Crypto Exchanges: 5 Things to Look for Before You Choose

Crypto exchanges are getting robust and more versatile by the day. There are plenty of features that they are capable of providing a trader with. But what are the ones that would make or break the deal for you? We give you some handy tips and some filters to find an exchange made just for you!

The trading community is evolving every day. From enterprising youngsters to the leading techpreneurs, cryptocurrencies have caught the fancy of the sharpest minds. If it has made you curious enough to start investing as well, it might be a good idea to start with recognising your needs before you select one from the available crypto exchanges. 

Before we move forward with the technicalities, we would like to highlight exactly what crypto exchanges do and why they are crucial for a great trading experience. They are usually the first vehicles to consider for traders to carry out secure trade and stay connected with the most updated market momentum.    

What Are Crypto Exchanges?

 A crypto exchange makes it possible to trade cryptocurrencies and digital currencies directly against other known assets. You can also, of course, trade one cryptocurrency against another. 

To make our lives easier, most of these exchanges provide a large number of services. This is especially important when you are a new trader. Some exchanges like CoinField itself, provide beginners and advanced traders options. This means that when you start out, you could have a simplified interface in front of you so that you don’t get overwhelmed and confused. When you have learnt your way through things, you can always access the more advanced features. For example, CoinField has ‘quick’ trading options and ‘advanced’ trading options. 

What Should You Look For In An Exchange?

Selecting the right crypto exchanges can be a bit of a challenge. There are so many considerations that you may miss out on. According to a recent report, generated after surveying traders from over 75 countries, says that actually experimenting between exchanges can be quite common. However, there are certain factors that all traders that participated in the survey think are important. Among these are the trading fees, the diversity of currency pairs, security and bonuses. 

However, choosing between crypto exchanges is very much a personal choice. For some trading fees matter but not as much as credibility and security. For some great bonuses and ease of trading matter more than any other factors. For that reason, we will not put a strict hierarchy here on the factors that are important in crypto exchanges. 

We will, however, give you exactly what to narrow down on. 

1. Security 

Super important to know at this point when cryptocurrency is quite the talk of the town and new exchanges are springing up every fortnight, is to trust the one you think will be a safe place to carry out your trade. There are platforms that require KYC validation before trading and take extra care that the trade happens between trusted parties. Mostly this KYC process is well-assisted and pretty smooth. For example, to verify your CoinField account, you can simply just submit an identity document and the support will contact you. 

cryptocurrency exchanges: look for security!

In fact, there are two important terms that should be looked out for to know whether your exchange follows the right processes or not. 

A) Know your customer (KYC):

Refers to due diligence activities that financial institutions and other regulated companies must perform to ascertain relevant information from their clients for the purpose of doing business with them. The term is also used to refer to the bank regulation which governs these activities. Know Your Customer processes are also employed by companies of all sizes for the purpose of ensuring their proposed agents’, consultants’ or distributors’ anti-bribery compliance. Banks, insurers and export credit agencies are increasingly demanding that customers provide detailed anti-corruption due diligence information, to verify their probity and integrity.

B) Anti-money Laundering (AML):

It is a set of procedures, laws or regulations designed to stop the practice of generating income through illegal actions. In most cases, money launderers hide their actions through a series of steps that make it look like money coming from illegal or unethical sources was earned legitimately.

Apart from this, there are some extra measures related to the platform itself which could be important.  For example, the CoinField platform is hosted by isolated servers. It also ensures proper encryption by utilising multi-signature cold storage wallets. Other terms to look for (which our platform already provides again|) could be DDoS protection, 256-bit SSL, and 2FA.

You should also make sure that the exchange allows third parties to audit its platform and infrastructure pretty often. 

2. Diversity Of Currencies

The diversity of currencies available is also an important consideration. For novice traders, Bitcoin (BTC) might be the attractive one. However, it is not the only cryptocurrency to stick by, there is plenty to explore. 

Pro traders value a wide variety of selections and want an option that lets them invest early. So it makes sense to choose an exchange that even gives them access to trade the lesser-known cryptocurrencies. 

Crypto exchanges: diversity of pairs on coinfield.com

This might be pretty confusing to prioritise in your early days. In case you already know what you want to trade in, it would therefore be better to just look for those and dive in. You can always diversify your portfolio at a later stage.

At the moment, there are many exchanges that have a variety of currencies available. The most noted amongst them offer the most popular currencies but also a pretty good chance for you to be able to diversify in the future. With CoinField, you can trade in more than 20 cryptocurrencies. These include Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Stellar Lumens, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, DigiByte, and more. 

3. Rewards And Bonuses

Cryptocurrency rewards are super attractive. But there is also a significant amount of vigilance you have to follow in order to get the right rewards. Some of them may be just ways to lure you in.

The best way to find the most suitable cryptocurrency exchanges in terms of the rewards they offer is to narrow down on what their active traders say.  Mostly, via their social media channels or their online reputation, you can do a quick scan. 

Good exchanges usually offer great benefits and provide their user with free rewards,. This is important to keep the trading community active and interested. The referral program is one of the best ways to increase free capital as well as some relief on trading fees. These are easy to convert and have no risk-involved bonuses. Since you can check their viability almost instantly. 

Top some exchanges, give you more flexibility and let you make free deposits and give out free cryptocurrencies. For example, CoinField awards free CFC coins on various offers. You can take a deep look at these competitive incentive programs i.e Referrals, Partnerships, and  Social media contests

4. User Friendliness And Customer Support

The user interface of trading terminals is one of the most important since they help in creating ease of understanding. The same goes for solid customer support. For most people, this could mean a make or break. 

The reason why we’ve put these two things together is that they are pretty similar to each other in terms of retention. And both could create an instant turn-off. 

Evaluate the ease of creating an account. This would be the first interaction with the platform and the people you will make. Usually, this would give you a good idea of how things will be. Some exchanges go out of their way and provide sign-up benefits, benefits on your first deposit, etc. 

The next thing you can evaluate is how they solve your problems and how readily they are available. A lot of cryptocurrency exchanges are global and available 24/7. CoinField has its presence in 193 countries and the support is super active and responsive. 

5. Fee

Last but not the least, in all matters of money, fees are important. In trading especially, understanding the fees and comparing one with the other is difficult. Yet, it is important to know if you are going to associate with this exchange in the long term. The easiest way to check is to look at their fee structures which are usually given on the website. 

The good news is that as competition increases and trading risk perspectives reduce, the fees will meet some standardisation. 

At the moment, there are many exchanges that are known for their low fees and great credibility. CoinField offers low fees on various transactions. 

According to the survey referred to earlier in the article, trading fees are of great importance for traders in an interesting way.  

Among the traders surveyed, 65% don’t mind trading fees. However, only 36% agree that charging a fee for crypto withdrawals is fair. While just 29% find fiat withdrawals acceptable.

This means that as the industry grows and we see widespread adoption, things might significantly change. All depends on the trader’s sentiment toward the fees and the exchange’s sincerity. 

At CoinField, we are constantly looking for ways to make your life easier when you trade. More benefits and really less to no fees – those are important to you and to us. 

Trading cryptocurrencies requires a good amount of research. We hope this article helped you do some helpful digging before you dive into it!

Disclaimer

Please note that this is not trading advice. We recommend you to carry out your own research before making any trading decisions. This article is for informational purposes only.

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