Kucoin vs. Bittrex: Choosing Between Crypto Exchanges

crypto exchanges

Choosing between crypto exchanges is perhaps one of the most difficult decisions you will have to make when you decide to get into crypto. In your search, Kucoin and Bittrex are two of the choices you will most likely encounter. On CoinMarketCap, Kucoin and Bittrex crypto exchanges are ranked 36 and 52 respectively according to adjusted trading volume showing they are very popular. This guide should help you make the best choice between these two companies.

Regulation

Kucoin was launched in May 2017 in Hong Kong and is yet to be regulated by any financial regulator. That is not surprising or alarming because only a few crypto exchanges are regulated. Nevertheless, Kucoin exchange has built a reputation of trust and is also one of the few that has never been hacked. The founder of Kucoin is Michael Gam who was once a technical expert at Ant Financial, and this fact gives the exchange some clout.

On the other hand, Bittrex is based in the US and was founded in 2014. They had sought a BitLicense from the New York Department of Financial Services but were denied. The denial was because the exchange had not fully complied with the requirements for a BitLicense. Behind this exchange are Bill Shihara, Richie Lai and Rami Kawach who all have technical backgrounds in tech.

This section is a draw because neither of the crypto exchanges holds any license.

Deposit and withdrawal

Making deposits and withdrawals on Kucoin can only be done in the form of cryptocurrencies and not fiat on Kucoin. To cater to new traders, though, they have partnered with Simplex to allow for buying of crypto by credit card. Bittrex also has a similar structure where they only accept crypto and not fiat but they too have partnered with New York Signature Bank to make deposits in fiat possible, but only through wire transfers.

Once again, these crypto exchanges are tied.

Assets

Both of these crypto exchanges have a lot of assets to offer their clients for trade with over 100 different cryptocurrencies. Although deposits can be made in only a handful of coins, they can then be traded into a myriad pairs. What Kucoin does have unique is their native token Kucoin Shares (KCS) which allow for transactions within the exchange.

Due to the native token, Kucoin is the winner in this section.

Fees

Trading fees among crypto exchanges are classified either as maker or taker fees. Taker fees are charged when an investor makes a trade at the market prices at the time – market order. Meanwhile, maker fees are charged for limit orders. Therefore, taker fees are usually higher than maker fees. At Kucoin, both maker and taker fees are charged a 0.1% commission. Bittrex charges 0.25% commission for both maker and taker fees.

Winner is Kucoin for cheaper trading fees.

Trading platforms

There is very little difference in the UI of these crypto exchanges web-based trading platforms. They all allow you to select from the list of crypto pairs and utilize technical tools to analyse the markets. The one difference however is that Kucoin has official mobile apps for both iOS and Android while Bittrex does not.

Winner is Kucoin in providing mobile apps.

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