6 Best Crypto Exchanges of 2025

What to know about crypto exchanges

• Crypto exchanges in the US face much stricter regulation than elsewhere because they must comply with SEC, CFTC, FinCEN and sometimes even state-level regulators.
• Most crypto exchanges run on a maker-taker fee model, meaning you are charged differently depending on whether you add or take liquidity from the market.
• There are two main types of crypto exchange: centralized and decentralized. The former are operated by a single entity, whereas the latter run as a peer-to-peer network.
• Centralized crypto exchanges don’t provide control of your private keys, meaning you don’t technically “own” your coins until you withdraw it to an independent crypto wallet.

Storing your crypto on an exchange is possible, but it's far from a best practice when it comes to securing your assets. If you’re looking for somewhere to hold your cryptocurrency, not just trade it, read our piece on the Best Crypto Wallets.

How we chose our top picks

Our team has spent hundreds of hours researching crypto, including how it’s stored and traded. To pick the best crypto exchanges, we evaluated 22 companies based on their security, trading features and user experience. We also studied current crypto regulation and compliance reports, compared fee schedules and spoke to our in-house crypto experts for further guidance.

Read our full methodology to learn more.

Money is not a client of any investment adviser featured on this page. The information provided on this page is for educational purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Money does not offer advisory services.

Our top picks for the best crypto exchanges of 2025

• Kraken - Best Crypto Exchange Overall
• Coinbase - Best for Beginners
• Crypto.com - Best for Crypto Rewards
• Uphold - Best for Altcoins
• Pionex.US - Best for Automated Trading
• Uniswap - Best Decentralized Exchange

Best Crypto Exchanges Reviews

Why we chose it: Kraken has been around for a while now, being well-beloved and trusted by many crypto traders. The exchange supports more than 400 cryptocurrencies and has arguably the safest digital platform for trading your crypto, with high marks across all the security assessment platforms we looked at. In fact, Kraken has never suffered a large-scale hack since it first went online in 2011 — an accolade that very few others of its size can attest to.

Kraken Pro, the exchange’s advanced trading platform, is especially notable for having some of the lowest spot trading fees and highly customizable, responsive dashboard that supports more than 25 trading and market data widgets. It also belongs to a handful of platforms that allow margin and derivatives trading, a practice that is heavily restricted in the U.S.

Why we chose it: Coinbase, one of the largest and most well-known exchanges in the U.S., does a great job of lowering the barrier to entry for new investors. Its straightforward onboarding process makes it easy to verify your identity and eases users into trading, while educational incentives like Coinbase Earn help you learn about crypto while earning small amounts.

The exchange’s security features are worth mentioning as well. It offers six types of two-factor authentication, allows customers to store their funds in a vault with time delayed withdrawals, and has an insurance policy to protect custodial accounts of up to $250,000. This is why Coinbase is ultimately worth trying for beginners, despite its higher fees.

Why we chose it: Crypto.com features several rewards programs, including referral bonuses, rebates based on trading volume and other special promotions like welcome offers and periodic token sales. The platform also offers competitive staking yields, plus its Visa debit card program can earn customers up to 5% cashback in crypto depending on how much CRO (Cronos, Crypto.com’s native token) they stake.

While its higher reward tiers require significant CRO staking, the sheer variety of rewards available puts Crypto.com on top when it comes to getting more out of your crypto. This is especially true when combined with the platform’s other advantages: high liquidity to ensure smoother transactions, robust security infrastructure and a sleek, beginner-friendly app.

Why we chose it: Uphold offers a wide range of fiat and cryptocurrencies — over 300 cryptocurrencies, to be exact. While this may not be the largest selection overall on our list, it includes hard to find coins that often are not available elsewhere. There’s no better example for this than Ripple (XRP), which Uphold continued to support even as nearly every other US exchange delisted it as a result of the now-dropped SEC lawsuit against it.

Uphold also allows users to trade between different asset classes, such as converting Bitcoin directly into gold or U.S. dollars. The exchange is no slouch when it comes to security either. Its proprietary technology regularly undergoes independent audits, holding SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certifications, and is a FinCEN Registered Money Services Business in the US.

Why we chose it: Pionex.US has 11 baked-in trading bots that cover options such as grid trading, dollar-cost averaging and rebalancing, each of these being customizable based on your risk tolerance and market view. This is unlike many other exchanges that support automation, which require third-party tools and/or technical skills to get bots up and running.

