The Best Altcoin Exchanges of 2018
The altcoin exchange market has mushroomed thanks to the billions and billions of dollars that have flooded the market. Learn about the best altcoin exchanges that allow you to begin trading immediately.
The Top Altcoin Exchange in the Market
Binance
Binance has become the market leading exchange in terms of liquidity, low fees, and number of crypto pairs. They also trailblazer in terms of innovation and valuable giveaways to customers. Get 10% off your trading fees, exclusive to BitReview customers.
- Two bitcoin daily withdrawal limit on all accounts
- top of the market liquidity on hundreds of altcoins
- Fees as low as .05%
Bitcoin
Ethereum
Litecoin
Augur
Banx Shares
Bitcoin Cash
BitShares
BlackCoin
BlockSafe
Bytecoin
Cardano
Clams
Cloakcoin
Counterparty
Dash
Decred
Diamond
DigiByte
DigixDAO
Dogecoin
EmerCoin
EOS
Ethereum Classic
Factom
Feathercoin
Franko
GameCredits
GetGems
Gnosis
Golem
Golos
Gridcoin
Gulden
HEAT
InfiniteCoin
IO Coin
IOTA
Jumbucks
Komodo
Lisk
MaidSafeCoin
MasterTrader
Monaco
MonaCoin
Monero
Monetary Unit
Namecoin
NEM
NEO
NeosCoin
NeuCoin
Novacoin
Nubits
Nxt
OKcash
OmiseGO
Omni
OpalCoin
Peercoin
PIVX
PotCoin
PrimeCoin
Qtum
Ripple
Rubycoin
SALT
Sapience
Scotcoin
Startcoin
Steemit
Stellar
Storj
Stratis
SuperNET
Sync
Synereo
Syscoin
Tether
Tezos
Transfercoin
Tron
Ubiq
Vanillacoin
Vericoin
Vertcoin
Viorcoin
VPN Coin
Waves
Zcash
- .03-0.1%
- Global
- Crypto Only
- Crypto Only
How did a multicoin exchange which launched years after well-established competitors like Bittrex and Poloniex manage within a few months to dominate the market? We chalk it up to a few very important distinctions:
- New Users are able to withdraw up to 2 btc worth of coin everyday with no real KYC requirements.
- The fees are the lowest in the market – lower if you are willing to pay them using the Binance coin, which takes them down to .05%.
- Trading is easily accessible cross platform – not only is the site mobile friendly, it already has an Android app and an iPhone app in beta. And there is a downloadable client as well.
- The platform, developed by ex-OKCoin CTO Changpeng Zhao, has proven fast and reliable.
Add to this the valuable competitions they often run, and the lack of meaningful difference in coin offerings between Binance and its predecessors, and it is not surprising that Binance is now far and away the most liquid altcoin exchange in the market.
Really, we might stop this article right now and tell you to simply go to Binance, were it not for one problem, which might be considered inevitable when a services provider goes parabolic – support has not been able to keep up with growth. Note again, that you should not really need support, as for most traders 2 btc daily limits are sufficient. Binance actually ceased accepting new users for a time (they DO accept new users at time of writing) simply because they were unable to cope with the massive demand. So, our next two exchanges reviewed are much smaller than Binance, but their more diminutive size allows for better support.
Best Altcoin Exchange: Runner up
Changelly
The Changelly multicoin exchange offers 55+ Cryptocurrencies for trade at some of the best rates in the market. No minimum or maximum trade sizes.
- Brokerage that sources your best altcoin price
- Orders sent to your chosen external wallet
- Fees of approximately 1% included in price
- Bitcoin
- Ethereum
- Litecoin
- Augur
- Bitcoin Cash
- Bytecoin
- Dash
- Decred
- DigiByte
- Dogecoin
- EOS
- Ethereum Classic
- Factom
- GameCredits
- Gnosis
- Golem
- Golos
- Gulden
- Komodo
- Lisk
- MaidSafeCoin
- Monaco
- Monero
- NEM
- NEO
- Nubits
- Nxt
- OmiseGO
- PIVX
- PotCoin
- Qtum
- Ripple
- SALT
- Steemit
- Stellar
- Storj
- Stratis
- Synereo
- Syscoin
- Tether
- Waves
- Zcash
- 0.5%
- Global
- Crypto Only
The next pair of exchanges, Changelly and Shapeshift, are also basically interchangeable. They both operate as brokers. Customers send the crypto they are selling directly to Changelly or Shapeshift account and indicate the wallet to which the bought crypto should be sent. The rates are displayed ahead of the purchase, inclusive of the ~1% fee taken by the brokers. Users need not open an account nor input any data at all, aside from the wallet to which the crypto should be sent.
