Poloniex is crypto exchange based in the United States that supports more than 65 cryptocurrencies currently and has strong security with two-factor authentication. Poloniex is registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) as a Money Services Business (“MSB”), registration number 31000091844018. Clients funds are only used to facilitate trading through their account and the vast majority of customer deposits are stored offline in air-gapped cold storage. Poloniex offers a web-based platform, the charting package is average with several technical indicators available.

In 2014 Poloniex announced that about 12.3 percent of its Bitcoin holdings were stolen by a hacker. The hacker found a vulnerability in the code that takes withdrawals. Poloniex has provided compensation to their users, Poloniex owner Tristan D’Agosta said then: “I take full responsibility; I will be donating some of my own money, and I will not be taking profit before the debt is paid.” In spite of that, it can be said that the Poloniex network itself is relatively safe now. The verification process has two levels, the first verification level requires email verification, first and last name as well as country of residence. The second verification level requires personal information, address, phone number and a scan of the photo ID (passport, national ID, driver’s license) and a picture of the user holding Photo ID. Poloniex doesn’t support FIAT currencies, deposits are possible only in digital currencies. Some currencies have additional memos, fields, payload and minimum deposit requirements and clients should pay attention to these rules and exceptions before making deposits. There are some scam reports related to Poloniex. Some of them accuse the exchange of tempering with Ethereum Classic and making organized pumps and dumps. I have read on forums that some users complain about the rates because the rates vary, sometimes over 0.25% while sometimes as low as 0.01% daily. According to user experiences, Poloniex is also having issues with their withdrawal and their support. Some users are complaining that their withdrawal has been processed after two weeks or more. The customer support is only available on their desktop site at this time (the contact form). Some users have complained about horrible customer support from Poloniex staffers. Support requests sent to email address may be ignored and there is no live chat available at this moment. In my opinion, the customer support should be better and certainly needs some improvements. Poloniex certainly needs to increase their support staff in order to solve the support issues very fastly because newcomers might afraid investing with Poloniex. Some users are complaining that website of Poloniex is quite slow and it seems the developers did not do a good job here.

Experiences with Poloniex

Poloniex is quite overloaded at the moment, the support is answering very slowly and the website itself is quite slow and using lots of your computer’s resources. I did not find any incidents and complaints that make this exchange scam but Poloniex certainly needs some improvements to become a reliable partner. The user reviews about Poloniex are fairly mixed, complaints vary from a slow processing, lack of response by the customer support, problems with withdrawal.. In my opinion, there are lots of better exchanges available on the market. The following quotes give you a sense of what other traders think about this cryptocurrency exchange:

• Since their support takes over 60 days to respond to my tickets, I’m guessing they have no interest in fixing it
• My Account was hacked and the support service did not answer my message already a few months
• I haven’t had a single problem about Poloniex so far but just like you I always see people complaining about Poloniex
• I didn’t have any problem with Poloniex. But 2 days ago i try to open the long position in the margin trading. I closed my buy order (before I buy and start long position), but my loan was still active
• I have one bad experience with Poloniex, my account was hacked but I think it was my fault because I didn’t use two-factor authentication
• I have a negative experience with Poloniex few months ago when I tried to transfer a coin from another exchange. I waited many days but did not receive my coin so I sent them a ticket regarding my withdrawal but did not received any reply from them not until after 2 months I think

The Kraken exchange is operated by the San Francisco-based Payward Inc., the company is not under direct regulation by any agency. Founded in 2011 by Jesse Powell, this exchange has become one of the best and most secure Bitcoin exchanges. Kraken is trusted by hundreds of thousands of traders and has clients from North America, Europe and Japan. This exchange has support for an increasingly wide range of cryptocurrencies as well as fiat currencies. Kraken has a very popular platform that provides an exceptional Bitcoin exchange experience for the professional crypto traders and occasional users. This trading platform offers fast execution, innovative features, good support, and high security. Kraken supports margin trading and has very low fees compared to other more “beginner-friendly” exchanges. Customer funds reside in a bank account separate from Kraken’s operations account, and fees are transferred on a daily basis (customer funds cannot be borrowed). Fees depend on the tier in which your account belongs and are calculated as percentages of trade volumes, they range between 0% and 0.26%.

