The Best Centralized Crypto Exchanges in 2023

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One of the oldest crypto exchanges on the market, Coinbase, was founded by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam in 2012 and is based in San Francisco, California. While the platform functioned as a Bitcoin wallet service initially, they diversified rather quickly, getting to their “final form” as a cryptocurrency brokerage service.

As a service, Coinbase is available in 103 countries, but trading on the exchange (the part that presumably matters to us) is possible in only 32, including the United States and many countries in the EU.

The digital currencies available for you to trade may also vary depending on where you’re situated and whether you’re using Coinbase Pro, but in general, you’ll almost always have access to the most popular crypto such as BTC, ETH, BCH, and LTC.

As opposed to Binance, Coinbase has heftier fees, but that also depends on your trading volume. To make sense out of the bigger picture, though, we recommend taking a look at their disclosure on how the fees scale up. In general, the flat fee can be anywhere between $0.99 and $2.99, while the variable percentage fee can be up to 3.99%.

Since the platform is based in the US, it’s also compliant with KYC and AML laws, so that means that traders will need to submit a lot of personal information, including proof of identity and the last four digits of social security numbers. However, Coinbase has long been a mainstay on the crypto market, and as we said above, you can rarely go wrong with popularity.

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Gemini is the brainchild of the Winklevoss twins, the two brothers who actually won a lawsuit against Facebook. In fact, they founded Gemini in 2015 by being early investors in crypto using the money they had won from the legal proceedings. We’d say that they ended up doing just fine despite having their social media network idea stolen as Gemini is now the go-to centralized crypto exchange in the US, having some of the largest daily trading volumes. Other than in the US, Gemini is also accessible from Australia, Hong Kong, South Korea, Puerto Rico, Singapore, and the UK.

The most glaring drawback of the platform is that it doesn’t have many altcoins available to trade, offering only Zcash and Litecoin, apart from the usual suspects – Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Bitcoin Cash.

On the other hand, one of Gemini’s greatest strengths is that it doesn’t charge any fees for withdrawals and deposits. The trader’s fee, though, depends on the volume you’re trading in and can be anywhere between 1.00% and 0.10%, while in some cases, it can even drop down to 0%, so that’s something you should keep in mind if you’re planning to go big.

When it comes to user experience, Gemini is up to par with all the current trends and features their competitors offer, having a dedicated mobile app, a support team that responds in 24-72 hours, and two-factor authentication.

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Even though this platform is the most popular cryptocurrency exchange in the EU, trading on Kraken is possible from almost anywhere in the world! Instead of listing the countries it’s supported in, it’s easier to list those where it isn’t: North Korea, Japan, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Cuba.

Kraken offers over 30 cryptocurrencies available for trade as well as several hundreds of pairs. For the more experienced traders, they also offer futures, margin trading, and staking. In line with this, Kraken is also touted as one of the best centralized crypto exchanges for the more ambitious and savvy traders, but their efforts toward providing guides and general information about crypto haven’t gone unnoticed, attracting first-time traders as well.

Their fees can go as low as 0% if your trading volume is high enough, but that’s rarely feasible. One of the reasons Kraken is so popular in the EU is that they have no deposit and withdrawal fees in SEPA (Single Euro Payment Area) markets, while their US-based users will have to pay $5 for each.

Since the founder, Jesse Powell, got the idea of developing a crypto exchange after witnessing Mt. Gox crash and burn, one would assume that Kraken takes its security rather seriously. Every new account owner has to go through the rigors of KYC testing, while 95% of digital assets are kept strictly in cold storage offline, making Kraken as impervious to hackers as possibly imaginable. That’s barely scratching the surface, though.

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CEX.io started as a cloud mining provider but promptly expanded into one of the best crypto exchanges in the UK and one of the most trusted platforms in the world. Based in London, CEX.io offers its services internationally, but not all regions can always access all of their features.

For example, if you’d like to purchase crypto using a credit card (payment methods notwithstanding) from Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, or Nigeria, to name a few, you wouldn’t be able to do that. Likewise, if you’d like to purchase through wire transfer from, let’s say, Turkey, you’d run into problems. But, CEX.io is operational in 47 states in the US.

CEX.io’s allows the trade of 26 cryptocurrencies and supports fiat currencies such as USD and EUR, but also GBP and RUB. What’s awesome about the platform is that they allow you to deposit both into your account, allowing for diverse trading pairs.

Similarly to Kraken, CEX.io’s fees, by and large, depend on how much you’re trading. The important bit is that the deposit fees are usually in the 3 to 4% range, while the transaction fees can go as low as 0.10% and 0% (taker and maker respectively).

While you shouldn’t run into too much trouble if you’d like to just test the exchange, if you’d like to access the upper limits, you’d need to provide extensive personal information such as proof of residence, ID, proof of address, and even link to social media, albeit the last one is optional.

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Established in 2014 by Rami Kawach, Bill Shihara, and Richie Lai, a group of cybersecurity experts who worked for the likes of Amazon and Microsoft, Bittrex now boasts over $300 million in daily trades.

One of the platform’s most appealing aspects is its friendly user interface and efficiency. Even though that’s mostly a given for all centralized crypto exchanges, Bittrex designed its platform on the concept of elastic computing which allows it to be exceptionally reliable even in peak hours.

Add to that their hundreds of different currencies available to trade and over 450 pairs, and Bittrex, in our opinion, rightfully secures its place among the best centralized crypto exchanges. The fiat currencies supported are USD, EUR, JPY, and GBP.