The transfer is not actually simultaneous, and so you might be waiting a bit to receive your coin. However, it will get there, fear not. For those looking to quickly and easily buy particular altcoins for holding, these brokers provide an excellent solution.
The Best of the Rest:
Gate.io
Gate.io has really excellent tether markets. It has 100+ tether markets, which we think might be tops in the business. As a matter of fact, it’s eth/usdt market has passed both Poloniex and Bittrex, which is a nice little victory for Gate.
And Ethereum seems to be it’s top altcoin. The btc/usdt market is also ample, but there are no additional bitcoin crosses that have really top notch volumes (eth/btc is alright). Yes, their fees are twice that of Kucoin – .2% as opposed to .1% – but provided you are not a massive day trader, this is most likely somewhat negligible. Another note in Gate.io’s favor is the, in our opinion, smarter trading interface.
Kucoin
Kucoin
Kucoin is a relatively new exchange out of China with hundreds of coins available, pretty good volumes, and no KYC to get started.
- 100s of altcoins on offer
- instant registration
- No KYC
- Bitcoin
- Ethereum
- Litecoin
- Augur
- Banx Shares
- Bitcoin Cash
- BitShares
- BlackCoin
- BlockSafe
- Bytecoin
- Cardano
- Clams
- Cloakcoin
- Counterparty
- Dash
- Decred
- Diamond
- DigiByte
- DigixDAO
- Dogecoin
- EmerCoin
- EOS
- Ethereum Classic
- Factom
- Feathercoin
- Franko
- GameCredits
- GetGems
- Gnosis
- Golem
- Golos
- Gridcoin
- Gulden
- HEAT
- InfiniteCoin
- IO Coin
- IOTA
- Jumbucks
- Komodo
- Lisk
- MaidSafeCoin
- MasterTrader
- Monaco
- MonaCoin
- Monero
- Monetary Unit
- Namecoin
- NEM
- NEO
- NeosCoin
- NeuCoin
- Novacoin
- Nubits
- Nxt
- OKcash
- OmiseGO
- Omni
- OpalCoin
- Peercoin
- PIVX
- PotCoin
- PrimeCoin
- Qtum
- Ripple
- Rubycoin
- SALT
- Sapience
- Scotcoin
- Startcoin
- Steemit
- Stellar
- Storj
- Stratis
- SuperNET
- Sync
- Synereo
- Syscoin
- Tether
- Tezos
- Transfercoin
- Tron
- Ubiq
- Vanillacoin
- Vericoin
- Vertcoin
- Viorcoin
- VPN Coin
- Waves
- Zcash
- 0.1%
- Global
- Crypto Only
- Crypto Only
Many favor Kucoin over Gate due to their 50% cut in fees; they do have a slightly lower trading volume, however, though liquidity is definitely ample in dozens of important coins.
Kucoin offers offers many coin drop promotions for obscure small caps you might be interested in, and perhaps it is worth having an account just for that reason. There is currently no KYC requirement, and new traders will have no problem accessing new accounts.
Bittrex
Bittrex
Bittrex has decisively pulled ahead of Poloniex thanks to their superior product. 100s of coins available for trading, however, the KYC process is no longer a walk in the park.