Website hacking has been on the rise lately, especially concerning cryptocurrency exchanges. The exchange hasn’t yet suffered a major hack. However, there are a few alleged reports by individuals, who claim their accounts were hacked. It is hard to verify their claims or if they aren’t to blame for mistakes like having a weak password or not enabling two-factor authentication. According to analysts, this exchange is also one of the safest that currently operate. Their security team is continually improving our end-to-end security measures, improving auditing processes, and reducing the ‘attack surface’ of their infrastructure. The company’s overall reputation is very good and Kraken stands as a reliable partner. They use a tiered system for account verification at Kraken which ranges from just facilitating digital asset deposit and trading on the lower end to processing fiat deposits and withdrawals on the higher end. Users can deposit and withdraw EUR, USD, CAD, GBP, Japanese Yen, bitcoins and other digital currencies. Kraken offers a free deposit for Euro, Canadian dollar, and Japanese yen. Fiat deposits and withdrawals are completed through SEPA, Swift, and bank wires (Fees vary from 0 – $10). Kraken makes no promises/guarantees/warranties on the outcome of potential or proposed forks, but the company will make its best effort to handle things in a way that benefits the most clients. On the official website, you can not find a live chat but you can send a message anytime via email. I have also found some reviews about Kraken’s unresponsive customer support. Kraken is active on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Experiences with Kraken

The company’s overall reputation is very good and Kraken stands as a reliable partner. I did not find any incidents and complaints that make this exchange not reliable, the user reviews about Kraken are fairly mixed. Complaints vary from a slow processing of deposits, lack of response by the customer support to stop-loss orders not triggering. I also found some negative reviews on the forums but this is connected with the situation that Kraken has been unprepared for a surge of new users and surge in trading in last several months. The following quotes give you a sense of what other traders think about this cryptocurrency exchange:

• I have been trying to get verified Tier 3 for 3 weeks now as my documentation was finally accepted a week ago, but still, I am not verified Tier 3 as that is the only way that one can deposit US Funds in order to purchase Ripple
• Was offline the last 2 days due to IT issues – enough said.
• Overall, I am very satisfied with them. Have twice transferred around 9000 USD. Each time took 2.5 days, very acceptable indeed
• The customer services are unacceptable, huge delays, no help at all
• Kraken is a little slow compared with Bitfinex
• Kraken has a very good trading platform and the fees provided by Kraken are in line with offerings by other exchanges

HitBTC does not officially provide information on the country in which they are based and this exchange is not regulated. Some reports link them to Europe, while others suggest Hong Kong. HitBTC offers over 150 digital assets and most of them are traded against Bitcoin and Ethereum. Unfortunately, due to the slow speed of deposits and withdrawals and some other problems, they deserved many negative opinions in the community of crypto traders. HitBTC offers a web-based platform, something which is common among crypto-exchanges.

HitBTC was hacked in early 2016, but didn’t provide much information on the incident. I have found on forums a few alleged reports by individuals, who claim their accounts were hacked. It is hard to verify their claims or if they aren’t to blame for mistakes like having a weak password.

I would recommend everybody to stay away from this exchange because HitBTC is not reliable. Most of the time, the wallet that you want to withdraw from has the issue. Withdrawals take forever if they work at all. According to users experiences, this is one of the worst exchanges. I have found complaints that say the interface is extremely slow, support tickets not being answered, the site is offline when too much activity. Some users have complained about horrible customer support from HitBTC staffers. Support requests sent to email address may be ignored and there is no live chat available at this moment. HitBTC certainly needs to increase their support staff in order to solve the support issues very fastly. You can verify identity by submitting a scanned image of your passport, national ID or driver’s license together with the proof of residency. HitBTC does not accept fiat currency transfers from average traders. The regular traders/investors must transfer their crypto-assets directly. HitBTC only accepts bank transfers from institutional level clients.

