Crypto exchanges
Best Bitcoin Exchanges 2022 (Buy Bitcoin, NFTs and other cryptocurrencies)
Around the world, approximately 600 cryptocurrency exchanges are available to those who wish to trade bitcoin, ethereum and other digital assets. Unfortunately, such exchanges can vary widely in cost, quality and safety. In order to combat these discrepancies, we have handpicked some of the top exchanges worldwide.
Crypto.com Exchange/Wallet
Sign up on crypto.com wallet get up to $25 USD in crypto (smartphone only)
If you are looking to buy and store Bitcoin or just cryptocurrency in general you should really take your time and read up about different crypto wallets and exchanges. A cryptocurrency wallet is where you store all of you different crypto coins and digital assets. If this is your first venture in to cryptocurrency a well known exchange/wallet is not a bad place to begin.
Eventually you will always need a exchange perhaps not for long term storage but for buying and exchanging one crypto for another.
Centralized Exchanges
Centralized crypto exchanges (CEX) are managed by one organization. Centralized exchanges make it easy to get started with cryptocurrency trading by allowing users to convert their fiat currency, like dollars, directly into crypto. The vast majority of crypto trading take place on centralized exchanges.
Some crypto enthusiasts object to centralized exchanges because they go against the decentralized ethos of cryptocurrency. Even worse in the eyes of some crypto users, the company or organization may require users to follow Know Your Customer (KYC) rules. These require each user to divulge their identity, much as you would when you apply for a bank account, to combat money laundering and fraud.
There’s another concern with centralized exchanges: hacking. With a CEX, the exchange holds the crypto traded on its platform—at least in the short term, while trades go through—raising the risk of hackers stealing assets.
In order to manage this risk, centralized cryptocurrency exchanges have strengthened their security protocols in recent years. Some of the most popular methods include keeping the majority of customer assets in offline storage and taking out insurance policies to protect against crypto losses due to hacking.
For added security, those who prefer the convenience of a centralized exchange should consider transferring their crypto to an off-exchange hot or cold wallet.
Decentralized Exchanges
DEXs decentralize the responsibility for verifying and executing cryptocurrency trades, leaving it instead to any willing participant in the network. This echoes the way most blockchain-based cryptocurrencies already operate, allowing accountability and transparency to rise as well as ensuring exchanges remain operational, no matter what may happen to the organization that originally created them.
The issue is that decentralized exchanges are often much harder to use compared to centralized exchanges, both in terms of navigating their user interface and when it comes to converting between currencies. For instance, DEXs do not typically allow you to deposit dollars then exchange them for cryptocurrency – meaning that if you do not already own crypto, you will have to use a centralized exchange first in order to obtain the currency that you then trade on the DEX.
You may need to do direct peer-to-peer trades which can be time consuming and if there is low liquidity, you may have to compromise on price in order to buy or sell the low volume cryptocurrency quickly.