Best Bitcoin Exchange

Founded in 2011 by Jesse Powell, Kraken is one of the oldest and most popular Bitcoin exchanges. Its headquarters are based in Cheyenne, Wyoming, USA.

At some point, Kraken was considered one of the largest Bitcoin exchanges in terms of the Bitcoin to Euro trading volumes. In 2014, Kraken became the first exchange to get listed on the Bloomberg terminal. As of July 2025, Kraken has a daily trading volume of around $425 million.

One thing that makes Kraken great is its flexible UI. You can easily switch between the basic interface and Kraken Pro depending on your needs and trading experience. The basic interface includes features like instant buy/sell and auto-invest, making it perfect for beginners and those who prefer simplicity when trading Bitcoin.

On the other hand, Kraken Pro is a great choice for advanced users and is commonly used by high-volume professional investors. For experienced users, Kraken provides excellent trading tools, in-depth charts, and analysis.

As a centralized exchange, Kraken uses both hot and cold storage to store users' funds. It offers a variety of features like 2FA and a master key for the security of users. Additionally, Kraken is the first exchange to pass a cryptographically verifiable proof-of-reserves audit. These make it one of the safest and best places to buy Bitcoin in the US and other regions that it serves.

📚 Related Reading: How to Withdraw Money from Kraken

At the time of writing, Kraken supports more than 430 cryptocurrencies, including popular options like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero, Dash, Litecoin, and Ripple.

Key Features

Now that I've gone through the essential information about Kraken, let's see some of its key features that make it one of the best Bitcoin exchanges you can choose:

• The exchange is operational in more than 190 countries all over the world.
• Kraken accepts deposits in fiat currencies, which include: USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, AUD, and CHF.

• The platform supports margin trading, derivatives trading, as well as earning features.
• It supports a variety of payment methods, including credit/debit cards and bank transfers.
• Kraken offers competitive fees. Transaction fees can range from 0.0% to 0.25% for makers and 0.08% to 0.40% for takers, depending on your trading pair and trading volume.

All in all, with its robust security measures, flexible interface, and strong regulatory compliance, I can confidently recommend Kraken as one of the best places to get BTC.

Founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, Coinbase is often considered the best Bitcoin exchange the US has produced. It’s also one of the largest broker exchanges globally, with a daily trading volume of around $1.7 billion as of writing. It’s frequently cited as one of the largest US-based exchanges when it comes to trading volume.

What truly makes Coinbase stand out is its user-friendly design, making it the first choice for many newcomers entering the world of Bitcoin. The platform's simple interface, along with its well-designed iOS and Android apps, makes buying Bitcoin feel as easy as online banking.

It even provides straightforward charts that are easy to understand even for beginners, but still helpful for more advanced users.

In terms of security, Coinbase is widely regarded as one of the safest cryptocurrency exchanges available. The company claims that 98% of customer crypto funds are stored in offline cold wallets, while the remaining 2% kept online is fully insured. Additionally, customer fiat funds are stored in custodial bank accounts, offering another layer of protection.

📚 Read More: Is Coinbase Safe?

Aside from Bitcoin, Coinbase offers a decent range of crypto options, including Ethereum, Solana, Ripple, and 250 others. While not the largest options available out there, Coinbase still offers very decent choices if you want to diversify your portfolio.

Key Features

Now with the general overview out of the way, let's take a look at some important factors you need to know before choosing Coinbase as your preferred place to buy Bitcoin:

• It serves 100+ countries and is very popular in the US, Europe, Canada, and Singapore.
• Coinbase accepts payment methods like credit cards and bank transfers, depending on your location.
• A downside of Coinbase is that it charges quite high transaction fees, sometimes as high as 4.5%.

• Coinbase accepts more than 60 fiat currencies, including USD, GBP, and EUR.
• Coinbase is one of the very few exchanges to provide customer support over the telephone.
• In addition to the exchange, Coinbase also provides a cryptocurrency wallet to its users.

If you're a beginner, I can't recommend Coinbase enough as one of the best Bitcoin exchanges you need to try. With an intuitive interface and strong security measures, it is a great place to start your crypto journey.

Gemini was founded by the Winklevoss twins in 2015. Yes, they are the same twins who sued Mark Zuckerberg for stealing their idea of a social networking site. As of writing, Gemini has a daily trading volume of around $390 million, making it the 17th largest Bitcoin exchange by volume.

