With every day that goes by, more and more people trade cryptocurrencies, with 1 in 10 people invested in the cryptocurrency market as we speak.
And as more people get into smart investing in the crypto markets, even more, become tempted. Blockchain technology and the blockchain network are fascinating — and enriching — aspects of our modern society, after all. If you’re one of those curious people, you probably have a lot of questions.
What crypto should I buy and where? What’s the best cryptocurrency exchange? How can I guarantee my safety online while trading crypto?
Well, you came to the right place. Keep reading for our handy-dandy guide to the best cryptocurrency exchange for safety, security, and ease of use!
What is a cryptocurrency exchange?
Let’s start with the basics. Most people tend to think of crypto trading as the stock market. After all, you’re buying and selling coins much in the same way that stock traders buy and sell shares, hoping you can buy low and sell high.
If we keep going with that analogy, then cryptocurrency exchanges are like the stock market floor. They’re hubs of centralized market activity where traders can go to trade coins with one another in a single, convenient location.
They also offer certain safety guarantees. On exchanges, your smart investing is protected from hackers and scammers by all sorts of techno-wizardry that goes into the guts of the exchange’s systems. Those are safety guarantees you wouldn’t have if you were just trading stocks on an individual basis.
It’s kind of like the difference between selling stuff at a store vs. meeting someone off a second-hand trading site in-person. The former is much safer by its nature.
What should I look for in an exchange?
So we’ve established that cryptocurrency exchanges are one of the safer and more reliable ways to trade crypto, but why are there so many of them? If they all offer basically the same thing: security, then what sets each of them apart from one another?
Well, first of all, you should consider the history of any particular exchange you’re interested in using. Does your chosen exchange have a habit of long outages? Has it been hacked in the past? Or, perhaps most telling, is it barely older than a week?
These kinds of questions can throw up red flags which might suggest you take your cryptocurrency market curiosity elsewhere. An exchange with a long history of outages or hacks, or no history at all, is a bad choice for your first exchange.
On the other hand, long-lived exchanges with robust security and a reputation for reliability are a great choice.
Then, there’s a fee.
Exchanges aren’t charities, more’s the pity. They have to make money to keep themselves running and profitable, which means they charge fees to use their services. Usually, this manifests as a tiny sliver of any transaction that takes place on that exchange. Let’s say you buy 1 Bitcoin, the exchange might charge 0.00001BTC to handle the transaction.
Fees are usually small, but they can build up if you do a lot of trading. That’s why you want to look for an exchange that hits the sweet spot of reliability and affordability. Otherwise, you’ll end up paying through the nose for all the transactions you want to conduct.
So, what exchanges should you use?
Now we get to the meat of it. What are the best cryptocurrency exchanges and what do they offer that their competition doesn’t? Let’s go through a few of the biggest ones and detail some of their finer points.
First up is Binance. If you’ve ever read, heard, or watched a news story about cryptocurrencies, you’ve probably heard of Binance. It’s the biggest single crypto exchange in the world, and when it makes moves the entire crypto world feels it. It’s huge, safe, reliable, and offers an enormous range of currencies to trade in keeping with its gargantuan size.
Then we have Coinbase, another exchange behemoth that’s not far behind Binance in size and longevity. Coinbase is a particularly newbie-friendly exchange that specializes in speedy trades. Its fees are a bit higher than Binance’s, but it tries to make up for that with ease of use and speediness. Only you can decide if that’s a worthwhile trade!
Then there are apps like RobinHood and eToro. If you’re already neck-deep in ‘normal’ stock trading, these apps can function as a great way to combine the two worlds of share-trading and smart investing on the blockchain network. With these kinds of marketplaces, you can pick up some Bitcoin at the same time as you buy shares in Apple. Convenient!
If you’re the kind of investor that roots for the little guy, or you just believe in starting small, then KuCoin could work as a great way to start your trading career. Another newbie-friendly exchange, KuCoin specializes in cryptocurrencies with lower market caps or ‘small’ coins. If you don’t want to jump into Bitcoin with both feet, or you want to get in on the ground floor on the next big thing, you should absolutely check out KuCoin.
And, hey if all this ‘online’ trading is too impersonal for you, why not pop down to your local bitcoin ATM run by bytefederal.com/? Yep, that’s right. You can pop down to an ATM and withdraw Bitcoin much like you can go get 20 bucks out of your local cash machine. The 21st century is wild.
The best cryptocurrency exchange is the one that suits your needs
So there you have it, our guide to picking the best cryptocurrency exchange for you. Whether you’re a total neophyte on the trading scene or you knew Satoshi Nakamoto’s name back in 2009, there are definitely some tips and tricks in this little guide to help you make that all-important decision.
So what are you waiting for? Get out there and make your fortune!
Liked this article? Check our site for more like it!
