Best Cryptocurrency Exchanges for Altcoins

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At first, Coinbase started off as a Bitcoin wallet service way back in 2012, and throughout the years, they expanded into a fully-fledged cryptocurrency exchange. Established by San Francisco-based economists Fred Ehrsam and Brian Armstrong, Coinbase has largely been propelled to prominence by venture capital.

Coinbase itself is rather user-friendly, but they also offer Coinbase PRO, which is aimed at more advanced traders. The advanced version of the exchange platform allows users to tailor it to their own preferences and make the most out of their know-how. If you’re looking for a crypto wallet, Coinbase also offers a mobile app that acts as one, giving you access to your digital assets on both Android and iOS.

The exchange offers around 50 cryptocurrencies at the time of writing that you can see on their support page. The relatively less popular coins available include 0x (ZRX), Tezos (XTZ), Stellar (XLM), Zcash (ZEC), and many more. However, the catch is that not all of them are available in all countries.

Even though Coinbase is accessible internationally (103 countries, to be precise), not all the services are fully supported everywhere. Furthermore, some of the currencies may be fully supported only by Coinbase PRO, so that’s something to keep in mind.

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The handiwork of a team of digital security experts, Bittrex saw the light of day back in 2014 and hasn’t stopped evolving ever since. It has quickly grown into one of the most trusted exchanges out there and that’s unlikely to change as the platform stays true to its roots, stressing security and keeping 90% of all crypto assets in cold storage.

While Coinbase landed on our list largely due to its renown as opposed to the altcoins available (which aren’t too few and far between either), Bittrex hits it out of the ballpark. Besides the over 300 cryptocurrencies on offer, the platform also provides more than 600 trading pairs. Even so, that doesn’t mean that the exchange is ridden with pump-and-dump coins – each altcoin on the platform is meticulously evaluated before being made available.

The only knock against Bittrex would be its customer support. For wildly varying reasons, Bittrex frequently ends up suspending certain users’ accounts and the procedures toward resolution seem to be long and arduous. This has peeved off many traders, but Bittrex has stated that the issue affects less than 0.1% of accounts.

Other than that, it’s also important to note that the exchange is compliant with AML and KYC regulations, requiring a lot of personal data should you register. It goes without saying, though, that it’s for the greater good and general security, or at least one would assume so. If this is a deal-breaker for you, you might be better off taking a look at some of the decentralized crypto exchanges.

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We did mention that there indeed are other exchanges with fees as low as 0.1%, and the second carrier of this title is Kucoin. Their boisterous claim that “1 out of 4 crypto holders worldwide is with KuCoin”, whether warranted or not, is surely an indication that the platform means business, if nothing else.

Founded in 2017, its short history may lead traders to believe that Kucoin is one of the newer exchanges out there, but the twist is that it had been in development for a whopping six years prior. What they have to show for it nowadays is a daily trading volume in the $500 million range according to CoinMarketCap and a P2P fiat exchange; take that for what you will, but they’re innovative and successful.

On a more pressing matter regarding our topic, Kucoin offers about 200 altcoins and double that amount in trading pairs. More popular currencies are also supported, namely Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Litecoin (LTC), but also Tether (USDT), NEO, and ERC-20 tokens.

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What Kraken doesn’t have to offer are hundreds of different altcoins alike the precursors we reviewed, but it does have enough to land a spot on our list. Kraken was founded in 2011 but its official launch came about in 2013 and it originally had bitcoin, litecoin, and euro trades available. The founder, Jesse Powell, got the idea to create a crypto exchange after the demise of Mt. Gox and certainly made a point out of learning from others’ mistakes and emphasizing security.

In 2016, the platform acquired Coinsetter and Clearcoin, which allowed it to expand to 37 states in the USA. The platform eventually came into its own by adding about 50 altcoins to trade as well as several hundreds of pairs. They also have some more advanced trading options such as futures, margin trading, and staking.

Kraken is nowadays available internationally and is swiftly turning into a powerhouse of its own, surpassing the likes of Bitfinex. The only countries without access to Kraken are Japan, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Cuba.

The platform prides itself on having 95% of all deposits in cold storage, as well as extensive real-time monitoring efforts, and integrating KYC regulations. They also didn’t stray away from the nowadays industry standard two-factor authentication.

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The goliath of decentralized crypto exchanges, Changelly was founded in 2015 and now has over 2 million users consistently. It currently functions mainly as a crypto-to-crypto exchange, but users can also make fiat-to-crypto deposits on their newly-developed marketplace. The accepted fiat currencies are EUR, USD, and GBP.

