The Best Australian Bitcoin Exchanges
Check out our reviews, rankings and comparisons of the best exchanges to buy bitcoin and crypto in Australia.
Looking to buy bitcoin in Australia? Well look no further! Our handy guide outlines all the best Australian exchanges and brokerages in one convenient spot.
While there is a vibrant bitcoin community in Australia, the market is a bit problematic due to the lack of sustained AUD liquidity at the exchanges. Most active Australian bitcoin traders buy bitcoin locally and then transfer to an international USD exchange, which sucks bitcoin out of the local AUD marketplace. As a result, the exchange volume is depressed to the extent that brokerages often fill larger orders at more attractive prices.
The largest exchange, BTCmarkets, does have OK liquidity for small to mid-sized orders. Coinjar is our favorite brokerage in Australia, with good pricing, cheap fees, and a number of convenient and unique services for the Australian bitcoin user. But read on for information on all the important exchanges, and click through to their individual reviews for even more information.
Best Australian Bitcoin Exchanges
Btcmarkets
BTC Markets is the big fish in Australia's unfortunately small bitcoin exchange pond. The exchange does a good job as an onramp to exchange AUD into bitcoin, and back again if needed.
- Australia's most popular exchange
- Largest exchange by volume
- Liquidity can still be an issue
Bitcoin
Ethereum
Litecoin
Bitcoin Cash
Ethereum Classic
Ripple
- 0.85-1%
- Australia
- AUD
- Bank Wire
BTCMarkets is pretty universally thought to be the best cryptocurrency exchange offering local AUD markets, with the top five coins represented. You’ve got the local deposit options covered, the peak trading hours correlate to Australian peak times, and the fees are reasonable.
The problem with BTCMarkets has less to do with the product and more to do with the market; there simply is not all that much AUD liquidity. 24 hour volumes range from about 180 to 250 btc, depending on the day. Unfortunately, this does not really cut the mustard – the larger international exchanges are doing 20,000+ in daily btc volumes – and btcmarkets might not even be in the top 200 btc exchanges by volume.
That is not to say that BTCMarkets is not a decent exchange to buy your bitcoin cheaply. However, if you are an active trader or you are looking to fill a large order, you might have problems with BTC Markets and, by extension, any Australian dollar exchange.
Independent Reserve
Independent Reserve is the number two exchange in Australia, which is sort of like being an average fish in a small pond.
- Number two Australian Exchange
- Better fees than BTC Markets
- about 50% of the volume of BTC Markets
- Bitcoin
- Ethereum
- Litecoin
- Bitcoin Cash
- 0.5-0.1%
- Australia
- AUD
- Bank Wire, EFT, POLi
Independent reserve attempts to make up for its volume deficit to BTC Markets via a pretty big discount in fees. Perhaps this is enough during peak trading hours; however, IR generally runs at about 50% of the volume of the already liquidity-challenged BTC Markets making it basically a no-go for larger orders – on the standard exchange, in any event.
No doubt cognizant of its large order issues, Independent Reserve has opened an OTC desk which promises guaranteed pricing, quick settlement, and caters to orders of $500k and over. The OTC route is quite interesting, but it could very well be a glorified brokerage service. It very well could be that Independent Reserve has massive institutional clients waiting to make off the exchange trades; we find it more likely that this OTC program is just a different fancy way to label a brokerage service; meaning that the trades will simply be passed on to larger international exchanges which can handle the volumes. We would be happy to hear thoughts on this one, please do leave a comment below if you have any information on this aspect of the IR business.
Australian Bitcoin Brokers
CoinJar
Coinjar is not the most intuitive platform right out of the box, but the team there has spent the last five+ years integrating a number of very unique services or the Australian bitcoin market.
- Cheapest Australian brokerage by a good ways
- Get a debit card integrated with your account
- Often has better pricing than the exchanges
- Bitcoin
- Ethereum
- Litecoin
- Ripple
- 1%
- Australia
- AUD
- BPay, Blueshyft
Coinjar offers a full suite of services to Australian customers that really differentiates them from their local competition. Most notably, Australians are eligible for a debit card called the Coinjar Swipe, which functions exactly as a normal debit card and allows customers to spend or withdraw their bitcoin as Australian dollars. They also offer a hedged account which pegs your holdings to their current value in Australian dollars, should you want to sit on the sidelines during a particularly volatile period.
Fees are very good at 1%, par with the top Australian brokerages. Their pricing is very competitive as well – as is often the case in Australia where liquidity is an issue, brokerages will often beat buying through the exchanges.
Cointree
Cointree is a fast and simple way to get your hands on Bitcoin for AUD. Get instant conversion to bitcoin directly into your CoinTree wallet.
