The cryptocurrency market is booming once again. Investors are flocking the markets and try to buy bitcoins by any means necessary. While it’s understandable that you wouldn’t want to miss out on this profit-making opportunity, you shouldn’t be reckless in doing so.
Cryptocurrencies are a sensitive asset, prone to hacks and scams. Choosing the best option available is paramount to ensuring your profitable investment remains safe at all times. For this reason, we compiled a list of the best crypto trading platforms available on the market.
Fortunately, investing in cryptocurrencies has become much easier and streamlined than in the past. Today, there are quite a few options available for investors that offer a good compromise between safety, quality of service, and affordable fees.
Without further ado, let’s get into our list of the 5 best crypto trading platforms.
Binance
Headquartered in Malta, Binance has quickly become a favorite in the crypto community.
Not long after its launch in 2017, Binance reached the #1 spot by traded volume, as early as 2018. The reasons for this success are obvious today:
The BNB coin allowed users that pay their fees with it to access considerable fee discounts after launch.
The incredible amount of choice of alternate cryptocurrencies during the ICO craze.
With that said, Binance didn’t take this success for granted and continued to build its platform to provide a complete crypto service.
Today, in addition to trading cryptocurrencies, it proposes savings, staking, and yield farming, providing passive income opportunities to its users.
Furthermore, it holds fundraising opportunities for investors and blockchain projects through its Binance Launchpad. Through the platform, projects get funded while investors get the opportunity to make big gains on their initial investment.
Coinbase
With headquarters in the US, Coinbase is the largest American crypto exchange. It was founded in 2012, the early years of cryptocurrency when the price of Bitcoin was as low as $1.
As such, Coinbase is considered one of the pioneers in the cryptocurrency markets and has gained immense popularity over the years. Today, it has more than 43 million users worldwide.
The exchange offers a variety of services including a user-friendly trading platform, fiat to crypto trading, custodial accounts for institutions, and its own stablecoin, the USDC.
Recently, the company has announced that it would be the first crypto exchange that goes public. This means that the San Francisco-based company will be filing for an IPO to release company equity and is to be listed on Nasdaq in the near future.
Kraken
Kraken is another US-based cryptocurrency trading platform that was founded way back in 2011 by Bitcoin pioneer Jesse Powell. The exchange supports both crypto-to-crypto and fiat-to-crypto trading.
Over the years, the exchange has grown into a global company, with millions of users all around the world. Like Coinbase, Kraken holds a Bitlicence, a certificate necessary to comply with regulations on US soil for trading cryptocurrencies.
Kraken is suited for both retail and institutional investors. In addition to their trading platform, they offer over-the-counter services for businesses that want to invest larger amounts of funds into cryptocurrencies.
In 2019, the exchange became one of the first crypto trading platforms to offer futures trading after acquiring Crypto Facilities.
Bitstamp
This cryptocurrency exchange was created as early as 2011 in Slovenia by founders Nejc Kodrič and Damjan Merlak. The goal was to provide an alternative for Europeans to buy and sell Bitcoin.
At that time, the market was monopolized by the ill-fated MtGox. Bitstamp quickly gained popularity with Europeans, as it began accepting fiat deposits in Euros as well as in USD.
Since its creation, the company’s headquarters has been moved from Slovenia to the UK, to finally land at its current address in Luxemburg. In 2016, Bitstamp received a license from the Luxembourg government and is fully compliant with EU regulations to be considered as a payment institution.
Uniswap
All of the aforementioned exchanges on our list are centralized exchanges. This means that when you deposit funds into your wallet, the company is in control of your money. If the exchange gets hacked, all your funds could be lost.
Uniswap, on the other hand, is the most popular decentralized exchange (DEX) on our list. This signifies that when you trade cryptos on Uniswap, you remain in full control of your funds.
This DEX allows users to trade cryptocurrencies for other cryptocurrencies by directly linking their wallets to the exchange. There’s no need to deposit funds on a custodial wallet, making the entire process safer and resistant to hacks, fraud, or scams.
Unfortunately, this means that you can’t trade crypto for traditional money on Uniswap, as the exchange is limited only to cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, it’s not as user-friendly as the other exchanges on our list and is best appreciated by users already familiar with crypto trading platforms.
Wrapping up
When trading cryptocurrencies, it is essential that you use safe and proven trading platforms for your needs. The exchanges listed in this article will help you achieve this.
Worth noting is that centralized exchanges are more beginner-friendly and provide additional financial services such as staking or savings accounts.
Decentralized exchanges, on the other hand, are a bit more complicated to use but provide increased security and full control of your funds.