The “Great Bitcoin Bubble of 2017/2018,” saw cryptocurrency catch the attention of the world. With the BTC price reaching $20,000, many people ended up taking second mortgages to buy crypto before the price cratered in later January.
Still, the bubble did its job of spreading awareness of cryptocurrencies across the globe. The world is now aware of a burgeoning asset class that has enormous upside potential, and plenty of volatility in the price.
For traders, volatility equals opportunity, and with the price of crypto assets bouncing all over the place, there is plenty of promise to make or break your fortune in the crypto markets. However, finding a reputable and reliable exchange to trade crypto is a challenge. Let’s see if Bittrex is one of them!
With so many stories of hackers breaking into exchange wallets and draining them of crypto, how do you know who to trust? You need an exchange that allows you to trade without the fear of losing everything in your account to a hack.
The cryptocurrency exchange is now the version of a central bank for cryptocurrency. Unfortunately, while they made crypto readily accessible for the global community, they also offer a centralizing platform that defeats the decentralized nature of crypto.
Still, you have no other option but to trade on an exchange if you want to involve your finances with the crypto ecosystem. In this article, we’ll unpack everything you need to know about using the Bittrex cryptocurrency exchange.
What Is the Bittrex Exchange?
Bittrex opened its virtual doors in 2014. One of the notable features of this exchange is that the founding members are all cyber-security engineers at the top of their game. Bittrex is one of the few exchanges that are yet to experience a direct hack on its wallets.
However, a US investor was part of a SIM scam where hackers made off with 100-BTC, worth around $1-million at the time of the heist.
Still, this US-based crypto exchange complies with all US financial regulations, with the primary goal of fostering innovation in the crypto ecosystem. Bittrex started as a crypto-to-crypto exchange, but in recent years its started accepting fiat currency as a means of payment to fund your account.
How Do You Start with Bittrex?
Since Bittrex is a US-facing exchange, with accounts in the United States, it accepts deposits and withdrawal requests in USD. As a result, Bittrex must comply with the Bank Secrecy Act, as well as all US economic sanctions, and all financial regulatory laws, and other legal requirements allowing it to transact in fiat.
It’s for this reason that all new Bittrex users must undergo a thorough KYC process, and they must adhere to AML legislation when making deposits. To start with Bittrex, you enter your personal information and identity details.
You don’t have to verify your account right away, but you’ll need to verify your details if you want to make a withdrawal from the platform.
The basic verified account offers you a transaction limit of $3,000 per day or around 4 BTC at todays prices. However, Bittrex has since stopped offering the basic verified account. Now, all accounts must undergo ID verification to process withdrawals. We think this comes from pressure applied by the SEC in the wake of new AML and KYC laws sweeping the crypto ecosystem.
ID Verified Accounts allow account holders to withdraw 1 BTC per day. However, ID Verified Accounts that feature two-factor authentication get a significant lift on the withdrawal ceiling, allowing you to withdraw up to 100 BTC per day.
Is Bittrex a User-Friendly Exchange?
Bittrex ran into issues with its platform in 2017, causing the exchange to boost its infrastructure capacity to deal with the increasing demand for new accounts as the market entered the “Great Bitcoin Bubble” of 2017/2018.
However, in 2020, Bittrex is fully operational and has a reputation as one of the premier mid-range cryptocurrency exchanges. Bittrex poured some serious money into development, to give the platform a user-friendly interface that attracts more customers to the exchange.
However, the platform remains slower and less effective than the giants Huobi and Binance, which both offer a sleek UI and plenty of liquidity.
However, both Huobi and Binance cannot accept fiat currencies when funding your account or making a withdrawal. This lack of functionality in the larger -platforms presents a competitive advantage and a gap in the market for innovators like Bittrex.
The Bittrex dashboard gives you access to the pairs in USD, BTC, ETH, and USTD.
When looking up your crypto pair, you can use the charting package that comes with your account. Choose to view your charts in 15-min, 30-min, 1-hr, 3-day, 1-week, 1-month timeframes. You also get access to tools to help you with technical analysis of the market.
What Cryptocurrencies Does Bittrex Support?