Experiences with HitBTC

It doesn’t look good for HitBTC and this exchange is not reliable. I don’t want to use the word scam because it is not proven yet. HitBTC is quite overloaded at the moment, the support is answering very slowly and the website itself is quite slow and using lots of your computer’s resources. The user reviews about HitBTC are fairly negative, complaints vary from a slow processing, lack of response by the customer support, problems with withdrawal, high fees.. I have also found complaints about suspicions of fake trading volume. In my opinion, there are lots of better exchanges available on the market and I would recommend everybody to stay away from this exchange. The following quotes give you a sense of what other traders think about this cryptocurrency exchange:

• Worthless exchange. Stay away !!! Customer service is bad

• Bad exchange with high withdrawal fees, HitBTC is scam

• Extremely poor customer service. Emails not answered and customer tickets not attended in days. Not recommended

• I used this exchange for a short time when I found out their fees are pretty high, this exchange also has a very bad customer support

• 2Fa login isn’t working, site is SLOW

• Zero support, they close tickets before they respond, HitBTC is scam

• If you can find another site, go elsewhere

• Withdrawal fees for new coins are astronomical

• Withdrawals getting stuck for a day now

• Absolutely the worst exchange I have used. Altcoin deposits took over 5 days to complete. When attempting to withdraw, I found the fees to be exorbitant. Currently waiting 5 hours for a withdrawal to process with no telling how much longer it is going to take

• They manipulate the market by throttling supply (making it impossible to deposit due to “maintenance”). Withdrawal takes ages, sometimes even don’t happen

• I’ve been waiting to receive my withdrawal for 49 hours now

Cryptopia is a cryptocurrency exchange based in New Zealand, the company was founded by Adam Clark and Rob Dawson in 2014. According to the official website, Cryptopia exchange is a powerful currency trading platform. Traders can deposit, trade, and withdraw Bitcoin, Litecoin, and over 400 other cryptocurrencies. The trading fees charged at Cryptopia are in line with the competition. According to some user experiences, the trading platform at Cryptopia feels a bit complicated.

There were a lot of security problems at Cryptopia. Website hacking has been on the rise lately, especially concerning cryptocurrency exchanges. The exchange hasn’t yet suffered a major hack. However, there are a few alleged reports by individuals, who claim their accounts were hacked. It is hard to verify their claims or if they aren’t to blame for mistakes like having a weak password. Online forums are full of complaints, regarding various hacking attempts. You can easily get level 1 verification from Cryptopia with just a confirmation of your email address. All traders at Cryptopia can make cryptocurrency transfers but only traders from New Zealand who verify their identity can deposit funds via bank transfer. I have read reviews about Cryptopia stating that it’s one of the best places for new users (especially for traders from New Zealand) and beginners wanting to get their first cryptocurrencies but there are also negative reviews. I have found that some users are complaining about the website, slow transactions for depositing and withdrawing, too high withdraw fees.. Email support is their main customer support tool. Support requests sent to email address may be ignored and there is no live chat available at this moment. In my opinion, the customer support should be better and certainly needs some improvements. Positive thing is that you can post your issues on their active forum on their website. Cryptopia certainly needs to increase their support staff in order to solve the support issues very fastly because newcomers might afraid investing with Cryptopia. This exchange is not a scam but Cryptopia needs some improvements to become a more reliable partner.

Experiences with Cryptopia

Cryptopia is quite overloaded at the moment, the support is answering very slowly and the website itself is quite slow and using lots of your computer’s resources. In my opinion, there are better exchanges available on the market. I did not find any incidents and complaints that make this exchange scam but Cryptopia certainly needs some improvements to become a more reliable partner. Complaints vary from a slow processing of deposits, problems with withdrawal, lack of response by the customer support to bugs and outages. I also found some negative reviews on the forums but this is connected with the situation that Cryptopia has been unprepared for a surge of new users and surge in trading in last several months. The following quotes give you a sense of what other traders think about this cryptocurrency exchange:

• No problems for me in last 6 months! Had a deposit issue with a wallet in maint, support quickly got back to me ( 30 – 45 minutes) assured me I would have my coins when maint was done & I did!
• The interface is a bit confusing, charts are nice, withdraws and deposits can take a while due to their confirmations
• The website is currently not accepting new sign ups but when I did sign up , the process was easy
• Waited 2,5 days for an USDT transaction, have the feeling my current transactions are going to take forever
• I transferred 5ltc from coinbase to cryptopia on the 5th of jan and its the 8th and still not deposited
• The slowest transactions for depositing and withdrawing in any exchange I have used
• So far personally I found no issues, my transfer was smooth. this site is very simple and easy to use very much user-friendly, you can use btc, usdt, ether or dodge coin to trade
• Great exchange. I think Cryptopia will be one of big exchange in the future. I never had problem so far using it
• Too high withdraw fees
• I have had no problems with Cryptopia
• Very safe and secure site

