Chapter 1 Best Exchanges for Trading Crypto
There are a lot of crypto exchanges out there. Gone are the days when you
were strapped for choice. Today, the choice is overwhelming. This is not
only a challenge for those new to crypto. But it also means those who are
currently using an exchange constantly have to wonder if they really do
have the best deal. Do not worry, because in this chapter I am going to give
you exactly what you need to know about the best exchanges on the market
right now. I will cover both pros and cons and compare them side by side.
This is to help you assess your options and pick the right crypto exchange
for you. I'm sure that many of you are like me and some of your friends
make fun of you when those crypto markets are in the toilet. However when
those markets are blasting off then I certainly get asked the question; what's
the best crypto exchange? Every single time I turn around and just tell them
that they're asking me the wrong question. The better one to ask is; what's
the best crypto exchange for me? After all we all prioritize different things.
So there really is no one-size-fits-all answer here. With that in mind I want
to be straight up and just say the following exchange picks are in no
particular order. Still first I will start with Coinbase Pro which is an
advanced trading platform, operated by Coinbase. So who are these
Coinbase people? Well, they were one of the first companies to enter the
crypto exchange game back in 2013. The company is based in San
Francisco and has 35 million users that have traded 220 billion dollars in
volume. Another fact is that Coinbase's most recent round of funding for
300 million dollars valued the company at 8 billion. This means it’s a pretty
serious crypto exchange. So that brings me on to a key question; who can
use Coinbase Pro? Well the good news is that Coinbase is accepted in over
100 countries. So the chances are that you'll be able to trade on Coinbase
Pro. This also includes the US in any state other than Hawaii. Signing up to
Coinbase Pro is pretty straightforward, but the thing to know is that you
need to create a regular Coinbase account first and then log into Coinbase
Pro. Your login and password for Pro are exactly the same as your basic
Coinbase account. Once you log into Coinbase Pro you'll see a trading
panel. Here, you can place a market or limit order and stops. I know that
may sound complicated and daunting to crypto newcomers but I can
promise you that it is quite straightforward. Another feature offered on this
exchange would be leveraged trading up to three times. I would not
recommend using leverage unless you know what you're doing and the
comfortable trading spot markets. For many newbies this is a very fast way
to get to a place called “wrecked”. Not a place that I recommend to anyone
to visit. When it comes to deposit methods it's a little all over the shop at
Coinbase and dependent on which country you're based in. But major
supported payment options include bank transfer, PayPal debit and credit
card. Now let’s look at the fees. It can be tempting not to pay too much
attention to these, but they do add up and can seriously eat into your long-
term profitability. There are two main fees here; deposit and withdrawal
fees and trading fees. Let's look at deposits first. The thing to know is that
ACH and swift deposits are completely free. USD wires are charged at $10
and SEPA Euro deposits incur just 15 cents in fees. Withdrawals are free for
ACH 25 for USD wires 15 cents for super transfers and $1 for swift. The
good news for people wanting to withdraw crypto off the exchange is that
this is entirely free. If you are like most people and are trading less than 10
000 per month, then you'll be paying 0.5% in trading fees. That scales down
the more volume you do. The next thing to talk about is the range of
cryptocurrencies available for trading on Coinbase Pro. Some people might
use Coinbase Pro to just buy Bitcoin and send it over to another crypto
exchange to buy more altcoins but right now about 40 different cryptos are
available for trading. That's not too bad at all. All of us hope to never have
to use customer support, but it is something worth considering when
choosing an exchange. After all it's annoying if you have a problem and
you're left hanging for ages. At Coinbase Pro you can submit a support
ticket through their form and they'll get back to you over email. But being
honest, personally had my patients stretched to breaking point by Coinbase
support. They just seem to ignore me for days so just be aware of that if you
opt for Coinbase Pro and pray you never need to reach that customer
support. Coinbase Pro does offer phone support 6 am and 6 pm but here's
the bad news. These support agents cannot help with any account specific
queries like order statuses, specific transactions or your account history.
Every customer support query I've ever made has been linked to one of
these things. So this type of support might as well not be there if you ask
me. The next thing to discuss would be security. Coinbase Pro holds 98 of
user funds offline. Those private keys are then split with redundancy,
encrypted and copied to super secure USB devices and paper backups.
These are then popped in safe deposit boxes scattered throughout the World.
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