- Hundreds of altcoins on offer
- requires full KYC to begin trading
- better on mobile than Poloniex
- Bitcoin
- Ethereum
- Litecoin
- Augur
- Banx Shares
- Bitcoin Cash
- BitShares
- BlackCoin
- BlockSafe
- Bytecoin
- Cardano
- Clams
- Cloakcoin
- Counterparty
- Dash
- Decred
- Diamond
- DigiByte
- DigixDAO
- Dogecoin
- EmerCoin
- EOS
- Ethereum Classic
- Factom
- Feathercoin
- Franko
- GameCredits
- GetGems
- Gnosis
- Golem
- Golos
- Gridcoin
- Gulden
- HEAT
- InfiniteCoin
- IO Coin
- IOTA
- Jumbucks
- Komodo
- Lisk
- MaidSafeCoin
- MasterTrader
- Monaco
- MonaCoin
- Monero
- Monetary Unit
- Namecoin
- NEM
- NEO
- NeosCoin
- NeuCoin
- Novacoin
- Nubits
- Nxt
- OKcash
- OmiseGO
- Omni
- OpalCoin
- Peercoin
- PIVX
- PotCoin
- PrimeCoin
- Qtum
- Ripple
- Rubycoin
- SALT
- Sapience
- Scotcoin
- Startcoin
- Steemit
- Stellar
- Storj
- Stratis
- SuperNET
- Sync
- Synereo
- Syscoin
- Tether
- Tezos
- Transfercoin
- Tron
- Ubiq
- Vanillacoin
- Vericoin
- Vertcoin
- Viorcoin
- VPN Coin
- Waves
- Zcash
- 0.25%
- Global
- Crypto Only
- Crypto Only
Yes, we put Bitfinex and Poloniex below Kucoin and Gate despite their having superior liquidity and a longer track record. We do this for one reason only: these two exchanges have all the same issues concerning onboarding and support as Binance, and they are, in our opinion, inferior exchanges. Or in other words – if you are a new trader looking to get into cryptoassets, there are very few reasons we can think of to select Bittrex or Poloniex over Binance.
We see Bittrex and Poloniex also as interchangeable, but will highlight the differences that get Bittrex in the number four spot. First, it offers mobile trading. Trading on mobile with Poloniex is basically impossible. Bittrex also has far more liquid pairs than Poloniex, though that depends on the specific cryptoasset.
Poloniex
Poloniex
Poloniex provides a web-only cryptocurrency exchange, with over 150 on offer. While liquidity is decent and fees are good, support is lacking and the platform is at times unstable.
- Better fees than Bittrex but platform a bit shaky
- recently disabled all legacy accounts and required full KYC
- liquidity has dropped precipitously over the last 6 months
- Bitcoin
- Ethereum
- Litecoin
- Augur
- Banx Shares
- Bitcoin Cash
- BitShares
- BlackCoin
- BlockSafe
- Bytecoin
- Clams
- Cloakcoin
- Counterparty
- Dash
- Decred
- Diamond
- DigiByte
- DigixDAO
- Dogecoin
- EmerCoin
- EOS
- Ethereum Classic
- Factom
- Feathercoin
- Franko
- GameCredits
- GetGems
- Gnosis
- Golem
- Golos
- Gridcoin
- Gulden
- HEAT
- InfiniteCoin
- IO Coin
- IOTA
- Jumbucks
- Komodo
- Lisk
- MaidSafeCoin
- MasterTrader
- Monaco
- MonaCoin
- Monero
- Monetary Unit
- Namecoin
- NEM
- NEO
- NeosCoin
- NeuCoin
- Novacoin
- Nubits
- Nxt
- OKcash
- OmiseGO
- Omni
- OpalCoin
- Peercoin
- PIVX
- PotCoin
- PrimeCoin
- Qtum
- Ripple
- Rubycoin
- SALT
- Sapience
- Scotcoin
- Startcoin
- Steemit
- Stellar
- Storj
- Stratis
- SuperNET
- Sync
- Synereo
- Syscoin
- Tether
- Tezos
- Transfercoin
- Ubiq
- Vanillacoin
- Vericoin
- Vertcoin
- Viorcoin
- VPN Coin
- Waves
- Zcash
- 0.2%
- Global
- Crypto Only
- Crypto Only
Poloniex might have slightly better customer support than Bittrex, falling in the horrid rather than vomitous range. However, the platform has had serious issues with stability as of late, and this might be the reason it’s liquidity has plummeted over the last 12 months compared to the competition.
Poloniex also has slightly lower fees at .2 rather than Bittrex’s .25%, and more volume in the coveted eth/btc pair.
Best Multicoin Exchange that Accepts Fiat Deposits
Bitfinex
Bitfinex leads the pack in terms of liquidity, it offers margin accounts across numerous cryptocurrencies, the fees are low, and they even offer a lending market which can be used as an interesting hedge for bitcoin holders.
More Info
When bitfinex launches your coin, you know you have made it to the big time. We are talking instant, massive, game changing USD market liquidity. Bitfinex does not have the trading volumes of Binance, but it usually ranks as the top USD volume for the most important altcoins. If you are looking for the penny stock types, Bitfinex is not for you.