Coinbase is one of the most popular exchanges to buy and sell bitcoin, litecoin and ethereum. The company was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, the headquarters is in San Francisco. Coinbase is a regulated entity and complies with all applicable laws and regulations in each jurisdiction in which it operates. Coinbase currently operates in 32 countries across Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. Global Digital Asset Exchange (GDAX) is a trading platform for Coinbase, trades on this platform have a maker/taker price model, takers are usually charged 0.25% of the trade amount while makers have no transaction costs. Coinbase store the vast majority of the digital assets in secure offline storage and all USD balances are covered by FDIC insurance, up to a maximum of $250,000 per customer.

Website hacking has been on the rise lately, especially concerning cryptocurrency exchanges. The exchange hasn’t yet suffered a major hack. However, there are a few alleged reports by individuals, who claim their accounts were hacked. It is hard to verify their claims or if they aren’t to blame for mistakes like having a weak password. Coinbase has a long-standing reputation with best security practices and stable wallets. Security systems are constantly upgraded and tested to ensure that Coinbase is exceeding industry-best standards. I have read reviews about Coinbase stating that it’s one of the best places for new users and beginners wanting to get their first cryptocurrencies but there are also negative reviews. According to user experiences, Coinbase’s simple interface aims to make it easy for first-time buyers to purchase bitcoins. The company has invested a lot of time and money into making their user experience smooth and painless. The verification process requires personal information, address, phone number and a scan of the photo ID (passport, national ID, driver’s license) and a picture of the user holding Photo ID. A deposit can be made by depositing digital currency and/or Fiat currency from your basic Coinbase account, bank account or an external digital currency address into your GDAX account. I have found that some users are complaining about account closures. Forcible account closures are probably the most commonly held grudge against Coinbase. Due to the company’s tight integration with traditional banking laws, such closures are inevitable. Many users expressed their dissatisfaction with GDAX bugs and outages. Coinbase offers professional customer support round the clock – seven days a week and 24 hours a day. The support is available via email, telephone, and live chat. Over 10,100,000 users are signed up on the official website which confirms that this exchange is not a scam.

Experiences with Coinbase

I did not find any incidents and complaints that make this exchange scam but Coinbase certainly needs some improvements to become a more reliable partner. Complaints vary from a slow processing of deposits, problems with withdrawal, lack of response by the customer support to bugs and outages. I also found some negative reviews on the forums but this is connected with the situation that Coinbase has been unprepared for a surge of new users and surge in trading in last several months. Coinbase’s support answered 99Bitcoins’ claims once every 48 hours on average and this confirms that Coinbase is not a scam. The following quotes give you a sense of what other traders think about this cryptocurrency exchange:

• I have repeatedly tried to verify myself with Coinbase via a photo id but each time the process will not complete as it appears to be hung up
• Coinbase is indeed one of the top site for newbie purchasers
• Coinbase is one of most reputable bitcoin exchanges –, especially for the beginners. Yes, their support is slow and overloaded with new users
• One of the strengths of Coinbase is that the trading interface code is open source
• A friend of a friend was hacked on Coinbase and he had not heard back from anyone on Coinbases’s support team for multiple days
• Coinbase has been unprepared for a surge of new users and surge in trading in last several months
• My first transaction with this company went smoothly. The next time it took several hours for them just to broadcast the transaction to the bitcoin network
• Very easy to get verified, deposit cash and buy currency – however, it is hard to WITHDRAW money from your account
• I have been using Coinbase for three months (Oct 2017). It set up OK and my first cash transfer from my UK bank went well. However, transfers made in December are still to arrive with my Coinbase account
• To verify your account you have to send a ‘small payment’ to their bank, which is abroad, so, therefore, your bank charges you