Pionex.US also stands out when considering cost. With trading fees as low as 0.1% on all transactions, it's one of the most affordable options available, and because it pulls liquidity from larger exchanges like Binance and Huobi, orders are filled quickly and at competitive prices. Moreover, new users can receive up to $200 USDT as a welcome bonus, giving you some extra cushion as you explore the platform’s bots and features.

Why we chose it: Uniswap leads the pack in the decentralized exchange (DEX) space with its user-friendly interface, deep liquidity — it’s the largest on-chain marketplace today — and permissionless trading environment. The platform lets you trade directly from your crypto wallet, meaning there’s no account registration, Know Your Customer process or middlemen involved.

Another feature that makes Uniswap stand out is its multi-chain support, which now spans ethereum, Polygon, BNB Chain and many more. This opens the door to thousands of tokens, from major assets to niche altcoins. The exchange also rewards liquidity providers, who earn a share of trading fees in return for depositing tokens into liquidity pools.

Other crypto exchanges we considered

The following trading platforms are all strong options, especially for new traders. However, they didn’t make it to our top list because they lack certain core features, are not dedicated crypto exchanges or don’t excel in any particular area.

Cash App

Cash App is one of the easiest platforms you can use to get started with bitcoin — but only with bitcoin. The app added the capability to buy and sell bitcoin cryptocurrency in 2018 and unlike other non-dedicated crypto exchanges, lets you keep custody of your coins. This alone makes it a worthy entry point to crypto investing.

Why it didn’t make the cut: Cash App lacks advanced trading tools, educational resources and access to altcoins, so it won’t serve users looking for a broader crypto investing experience.

Binance.US

Binance.US is one of the most affordable platforms on our list, with many trades starting at just 0.1%. The platform also stands out for users who want to do more than just buy and hold crypto thanks to staking rewards, recurring buys and over-the-counter services for high-volume traders.

Why it didn’t make the cut: Binance.US has been the target of legal scrutiny in the past. In 2023, it admitted to engaging in anti-money laundering, unlicensed money transmitting and sanctions violations. The platform is also unavailable in 12 states, including Georgia, New York and Texas, as well as in several U.S. territories.

Gemini

Gemini is a well-funded crypto exchange with a reputation for being easy to use. The platform supports 80 crypto to buy, sell and store, offers a variety of tools for high-performance traders and boasts excellent security practices.

Why Gemini didn’t make the cut: Gemini’s fees are markedly higher compared to those of other exchanges. And while the platform’s features make for a good package overall, none of them were impressive enough to earn Gemini a top spot with us.

Robinhood

Robinhood is a popular commission-free investment platform that caters to beginners and casual investors. Like Cash App, it launched its cryptocurrency trading service in 2018, starting out with only bitcoin and ethereum. It now allows users to buy and sell over 50 different coins.

Why it didn’t make the cut: While Robinhood is easy for crypto beginners to get started with, it lacks the features and charting tools of a full-service cryptocurrency exchange. It has also been the target of numerous complaints from users and regulators regarding its dishonest business practices (the app was fined $70 million by FINRA in 2021 for misleading consumers).

Crypto Exchanges Guide

Crypto exchanges are the primary gateway for trading digital currencies like bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH) for other cryptocurrencies or fiat currencies such as U.S. dollars and euros. They are online platforms that act as intermediaries, allowing users to buy, sell or swap crypto.

In addition to trading, crypto exchanges provide a variety of services unavailable elsewhere. Crypto staking is a big one: it allows you to earn crypto back for setting aside a portion of the coins in their wallet. Some even offer cashback card programs and tools for web3 developers.

Exchanges are essential to the crypto ecosystem because most traditional investment firms don’t support crypto trading. Without them, you would have to find another person willing to trade crypto, agree on an exchange rate and send the coins directly to each other’s crypto wallets — a somewhat convoluted process.

The different types of crypto exchanges

There are two main types of crypto exchange: centralized and decentralized. Platforms that combine features of both types are sometimes considered "hybrid" exchanges.

Centralized exchanges (CEX)

Centralized exchanges are the most common and traditional type of crypto exchange. These are owned by private companies and offer investors a platform to trade cryptocurrencies. This type of exchange tends to have higher trade volumes and liquidity and a greater number of trading pairs.

Centralized exchanges are often considered a good option for new crypto traders because of their smoother onboarding and availability of customer support. However, they are also inherently more vulnerable to cyberattacks and require you to provide personally identifiable information — which some users may feel uncomfortable sharing.

Examples: Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini

Decentralized exchanges (DEX)

Decentralized exchanges follow in the spirit of bitcoin by operating with no central point of control. Servers for this type of exchange are spread throughout computers located across the world, which means if one computer is attacked, the network keeps running.

