Cryptocurrency exchange or digital currency exchange is a business that involves the exchange of cryptocurrency with other assets such as money or any other digital currency. It is a web service that provides electronic transactions in electronic forms and charges a fee for them.
All transactions or operations on the digital exchange can be done via debit and credit cards, money order or any other type of money transfer. This article discusses the various cryptocurrency exchanges that make cryptocurrency trading easy for beginners and what they offer in terms of availability, ease of use, security, deposit/withdrawal methods, and fees. We hope this cryptocurrency trading guide can help you get started with cryptocurrency exchanges.
Coinbase/GDAX
Coinbase is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges based in San Francisco, California. It is available in 32 countries and currently serves over 10 million customers. Launched in 2012, it has an easy-to-use interface that makes digital currency exchange an easy task for a non-technical person. It is available for both iOS and Android. Unfortunately, Coinbase does not offer cryptocurrency mining for beginners and is only an exchange.
As of now, it offers four coins, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and Litecoin. It exchanges digital currency with US dollars, euros and British pounds. With minimal transfer fees, Coinbase has never experienced any security breach making it the perfect digital currency exchange platform. In addition, Coinbase also offers a fully developed advanced exchange called GDAX. It offers more advanced features and different and better trading fees than Coinbase.
Bitstamp
Bitstamp is another platform that provides digital currency exchange. It is relatively easy to use and offers more advanced features through TradeView. Bitstamp offers coins such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and ripple. It exchanges digital currency with US dollars and Euros. In this exchange, you can apply all the latest cryptocurrency trading techniques.
It offers flat deposits via bank transfers and supports debit/credit cards. Perhaps the only downsides to be found in Bitstamp are the slightly high fees and the fact that it has suffered one security breach in its 7 years of operation. However, it is one of the most reliable exchanges. It is available for both iOS and Android.
Twins
Gemini is a UK-based company launched in 2015 by the Winklevoss twins. It is available in several countries including the US, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea. One of the downsides of this platform is that it is not particularly user-friendly. So beginners are not recommended to use this platform.
It offers two coins and 1 FLAT currency Bitcoin Cash, Ehtereum and US Dollar. Gemini follows strict protocols when it comes to security and has not encountered a single security breach since 2018, making it one of the safest and most trusted digital currency platforms. However, it is important to have digital currency investment strategies before you start trading.
Digital Ticks
Digital Ticks is a modern crypto exchange that aims to change the game in this sector. They have implemented many of the latest techniques that make it easy for anyone to start trading.
It has a unique feature called Single Portfolio View that would allow traders to view all positions in a single portfolio. It would be easy for traders to make informed decisions regarding cryptocurrency exchange using this unique feature. It also supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Dashcoin.
Kraken
Kraken is one of the oldest cryptocurrency exchange platforms. Launched in 2011, kraken is the largest exchange by volume and liquidity for EUR trading pairs. Serves worldwide including USA.
Kraken offers a variety of coins including Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Monero, Augur, Litecoin and many more. It also supports deposit/withdraw via bank transfers and cryptocurrencies. Having a not so friendly user interface, it also suffers from stability and performance issues, but it is still a good cryptocurrency exchange platform.
Bitfinex
Bitfinex is the largest cryptocurrency exchange platform. Launched in 2012, it has an easy-to-use interface and offers an advanced number of features such as margin trading, margin financing, etc. It is available for both iOS and Android platforms. It offers BTC, BCH, ETH, LTC, IOTA, XMR and NEO.
Like previous cryptocurrency exchanges, it supports payments in US dollars and euros via bank transfers. Bitfinex has suffered two security breaches, the first was in May 2015, resulting in a loss of $330,000. And another in August 2016 that resulted in a loss of $72 million.
EtherDelta
EtherDelta is a decentralized exchange that directly supports peer to peer connection. It is very different from the cryptocurrency exchange platform we talked about earlier. Here, funds are held in a smart contract on the Ethereum network that you are solely responsible for depositing and withdrawing. Currently, EtherDelta only supports Ehtereum based tokens.
EtherDelta has a rather confusing interface that makes it difficult for users to perform cryptocurrency exchange operations. On one occasion, someone tried to buy 750 Kyber for 0.007 ETH each, but ended up buying 0.007 KNC for 750 ETH.
Conclusion
After looking at various cryptocurrency exchange platforms, we can safely say that Coinbase and Bitstamp stand out for their good features such as security, user interface, multiple withdrawal/transfer methods and more.
I wouldn’t call them perfect, but I’d recommend that it’s the safest bet you can make. Each cryptocurrency exchange platform is unique in its own way and has advantages and disadvantages. All we have to do is choose the one that suits our needs. We hope this guide on basic exchange and cryptocurrency trading will give you a head start on your cryptocurrency trading journey.