Trading cryptocurrencies is a stressful but rewarding experience. When you have a profitable strategy, all you need is the right platform to help you execute, and you’re making money. Selecting the right exchange is a critical part of setting up your business as a crypto trader.
As a crypto trader, you need to take your trading seriously. If you don’t research the right exchange to suit your trading style, strategy, and the size of your account, you could end up making a bad mistake that costs you a significant portion of your account balance.
In this review, we’re going to look at two of the most prominent exchanges in the cryptosphere – Binance and Bittrex.
What Do You Need to Know About Bittrex?
Founded in 2014, Bittrex is one of the most established crypto exchanges. Richi Lai and Bill Shihara started the company in Las Vegas, and its corporate offices are still in Sin City. Bittrex has the edge over Binance in its track record, and you think that would be important. However, the reality is that Binance does a lot more business than Bittrex.
Bittrex was one of the early adopter platforms allowing for the listing of new coins on its exchange. Bittrex currently supports more than 190 currencies and tokens, but it’s been slow to add new coins after the bursting on the Great Bitcoin Bubble back in 2018. Bittrex halted new ICOs registering on its platform after the SEC cracked down on ICOs in late 2017.
What Do You Need to Know About Binance?
Binance is the brainchild of CZ, Changpeng Zhao. This young and brilliant entrepreneur founded Binance in Shanghai but had to pick up the exchange and flee to Japan when China announced a crackdown on all crypto exchanges.
The Japanese financial authorities also presented a hostile environment for the Binance team, so the team relocated to Malta, where they enjoy tax haven status away from the eyes of financial regulators. Binance started with an ICO raising $15-billion to seed fund the platform.
Binance supports hundreds of cryptos and tokens, and most developers want their coins listed with Binance because it creates an instant market for their business.
Binance is an unregulated exchange, meaning it requires no KYC policies to sign up for the platform and start trading cryptos.
Bittrex Or Binance Market Is Bigger?
When it comes to comparing the markets, both Binance and Bittrex are not regulated crypto exchanges. As a result, they do not offer deposits or withdrawals in fiat like US Dollars or Euros. If you want to trade on these exchanges, you’ll have to use BTC or another crypto exclusively. However, as of late 2019, both platforms now cater for deposits using Visa and MasterCard.
While both have a similar structure, and Bittrex is the more established of the two exchanges, it might surprise you to learn that Binance is the bigger fish in the pond. Binance trades in 612 markets and supports trading with more than 500 tokens and cryptocurrencies.
Trading more than $4-billion in volume every day, Binance is a behemoth, and ranks third on the list for top exchanges in terms of liquidity, with more than $73-million available.
On contrast, Bittrex is number 20 on the list of exchanges with the best liquidity. Traders need liquidity to prevent slippage in trades. Slippage describes the adjusted pricing loss between your execution and your fill. Exchanges with low liquidity will give you more slippage, especially in thinner markets with obscure pairs.
Bittrex has daily volumes approaching $250-million, and trades in 376 markets, which is a little more than half of what’s on offer at Binance.
Which One Is Cheaper? Bittrex Or Binance?
Binance and Bittrex make money by charging your trading fees. Binance has the lowest trading fees in the industry. This pricing strategy was a bold and clever move on behalf of the Binance management team. Although the exchange was a latecomer to the industry, they saw a flood of new customers due to the lowest trading fees available.
As a result, Binance shot to the top echelons of the exchanges doing the most volume. Attracting new business allowed the company to grow quickly, allowing it to dominate with the big exchanges like Bitfinex, BKEX, and Huobi.
One of the most interesting and exciting offerings from Binance comes in the form of its platform token, BNB. The Binance token offers even lower fees for traders, with a 50% discount on transaction fees, that’s 0.05% on each transaction.
Bittrex operates a flat fee model, charging 0.2% on all transactions. That’s a significant difference between the two exchanges. You also get a sliding scale fee structure, allowing you to get fees as low as 0.08% if you’re trading more than $60,000,000 every month.
Compared to other exchanges, Bittrex competes with Bitfinex at the same price point. Bittrex charges withdrawal fees of 0.0005-BTC, and there’s a 3% processing fee on all credit card deposits, but this facility is not available for US residents.
Binance charges 2.5% to purchase cryptos with credit or debit cards, and once again, they do not accept US residents. Withdrawal fees for Binance are 0.0005-BTC.
Is Bittrex More User Friendly Than Binance?
Both platforms are not the best choice for beginners. They feature cluttered dashboards with plenty of features that new traders will find overwhelming. Binance has the more complicated dashboard of the two, and you’ll probably need to watch a few YouTube tutorials to learn how to use the platform correctly.
Bittrex is a bit more user-friendly, and we like that it offers 1-minute charts. If we had to choose a winner in this category, we would say that Bittrex is a nose ahead of Binance, but it’s still nowhere near as user-friendly as other platforms like Coinbase.
Can We Trade Via Mobile In Bittrex and Binance?
Most traders trade at a desktop. However, there are those times when you need mobile functionality. Your phone is a tool, and you can use it to check on trades while you are away from your PC or laptop. Fortunately, Binance offers you a mobile app for iOS and Android.
The app doesn’t have the full functionality of your desktop trading platform, but you’ll still be able to watch the price action and execute offers from within the app.
Bittrex offers you no mobile app. Don’t even bother trying to login to your account using the web browser on your phone; it’s too slow and confusing.
Bittrex Or Binance Has Better Support?
Bittrex has a low-level of customer support available. Unfortunately, poor customer support leads to low levels of transparency and angry customers that start to distrust the management team. This issue becomes a problem, especially when the company decides to suspend withdrawals while they check their security systems, as was the case with an attempted hack in January of 2019.
Binance has a better reputation for customer support. This company offers email tickets and chat support on social media for any of your technical problems with the platform. Response times are good, and transparency on the platform is excellent, giving Binance a high level of confidence in the eyes of traders.
One note is that Binance experienced a hack in August of 2019, where cyber criminals made off with $40-million in crypto from the companies hot wallets. However, it seems that Binance covered this security breach and beefed up their security since the attack.
Still, the hack was not long ago, and it will always be fresh in the minds of many traders that lost money in the security breach.
The Verdict By Bitcoin Tester
When choosing the best exchange for your needs, you must check all the boxes before signing up with your preferred exchange.
When it comes to selecting a winner in this review, we must go with Binance for the best offering. The rock-bottom trading fees are excellent, and the best in the industry. You get access to plenty of cryptocurrencies, and more than 600 markets.
However, the issue with Binance is its inability to accept US residents. If you’re a US passport or green card holder, you can’t signup for this platform due to its regulatory status in the eyes of the US government.
Still, if you’re an international trader, then Binance offers you the best option. While the user-interface is somewhat challenging to master, a few instructional videos is all you need to start your trading journey to success.
Bittrex has a good offering, and it’s available in some US states and territories, but not all. Check with the companies listings before you sign up with the platform.