Bittrex provides individuals and businesses a very good experience to buy and sell cutting-edge cryptocurrencies and digital tokens. Based and fully regulated in the USA this exchange supports more than 190 cryptocurrencies currently. Bittrex was one of the first companies to apply for New York’s Bitlicense, allowing it to proudly serves New York customers. Bittrex LLC is a limited liability corporation and the company’s services are subject to U.S. law. This exchange collaborates with experts in USA financial law to ensure that they remain in compliance with the evolving legal landscape. Bittrex has strong security with two-factor authentication, this exchange uses absolutely transparent and fair practices to protect all data and funds. The Bittrex platform is very simple to use and the platform processes and executes orders as soon as they are placed. With their 0.25% fee, this is one of the more expensive platforms but a strong focus on security makes this platform very attractive for the current and potential users.

Website hacking has been on the rise lately, especially concerning cryptocurrency exchanges. I found out that the fake site used the name “Blttrex” to confuse people trying to login to Bittrex. The exchange hasn’t yet suffered a major hack. However, there are a few alleged reports by individuals, who claim their accounts were hacked. It is hard to verify their claims or if they aren’t to blame for mistakes like having a weak password or not enabling two-factor authentication. Bittrex has a long-standing reputation with best security practices and stable wallets. Security systems are constantly upgraded and tested to ensure that Bittrex is exceeding industry-best standards. Traders have allegedly use Bittrex to pump and dump coins, the practice is allegedly widespread which has lead to Bittrex issuing a statement that they would notify the relevant authorities and close accounts of anyone who engaged in such a practice. The last year, Bittrex had the error in the system when user documents were merged together into a single support ticket, but Bittrex quickly removing such documents and correcting the error. The verification process takes some time and the new user verification has been put on hold. A trading account can only be managed in in BTC, ETH, USDT and there is no minimum deposit level. Before funding your Bittrex account you must first load Virtual Currency to your Hosted Wallet. Payments to and from Bittrex can only be made via cryptocurrencies and this exchange currently does not have a way to withdraw funds in USD or any other FIAT currencies. In order to withdraw your coins, you will need to generate an address using the wallet you intend to receive the coins. Bittrex has recently locked-out a lot of accounts in the days around the Bitcoin Cash hard fork. Some of the user issues with the exchange involve the company’s policy on recovering coins transferred to the wrong wallet and slow responses from the customer support. On the official website, you can not find a live chat but you can send a message anytime via email. This exchange conducts compliance audits on all new coin launches, ensuring that its users have the information they need to make informed trades. Bittrex is active on Zendesk, Facebook, Twitter and Slack.

Experiences with Bittrex

I did not find any incidents and complaints that make this exchange not reliable, the user reviews about Bittrex are fairly positive. I also found some negative reviews on the forums but this is connected with the situation that Bittrex has been unprepared for a surge of new users and surge in trading in last several months. The following quotes give you a sense of what other traders think about this cryptocurrency exchange:

• I have had a generally good experience with Bittrex
• I lost BTC on Bittrex too when I inadvertently clicked on a site that looked like Bittrex after I had googled ‘Bittrex’
• My account in Bittrex was hacked and I did not have 2fa activated, 2 BTC stolen
• I transfereed 0.0345 BTC from btcmarkets to bittrex like 36 hours ago. I am still waiting for BTC to get credited into my account
• Bittrex is my everyday exchange! They have continuous high volume, .25% fees or less, I have never had a wallet issue, they have good security measures and the customer service was super fast and responsive when I needed them to be. The trading platform is simple and practical
• Bittrex has been unprepared for a surge of new users and surge in trading

Bitstamp is a cryptocurrency exchange based in Luxembourg. In April 2016, the Luxembourgish government granted a license to Bitstamp to be fully regulated in the EU as a payment institution, allowing it to do business in all 28 EU member states. Bitstamp store the vast majority of the digital assets in secure offline storage and this exchange has transparent volume-based pricing with no hidden fees. The trading platform is very easy to use and it offers two-factor authentication. Bitstamp has created a set of their own rules which they follow in order to prevent any shady financial practices on their platform.

