Do you want to start trading cryptocurrency? You have a plethora of options available to you. With more than 5,400 coins and tokens available, and hundreds of exchanges, you can start trading in the world’s most popular alternative financial market.
When signing up with an exchange, you have a few options for your account type. The two most popular types of trading accounts are margin and cash accounts.
With a cash account, you can trade the balance in your account, but after you finish using your buying power, you have to wait for 48-hours for your trades to clear before you can trade your account again. As a result, you end up missing out on opportunities to trade in between the clearance period.
With a margin account, the exchange fronts you the money for your account to trade while your previous trades are clearing. It’s a way of the exchange saying that they think you’re good for the money, and they let you carry on trading.
As a result, with margin trading, you never have to sit on your hands, waiting for your funds to clear. You can trade at any time of the day, and as often as you like. Another significant advantage of using a margin account is that many exchanges offer leverage on your trades.
What Is Leverage?
If you have a small account, then you probably want to grow it as fast as you can. It’s far more challenging to grow a $500 account than it is a $5,000 account. With more money in your account, you have a cushion if any of your trades go wrong. However, with $500 in your account, you have less room for error.
Using leverage in your trades on your margin account is one of the best ways to grow a small account fast.
If you get on a hot streak, it’s possible to return 100% or more to your account in a few days of trading.
Depending on the leverage on offer, you can turn a small account into some serious buying power. If you have $1,000 in your account, and you have 10X leverage, that means you have a buying power of $10,000 available to you. Therefore, you can go out and purchase $10,000 of crypto in your trades if you’re feeling confident in the move.
What Do You Need to Know About PrimeXBT?
PrimeXBT is a newcomer to the crypto space. This platform trades in crypto, as well as forex, and other CFDs in commodities and stock indices. This platform offers you up to 100X leverage in crypto markets, and up to 1,000X leverage in forex.
This unregulated exchange is available in more than 100 countries, and there’s no complicated KYC process to start. PrimeXBT provides you with the platform and the market, giving you everything you need to start trading as soon as you finish signing up.
What Do You Need to Know About BitMEX?
BitMEX is one of the leading exchanges, with a flawless track record extending back to its launch in 2015. BitMEX is another unregulated exchange offering easy signup, and it also provides outstanding margin trading facilities. With a leverage of up to 100X on some pairs, BitMEX is a great choice for anyone with liquidity concerns.
The Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange – or BitMEX, offers derivatives and other traditional financial vehicles that were previously unavailable to crypto traders. These sought-after vehicles provide retail investors to get in on the action of trading their favorite cryptos.
PrimeXBT Or BitMEX Market Is Bigger?
BitMEX and PrimeXBT are examples of derivative platforms and exchanges that provide access to leveraged margin products. Both offer 100X on BTC and other crypto derivatives, but PrimeXBT goes one step further with 1,000X leverage on forex trades.
That’s a staggering amount of leverage for even the most seasoned of forex traders to be handling. It’s, for this reason, that newbie traders should steer clear of this amount of leverage.
1,000X leverage can build your account overnight when the trade goes the way you planned. However, if it goes the other way, you could end up owing the exchange a heap of money you don’t have after blowing up your account.
BitMEX only offers 100X leverage on BTC pairs while PrimeXBT provides it on BTC, ETH, XRP, LTC, and EOS. BitMEX also offers the most liquid market in the world for XBT/USD. With a $3.71-billion daily volume and 100 audits per second, BitMEX is a top choice for Bitcoin derivatives.
PrimeXBT is the better choice for traders that are looking to dabble in different markets. However, for those traders focusing on Bitcoin, BitMEX is the better platform.
Which One Is Cheaper? PrimeXBT Or BitMEX?
The fees for running a margin account can get expensive, especially if you hold positions overnight. Always pay attention to the margin fees, as they can eat into your profits, and your risk tolerance. PrimeXBT has the lowest fees when it comes to margin trading with leveraged accounts.
PrimeXBT charges customers 0.05% on all trades, regardless of the crypto pair you’re trading. The fee applies to both sides of the market is taking and providing liquidity. PrimeXBT allows you to fund your account using a credit or debit card if it’s a Visa or MasterCard. BitMEX only allows credit card funding on the BitMEX Global platform.
The industry average fee for withdrawals is 0.000812-BTC. However, when you withdraw your BTC from PrimeXBT, you only have a 0.0005-BTC charge.
BitMEX offers a sliding scale using the maker/taker model, with taking liquidity costing you 0.075% of the total order value, and the platform will actually pay your 0.025% for adding liquidity to the market (selling on the ask).
BitMEX also doesn’t charge you anything when you withdraw your BTC from the platform. Withdrawal fees are in-line with network fees, meaning that you’re only paying the network fees and no additional charges by BitMEX.
Is PrimeXBT More User-Friendly Than BitMEX?
US passport holders can trade on PrimeXBT. However, to withdraw from the platform, you’ll have to provide your KTC information, including copies of your photo ID and proof of address, like a utility bill with your name on it.