Changelly has made it their mission to make crypto available to everyone, or as they’d put it, “lower the entry barrier”. It’s safe to assume that they certainly have done that by, if nothing else, making their platform by making the registration process very straightforward. If you’d like to use Changelly PRO, though, you’d need to go through with a KYC form.

The truly amazing thing about Changelly is that it offers more than 150 cryptocurrencies such as Dash, EOS, Dogecoin, Litecoin, but also functions as a legit Bitcoin exchange in its own right. Other than that, Changelly strays into the OTC derivatives territory and also has very friendly withdrawal fees, the prime example of which is the BTC withdrawal fee that constitutes a miniscule amount of 0.0004 BTC.

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Despite the fairly short list of altcoins on offer, Gemini finds itself on this list due to the rather unique nature of the crypto exchange. The platform is one of the few exchanges that allow bank account withdrawals and deposits due to the “BitLicense” they own. Based in New York, Gemini is on the good side of regulators, doing everything by the book and taking security very seriously.

Even though the majority of their trading volume comes from the United States, the exchange is also accessible from South Korea, Hong Kong, Puerto Rico, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Singapore. Their fees sit at the average 0.25% mark which is nothing to brag about, but this is offset by the absence of withdrawal fees for up to 10 Bitcoin/Ethereum withdrawals and 30 bank account withdrawals monthly.

If you’re from the US and would like to buy Bitcoin, this is where you’d usually make a trade, but you’d also have access to 25 other cryptocurrencies, including Zcash (ZEC), Chainlink (LINK), Dai (DAI), 0x (ZRX), etc.

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CEX.io was founded in 2013 and now has over 3 million users worldwide. The exchange is cross-platform and has a very intuitive mobile app for both Android and iOS. The accepted fiat currencies are GBP, EUR, RUB, and USD while the cryptocurrencies available include the most popular ones such as BTC, ETH, and BCH, but also dozens of other altcoins.

The platform, which was kicked off in 2013 and founded by economist Oleksandr Lutskevych, was initially a mining provider. That changed in 2015, when CEX.io concluded its mining operation and started functioning solely as a crypto exchange. Since then, they’ve grown a wide array of services such as crypto backed loans, margin trading, and staking.

Their trading fee schedule starts at 0.25% and 0.15% on taker and maker respectively, while their deposit and withdrawal fees vary depending on the fiat currency and payment method. Speaking of, the payment methods supported are VISA, MasterCard, epay, skrill, Bank Transfer, and ACH.

Their one downside probably is the fact that you have to submit a lot of personal information when creating an account, such as proof of address and ID.

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Poloniex is another exchange that provides a not-too-shabby collection of over 100 altcoins. What’s most impressive about the platform, though, is that it charges only 0.125% taker and maker trading fees, which is one of the lowest rates on the market. Furthermore, they also have decent margin trading options, which is a sure-fire plus for the more experienced traders among you.

Up to 2019, Poloniex operated on a strict crypto-to-crypto basis, but they’ve since implemented fiat currencies as a payment method as well. Although, this is somewhat limited. Nevertheless, Poloniex was the first crypto exchange to hit $1 billion in trading volume and it remains a well-trusted exchange for many users.

The one stain on its resume is an incident that occurred back in May 2019 when due to a flash crash, the CLAM/BTC margin had frozen, resulting in the loss of about 1800 BTC. However, Poloniex bounced back, reimbursing the affected traders, and they’ve since learned from their mistakes. All in all, the platform is a very decent option for altcoin pursuers, providing many options.

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Huobi’s story started in 2013 when it was founded by computer engineer Leon Li. Initially, they were based in China, but as China banned crypto exchanges and ICOs in 2017, Huobi looked outward, expanding globally. Their headquarters are currently in the Seychelles.

As of now, they have about 340 different crypto assets on offer while their daily trading volumes rival those of Binance – a tall order indeed. Huobi has grown into a jack of all trades when it comes to crypto trading, offering derivatives such as futures, swaps (coin-margined and USDT-margined), and options. Additionally, they also offer OTC services, as well as crypto loans and asset servicing.

Huobi also is multi-platform for all intents and purposes, having a slew of dedicated mobile apps such as the Huobi Wallet, Huobi Chat, as well as one of the better exchange apps out there.

Their security measures are nothing to scoff at either as they claim to have a “Dedicated 20,000 BTC Security Reserve Fund”, should things go awry, and multi-signature cold wallets for all the user assets.

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