8 Best Crypto Exchanges of August 2022

Nexo

Nexo is a crypto exchange that allows you to earn interest on your digital assets by lending them to borrowers. It was founded in 2017 by Antoni Trenchev, Georgi Shulev, Kalin Metodiev, and Kosta Kantchev.

This crypto exchange claims to have over $12 billion worth of assets under its control, with more than four million users worldwide. While lending and borrowing are its primary services, it also offers other interesting features, which we will now consider.

Nexo Features

Buy and Trade Crypto

On Nexo, you can buy cryptocurrencies directly with credit or debit cards. You can also buy crypto directly from your bank account. You can do this for 41 different cryptocurrencies and three fiat currencies, namely EUR, USD, and GBP.

You can also swap two coins directly against each other on the Nexo exchange. There are more than 300 market pairs to choose from, some rarer than others. Unlike other crypto exchanges where slippage might affect the final price, Nexo fixes the price once you place your order. Therefore, what you see is what you pay.

Up To $150 Welcome Bonus

If you deposit at least $1,500 worth of crypto assets on your Nexo account after signing up, you'll get $100 in BTC. You get $50 more if you trade crypto worth $1,500 or more.

Nexo Credit Rewards Card

This card gives you cashback rewards in BTC or Nexo. You can earn up to 0.5% if you choose to earn in BTC or rack it up to 2% if you choose to earn in Nexo. The card is integrated with Google and Apple Pay and comes with no annual fees.

Nexo Booster

This feature allows you to borrow crypto with up to 3x leverage. It works with the same principles as margin trading. The only difference is that you're borrowing, not trading.

YouHodler

YouHodler is a crypto lending platform with a difference. It offers a wide variety of cryptocurrencies that can be used as collateral, up to 54 at last count. It was created in 2017 by Ilya Volkov and is now one of the top destinations for crypto lenders and borrowers.

You can withdraw your loan proceeds as fiat through SEPA, SWIFT, or bank cards; or as crypto. The loan is disbursed in USD, GBP, CHF, EUR, BTC, and stablecoins. The minimum loan amount is $100, and the loan term is unlimited.

YouHodler Features

NFT-Backed Loans

On YouHodler, you can put down your NFT as collateral to get a crypto-backed loan. The YouHodler team will first assess the worth of your NFT and then determine how much loan you can get from it.

Crypto Loans

It is one of the most versatile crypto lending platforms with diverse collateral options and up to a 90% LTV ratio.

Fiat to Crypto Conversion

On YouHodler, you can trade crypto for fiat and stablecoins. You can also buy and sell crypto directly with your bank account.

Earn Interest

You can earn up to 15.01% interest when you deposit your crypto assets on YouHodler. The interest is paid weekly.

MultiHODL

This is a unique offering by YouHodler that allows you to maximize your borrowing potential. You can earn up to 290% profit on your loan with it. You can also lose up to 50% of your loan value if it goes the other way.

Turbocharge

It's another unique YouHodler service based on a 'chain of loans' principle. How does it work? After putting down collateral for your first loan, the loan proceeds are used to get more crypto and then take another loan. You can repeat this process up to 15 times. However, even though this feature amplifies your potential profit, it also exposes you to more collateral risk.

CoinLoan

As you can guess from its name, CoinLoan is a crypto exchange that gives people loans. Like Nexo, it was created in 2017 and has a native token, CLT. It also has a flexible repayment schedule and a corporate function for institutional investors.

As a crypto exchange, CoinLoan is big on security measures. With a mix of cold asset storage, two-factor authentication, biometric authentication, asset insurance, and many other security functions, this exchange is one of the most secure in the crypto lending department.

What other features does it have? Consider:

CoinLoan Features

Earn Interest

CoinLoan supports 23 assets for lending on its platform. You can earn up to 12.3% APY with this feature. Just sign up on the platform, deposit assets, and start earning.

Borrow Assets

You can borrow up to 15 crypto assets on CoinLoan with an LTV ratio as high as 70%. The loan period is from one month to three years, while you pay an origination fee of 10 EUR (or equivalent).

Crypto Trading

You can trade 22 different crypto assets against one another on CoinLoan. You can also buy crypto with fiat straight from your bank account via SWIFT and SEPA deposits.

No Withdrawal Fees

Yes, you read right. CoinLoan doesn't charge withdrawal fees for both fiat and cryptocurrency withdrawals. The only exception is when you withdraw ETH and ERC-20 tokens. In that case, you're entitled to one free withdrawal per month. Deposits are also free.

