of the most stable exchange services. It never faces any connection or other issues. Cex.io is an effective tool for 24/7 online trading.
Bitfinex
US dollar and Bitcoin are still the most popular trading pair when it comes to cryptocurrencies exchange services Bitfinex is almost all about it. Nine of ten operations processed on this service are exchange operations with the USD/BTC pair.
However recently there have been more and more ETH/USD and ETH/BTC operations. So if you are looking for a service where you could buy or sell ether we suggest you checking out Bitfinex. We think that it's quite a good exchange place with reasonable fees and excellent reputation.
There are two methods allowing to replenish or withdraw USD — an international bank transfer or EgoPay payment system letting send funds instantly without any delays.
Referral system of Bitfinex is another advantage of the service — you may get up to 10% discount valid for all operations made during 30 days after you got the bonus.
Bitfinex requires rather strict personal identification which may look more difficult than in other exchange services. Anyway, such measures guarantee higher level of security. Trading on Bitfinex you may rest assured that your funds are safe.
Kraken
Kraken is another major cryptocurrency exchange service where traders have access to several currency pairs including ETH/BTC, ETH/USD, ETC/BTC etc. As you may have already guessed Kraken offers many pairs with Ethereum. It supports Ethereum Classic as well.
According to the data provided by well-know Bloomberg agency Kraken hold the second place among all cryptocurrency exchange services by volume of operations — it goes right after Poloniex controlling over 50% of the world cryptocurrency exchange market. Actually, it has more than 20% of all exchange operations in the world where cryptocurrencies are involved.
All traders who are looking for buying or selling ether for fiat currencies will certainly like Kraken as it allows for exchanging ether for US dollar, Euro, British pound and Canadian dollar in both directions.
Recently they have nearly doubled the ETH/BTC leverage by increasing it from 2.5x to 4x. Ether owners should definitely be happy about that — it's enough for them to have only 25% of collateral now for making transactions! So now you can risk more and gain more! Have a try, it's worth trying!
Coinspot
Coinspot cannot be called a major market player, but it has been growing popular due to an opportunity of BTC exchanging for variety of fiat currencies — from US dollar and Euro to Japanese yen and Australian dollar.
It's an Australian exchange service mainly focusing on Bitcoin operations. There are eleven trading pair available meaning that one could exchange BTC for eleven fiat currencies.
Today the most successful traders suppose that Coinspot has already hit its ceiling and it would incredibly hard for the service to grow into something bigger. The reason is that Coinspot is a good option for people who live in Australia or for traders buying or selling Australian dollar.
The service has too high fees for BTC exchange — 0.4% for selling and 0.8% for buying. That's unacceptable for beginners and for traders who wants to buy or sell a small number of BTC.
Anyway, Coinspot has its advantages like great security of personal information and transactions data. Moreover, Coinspot has deserved a reputation of a fair exchange service where traders face no risk of fraud. But traders also note, that Coinspot customer support could be better — it's polite and helpful, but very slow reacting. So Coinspot is not the best choice for people who prefers acting fast without wasting time on waiting for a reply from support agents.
GDAX
Former Coinbase Exchange is a service known to all ether miners and traders. GDAX has rather moderate share on the world cryptocurrency exchange market — its trading volume is slightly over 4%. Anyway, it's still a global service that is incredibly popular among ETH traders.
Today GDAX works with users from more than 30 countries and its global coverage has been constantly expanding. Traders can use their bank accounts or credit cards for purchasing and selling.
Generally GDAX is a good choice for people earning on ether, but there is a sad thing — GDAX does not support Ethereum Classic anymore. Traders who has Classic coins on their accounts can withdraw them at any time and without delay.
About a year ago GDAX introduced two new pairs — BTC/USD and BTC/LTC. American customers are happy as their have access to both while traders from other countries cannot mask their disappointment. They can trade only BTC to LTC and vice versa.
Without a doubt, GDAX which was separated from Coinbase Exchange as a brand new service is now aiming to get a good place on the BTC and LTC market.
Coinbase
Coinbase is a well-established and actually the largest Bitcoin exchange service available for traders from more than 30 countries. It's biggest advantage is a large number of payment methods available for users from bank transfers and SEPA transfer to Interac Online and many more.
Newcomers note that Coinbase have a great interface which doesn't require any time to get used to it. Coinbase is a place where you can start trading right after registration — everything is arranged in a very convenient way.
Traders can use their credit cards as backup when making instant purchase that saves time and lets operate faster.
Coinbase is a company located in San-Francisco, California. It has a great reputation and support of big investors. Therefore it's a great and reliable service where one can earn any amount of money and withdraw it using the most convenient payment method.
The only disadvantage of Coinbase is privacy. Some users claim (it's not confirmed, though), that the service may track one's financial operations. So there is a possibility that such data can be transferred to the interested third parties. Anyway, if you are not doing anything illegal or almost illegal Coinbase is definitely a worthy service.
Bitstamp
A European service from London has been running since 2011. It is known for very transparent fees policy and really small fees (calculated in USD by some reason). There is a 0.25% fee for all transactions under $20 000, 0.24% for transactions under $100 000. The fee then get's 0.01% lower as you double the amount of transaction until it reaches the smallest 0.10% fee for the transactions over $20 000 000.
That is how Bitstamp incentives bulk transactions as everyone tries to save more when selling or buying. Traders highly appreciate such an approach to fees and the fact that Bitstamp has recently lowered the commissions for bank transfers.
Bitstamp supports trading Bitcoin for US dollar, Euro, British pound and Swiss franc. That's an ideal service with excellent reputation and background for the traders playing for the high stakes.
It's not an easy thing to tell about all major and prospective cryptocurrency exchanges in one review, however the information provided here will definitely help you select the right place for trading BTC, LTC and other cryptocurrencies. Good luck!