As one of the best Bitcoin exchanges, Gemini offers services in more than 70 countries globally, including the UK, Singapore, and all 50 US states, with full regulatory compliance and licensing coverage. Like most other secure exchanges, it offers 2FA (2-factor authentication), address allowlisting, and support for hardware security keys to provide an additional layer of account protection.

📚 Related Reading: Cryptocurrency Security Guide

Another positive note on Gemini’s security is that it is one of the few platforms licensed under a NYDFS-limited purpose trust charter as a digital asset exchange and custodian. On top of that, it also holds several other licenses, including ISO/IEC 27001:2013, SOC 1 Type 2 Exam, SOC 2 Type 2 Exam, and PCI DSS. So, even from a regulatory perspective, it can be considered secure.

As you can see in the screenshot below, Gemini has a very simple and beginner-friendly interface. It provides live updates on prices, orders, and balances. Overall, it is a well-designed and feature-rich platform that is suitable for both beginners and advanced users. So, is this enough to make it the best Bitcoin exchange?

It might be. However, there is an area in which Gemini loses to its competitors – crypto availability. It only supports around 70 cryptocurrencies. So, anyone who is interested in a broader range of cryptocurrencies, especially more niche altcoins, may deem Gemini unsuitable for them.

Key Features

Aside from all the things I mentioned above, Gemini also comes with a set of useful features. Let's take a look at some of the notable ones that make it one of the best Bitcoin exchanges:

• On Gemini, you can buy Bitcoin with USD. Gemini supports various payment options, including credit/debit cards and bank transfers.
• Gemini charges a fee of 0.25% on each trade. They also charge a fee depending on whether you are a seller (taker) or a buyer (maker).

• Gemini’s clean design and user-friendly app make it super easy to buy Bitcoin, even if it’s your first time navigating a crypto exchange.
• For more experienced users, Gemini’s ActiveTrader platform offers advanced charting, lower fees, and fast order execution, perfect for serious BTC trading.
• You can also set recurring Bitcoin purchases on the exchange.

Another interesting feature of Gemini was the “Auction” feature. Gemini conducted auctions every day from 2016 to 2022, which involved trading large volumes of crypto assets (particularly Bitcoin and Ethereum) in a short time. Unfortunately, this mechanism was officially discontinued, and related auction order book files were decommissioned on June 24, 2022.

So, that was the Gemini Bitcoin exchange for you! It can be considered secure, user-friendly, cheap, and feature-rich. However, it only accepts USD as a fiat currency and doesn't offer that many different cryptocurrencies compared to its competitors.

CEX.IO was launched in 2013 in London and originally offered both Bitcoin exchange and cloud mining services via its GHash.io subsidiary. However, it shut down its cloud mining operations in January 2015 to focus more on its Bitcoin exchange service.

It has one of the best user interfaces among all the Bitcoin exchanges, which is important for being named the best Bitcoin exchange. This makes it simple to use and one of the best Bitcoin trading platforms for beginners. So, even as a newbie, you can very comfortably purchase Bitcoin from CEX.IO.

Moreover, it offers excellent features and tools for more advanced users.

Since 2013, there have been no known security breaches for CEX.IO. In a market where most of the top exchanges have faced security issues, this is an excellent track record. While it is not very clear, CEX.IO claims to store users’ funds in offline cold storage. It also provides regular security features such as 2-factor authentication (2FA).

Overall, CEX.IO seems to be one of the best Bitcoin trading platforms as far as security is concerned.

However, I want to emphasize that there have been numerous user complaints involving locked accounts, withdrawal delays, and poor customer support, some even alleging loss of funds due to compliance actions or failed verifications. So, make sure your region is fully supported before choosing the platform as your best Bitcoin exchange.

Another downside of CEX.IO is that it charges higher fees than most other exchanges. There are three types of fees involved: deposit/withdrawal fees, transaction fees, and margin trading fees.

Key Features

To help you decide if CEX.IO is the best Bitcoin exchange for your needs, here are some key components you should consider:

• CEX.IO lets you buy Bitcoin using three fiat currencies: EUR, GBP, and USD.
• It supports multiple payment methods such as credit cards, bank transfers, and even SEPA transfers for EU users.
• It provides a margin trading feature for various markets, including BTC/USD, BTC/LTC, ETH/BTC, and XRP/BTC.

• CEX.IO uses a unique Fill-or-Kill (FOK) method for transactions, which makes it possible to execute orders instantly.
• It has a mobile app for both iOS and Android users.

All in all, CEX.IO seems to keep things simple without cutting corners. I think it's great for both first-time buyers and more experienced traders.