The exchange was last time hacked in January of 2015 and currently stands as safe and reliable. In February 2014, the company suspended withdrawals for several days in the face of a distributed denial-of-service. I have found that people behind the attack sent a ransom demand of 75 bitcoins to Kodrič (Bitstamp is headed by CEO Nejc Kodrič), who refused due to a company policy against negotiating with “terrorists”. Days after restoring service, Bitstamp temporarily suspended withdrawals for some users as a security precaution due to increased phishing attempts. In January 2015, Bitstamp suspended its service after a hack during which less than 19,000 bitcoins were stolen. This attack appears to have targeted the remaining 10-15% of cryptocurrency that is stored on servers in a data center. I also found on forums a few alleged reports by individuals, who claim their accounts were hacked. It is hard to verify their claims or if they aren’t to blame for mistakes like having a weak password. Bitstamp has a very good reputation with best security practices and in my opinion, this cryptocurrency exchange is relatively safe. Security systems are constantly upgraded and tested to ensure that Bitstamp is exceeding industry-best standards. The company has invested a lot of time and money into making their user experience smooth and painless. You can verify identity by submitting a scanned image of your passport, national ID or driver’s license together with the proof of residency. A deposit can be made by depositing digital currency and/or Fiat currency. Some users are complaining that their withdrawal has been processed after two weeks or more. I have also noticed some complaints about slightly higher fees if you are trading lower volumes. Some users have complained about horrible customer support from Bitstamp staffers. Support requests sent to email address may be ignored and there is no live chat available at this moment. In my opinion, the customer support should be better and certainly needs some improvements. Bitstamp certainly needs to increase their support staff in order to solve the support issues very fastly because newcomers might afraid investing with Bitstamp.

Experiences with Bitstamp

I did not find any incidents and complaints that make this exchange scam but Bitstamp certainly needs some improvements to become a more reliable partner. I have found some negative reviews on the forums but this is connected with the situation that Bitstamp has been unprepared for a surge of new users and surge in trading in last several months. Support was fast and everything worked just fine before this huge income of new users. Support got slower, but it is far from not existing. One thing we all need to realize is that the world is going crazy over all things crypto. Most exchanges are struggling with the number of new users / extra load on the servers etc. The following quotes give you a sense of what other traders think about this cryptocurrency exchange:

• Bitstamp is one of the most popular fiat to Bitcoin exchanges. Tracing its beginnings to the first generation of exchanges, Bitstamp provides their customers with an easy to use, secure and reliable service since 2011
• Bitstamp allows you to execute instant orders at the best bid or ask price as well as place limit orders, stop loss, and trailing stop orders. This exchange is certainly not scam
• Bitstamp is perfectly fine. So many bad reviews here are just complaints about how they can’t get an account now that the entire world is trying to trade crypto
• I’ve been with Bitstamp for almost 4 years and I’ve had zero problems
• Terribly slow customer service, weeks and weeks and still waiting for verification. Lost a lot of profit making opportunities
• I have an account on Bitstamp and I can’t withdraw my etherum and ripple
• I have not received any answer from support, 3 weeks and still waiting
• Best Platform, SEPA Money transfer takes only 2-3 days.. CC Payment is very fast.. Only support responses very slow but they answer
• Never had any issues with Bitstamp
• Support was fast and everything worked just fine before this huge income of new users. Support got slower, but it is far from not existing. I made some complaint about my deposit or display, they did reply, rather fast
• Just signed up, everything went smoothly. Uploaded all the necessary docs, Enabled 2FA, Just waiting for approval
• Their support is awful, and recently i think they are trying to keep the transfers as long as possible for themselves before releasing it to the customer account
• I am very satisfied with the service

Bithumb is the largest bitcoin and ether exchange in South Korea by volume. Bithumb is operated by a company called BTC Korea.com Co, headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. Bithumb exchange allows traders to exchange the Korean Won for Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH), Monero (XMR), Dash (DASH), Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP), Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum Classic (ETC). On the official website, there is little information to be found about the platform. The fees are stated in the company’s website usage and may change according to the company and market conditions. Users can deposit and withdraw Korean Won, bitcoins and other digital currencies. Bithumb accepts deposit via credit card, debit card and bank transfer.