- Simple and quick way to buy bitcoin
- Pricing is set around market standard
- 3% fee includes depositing as well
- Bitcoin
- 3%
- Australia
- AUD
- Cash, POLi
We have spotchecked the amount of bitcoin that can be purchased for a specific AUD amount multiple times, and Cointree usually offers the best pricing. This is despite having a fee that is higher than, for instance, Coinspot. Note also that the Coinspot pricing does not include deposit fees, which are included in the quoted CoinTree rate.
In other words, don’t get turned off by the all-in 3% fee, as the actual bottom line pricing seems to be superior to the competition. Pricing will be better at the large international exchanges. But unless you are planning a big purchase the wire and conversion fees will largely offset any savings, savings which might not be worth the sacrifice in convenience and simplicity.
CoinSpot
Coinspot has got 100+different altcoin markets against the Australian Dollar, with OK pricing and additional fees of around 1%. While there are cheaper options elsewhere, trading in AUD is convenient.
- Tons of altcoins available for trade against AUD
- Usually among the most expensively priced crypto in the market
- Not the best reputation
- Bitcoin
- Ethereum
- Litecoin
Augur- Bitcoin Cash
BitShares
Dash
Decred
DigiByte
DigixDAO
Dogecoin
EOS- Ethereum Classic
Factom
GameCredits
Golem
IOTA
Komodo
Lisk
Monero
NEM
NEO
Nxt
OmiseGO
PIVX
Qtum- Ripple
SALT
Steemit
Stellar
Storj
Stratis
Syscoin
Tether
Tron
Waves
Zcash
- .25% exchange, 1% brokerage
- Australia
- AUD
- Cash, BPay, POLi
While Coinspot claims a 1% fee on transactions, they generally sport the worst actual pricing when compared to the competition when buying bitcoin. However, Coinspot is unique in offering tons of different altcoins against AUD. Obviously they act as a broker and clear trades via international exchanges like binance, but really who cares? Coinspot is the only place where you may deposit AUD and buy such obscure shitcoins as iExec or Ripio, rather than going through the whole process of deposit AUD, buying bitcoin, transferring the bitcoin to a large crypto exchange like Binance, and then buying whatever alt you are after.
They also offer an AUD exchange against five different coins, but do not have adequate liquidity to qualify as usable.
buyabitcoin
If you are looking to buy bitcoin with cash and you live in Australia, BuyaBitcoin is basically your only option.
- Buy bitcoin with cash
- Requires making a bank deposit within an allotted time period
- 3% fee is high but reasonable
- Bitcoin
- 3%
- Australia
- AUD
- Cash
Interested in buying bitcoin with your Australian Dollars? Buyabit is a cash-only service in which customer’s deposit into nominated accounts and have the bitcoin sent to their third party wallet. Buyabitcoin is relatively easy to get started with, as only an email and telephone number are required. For those looking to sell bitcoin, there is actually a very marginal fee – less than 1% included in the quoted spread.
Market Comparison
We used the bitcoinaverage Australian dollar price and compared it to the price offered at the different exchanges. We then added the additional fees a user can expect to pay in order to arrive at a real estimate of the best bitcoin pricing in the Australian exchange market.
| Brokers | Difference from BitcoinAverage | Brokerage Fee | BPay | Poli | Internet Banking | Cash | BlueShyft |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coinjar | -.44% | 1% | Free | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1.5% |
| Cointree | +0.7% | 3% | Included | Included | Included | N/A | N/A |
| Coinspot | +1.25% | 1% | 0.9% | Free | N/A | 2% | N/A |
| Buyabitcoin | 1% | 5% | N/A | N/A | N/A | Included | N/A |
Coinjar is the pretty definitive winner in terms of bitcoin pricing. For those using Poli, your second best option looks to be coinspot, while we prefer CoinTree to Coinspot when using BPay simply because the small difference in cost does not overcome CoinTree’s superiority in service and product in our opinion.
Additional Exchanges to Consider
If you are an active trader, it makes the most sense to use one of the brokerages listed above to get your AUD into bitcoin or your bitcoin into AUD. However, for trading purposes, it is probably best to use highly liquid international exchanges.
If you are interested in trading for leverage, we would recommend checking out Bitmex.
Bitmex offers high leverage on both spot and futures markets across six different cryptocurrencies. All trades are collateralized in bitcoin but traded against the USD market price. A price index comprised of a few of the top exchanges are used to set the price, with the spot market using a funding mechanism to ensure the bitmex market stays more or less aligned with the real index price. Bitmex has ridiculous liquidity volumes, with billions of USD traded daily. The fees are also extremely low, and leverages used are adjustable to suit your needs.
Altcoin traders should also have a look at Binance.
Binance is the number one cryptocurrency exchange, with their altcoin pairs generally boasting the top volume in the marketplace. Additionally, their Bitcoin/Tether market is massive, meaning it is a great place for trading bitcoin as well if you aren’t looking for leveraged trades.