Top 5 crypto exchanges globally in 2021

Cryptocurrencies are now becoming a well-known term among average people’s life and 2021 can be considered a year for its mainstream adoption. Very recently a central American country El Salvador passed a bill recognizing bitcoin as an official currency. Many other countries like Paraguay, Mexico, Brazil, etc. are in the line to adopt and legalize crypto assets to boost its economy. Other counties are working on regulating cryptocurrencies and launching their own CDBC (central bank digital currency).

What is a Crypto Exchange?

To buy and sell cryptocurrencies, we need a platform that facilitates this transaction. Crypto exchanges provide crypto investors and crypto traders a place where they can convert fiat to crypto or from one crypto to another crypto and trade between them. It helps investors and traders to keep a check on the fluctuating market values of cryptocurrencies and connect buyers and sellers to enable trading.

How does a Crypto Exchange work?

All the crypto exchanges more or less follow a similar basic layout. They connect the buyers and sellers who are willing to make a trade. They function as:

• To buy a bitcoin, you need to place an order at the price you wish to purchase.
• Now, to sell a bitcoin, a seller will have to place an order to sell his bitcoin.
• If both your and the seller’s price offering is the same, then the exchange connects you to the seller (in the backend), and the trade succeeds.
• Exchanges take their commission on every trade that is successful.

Some exchanges provide advanced features like margin trading, derivatives, options, and futures but the basic functionality remains the same as mentioned above.

Also see - The 5 best crypto exchanges in India in 2021

Top 10 crypto exchanges globally

Top 10 centralised crypto exchanges globally are given below:

1. Binance

Binance is the world’s largest crypto exchange founded by Changpeng Zhao (CZ) in 2017 which become the largest on the planet in just under 180 days. Binance provides access to exchange digital currency pairs on the market while maintaining security, liquidity, enabling a safe and efficient deal with anyone, anytime and anywhere.

Binance is a feature-rich crypto exchange that provides almost all the future and derivatives options and crypto loans as well. Apart from the exchange, Binance offers BSC (Binance Smart Chain), a blockchain platform to build decentralized apps and digital assets that can be easily integrated to its exchange platform.

The fee structure of Binance trading platform can be seen here.

Binance Quick Stats

2. Coinbase

Coinbase is the most popular fully regulated, licensed and publicly listed US based crypto exchange that was started by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam in 2012. Coinbase offers a wide variety of products including cryptocurrency investing, an advanced trading platform, a paid pro platform custodial accounts for institutions, a wallet for retail investors, and its own U.S. dollar stable-coin.

Coinbase has made crypto trading a very easy even for beginners through its intuitive user experience. It is available on all platforms web app, iOS app and Android app but doesn’t offer a desktop client. Coinbase also has a paid Pro app that offer lower fees and better trading experience to its users. It also has the option of margin trading and advance charting capabilities. While the standard app is great for traders, Pro app is a better platform for those who wish to actively trade or invest with lower fees and more features.

The complete fee structure for both standard and Pro app can be seen here.

Coinbase Quick Stats

3. Huobi Global

Third on the list is Huobi Global, a global blockchain asset financial services provider including exchange, trade, wallet, and storage. It was started in 2013 by founders Jun Du and Leon Li and has been financed by ZhenFund and Sequoia Capital. Its accumulative turnover has exceeded 1.2 trillion USD and once became the world’s largest digital asset exchange with a global share of 50%.

Huobi is based in Seychelles and has offices in Singapore, Japan, South Korea, United Kingdom, and Hong Kong. It offers secure and credible digital asset trading and asset management services to millions of users in over 130 countries.

Similar to Binance, Huobi is a feature rich platform that offers many crypto financial services apart from exchange like options, futures, derivatives, staking and crypto loans etc. It is available in all platforms web and mobile including desktop apps for both windows and mac.

The complete fee structure of Huobi Global can be seen here.

Huobi Global Quick Stats

4. Kraken

Kraken is another major US-based crypto exchange that was started in 2011 by Jesse Powell. Its trading platform has a very rich user experience and provides spot and futures trading between Bitcoin, Ethereum, and 40+ other digital assets. With over 7 million clients, Kraken is one of the world’s largest and most successful bitcoin exchanges.

Kraken is a mix of Coinbase and Binance if you say so. With a beautiful, easy to navigate, and feature-rich UI, it also offers some very advanced trading features such as margin, stop orders and crypto short sales. It also has something called a dark pool where high-volume investors can trade anonymously.

Kraken’s fees are on par with several exchanges. It isn’t the cheapest on the market, but its maker-taker fees are lower than, say, Coinbase. The complete fee structure of Kraken can be seen here.

Kraken Quick Stats

5. Kucoin

Fifth on the list of Kucoin, a Singapore-based crypto exchange founded by Michael Gan, Eric Don, Top Lan, Kent Li, John Lee, Jack Zhu, and Linda Lin in 2013. It is also called “The People’s Exchange”. Kucoin provides users digital asset transaction and exchange services that are even more safe and convenient, integrating premium assets worldwide, and constructing a state-of-the-art transaction platform.

The founding team of the Kucoin Blockchain Asset Exchange Platform has carried out in-depth research on blockchain technology as early as 2011 and achieved the technical architecture of the Kucoin exchange platform in 2013. The Kucoin team has officially entered the blockchain asset trading service platform in 2017 with the most reliable and extended technical architecture, superior service, and better operation strategies to better serve blockchain asset transactions.

Kucoin is also an advanced trading platform like Binance and Huobi that offers advanced crypto financial services like Margin trading, Derivatives, and crypto loans.

The complete fee structure of Kucoin can be seen here.

Kucoin Quick Stats

Other well-known and notable crypto exchanges are Bithumb, Gate.io, Bitfinex, Coinone, Gemini.