The exchange has experienced significant growth recently with the rapid increase in trading volume and number of customers. Bithumb accounts for a 75.7% share of South Korean bitcoin market volume, and accounts for about 10% of the global bitcoin trade. Bithumb accounts for around 44 percent of South Korean ether trading. There’s surprising little information about Bithumb’s regulation and team available online. On the official website, you can not find any information about Bithumb’s regulation. The only available information is company registration NO.220-88-71844. Bithumb was recently hacked and that resulted in the loss of billions of won from customers accounts, approximately three percent of customers were hacked. The personal information of 31,800 Bithumb users, including their names, mobile phone numbers, and email addresses were infected by the June 2017 hack. Bithumb provided compensation in the amount of at least 100,000 KRW (~US$86.50) to each affected account. In spite of that, it can be said that the Bithumb network itself is relatively safe now. Bithumb supports both individual and corporate accounts. To register as a basic user on Bithumb, you must provide your name and nationality, and must verify your cell phone and email address. The amount of trading that you will be allowed to do depend on the level of verification that you provide. Some Bitcoin traders have kept their eyes on the Bithumb exchange as a possible opportunity to make money off of Bitcoin arbitrage (Bitcoin is usually marginally more expensive on Bithumb than it is on other exchanges). Bithumb is available to residents of Korea but in my opinion, there are lots of better exchanges available on the market. You can not find information about the minimum deposit, regulation, leverage, deposit and withdrawal are not good explained. On the official website, you can not find a live chat but you can send a message anytime via email. At present, virtual currencies are not regulated by South Korea’s financial authorities and efforts to address the matter have made little progress.

Experiences with Bithumb

Bithumb is a very big cryptocurrency exchange, which suggests it offers deep liquidity. On the other hand, however, it may attract the unwanted attention of the hackers, as it already did and the clients may suffer. I did not find any incidents and complaints that make this exchange not reliable but in my opinion, there are lots of better exchanges available on the market. Some of the user reviews also confirm this. The following quotes give you a sense of what other traders think about this cryptocurrency exchange:

• You can reach them on the phone, but they can’t act on your case, it’s very difficult to get a manager, they say that they do not speak English
• After a fist deposit too of ripples, it’s been now two-week I am waiting for my deposit, xrp charts told me that the transaction is successful, so I do not understand, after 10 inquiries I have nothing
• My ETH deposit has been missing for 14 days, you have to call customer service and hope for an agent that can communicate and understand English Fluently
• No one from Bithumb will ever call you, you will have to fork out the international calls
• Bithumb isn’t bad at all

Bitfinex is a cryptocurrency exchange that provides its services via a web-based platform and a mobile app. Bitfinex is operated by iFinex Inc., a Hong Kong based company. iFinex Inc. (BVI) operates as a financial technology company. Bitfinex offers the most liquid order book in the world, allowing users to easily exchange the major cryptocurrencies. Bitfinex is one of the world’s largest and most advanced bitcoin trading platform that is more suitable for experienced traders. The platform offers leveraged margin trading through peer-to-peer funding market and users are able to create their own charts, monitor and edit their orders and positions, track their trading history and wallets movements. Security of funds and user information is top priority, security systems are constantly upgraded and tested to ensure that Bitfinex is exceeding industry-best standards. Fees at Bitfinex are relatively fair when compared to the competition, they are 0.20% for the “takers” and 0.10% for the “makers”. Bitfinex supports a selection of 20 cryptocurrencies and the overwhelming majority of system funds are stored in offline, cold wallets.

The 2016 hack was a major blow to the company, Bitcoin worth approximately $72 million was stolen from Bitfinex users. Bitfinex first announced the security breach on August 2, 2016. The bitcoin was taken from users’ segregated wallets and Bitfinex has been tracking down the hack. Significant hacker funds transactions were signed off by Bitfinex’s security provider, without full security. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission ordered Bitfinex to pay a $75,000 fine for offering illegal off-exchanged financed commodity transactions. The company issued the so-called BFX tokens, to the victims. Due to financial regulation changes in the State of New York, certain Bitfinex services are no longer available for New York Residents.