When it comes to fees, Bittrex keeps things simple and straightforward – a flat 0.25% commission on all trades (at the time of writing). Even though that’s on the higher side when compared to some of the other platforms, Bittrex doesn’t charge any fiat withdrawal/deposit fees and blockchain deposit fees, while blockchain withdrawal fees vary based on the coin or token.

Lastly, it’s important to note that Bittrex operates out of the US, so therefore it is subject to AML and KYC regulations, requiring you to submit personal details when registering an account. But, it is available in more than 200 countries all over the world due to its partnership with Jumio.

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Bitstamp was founded way back in 2011, making it one of the older exchanges out there, but upon its relocation to Luxembourg in 2016, it became the first nationally licensed crypto exchange, operating under the same laws as any other financial institution in the EU.

Despite its long tenure, the exchange offers 15 trading pairs and only five cryptocurrencies: BTC, BCH, ETH, LTC, and XRP. But variety is not always what traders are after; Bitstamp has made its name by being the go-to Bitcoin exchange for many. What’s more, it also allows fiat/crypto trading and the currencies supported are USD and EUR, but if you wanted, you could also use GBP and/or CHF, but they’d be converted in the former two before trading.

The Bitcoin-centered exchange has had some security issues in the past, namely, the 2015 incident when over $5 million worth of Bitcoin was stolen, but it’s safe to say that Bitstamp has since doubled down on its efforts to hack-proof its platform and even at the time they made extensive efforts to reimburse the afflicted.

The fees on all trading pairs are relatively straightforward and follow specific trading volume breakpoints. For under $10,000, though, the fee stands at 0.50%, while at higher amounts it can get much lower. Deposit and withdrawal fees also depend on the currency in question; when it comes to EUR SEPA deposits, for instance, they’re free, while withdrawals incur a fee of 3€.

Bitstamp also offers an Android/iOS app to its users and it’s rather user-friendly in all aspects. On the whole, despite its woes that are definitely in the past now, if you’re in the SEPA and are looking to buy Bitcoin, you have little reason to steer clear of Bitstamp.

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Bitfinex safely sits in the top six cryptocurrency exchanges by daily trading volume and as such, it definitely deserves a spot on our list. Although, that’s far from its only edge. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Hong Kong, Bitfinex has gone through some turbulence in its running, mainly related to its connection to Tether (USDT) and their mutual shareholders, but it remains an attractive option to many traders.

The aspect that we found most captivating regarding Bitfinex was its advanced API allowing users to “create highly customized and advanced trading strategies”. Their API can also be used to partake in derivatives trading, while their open source libraries give plenty of opportunities to those with technical know-how.

On a more general note, Bitfinex offers over 90 altcoins and accepts fiat deposits in USD, EUR, JPY, and GBP. Moreover, you also have the option to buy crypto via credit or debit card (or through a bank account), making trading “as easy as shopping”.

Their security efforts are nothing to scoff at either, as they claim that 99.5% of all the funds on the exchange are stored in cold wallets offline.

Bitfinex uses a volume-based fee schedule. The fees start at 0.1% and 0.2% for maker and taker respectively, and may further be reduced as you get higher up in your trading volume. The maker fee can reach zero upon achieving a trading volume of $7.5 million over 30 days.

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Kucoin is another relatively young centralized crypto exchange, having been launched in 2017, but the twist is that it’s been in development since – wait for it – 2011! Carefully optimized and tweaked by a committed group of blockchain specialists, it’s been evolving through the course of six whole years and that’s certainly not where they stopped. Their goal is to be among the top ten exchanges by trading volume within ten years, and that ambition, among other things, landed them a spot on our list.

The platform is mainly a crypto-to-crypto exchange as of now, but given their growth, that’s likely to change in the not so distant future. They do offer a P2P fiat exchange, making them less centralized than their peers, and surely presents a sign of things to come. Another unique aspect of their operation is that they give back 90% of the fees to their users through various incentives such as the buyback system or the invitation bonus.

Some of the cryptocurrencies currently offered are BTC, BCH, ETH, XRP, LTC, USDT, Neo, ERC-20, etc. They offer hundreds of pairings and also have their own cryptocurrency – Kucoin Shares (KCS) – which is used to incentivize their users by offering discounts and referral bonuses.

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Independent Reserve, located in the land of an incredibly scrutinous and highly-regulated financial sector, or otherwise known as Australia, makes a statement out of the gate: “Our mission is to transform cryptocurrency technology into secure, robust and regulated financial services, and do things the right way.”

Founded in 2013 and a recipient of the Cryptocurrency Exchange of the Year award at the Australian Blockchain Industry Awards, it barely cracks the top 100 by volume of trade (at the time of writing), but over 150,000 Australians and New Zealanders seem to find no issue with that.

Getting on the exchange and into trading is rather quick – as they say, “register, deposit, and buy in under 5 minutes.” – making for a top-notch user experience. When it comes to actually trading, Independent Reserve offers 24 cryptocurrencies and numerous pairs. Since it’s based in the land down under, the three accepted fiat currencies are AUD, USD, and NZD.

The payment options accepted include bank transfer or debit card, as well as alternative solutions such as PayID, POLi, EFT, Osko, or SWIFT transfers. Crypto deposits and withdrawals on Independent Reserve are completely free, while international and withdrawals in currencies other than AUD come with a flat fee of $20.

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