Ready to buy your first cryptocurrency but unsure which exchanges have the lowest fees? We’ve compiled a list of the top 10 exchanges by 24 hour trading volume and the trading fees they charge.
While there are considerations for choosing the best exchange for your trades other than fees, knowing what fees you’ll be paying up front minimizes the reduction on your trading gains.
Before we dive in, exchanges will have fees listed for makers and takers. Makers and takers fees are 2 types of fees that you will be subject to when trading on crypto exchanges.
Here are how these terms are defined in the crypto space:
Maker – This term comes from the idea of a market maker. This is someone who provides liquidity to the market by placing limit orders (buy or sell) on the order books, essentially helping to “make the market.” Thus, they are rewarded with lower fees for adding volume to the order book.
Taker – This is someone who places an order (buy or sell) at the market price, which immediately gets filled (i.e. taken). Thus, because they are taking liquidity off the market, their fees are usually higher than maker fees.
Example of common fee calculations:
Example 1:
Maker fee of 0.10% on $10,000 = $10 fee | $9,990 net
Taker fee of 0.20% on $10,000 = $20 fee | $9,980 net
Example 2:
Maker rebate of 0.01% on $5,000 = $0.50 rebate | $5,000.50 net
Taker fee of 0.15% on $5,000 = $7.50 fee | $4,992.50 net
**Trading volume changes daily and the top 10 cryptocurrency exchanges may change on a daily basis. These exchanges were the top 10 by trading volume at the time of writing.
Exchange Fees for the Top 10 Crypto Exchanges
1. Changelly
Changelly is a Malta-based cryptocurrency exchange that was founded in 2013 by by Konstantin Gladych. The exchange is a non-custodial one that opened its trading operations in 2015 with over 150 assets listed for trading. The exchanges allows users to purchase assets with fiat currencies, and both debit and credit cards.
In addition to listing several assets, it also also offers APIs and widgets for crypto services, and an affiliate program that allows its most active users to receive a 50% commission through referrals. Affiliate partners include CoinMarketCap, CoinGecko and CoinSutra.
The following countries are unsupported: Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Crimea, Sudan, Syria, United States of America (including all USA territories like Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Island, and the US Virgin Islands (St. Croix, St. John and St. Thomas), Bangladesh and Bolivia, and any other country subject to United Nations Security Council Sanctions List.
After the first month, there are no limits to transactions.
- Takers – 0.50%
- Makers – 0.50%
2. Binance
Binance is a popular China-based cryptocurrency exchange that launched live trading in July 2017. They started in China but moved their HQ to the crypto friendlier Malta.
Read: How to Use Binance
It has quickly grown to be the largest and most popular exchange due to its low trading fees. It offers education, tools and charts for traders as well as basic and advanced user interfaces so that both newbies and pros can use the service. The advanced version offers more in depth technical analysis of crypto values over time.
Up to 100 BTC trading volume within 30 days and not using BNB:
- Maker fee – 0.10%
- Taker fee – 0.10%
*Discount applied when using Binance coin (BNB) for transactions
3. OKEX
OKEX is a futures trading platform launched by OKCoin.com, a large Chinese digital assets exchange. It’s focused on BTC and LTC futures. They provide hundreds of tokens and futures trading pairs to help traders optimize their trading strategy.
OKEX has stricter standards on who they can serve and is currently not available for Hong Kong, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Crimea, Sudan, Malaysia, Syria, the US, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Bolivia and Kyrgyzstan, either because these countries are on the UN Security Council Sanctions List or its citizens are restricted from trading on crypto exchanges.
Up to 100 BTC trading volume within 30 days:
- Takers – 0.15%
- Makers – 0.10%
4. Huobi
Huobi is based in Singapore, and is focused primarily on the Asian market. It announced a US-based strategic partnership with HBUS to serve US customers.
It claims to have the best customer service of all cryptocurrency exchanges with its 24/7 customer service support. It also has pre-trade education programs for their new customers. Trade fees are the same for makers and takers unless you have VIP level fee pricing.