Payments to and from Bitfinex can be made via cryptocurrencies, to deposit or withdraw fiat currencies to or from your Bitfinex account, you will need to go through the verification process. Processing times for verification can take up to 5+ weeks, depending on the level of public interest. Verification is essential for users wishing to deposit/withdraw fiat currencies; however, you are free to deposit, trade and withdraw cryptocurrencies, and can do so immediately upon signing up. On the official website, you can not find a live chat but you can send a message anytime via email. The customer support should be better and they should try to resolve problems of their clients faster. Bitfinex is active on Facebook and Twitter. This is definitely a good and reliable exchange but according to the user reviews this exchange should try to be more “user-friendly”. As the interface and the exchange’s features are failry complex, I highly recommend that new traders take the time to become fully acquainted with all relevant aspects before depositing any funds or engaging in trading.

Experiences with Bitfinex

Despite getting hacked and losing $72 million in customer funds, Bitfinex remains a popular option for serious traders. Because of its complex interface, it’s probably only a good choice for traders with good experience. The following quotes give you a sense of what other traders think about this cryptocurrency exchange:

• Definitely, if you are looking for an easy and friendly exchange/wallet, Bitfinex is not for you
• I had a positive impression about this site before I had to open a ticket with their supporting team to resolve my 2FA problem. Has already been 12 days and they have not reply to my ticket
• A functioning website is expected, but having to wait for 2 weeks for the support team to reply (still not resolved) is simply unacceptable
• It is an excellent exchange, very fluid. and fast interface and very clear accounts in transactions, customer service is excellent, respond within 24 hours after the consultation, good security, and easy to withdraw all funds
• Been using Bitfinex for over a year now and I’m happy with their service. Even how they handled the hack some time ago, all the services on top of just trading, the UI is advanced, but if you know your way around it, it works fine

Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange based in Shanghai. Led by Changpeng Zhao, Binance team have experience in both wall-street and crypto finance. Binance team also have a track record of successful startups under their belt. According to the official website, Binance is one of the fastest exchange in the market today because their certified matching engine is capable of processing 1,400,000 orders per second. Binance supports a selection of the 90+ cryptocurrencies and payments to and from Binance can only be made via cryptocurrencies. The Binance platform is very simple to use and the platform has been deployed on 30+ exchanges already. It supports all devices and multiple languages, offering a seamless user experience. This platform has 0.1% trading fee, if you have BNB, you can choose BNB to deduct 50% trading fee (temporary).

Binance is growing very rapidly and has a good reputation, lots of reviews confirm this. Binance is a relatively new cryptocurrency exchange and it is not surprising that Binance has not yet been hacked. I did not find any incidents and complaints that make this exchange not reliable. The exchange itself provides a whole host of tools that help traders make decisions, and the user experience (UX) is pretty fluid. This cryptocurrency exchange has strong security with two-factor authentication and uses absolutely transparent and fair practices to protect all data and funds. A verification process is very easy and is not complicated but clients can only deposit and withdraw the coins supported at the exchange. The most obvious issue with this exchange is the fact it is focused mainly on the Chinese market but you could still use this cryptocurrency exchange if you are based elsewhere. On the official website, you can not find a live chat but you can send a message anytime via email. This exchange conducts compliance audits on all new coin launches, ensuring that its users have the information they need to make informed trades. Customer service is also is active on Facebook, Twitter, Weibo and Wechat. Binance is still a very new company/exchange and the project hasn’t been around long enough to actually prove itself. Some analysts advise creating an account with them with outmost caution and always put in mind that when it comes to new websites, only time can tell if they are good or not.

Experiences with Binance

Binance has solid relationships with industry leaders, you can check this at the list of investors and advisors who are willing to stand behind their platform. I did not find any incidents and complaints that make this exchange not reliable, the user reviews about Binance are fairly positive. The following quotes give you a sense of what other traders think about this cryptocurrency exchange:

• I use Binance regularly. I love it. I am using it as my wallet. You can buy almost all cryptocoins on Binance with ETH and BTC
• Binance does not strike the same chords for me that others have done, its liquidity is very high, which is incredibly important for any exchange.
• Binance is transparent about its fee structure, Binance’s trading fee is 0.1% on all trading
• This exchange has a strong team with a track record of successful startups and security systems are constantly upgraded and tested to ensure that Binance is exceeding industry-best standards
• Their website doesn’t have any lag issues so this is great
• I don’t like the fact that clients can not deposit fiat currency / USD, etc on their account. Binance currently only allows the deposit of other cryptocurrency and tokens
• Customer support lacks phone and the website is not for beginners