Matrixport

In August 2021, just two years after its launch, Matrixport attained a $1 billion valuation, thus securing its place as a crypto unicorn. This is partly due to the diversity of investment tools it offers, which we will now consider.

Matrixport Features

Crypto-backed Loans

You can borrow loans on the platform with up to a 60% LTV ratio. The first loan you take is interest-free, while subsequent loans come with relatively lower interest rates.

Earn

You can earn up to 30% APY on assets deposited with Matrixport. There are six earn products: Flexi savings, fixed income, DeFi curve, DeFi intelligence, compound, and smart pool.

Invest

This feature provides more opportunities to earn passive income with your crypto assets. The five 'Invest’ products on Matrixport are shark fin, best-buy funds, dual currency, smart trend, and range sniper.

Buy And Sell Crypto

You can use wire transfers, bank cards, and bank accounts to purchase crypto on Matrixport. You can also trade eight major cryptocurrencies against one another on their trading interface. Matrixport also offers support for ETH 2.0 staking.

Margin Lending

This feature is available to institutional investors only. It combines the principles of margin trading and crypto lending to provide leveraged loans. Interested institutions will need to complete KYC and submit an application. They then sign a contract and make collateral deposits to get the loan if it is granted.

Bit.com

Bit.com is a reputable full-suite crypto exchange launched in August 2020 by Matrixport, which is a digital assets financial services platform founded by Jihan Wu. Even though it is relatively new, it has made its mark in the crypto market, offering cutting-edge technology across different crypto trading classes.

The platform's security is impressive. Before transacting on it, you would first complete KYC verification. Then you would also need to complete two-factor authentication and phone verification before you can withdraw funds. Other security measures include fund password and whitelist protection for withdrawal addresses.

Bit.com Features

Savings

Bit.com offers savings products with competitive interest rate for hot and popular tokens, with up to 80% APY for new users.

Block Trading

Bit.com enables ultra-fast transactions for both futures and options in large volumes to avoid slippage.

Innovative Product Features

Rebalancing market maker strategy (RMM)

RMM is a subset of AMM which is a market-making strategy that automatically places orders enabling users to buy low and sell high, achieve portfolio growth in a range-bound market and earn maker fees by providing liquidity to the market.

Portfolio Margin

Maximize fund efficiency with an overhaul margin calculation based open positions

Unified Margin

All currencies in the account will be calculated in USDT value with haircut ratios to provide margins for all positions to improve capital utilization.

Spot Trading

You can trade 43 crypto assets on the spot feature of this crypto exchange against USDT, USD, and BTC.

Futures Trading

You can trade either coin-margined or USDT-margined futures on Bit.com with up to 50x leverage. There are five coin-margined trading pairs and eight USDT-margined trading pairs.

Options Trading

Bit.com also supports crypto options (buying and selling crypto assets at a predetermined date and price), with up to 10x leverage. There are three options asset classes on the exchange: BTC, BCH, and ETH.

Deposit Bonuses

You can get up to a $150 trading fee discount if you deposit up to $60,000 on Bit.com.

A Bit of NFT

With this feature, the platform aims to fractionalise NFTs and allow users to own portions of their beloved NFT assets. The platform has not yet launched this feature.

Gemini

Gemini is one of the oldest crypto exchanges that is still holding firm in modern times. It was founded in 2015 by the Winklevoss brothers, Cameron and Tyler, and is one of the few fully regulated crypto exchanges in all 50 U.S. states.

With Gemini, there is something for everyone. If you're an inexperienced trader, you can benefit from the beginner-friendly features on the Gemini main interface. If you have been trading for a while and want more advanced trading features, then the Gemini Active Trader is for you.

Gemini Features

Crypto Trading

Gemini supports over 75 cryptocurrencies. You can purchase them with your bank cards or through wire and ACH bank transfers. You can also trade these coins against one another on Gemini's trading interface.

Gemini Earn

Here, you can earn up to 8.05% APY on your crypto assets. To start earning, you just need to deposit crypto tokens into your Gemini wallet and transfer them to your Gemini Earn account.

Gemini Credit Card

A MasterCard that gives up to 3% cashback rewards for every purchase. The rewards are available in more than 60 cryptocurrencies, sent instantly to your Gemini account. Also, there are no annual fees. The only drawback is that the card is available to U.S. customers only.

Gemini Custody

This is an institutional custodial service with $200 million in insurance coverage. It is licensed as a New York company and currently supports 113 digital currencies. BlockFi is an example of a crypto platform that stores its cold assets with Gemini Custody.

Gemini Pay

It is Gemini's financial payment service that allows users to spend crypto in supported retail stores in the United States. Gemini developed this free service in partnership with Flexa, a digital payments platform.

