If you are new to cryptocurrency or blockchain, besides creating a crypto wallet, you may also need to choose a reliable cryptocurrency exchange to start your blockchain journey. But there are over thousands of cryptocurrency exchanges in the market, how to find the best ones?

What is a cryptocurrency exchange?

Cryptocurrency exchanges are platforms where you can buy, sell or exchange cryptocurrencies for other digital currency or fiat. 

Types of cryptocurrency exchanges

With different standards, crypto exchanges can have different classifications.

1. Centralized vs Decentralized

• Centralized Exchanges (CEX)

You can trade crypto-crypto pairs in both centralized and decentralized exchanges. But as a newcomer, you have to trade in centralized exchanges first as you will need to exchange your fiat for crypto. Centralized cryptocurrency exchanges provide the primary bridges between the world of fiat and crypto. 

The account opening process in centralized exchanges is usually more complicated than in decentralized ones. You will likely need to verify your ID in order to open an account.

• Decentralized Exchanges (DEX)

If you just want to do trading in crypto-crypto pairs, you can choose both centralized or decentralized. Usually, it is way easier to use DEX as you do not need to go through all the KYC, just link with your crypto wallet will do. And as the development of DEX, nowadays, you can find more tokens in DEX compared to CEX. (DEX Is The Main Stream? Have You Used It?)

Some of the DEX are catching up with CEX in terms of transaction volume.

dYdX and Uniswap are DEX. (Source: https://www.dapp.com/topics/cryptocurrency-exchange) 

2. Spots or Derivatives

More and more crypto exchanges are expanding their trading subjects to cryptocurrency derivatives. One of the biggest crypto derivatives trading platforms is ftx.com, you can trade many creative products there even stock tokens. (Buy Tesla Stocks with Crypto? FTX Makes It Possible）

You can search “derivatives” on dapp.com and check all cryptocurrency exchanges that have derivatives trading functions.

If you don’t want to bother to look at all these trading techniques, you just want to do a fast and convenient token swap. You can search “token swap” on dapp.com to see all the options. You can also refer to our playlist here - Wallet with Built-In Token Swap.

There are other classifications like p2p trading, brokers, asset management, etc.

So many choices, now the question is how to find the best cryptocurrency exchanges?

Here are a few things you should check before making your first trade. And dapp.com can help you find the best crypto exchanges through our different ranking dimensions.

• Reputation

How to evaluate reputation? Traffic, transaction volume, user reviews, etc, basically, all of these ranking dimensions. You can check it here in the “Exchange” topic.

Trading Volume - top 1 Binance

It is not enough to just check the volume because exchanges can make fake transaction volumes. We will need to check its traffic as well.

Alexa Ranking - top 1 Binance

What about its user rating?

• Trading Fees

For centralized exchanges, fees include transaction fees, fiat withdraw fees, and cryptocurrency withdraw fees. You can find this fee-related information on their websites. For decentralized exchanges, the only fee you need to pay is the platform’s transaction fee. 

• Payment Methods 

If you are doing fiat-crypto trading, you need to consider 2 questions - What payment methods are available on the exchange? Credit card, debit card, or wire transfer through your bank account? And which fiat they accept? For most centralized exchanges, they don’t accept credit card payment. For some special platforms like moonpay, you can buy crypto through credit card, Apple pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay. 

• Cryptocurrencies and Trading Pairs

For some new tokens, they are only available in a few exchanges. Usually, decentralized exchanges will list these new tokens faster than centralized exchanges because the process of listing a token in DEX is way easier and cost less for the project team. 

Okay, we have discussed a lot about decentralized exchanges and centralized exchanges. Here we sum up the main differences. 

Then how to choose the best centralized exchanges and decentralized exchanges? You can check its reputation on dapp.com. 

Centralized Exchange

Trading Volume - top 1 Binance

Alexa Ranking - top 1 Binance

Decentralized Exchange

Trading Volume/Chain Performance - top 1 dYdX

DAU - top 1 Zethyr Exchange

Alexa Ranking - top 1 Uniswap

If you are a DeFi token investor, you can check the DEX’s tokens performance on the “Decentralized Exchanges” topic as well to choose the good tokens.

To sum up, to choose the best cryptocurrency exchange, first, to check its reputation through different dimensions on dapp.com, after that, check their payment method, tokens they support, etc to find the best exchange that suits your needs and country requirements. For example the crypto exchanges in Australia might have different regulations than Canada, the UK, or the US.

You may also like: 

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