Coinmama is one of the older and better-known crypto exchange platforms that is mostly known for its top-tier security features, as well as the fact that it's available in 190 different countries around the world, and in most US states.

One of the key focuses of Coinmama is to allow its users to access (buy, sell, trade, swap) Bitcoin in as simple a manner as possible. Thus, the exchange has streamlined all of these aforementioned processes, so that they'd be approachable even to complete industry newcomers.

In order to purchase some crypto on Coinmama, all you need to do is create an account and then navigate to the [Buy Crypto] page located at the top of the homepage. The rest is self-explanatory!

While Coinmama has had a hiccup in the past, the company takes user data and asset security very seriously. It applies all of the industry-standard security features to its operations. So, you can expect things such as two-factor authentication to be present, with everything that you do on the exchange.

Furthermore, there are multiple different features focused on keeping your assets safe and sound within Coinmama itself. Granted that it's one of the older exchanges in the industry, this also speaks for the platform's reliability.

Key Features

Now, to cap this overview off, let's take a look at Coinmama's key features that make it one of the best Bitcoin exchanges:

• Supports many of the main cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, and Dogecoin.
• Coinmama supports a wide selection of different fiat currencies, as well as a variety of fiat payment methods, too (SEPA, SWIFT, credit and debit cards).

• Coinmama's fees range from 0.99% up to 3.9%, depending on a selection of different criteria that you might come across (the general situation that the market is in, your loyalty level, etc.).

Considering its broad support for both crypto and fiat, Coinmama seems like a solid option, especially if you value flexibility in your transactions.

Poloniex was one of the top crypto-to-crypto trading platforms back in the day. It was launched in January 2014 by Tristan D'Agosta and is based in Wilmington, Delaware. In February 2018, digital payments company Circle acquired Poloniex. As reported in Fortune magazine, the deal was worth $400 million. That said, let's see if Poloniex has what it takes to be called the best Bitcoin exchange.

One of the major strengths of Poloniex is that it supports over 400 coins, which is more than some other exchanges offer. At the time of writing, Poloniex has a daily trading volume of around $736 million, making it the 21st largest cryptocurrency trading platform.

Poloniex has a very user-friendly and efficient interface. It is easy to navigate even for beginners. It’s not only simple but also provides a lot of useful information, data analysis tools, and in-depth charts. So, it would be fair to say that it is quite useful for advanced users too.

Like other exchanges, Poloniex offers 2-factor authentication and browser recognition tools. It also implements 24/7 system monitoring and 100% Proof of Reserves for added transparency, which makes it a secure Bitcoin exchange on paper.

That being said, in March 2014, Poloniex suffered a security breach and lost 12.3% of all the Bitcoin it held. As mentioned before, security is very important if you want to be called the best Bitcoin exchange. Once the attack was stopped, CEO D’Agosta promised to reimburse Bitcoin to all the affected customers. Poloniex paid off the debts and upgraded its security.

While no major breaches have taken place since, the overall sentiment about the security of Poloniex still isn’t that great. It is advisable to store your coins in an external wallet after trading on Poloniex or any other centralized exchange.

📚 Check Out: Safest Cryptocurrency Exchanges

Key Features

Now, let's take a look at some of Poloniex key features that put it in several best Bitcoin exchange lists:

• Back in the day, Poloniex did not support any fiat currency like EUR, USD, JPY, etc. Now, you can easily buy Bitcoin and other crypto using fiat via its instant buy feature.
• Unlike many other exchanges, Poloniex supports margin trading for most of the top cryptocurrencies with 3x leverage.

• On Poloniex, you can earn passive income from staking and Flexi Max features.
• The exchange works on the maker-taker model and offers tiered fee discounts based on 30‑day volume and TRX holdings, rewarding users who contribute liquidity with lower maker fees.

Overall, I think Poloniex can be a decent option when you want to buy Bitcoin, especially if you want to try margin and futures trading. That said, always consider security track record, and I highly suggest you to use a hardware wallet like Ledger Flex to store your crypto assets.

Bitstamp is one of the oldest exchanges that was founded in 2011 by Damijan Merlak and Nejc Kodrič. It has grown to become one of the most popular exchanges, especially in Europe. In June 2025, Bitstamp was acquired by Robinhood to expand its global crypto presence and enter international markets.

In total, the exchange is currently available in over 100 countries. Bitstamp has offices in Luxembourg, London, and New York. As of writing, Bitstamp ranks as the 16th largest crypto exchange, with a daily trading volume of around $306 million.

