5th PIGZBE Guide: TOP Exchange Platforms

Cryptocurrency exchanges are very easy to access with an internet connection. And day-by-day more exchanges are becoming available.

The problems are that some exchanges are not trustworthy, and others have bad technical standards which are a problem as they would be prone to hacks.

The infamous Mt.Gox exchange hack has seen many people lose their Bitcoins which never came back nor the exchange gave any remedy.

Whenever choosing a Cryptocurrency exchange for trading, understand the reputation, popularity, and resilience of the platform.

Take a look at some of the Top Exchanges That We Highly Recommend: 

• Bitfinex
• Binance
• Coinbase
• CEX.IO
• LocalBitcoins
• Exmo
• Cryptopia
• Cryptonex

Bitfinex

The Bitfinex exchange is also a victim of hackers. But the exchange gave an equivalent value of temporary tokens and repurchased them reducing the loss for the traders.

It is known as the planet's biggest exchange platform in terms of trading volume and has good fame.

A lot of currency pairs are available for trading. US Dollar is the primary fiat currency that can be used to purchase any cryptocurrencies. Or if you have any supported Cryptocurrency, you can directly transfer to the account on the exchange and can start trading. Only fiat currency deposits and withdrawals require a fully verified account.

Availability of a fiat currency for deposits depends on the country you have registered from or verified the account.

An API is available. If you want to use your charts and interface rather than what the exchange provides, you can integrate and customize the platform using the Bitfinex API.

The fee structure depends on the volume you trade in a thirty-day period. For more details follow this link.

Binance

Binance is a platform that has more than a million users. More than 190 cryptocurrencies and tokens are available for trading on the Binance platform.

The clients for Android, IOS, and windows are available for trading.

There is no deposit fee. And trades take a fee of 0.1%. There is a withdrawal and depends on the currency or token you are withdrawing. Follow this link for detailed fee structure.

Binance also have a basic trading screen and advanced, the basic is more easy on the eye for new users.

Coinbase

More than ten million customers around the globe have availed the services of Coinbase. But it is best used as a web wallet than for the superfast trading.

Many online merchants accept direct payments and provide subscription-based services directly using your Coinbase account.

It only supports three currencies namely BTC, ETH, and LTC.

GDAX.com is a sub-product of Coinbase which is a competitive exchange like Bitfinex.

CEX.IO

With a total of 4.5mill visits a month it is a pretty known exchange platform. CEX.IO is a British company established in 2013; it allows users to trade Bitcoin and Ethereuem with USD, EUR, GBP, and RUB.

The system is easy to use and allow you to invest with a minimum of 0.01BTC (at the time of writing this lines around 50$). CEX.IO was also known for owning one of the biggest mining pools, in 2014 they alone supplied 42% of the mined Bitcoin worldwide, but in late 2015 they discontinued the cloud mining saying it is not profitable anymore. I have calculated the CEX.IO reviews that I could find and reached a disappointing 2.5 stars, I read some reviews, and I do believe that most of the complaints are coming from the high verification they require when purchasing like your ID photo, this creates slow handling from the site on approving new accounts.

LocalBitcoins.com

With over 10.5mill monthly visits LocalBitcoins.com is more known and more used than CEX.IO. LocalBitcoins is a Finnish company established in 2012. It had suffered a massive security breach in April 2014 where 30 Bitcoins have been “set free” by hackers. Since than the platforms operates nicely and offer an easy way to buy and sell Bitcoins for USA citizens.

As for the online rating for the company, I again read some reviews about the quality of sellers. The online review gave only 2.8 Stars. I do believe that two rules should get you away from all scams. When you buy Bitcoins, approve the transfer when possible, and when you sell Bitcoins, always transfer the money after the money has reached your account.

Exmo.com

With just over 3mill monthly visitors Exmo.com is the smallest between the 3 exchanges and also the youngest, I have found a few good reviews and a few bad one's nothing too major. Unlike the other 2 exchanges I mentioned here, you can buy several different coins like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash, Litecoin and some other less known coins.

Let us know if you have been using an exchange for day-to-day trading, and having a good fee structure.

To summarize no matter what platform you use, in the end, make sure you always follow the rules of each exchange to avoid losing money for any mistakes that might happen.

Cryptopia – Cryptocurrency Exchange and Marketplace

Cryptopia is an exchange from New Zealand. And it has listed over 550 cryptocurrencies including the popular ones like Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum.

The marketplace, however, has been closed for now ­– but a launch of revamped version is expected.

Deposits

Any national can probably have an account with Cryptopia. The exchange, however, only allows New Zealand Dollar (NZD) for fiat deposits, and you must hold a local bank account to do that. Otherwise, you need to depend on other exchanges for conversions to fiat.

Buy/Sell Orders

A vital aspect of the Cryptopia is that the exchange doesn’t involve itself in buying or selling any currency. It just matches the open or instant orders with other traders. That adds more transparency to the price index of cryptocurrencies.

Coin Rating System

A rating system is in place that scores each cryptocurrency based on various factors. For example, third-party block explorers, pre-mine, availability of wallets for multiple platforms, initial coin offering, development activity, the community around the coin, user voting are some factors. The system, however, is under active development. And it will be tweaked furthermore for improvements.

Delisting

On 7 May 2018, Cryptopia has issued a notice delisting 28 altcoins. Users must withdraw all these coins within a month period from the notice date.

Some of the delisted coins are suffering from broken blockchains. Because of that reason users might not be able to withdraw those cryptocurrencies. And, Cryptopia can’t do anything to resolve the issue.

Other coins delisted are violating the exchange’s coin listing criteria.

Conclusion

Discussion forums like Reddit and BitcoinTalk have word that Cryptopia is a scam. There is, however, no evidence of such kind. Only the missing deposits are seeing delays in getting a response and tracking back.

Whatever the issues are, first, trade in small amounts. Once you get the confidence and okay with the quality of service, you can go for Cryptopia completely.

Cryptonex

Cryptonex is an exchange platform with its own blockchain system. But it has limited options: only facilitates Bitcoin, Ethereum, and its base cryptocurrency that is denoted as CNX.

The platforms allows you to buy BTC, ETH, and CNX using various fiat currencies like USD, GBP, EUR, and Russian Ruble. Plus, you can use Visa or MasterCard to make purchases on the platform, though using a credit/debit card attracts higher fees.

However, it has a P2P exchange system, where the Cryptonex platform acts as guarantor. And the buy/sell transactions will happen with the individuals. These buy/sell transactions can happen online or offline. In case of offline, the individual who placed the ad for buy/sell will chose a place to make the transaction.

The maximum total supply of CNX is 210 million tokens. And the circulating supply is 45,412,345 tokens.

Cryptonex blockchain uses proof of stake consensus using the scrypt algorithm. The average block time is 60 seconds. And it promises a maximum of 15,000 transactions per second.

CNX Wallets

The official site features wallets for Linux, MacOs, and Windows platforms.

How to get CNX?

The simplest way is: download the Cryptonex wallet and deposit ETH, BTC, or fiat. And place an order.

If you already have some CNX, staking them for mining is a good option. The platform promises a return of 12% per annum without making any extra efforts but by just staking some CNX. So, the more the CNX tokens you hold, the higher the rewards you can get.

And that process is called as Cloud Mining. Nevertheless, you have to ensure that your wallet client is always connected to the network.

With that, if your wallet client confirms any transactions received, then you will also get the fee associated with the transaction. And these staking/mining rewards are deposited daily.

Moreover, CNX is also traded in other cryptocurrency exchanges like YoBit and HitBTC.