Gemini Clearing

With this feature, Gemini mediates between two parties who prefer off-the-books trades. The trade details are anonymous to the crypto exchange, but the two parties will first complete KYC verification on their Gemini account before being allowed to trade off the exchange.

Binance

Having secured the top spot among crypto exchanges for a long time, Binance deserves a spot on this list. It came onto the scene in 2017, pioneered by Chaopeng Zhao, and quickly rose to be one of the world's best crypto exchanges.

Binance has many features which cut across various crypto categories, like Gift & Campaign, trading, earning, finance, education, API management, and other third-party services. We will now discuss five of those features.

Binance Features

Binance Earn

This is Binance's savings platform. There are two categories of products on Binance Earn. The first is the guaranteed earn function. You can earn through auto-invest, locked staking, BNB vault, launchpool, etc. The second category is the high yield function, which has three products, namely dual investment, liquidity farming, and DeFi staking.

Binance Pay

Like Gemini Pay, this service allows users to make crypto payments on supported platforms without paying transaction fees. You can send or receive crypto via email, phone number, or Pay ID. You can also use Binance Pay to send gift cards to loved ones.

Trading Functions

Binance offers a vast array of options to trade bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. As long as you're a registered user, you can trade spot, margin, futures, and even liquid swaps. There are also other trading initiatives, like strategy trading, trading battles, fan token trading, and direct conversions.

Binance P2P

It is one of the most advanced P2P marketplaces in the crypto world. It supports over 150 payment methods and has immense liquidity to draw on. It's also a free service and comes with no complications.

Binance Card

The Binance card is a Visa debit card that draws on your crypto holdings and converts them to fiat when making purchases. The cashback rewards can go as high as 8%. However, you would need to stake up to 600 BNB to get the highest cashback ratio. The less BNB you have, the lower your cashback rewards.

Kraken

Kraken is another old-timer on the crypto scene that hasn't tired out. It was founded in 2011 by Jesse Powell and is based in the United States. It is available in almost all U.S. states, except Washington, DC, and New York.

Known for its transparency, Kraken keeps 95% of its crypto assets in cold wallets to ensure their security. Apart from this, Kraken also enforces KYC verification, two-factor authentication, and high encryption levels to seal its place as one of the best crypto exchanges in terms of security.

Kraken Features

Margin Trading

You can trade on Kraken with up to 5x leverage. It also has advanced API access and margin trading limits as high as $500,000. You can also trade futures and indices on Kraken.

Staking

You can stake your crypto assets on Kraken and earn up to 23% APY. You can currently stake 15 assets on Kraken, including two fiat currencies.

Kraken OTC Desk

Here, you can make large trades requiring deeper liquidity. You can trade up to 2,000 BTC using this function.

What Is A Cryptocurrency Exchange?

In simple terms, a crypto exchange is a platform where you can buy and sell crypto. You can either use one crypto to purchase another, or buy crypto with fiat, sometimes straight from your bank account.

Crypto exchanges have come to offer much more than just buying and selling crypto in recent times. Some now allow you to trade crypto derivatives, borrow cash with crypto, and perform decentralized functions like mining, staking, farming, etc.

When Bitcoin came onto the scene in 2009, it had no price value. The only exchanges were donations and test exchanges between friends. It was not until 2010 that exchanges of Bitcoin for fiat started. There were only a few Bitcoin exchanges at that time, with Mt. Gox and Bitcoinmarket being two of the prominent ones.

How To Choose The Best Crypto Exchange For You

These are some things you need to put in mind when deciding which crypto exchange account will work best for you:

The Crypto Exchange Fees

It's imperative because you don't want to pay a sizeable chunk of your profit as trading fees, especially if you're a day trader. Binance is one of the best crypto exchanges that offer low trading fees in this area.

Availability

No matter how good a crypto exchange is, it's not for you if it's not available where you live.

Security

Yes, this is another important one. Cryptocurrency hacks are becoming more frequent. So, you should go for an exchange that offers top-notch security.

Exchange Features

Does the exchange support your crypto trading style? For example, if you deal mainly with spot trades, you wouldn't want to sign up for an exchange that focuses on derivatives.

Others

Other factors to note include trading volume, insurance policy, deposit and withdrawal methods and limits, how responsive the customer care is, how easy the platform is to use, etc.

Conclusion

Picking a crypto exchange that works for you is an intricate process. You have to consider many factors depending on your trading preferences and risk tolerance levels. In some cases, you might have to combine two or more exchanges that have peculiarities that you favor. Whatever the case, we hope this guide has helped you to reach your decision.