To buy crypto, you need to sign up to a crypto exchange. There are many crypto exchanges where you can buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, and other cryptocurrencies. Some crypto exchanges have only a few coins available while others have literally thousands.

5 Things to Look for in Crypto Exchanges

When searching for the ideal crypto exchange to purchase crypto, there are a few things to look for.

1. Deposit methods

It’s no good signing up to a crypto exchange that doesn’t support your local fiat currency or preferred funding method.

2. Verification Process

You will need to provide identification on a reputable exchange. If an exchange doesn’t ask for this, run away!

3. The number of coins available

If you’re looking to buy a particular coin you’ll need to find an exchange that offers it.

4. Fees

Some exchanges have high fees and others have low fees. Keep this in mind.

5. Restricted regions

Not every crypto exchange will serve your country, so make sure you check first.

Getting Verified

All crypto exchanges will have some variation in the sign-up process, especially when regulations differ across the globe. Generally, though, you will need to create an account by giving your name, email, phone number, and possibly address and occupation.

Next, you’ll need to provide images of a government-issued ID, a selfie with a piece of paper with various information written on it e.g. today’s date.

Sometimes you will be asked to provide proof of address as well. Sometimes verification happens immediately and other times the compliance team at your chosen exchange will manually verify your information. Don’t be alarmed if this happens – it happens a lot and is normal.

Funding Your Account with Money

Once you’ve signed up and been verified, then you can fund your fiat wallet. What’s a fiat wallet? Well, your dollars, pounds, euros etc are fiat money. Some exchanges only support one fiat currency while others will support lots. So make sure you find one that supports yours.

To fund your fiat wallet, there will usually be a button within your user dashboard called “deposit” or “add funds”. Next, you can select which fiat wallet you want to fund. So if you have USD you’ll want to fund the USD fiat wallet.

Deposit methods accepted vary between exchanges. If you’re in Canada and wish to fund your account with an e-Transfer, which is usually free to do and sometimes your only option, then you’ll want to select this method when funding your account.

If you’re in the UK, look for GBP Faster Payments as a fast and free deposit method. If you’re in Europe, look for SEPA. If you’re in the US, bank transfers and credit/debit cards are usually accepted.

Sometimes deposits happen almost instantly while sometimes they can take hours or days. Check your crypto exchange’s deposit information.

Fees

Once you’ve deposited funds into your account you’re ready to buy crypto. You’ll be limited to the cryptocurrencies available on your chosen crypto exchange.

Fees vary wildly between crypto exchanges. Some offer free deposits to your fiat wallet and free withdrawals from your fiat wallet (back to your bank account) while some charge a small fee.

You will usually find that you have to pay trading fees as well. These trading fees sometimes include a small commission for the exchange, but mostly they cover the network fees. You see, when you buy cryptocurrency, you are really moving the crypto from the seller’s wallet to yours. That costs money.

Remember we mentioned miners on our homepage? Well, miners are incentivized to keep the crypto networks running and to validate transactions by receiving transaction fees as payment. The more “congested” a network, the higher the fees. A network can become congested when there are lots of people all around the world buying and selling that coin. If a coin’s network can only handle a small number of transactions per second, this leads to congestion.

Best Crypto Exchanges

Some crypto exchanges will be simple and beginner-friendly. Others will look more complicated and scary. Below, we’ve listed some of the most popular and reputable crypto exchanges in the world.

They support a wide range of cryptocurrencies, deposit methods, fiat currencies, and have varying fees. They are suitable for people in the US, UK, Canada, and all around the world. All of the exchanges listed here are great choices for beginners.

Keep in mind if you are looking to pay with a card, that credit card crypto transactions are often rejected by banks all over the world. You will have better luck with a debit card. If you are able to use a bank transfer instead, that is the best, and often cheapest, choice.

Coinbase

Coinbase is one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world. It is US-based and was the first crypto exchange to have an Initial Public Offering (IPO). Coinbase accepts USD, CAD, EUR, GBP and more. You can pay via bank transfer, Paypal, Apple Pay, credit/debit cards, Faster Payments, and SEPA.

Best for people in: USA, Europe, UK, Australia

If you sign up to Coinbase, refer a friend and they meet certain conditions, you’ll both receive free Bitcoin.

Bitbuy

Bitbuy is a Canadian crypto exchange that supports CAD deposits via Interac e-Transfer. It also accepts credit card payments.

Easy to use, and with the cheapest trading fees around, Bitbuy is a great choice. Not only do you get the cheap fees comparable to Binance and Kucoin, but you get an easy deposit method with Interac. Binance and Kucoin do not offer this for Canadians.

Bitbuy is also the first regulated crypto exchange in Canada meaning it extremely safe, secure and compliant. No other Canadian crypto exchange can compare to Bitbuy when it comes to peace of mind. Not only that, but Bitbuy holds 99% of funds in cold storage, with most exchanges holding only 97% in cold storage.

Best for people in: Canada

crypto.com

Crypto.com is an easy-to-use crypto exchange that has an enormous amount of coins to choose from. Crypto.com supports deposits in USD, CAD, EUR, GBP, AUD, and BRL.

They also have great-looking metal Visa crypto cards that you can get for free. Depending on how much crypto.com coin (CRO) you have, you can get various rewards. These rewards range from Netflix and Spotify reimbursement to airport lounge access, to discounts on Expedia and Airbnb. You can also get cashback on purchases.

If you sign up using this link and apply for a Ruby card, you’ll receive $25 USD.