It has been around for a long time and has built a sturdy reputation for itself, being known as one of the best places to buy Bitcoin with fiat currency.

Bitstamp is suitable for both beginner and advanced users. It has a simple interface in which you can create an account, add funds, and then start trading by clicking on buy/sell. Detailed graphs and trading parameters are also available for advanced users.

Unfortunately, Bitstamp has been slow in adding the new and more niche altcoins. Currently, it only supports around 190 trading pairs with approximately 130 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Ripple (XRP).

When it comes to being the best Bitcoin exchange, security breaches do not look good. The interesting part, however, is that Bitstamp has still managed to maintain its popularity even after experiencing a major attack. Plus, as of 2025, it hasn't faced any other breaches since the 2015 hack.

That's probably because Bitstamp follows all the necessary practices to ensure the security of users' accounts. In addition, it is also compliant with the CSSF (Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier) in Luxembourg, which ensures extra security for its users’ funds.

It then goes another step further by placing USD customer deposits in FDIC‑insured bank accounts, meaning your fiat USD balances are protected up to the standard $250,000 per depositor, per bank, in the event the bank fails.

Besides, after being acquired by Robinhood, Bitstamp started getting more and more licenses around the world, including the MiFID MTF license and the MAS license in Singapore.

While no Bitcoin exchange can be considered 100% secure, Bitstamp has done a great job of enforcing and maintaining a high standard of security since the 2015 attack.

Key Features

So, is Bitstamp the best Bitcoin exchange for you? Before you make the decision, let's take a look at some of the platform's key features to help you understand it better:

• It’s a centralized exchange that matches your buy and sell orders against other users on its order book, rather than selling you coins out of its own inventory.
• Bitstamp accepts debit and credit cards, in addition to bank transfers. Plus, it supports payments through SEPA, SWIFT, and ACH.

• Trading fees charged by Bitstamp are quite competitive. While the maximum fee for makers is 0.30% and 0.40% for takers (for the trading volume of less than $10,000), it can go down to as low as 0% and 0.03% for 30-day trading volume greater than $1 billion.
• Bitstamp has a mobile app for both Android and iOS users.

Considering its transparent peer-to-peer model, flexible payment methods, and attractive fee structure, Bitstamp offers a compelling choice for users looking for a reliable Bitcoin trading platform.

Crypto.com is a prominent player in the cryptocurrency world, offering a comprehensive suite of financial services centered around digital assets. Founded in 2016, the platform has grown rapidly, boasting a user base of over 100 million by mid-2024.

Crypto.com provides a user-friendly app for buying, selling, and trading around 400 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and many altcoins. Beyond its exchange services, Crypto.com offers a non-custodial DeFi wallet, an NFT marketplace, and even a direct payment service for cryptocurrency transactions.

One of Crypto.com's most recognizable features is its Visa card, which allows users to earn cashback in CRO, the platform's native token, on their everyday spending. The card comes in various tiers, each offering different levels of rewards and perks, such as rebates on streaming subscriptions and airport lounge access.

Crypto.com also takes security seriously. It holds all customer assets deposited on our platform in institutional-grade reserve accounts on a 1:1 basis. Users’ accounts are protected by the latest security advancements, including Passkeys, HSMs, and FIDO2, as well as MFA methods like passwords, biometrics, and authenticator codes.

It also runs an active bug bounty program on Hacker One, where people can disclose security vulnerabilities on the platform and get rewards.

Robinhood is a popular commission-free investment platform that gained widespread recognition for democratizing access to financial markets. Initially known for its user-friendly mobile app and commission-free stock trading, Robinhood has expanded its offerings to include options trading, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and cryptocurrencies.

The platform's intuitive interface and simplified trading experience have attracted a younger generation of investors, making it easier for them to start investing with smaller amounts of capital. Robinhood's appeal lies in its ease of use, particularly for beginners who might find traditional brokerage platforms intimidating.

While Robinhood offers access to a growing number of cryptocurrencies, its selection is generally smaller compared to dedicated crypto exchanges at around 40 assets.

Despite that, Robinhood takes security seriously. It holds the majority of users' coins in cold storage, entirely disconnected from the internet. Robinhood also carries crime insurance that protects a portion of the assets held across its storage systems against losses from theft, including cybersecurity breaches.

The platform also provides multi-factor authentication on all accounts, so users can protect their assets even further. Last but not least, Robinhood maintains strong US regulatory compliance, holding licenses from the New York State Department of Financial Services and FinCEN.