Currently, Bittrex is in the top 100 crypto exchanges in terms of volume. The exchange trades close to $34-million in crypto every day, playing in 368 markets. The liquidity on this platform is good, and you can expect quick fills on all your trades, regardless of market volatility.
Since Bittrex is a US-facing crypto exchange, it delisted many altcoins over the last 2-years since the collapse of the Great Bitcoin Bubble. The exchange removed all the risky and speculative coins launched through shady ICOs.
This regulation of the exchange enhances user confidence, ensuring that the platform meets the necessary regulatory guidelines and a US-based financial firm. Compared to an unregulated exchange, Bittrex is safer, with less chance of hacks and funny business occurring with management.
You’ll find all the popular cryptocurrencies available on the platform, with more than 360 coins available. Bittrex also added trading functionality between crypto and fiat pairs, allowing you to trade BTC/USD, ETH/USD, and the stable coin pair, USDT/USD.
What Fees Does Bittrex Charge?
Compared to other exchanges, Bittrex holds the middle ground when it comes to its fee structure. Bittrex charges a 0.2% commission on all trades. Binance offers a 0.1% fee structure, while Coinbase Pro charges 0.5%.
Therefore, Bittrex is affordable, especially when you consider the fiat functionality for withdrawals and trading pairs. Bittrex charges you the same 0.2% fee for adding or taking liquidity from the market.
The fees for depositing and withdrawing from the platform are 0.0005-BTC, which is the same as other exchanges like Kraken, but slightly more expensive than Binance, which charges 0.0004-BTC for a withdrawal. If you trade large volumes, then you can request a discounted fee structure from Bittrex.
Is Bittrex a Secure Exchange?
Besides being awash with liquidity, the next best feature about Bittrex is the security. As mentioned earlier, all the founders of this exchange are cyber-security professionals. Bittrex utilizes an “elastic, multi-stage wallet strategy,” securing the movement of coins between cold and hot wallets.
Bittrex also uses SSL encryption on the site’s domain, securing all the data your send to the exchange. You also get the option of implementing two-factor authentication, allowing you to log onto your account using the Google Authenticator. The platform also follows two whitelisting policies for additional security protocols.
IP whitelisting – With this whitelisting strategy, users can instruct the Bittrex team only to allow transactions on accounts from their specific IP addresses.
Wallet whitelisting – This functionality allows Bittrex users to whitelist wallets for transactional purposes.
The cross-chain recovery system on offer at Bittrex is an essential feature with plenty of utility for users. If you deposit more than $5,000 into the wrong wallet address, then Bittrex can recover the funds.
Bittrex Customer Support
Bittrex has a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to the support channels on offer. As mentioned, the platform is active on Twitter, but they don’t offer any support through this account. Therefore, you’ll have to use the official support channels on the exchange site.
Unfortunately, the response from the email support is less than stellar. You’ll need to submit a ticket to the support desk to receive help with your account. On one occasion, we had to wait for more than 48-hours for the support team to get back to us.
Despite the lack of efficient email response, Bittrex does offer a comprehensive FAQ section and plenty of DIY support resources on the site. You can also browse the news section for the latest market developments.
Who Are the Bittrex Team?
The Bittrex team are all savvy tech engineers, and they have an active presence of Twitter, where they inform the exchanges audience about movements and events in the crypto sphere.
We like the transparency of the company, and that goes a long way to inspiring confidence in the platform and its offering.
Stephan Stolberg is currently the CEO of Bittrex global. He’s doing a marvelous job of steering the company into innovations while maintaining the company’s current business model.
The Bitcoin Tester Conclusion
Bittrex is one of the top US-facing exchanges. It’s one of the few regulated exchanges available, giving users more confidence in the platform. We like the additional security features, and the ability to deposit and withdraw in USD.
Bittrex vs Most Popular Bitcoin Exchanges
Bittrex vs Binance
Which crypto exchange provides you with the best experience as a trader? In this post, we examine the benefits and drawbacks of Bittrex Vs. Binance. Which of these exchanges deserves your money? Check out our review before you fund your account and start trading. Join us as we unpack everything you need to know about these two exchanges.