The Prime XBT platform wins this round. IT has the best UI and runs fast. Executions are quick, and the charts are crisp, with multiple time frames and technical indicators for your chart analysis. PrimeXBT built the platform for pro traders, allowing you to hook up multiple screens to look at your broker window, charts, and level 2 at the same time.
Charting is nowhere near as good on BitMEX, and the platform feels slow in comparison. Customers complain about BitMEX order book being glitchy at times, and slow to fill orders, adding up to large amounts of slippage in critical moments of the trade.
The last thing traders need is to have a stop loss fail as the market rolls over. PrimeXBT doesn’t have any of these issues, and you’ll always get clean, crisp executions with minimal slippage.
Accounts And Limits
There are hundreds of trading platforms out there that can make choosing a reliable one confusing. There are different account limits and security measures on each platform which also should be taken into consideration. With so many options to choose from, knowing which platform is right for you can seem impossible. To help you narrow down your choices and make comparisons easy, we want to take a closer look at the security and limits of Primexbt and Bitmex
PrimeXBT Account Limits
PrimeXBT is mainly focused on bitcoins, and their primary currency of the deposit is BBC. You can use your credit card to deposit fiat currency on this platform. Upon opening your account, you must deposit at least 0.001 BTC. In general, there is no limit to the amount you can trade, deposit, or withdraw once your account has been verified. There is a minimum limit on withdrawal fees however which is 0.0005 BTC per transaction. Once your account is verified and you have made a deposit, you are able to trade to your heart’s content.
BitMEX Account Limits
BitMEX platform focuses on bitcoins over other cryptocurrencies and deposits are made in BTC. Unlike other platforms, this one doesn’t offer support for fiat currency. There is no fixed amount that you must deposit when you open your account. There is also a limit on the number of open orders any one account may have at the same time. Like most trading platforms, unverified accounts are less access to trading and will be limited in the number of trades and withdrawals they can make each day. Upon verification, the limits are raised depending on your exact level of verification.
PrimeXBT Account Security
PrimeXBT uses some of the best security practices starting with two-factor authentication. They also make sure to encrypt their site to keep their client’s information safe. They also make use of cryptographic hashing of passwords and address whitelisting to prevent nefarious transfers and trades. Funds are placed in cold storage, and they also make use of DDOS protection to keep their systems and their clients safe. Like all trading sites, they have a security interface that allows you to track your last activity and also to ban any devices that you are not familiar with. Customer service is highly responsive when reporting issues and spoof emails as well.
BitMEX Account Security
The BitMEX platform is heavily encrypted and takes the security of its users seriously. Two-factor authentication is also in effect for every user. Passwords are hashed, and they also use the traditional white list to keep a record of safe addresses for each account. DDOS protection is also fully implemented in addition to account locks, IP tracking, and much more. They also require multiple signatures for withdrawals and deposits to keep account wallets safe. Their platform is further backed by Amazon Web Services’ renowned security.
Final Thoughts On Primexbt VS Bitmex
Both trading platforms are reliable and have been around for quite a while. Though there have been some security hiccups in the past, both have been solid for several years once patches were made. Both are comparable in terms of usability and reliability, but the main difference lies in customer support and ease of use.
It is important that a platform have a high level of stability when it comes to crypto margin trading. PrimeXBT is able to deliver on reliability and has both the customer service and easy UI to back up that need. BitMEX is a good platform but it is not new user friendly. It is a great place for veteran traders.
Can We Trade Via Mobile In PrimeXBT And BitMEX?
PrimeXBT and BitMEX has an official Android and iOS app available for traders.
The PrimeXBT app lacks many of the features of the desktop version, but it’s a great way to check on the market and do a bit of technical analysis while you’re away from your trading station.
The BitMEX app has opportunity to manage open positions, see real time data / candlestick charts, deposits and withdrawals and etc. But the app download has country restrictions – see all allowed countries and features here.
PrimeXBT Or BitMEX Has Better Support?
BitMEX offers customer support through ticketing. While they do manage to resolve most issues, it takes up to 245-hours to receive a reply from the helpdesk. In the high-paced margin trading environment, that can cost you money.
PrimeXBT does it right, with live chat assistance, social media accountability, and email ticketing.
The Verdict By Bitcoin Tester
PrimeXBT wins the battle for the best margin platform for experienced traders. If you want to grow your account using leverage, PrimeXBT offers you more markets and better service.
PrimeXBT has a better platform and better market depth, with plenty of satisfied customers. However, PrimeXBT does not accept American passport holders, so you’re going to have to go with BitMEX if that’s the case for you.
BitMEX is a good option for leveraged trading on margin accounts, but we feel that it suits Bitcoin traders only, as it has limitations on the currencies and cryptos available for trading. Technically, US residents are not allowed to trade on BitMEX anymore, but for the moment, they still process withdrawals and allow trading for US passport holders.
Therefore, if you’re a US trader, we recommend you go with BitMEX if you’re looking to trade crypto derivatives with high amounts of leverage.