Definition of Crypto Exchange
Crypto exchanges are platforms that facilitate cryptocurrency trading transactions. You can buy and sell crypto through this platform, but you cannot store your purchased cryptocurrency into a separate crypto wallet. It must remain stored within the platform as an open “buy” transaction, not as a balance that can be transferred to another wallet or cashed out.
Just like when trading forex, you can buy other countries’ currencies as you wish. However, it cannot be transferred to an account in foreign currency. You can only sell it back (close the position) and make it a balance that can be withdrawn to a bank account.
The role of crypto exchanges is very large in driving the growth of cryptocurrency users in the future. With the existence of crypto exchanges, market liquidity becomes higher, and suppresses crypto fluctuations even if only slightly. In addition, crypto exchanges provide facilities to be able to trade crypto, so that crypto is not only a simple means of payment, but even a profitable asset.
Crypto exchanges work like stock exchanges, bringing buyers and sellers together. A traditional crypto exchange is an institution that organizes crypto trading and manages it so that transactions between traders can run smoothly. This exchange has a centralized characteristic that collects trade transactions in one place.
Apart from traditional exchanges, the crypto world also has decentralized exchanges or Decentralized Exchanges (DEX). Decentralized exchanges are not managed centrally by a company, but have virtual machines that manage trades automatically. And allows users to make peer-to-peer transactions with other users.
Technically, traditional exchanges with decentralized exchanges technically have something in common, namely as a place to exchange cryptocurrency for different cryptocurrencies. However, based on their purpose, traditional exchanges are created with a different purpose than decentralized exchanges.
Traditional exchanges were created with the aim of facilitating crypto trading activities for traders. And allows traders to profit from short-term fluctuations in the crypto market. Meanwhile, decentralized exchanges are made to facilitate the exchange process by connecting different blockchains.
Forbes’ 5 Best Crypto Exchanges
In this article, we will discuss the 5 best Crypto exchanges. There are many versions of the source with different assessment methods. And the list below is the 5 best Crypto exchanges based on ratings from Forbes.
The valuation method is to pay attention to several things, such as: security, the number of coins available for trading, trading volume, educational resources and ease of access.
The 5 best crypto exchanges according to Forbes are as follows:
1. Krakens
Kraken is one of the leading crypto exchanges in the US. This exchange was founded in 2011 and is based in California, United States. The Kraken exchange has many coins that can be traded, even Kraken also provides trading for fiat currencies and commodities.
Kraken provides state-of-the-art trading facilities but at competitive fees. Transaction fees on Kraken consist of 0.9% for stablecoins and 1.5% for other cryptocurrencies. Kraken has two types of platforms, Kraken and Kraken pro.
Kraken has a rating of 4.6 with a number of advantages, such as:
* Powerful features on the Kraken pro platform.
* Have good customer service, such as chatbot features and phone support.
* Relatively low BTC withdrawal fees.
* Provide various education to its users regarding cryptocurrencies.
2. Gemini
Gemini is a crypto exchange founded in 2015 by the Winklevoss twins. Gemini exchange was founded in New York, United States of America and is currently also headquartered there.
The uniqueness of the Gemini platform lies in determining transaction fees. The platform provides a discount on transaction fees based on the trading volume generated over the past 30 days. That is, the more frequently users make transactions, or the greater the value of the transaction, the lower the fees that will be charged.
Gemini gets a rating of 4.5 based on the assessment. The Gemini platform has a number of advantages, including:
* Simple and intuitive interface.
* Available in more than 50 states.
* Crypto rewards program for users using Gemini credit cards.
3. Crypto.com
Crypto.com is a crypto exchange with a sizeable number of coins. The total coins currently traded on crypto.com are more than 250. Crypto.com was founded by Kris Marszalek, Bobby Bao, Gary Or and Rafael Melo in 2016. This exchange claims to be the exchange with the number of users reaching 10 million.
Crypto.com gets a rating of 4.5 with a number of advantages, such as:
* Discounted trading fees for users with the highest CRO token balance.
* Cashback promotion for Visa debit card users, for users with the highest CRO token balance.
* Limited margin trading.
* High cyber security.
4. Kucoins
Kucoin is a crypto exchange which also has a large number of coins to trade. kucoin has more than 600 cryptocurrencies available to be traded. Kucoin also provides access to these coins with low transaction fees.
Kucoin is headquartered in the Seychelles, and has users spread across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Meanwhile, users in the United States can also use Kucoin, but the Kucoin platform itself does not have a license to operate in the US.
Kucoin gets a rating of 4.3 with a number of advantages, namely:
* A very wide selection of trading instruments.
* Competitive trading fees.
* Volume discount for transaction fees.
* Providing advanced trading facilities, such as margin facilities and futures trading.
* Accept payments via credit card and debit card.
5. Coinbase
In the crypto world, coinbase is becoming a very popular crypto exchange. Coinbase provides trading access to more than 150 crypto coins for a relatively low fee. The coinbase platform also has an attractive and easy-to-use interface.
Coinbase was founded in 2012 in the United States by Brian Armstrong and was the first platform to start the crypto exchange industry. Coinbase gets a rating of 4.3 with several advantages, including:
* Easy payment process.
* User friendly platform view.
* Has a staking feature for several coins (ALG, ETH, XTM, Cardano and SOL).
Summary
So, those are the 5 best crypto exchange platforms according to Forbes. Once again reminding that there are many versions of the best crypto exchanges on the internet. You will be able to find the best crypto exchange version of CoinMarketCap, version of Coingecko, version of Investopedia and other versions with their rating method. And don’t be surprised if there are significant differences in the results of the assessment of each of these versions.