Where centralized exchanges operate as brokerages, decentralized exchanges are more like marketplaces. They facilitate peer-to-peer trading and have a less rigid registration process. The main drawbacks of decentralized exchanges include lower trading volume, small liquidity and a lack of customer support.

Examples: Uniswap, Bisq, dYdX

Understanding crypto exchange fees

Like exchanging fiat currencies, trades on a crypto exchange usually incur fees, which is how these platforms make the most of their revenue. But it’s not always clear what exactly you’ll be charged for — even less so when exchanges can run on different fee models.

Crypto exchange fees can be broadly classified into three categories: trading fees, spread fees and deposit and withdrawal fees. There are also network fees, which will come up when withdrawing crypto and trading on decentralized exchanges.

Trading fees

Charged when buying or selling crypto, trading fees are present across exchanges in a variety of ways, but are most often seen in spot exchanges under a maker-taker model.

This model comes with two percentages that apply to your transactions under different circumstances (for example, 0.20% / 0.40%). The maker fee applies when you add liquidity to the exchange by placing an order that doesn’t immediately fill. The taker fee applies when you remove liquidity, which happens when you place an order that fills instantly at the current price.

Spread fees

Some crypto exchanges don’t have clear trading fees. Instead, they charge something called a spread fee, which is the difference between the price at which an exchange sells a cryptocurrency and the price at which it buys it from you. This difference is how some platforms make money, especially those that advertise "zero commission" or "no trading fees."

For example, if bitcoin's market price is $90,000, an exchange might sell it to you for $90,300 and buy it from you for $89,700. That $600 difference is the spread — effectively a hidden fee you pay on each trade.

Spread fees are common when using the “instant buy” feature of crypto exchanges which, although convenient, is almost always more expensive than regular spot trades.

Deposit and withdrawal fees

Deposit and withdrawal fees may apply when transferring money into or out of your crypto exchange, for example, via debit card, credit card or PayPal. These fees vary widely from exchange to exchange depending on the payment method and type of asset you’re moving.

Bank transfers are often free or low cost. Credit and debit card deposits can carry fees of 2% to 5%. Crypto withdrawals often come with blockchain network fees (like gas fees on ethereum) and sometimes incur additional platform fees.

Network fees

Also known as gas fees, network fees are paid to cryptocurrency miners, who process and secure crypto transactions on the blockchain. Most importantly, most exchanges do not set these fees: They're built into the blockchain itself and are based on network activity.

Many centralized crypto exchanges incur this cost, though some may allow you to pay more in fees to speed up your transactions. Users on decentralized exchanges have to pay this fee themselves, since there is no third party between them and the crypto miners.

How we chose the best crypto exchanges

The team at Money researched over 22 crypto exchanges and evaluated them based on cost, security and user experience. We mainly focused on dedicated crypto exchanges and then looked at trading platforms that let you trade other securities.

Cost

Fees can quickly add up, especially for frequent traders, so we prioritized exchanges with low or reduced fees and transparent pricing. Many platforms offer tiered maker-taker fee structures where trading costs drop as your volume increases. Some also provide discounts for using native tokens like BNB or CRO, or even waive fees altogether for high-volume orders.

Clear and easily accessible fee disclosures were a must for us. We favored exchanges that not only openly establish their fee schedules but that also explain them in layman’s terms.

Security

A secure crypto exchange protects both your funds and personal information through strong preventative measures and responsible account management. The best platforms conduct regular penetration tests, host bug bounties and request third-party audits to identify and fix vulnerabilities in their code. They may also offer insurance to cover losses from internal errors.

On the user side, exchanges should enforce best practices like TLS/SSL encryption and multi-factor authentication (MFA) to ensure safe account access. These tools — along with a strong track record of guarding against breaches — are key signs of a trustworthy platform.

User Experience

A good crypto exchange should offer a smooth, intuitive experience for both beginners and seasoned traders. We evaluated platforms based on the design and usability of their mobile and desktop interfaces, prioritizing those with clean layouts and simple navigation.

Strong user experience also includes access to educational content like tutorials, guides and explainers to help users understand crypto basics and platform features. In addition, research tools that provide real-time market data, coin filtering and sorting options and performance metrics (like market cap and price trends) help users make informed decisions.

Summary of Money’s Best Crypto Exchanges of 2025

• Kraken - Best Crypto Exchange Overall
• Coinbase - Best for Beginners
• Crypto.com - Best for Crypto Rewards
• Uphold - Best for Altcoins
• Pionex.US - Best for Automated Trading
• Uniswap - Best Decentralized Exchange