- Takers – 0.20%
- Makers – 0.20%
5. Bithumb
Bithumb is the largest South Korean exchange, with their HQ in Seoul, South Korea. They have been operating since 2013 but did get hacked previously in 2017 so be aware of this if you do choose to use their exchange services.
Their focus is primarily on Korea but they do support English, Chinese, Spanish and Hindi translations on their site. They claim they have the lowest fee of all exchanges but this is only the case if you use the Bithumb voucher or make large trade volumes.
- Takers – 0.15%
- Makers – 0.15%
*Discount applied if using fixed amount discount coupon – fees are 0.075% to 0.01%
6. Bitfinex
Bitfinex is based in Hong Kong and was founded in 2012.
The exchange is focused more on intermediate and advanced traders as well as institutional traders. They recently ceased US service to focus on their customers in the rest of the world. They’ve suffered a number of attacks on their site, leading to a large focus on security, but this is always one element to consider when choosing an exchange.
Up to $500K USD trading volume within 30 days:
- Makers – 0.10%
Up to $1MM USD trading volume within 30 days:
- Makers – 0.08%
Up to $10MM USD trading volume within 30 days:
- Takers – 0.20%
7. HitBTC
HitBTC positions itself as the “most advanced Bitcoin exchange” due to its advanced order matching algorithms. It has been around since 2013 but recent reviews have revealed some issues with their customer service and a lack of response from the company on service tickets.
The sign-up process is easy and simple and they don’t require registration, just a simple account sign up. Their fee structure is a bit unique because they offer makers a rebate, rather than charging a fee.
- Takers – 0.10%
- Makers – 0.01% rebate
8. ZB.com
ZB.com launched in 2017 and is based in Hong Kong. It’s primarily aimed at the Asian market, especially China, but anyone can sign up for an account and the site is available in Mandarin and English.
They have versions for both beginner and advanced crypto traders. The advanced trader interface is sleek with a great UI and has technical indicators, drawing and analysis tools, multiple order types and in-depth market information. The beginner’s interface is user friendly while still offering enough features to make trades and perform basic technical analysis.
- Takers – 0.20%
- Makers – 0.20%
*Discount available for VIP traders
9. Bit-z
Bit-z launched in 2016 and is based in Hong Kong.
The UI is intuitive and well designed with price charts, real-time market information, charting tools, technical analysis indicators, reports and trade histories. It uses bank-level SSL technology to ensure that all transactions are secure.
It offers services worldwide but does warn it doesn’t accept customers who are residents of the Federal Republic of Germany or the State of New York in the US due to the regulations in those places. Users have complained about the slow withdrawal time, which is apparently due to the company manually checking each request. This might be an important consideration if you’re looking for fast liquidity.
- Takers – 0.10%
- Makers – 0.10%
10. Bibox
Bibox is a Chinese exchange that launched in 2017. It uses smart AI algorithms to help with executing the best trades and transactions to maximize returns. The site supports Mandarin, English, Korean, Russian and Vietnamese.
There are two layouts – a simple one that condenses information into a small screen space and a full screen one that focuses on charts. One thing to note is that some of the altcoins that are on this exchange are not all the popular ones, and they offer many unpopular altcoins.
They have a promotion enabling registered account holders to get 50% commission per trade from people that they refer to Bibox.
- Takers – 0.10%
- Makers – 0.10%
*Discount applied when using BIX coin for transactions – 50% in year 1 but reduces every year until 0% discount in year 5.
11. LBank
LBank was launched in 2016 and is a Chinese exchange, based in Hong Kong. They focus on Asian markets but provide services worldwide and support Mandarin and English on their site, although the English translation is limited to some pages and support in English is slow and cumbersome.
Their UI is simple and clean and offers advanced technical analysis indicators such as MACD, KDJ, RSI and CCI.
- Takers – 0.10%
- Makers – 0.10%
Save and share this handy infographic of cryptocurrency exchange fees!
(Click here for the full-size image)
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Contributed by Cynthia Huang
Cynthia is a polymath, passionate about tech, marketing, writing and innovation. She’s extremely excited about the forthcoming disruptions that will arise out of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. In her spare time, she loves to read, cook, cuddle with her two puppies and travel the world.
