Best Crypto Trading Platforms 2026 (Ranked)

[00:01] depending where you live in the world. It used to be the case that you could lived. That's not the case these days. Regulations in each country are limiting offer you these services. So, what I've done is listed the brands in the

[00:16] different regions by which one I would use or go towards and I'll explain why We'll look at all of the different features of these apps. They're not just crypto apps anymore. They offer stock trading, they offer fiat currency

[00:29] support, and a lot of them have either a Visa or a MasterCard you can use to spend balances from stable coins or fiat currencies. So, they're basically modern of the features in this video. Also, some of these exchanges do offer bonuses

[00:42] for new users. These change over time. I'll link the links below. If you sign bonuses and any new bonuses I'll just update the description. And also the the regions, I'll list all of that information down in the description

[00:56] below. What has recently changed in Europe specifically as well is MiCA regulations throughout Europe. Now, if you're a crypto exchange, you have to be MiCA regulated. As of right now, this is the list. Binance recently didn't get

[01:11] pull out of Europe. Although, by the time you're watching this, they may have got regulated again and then offering services again. As of making this video, Bybit, Coinbase, crypto.com, OKX, Kraken kind of the four biggest ones.

[01:24] their fees are insanely high. I think other providers have better services to be honest. And Coinbase is in this list, but they have very high fees as well, which is why I personally would use Kraken over Coinbase. You're getting the

[01:38] same thing from an American firm, just much cheaper trading fees. But, to be honest, Bybit and OKX are even cheaper still and have very very good platforms. So, I usually go towards those. The major thing with any crypto exchange or

[01:51] actual money in and out from your bank account. So, if you're in the US, send a wire in and out. That's it. It's easy. In Europe, because these exchanges are micro regulated now, you shouldn't also have any issues with sending euros

[02:05] in and out. Now, for rest of world, it gets a little bit patchy. Binance have great support in a lot of different regions, especially in South America and well. And as you can see, there's a few others that are supported. If you're in

[02:19] the US, Coinbase and Kraken. If you're in Europe, you'll look at Bybit and OKX. Now, Revolut, you can have no issues there as well. Revolut is actually a kind of unknown crypto exchange, to be honest. Revolut has a crypto app called

[02:32] Revolut X. Now, if you have a Revolut account, you can log in to Revolut X with your existing account. You can get money in and out within seconds, right? Revolut is a fantastic app. Revolut X lets you trade cryptocurrencies for very

[02:45] low fees. And you can trade them, sell them to cash, use Revolut to send the cash back out. Very, very easy. So, that's great for Europe. Now, rest of world, probably Binance has the biggest selection of currencies, but it's going

[02:57] to depend on which country you're in specifically. Now, you can also, for example, use Kraken outside of Europe and the US as well. out, it's US dollar support over the Swift network. Now, that's okay. It's a

[03:11] bit slower. And for example, in the UAE, not going to be easy for me because I can just send dirhams in and out of where you live a lot of the time, but you can see the fees support here. So,

[03:25] generally, Coinbase, Revolut, Kraken, kind of US, Europe centered. And then Bybit, Binance, OKX, great in Europe as well now, except for Binance. And then used rather than the American firms. Down in the description below, I'll list

[03:41] these exchanges, so you can see which countries they support and which currencies and banking systems. Once you figured out which exchange is fully compliant and regulated in your region. You can just compare one versus the

[03:54] other on fees and products that they offer. So, for the most part, in terms of fees, Binance, Bybit, OKX are without a doubt the cheapest in trading fees. They'll be starting around 10 basis points in trading fees, and that's done

[04:07] currency that you spend, right? So, if you've got a thousand pounds, euros, they'll take 10 basis points of the and you keep the rest. We're doing the exact same thing on these exchanges,

[04:21] crypto, that's the same thing, so we're looking for the cheapest fees. And that's why I often go for Kraken instead of Coinbase in Europe and US because most part, have cheaper fees.

[04:34] You can see Coinbase fees start at 40 to 60 basis points. Miles in the sky compared to the others, right, which start at 10 basis points. And Kraken, which starts at 25 basis points. So, Revolut is a bit weird.

[04:48] and you buy and sell crypto in there, it's insanely expensive. Do not do that. If you download Revolut X and log in with your same account, it's a separate app on your phone. I think the trading fees start at around 10 basis points, or

[05:02] you can actually get some free free trades on there as well. Now, that's really low, and that's fantastic. So, Revolut can actually turn out to be kind Revolut app, which is, you know, stocks and effects with currencies and a

[05:15] X if you want to buy and sell crypto. So, definitely look into Revolut if you're looking to do that as well. But, for the most part, if you can use these, they're cheaper overall in pretty much everything. And these guys

[05:27] pretty much everything. But, there are some nuances here, so definitely check that down in the description below. If you use blockchains and crypto wallets yourself, then obviously it's important to you to send crypto out of the

[05:40] And depending on which blockchain that you're using, the exchanges may support that or may not. Now, for the what I'll call, you know, Europe US type exchanges, which is these guys,

[05:53] they don't support as many blockchains as what I call kind of the the offshore ones, right? And so, if you're kind of Western, going to support the major blockchains. So, of course, Bitcoin, because if you

[06:07] there's one network. But, if you're using stable coins or you want to use DeFi on Ethereum or Solana, those guys are going to be fine. However, these guys have a lot of the long tail of blockchains. So, pretty much, if a

[06:21] blockchain exists, Binance will support that blockchain and you can send crypto out via that blockchain. Bybit and OKX are also very, very good. And these guys really support the major Western-style chains. Obviously, chains

[06:33] are worldwide, but, you know, they're developed by people that potentially are in the US versus outside of the US, right? So, as you can see, the cost is using a blockchain is the same for everyone, but the uh exchange may add on

[06:48] So, I've just listed them here, you can screenshot this. For the most part, uh you can see OKX is very, very good in terms of their cost of, you know, sending Bitcoin or ETH or stable coins out. Coinbase can be good on some chains

[07:02] and not others. Um Revolut typically is a little bit more expensive. Anyway, you If you're using blockchains regularly, it's important that you're not paying blockchain and that the crypto exchange isn't adding anything on top too much

[07:16] anyway. A lot of crypto apps now also give spending cards that are associated with your account. So, you can apply for either a Visa or a Mastercard, and then you can just sell balances that you have in your account to fund your spends. Uh

[07:30] and a Mastercard, so nothing to do with the exchange, and there's often some foreign exchange transaction fees and other fees that you may have to pay. So, region. Especially in some smaller countries, what you'll find is that you

[07:44] can get one of these cards, but it'll be a US dollar based card. And if you spend in your local currency, there'll have to be a foreign exchange transaction on the Visa or the MasterCard side, and they charge around 2% for that, or maybe a

[07:57] lot of the crypto cards giving cash back spend. Now, that's not really cash back. That's basically just paying you back for all of the higher FX fees that you'll be charged when

[08:10] Now, if you're in a bigger region like the US, you're not going to have to deal dollar card that you spend in dollars. If you're in Europe, it'll probably be a Uh but you'll have to check specifically in your region.

[08:22] So, what happens here is that your details will be used from the exchange, can add it to Apple or Google Pay, and that's pretty much it. Now, in terms of well, if you don't have any balances, then

[08:37] from your account. And what you can actually do is tell the exchange liquidate in which order, right? So, if you have some Bitcoin, and that's it, then you can say, "Hey, I've got these three or four other assets, sell them

[08:52] first before selling my Bitcoin." What you can also do is just fund the card with stable coins as well. So, if you just want to put USDC on there and have, there, it'll just spend that for you. If you want to know how to sign up for the

[09:04] the right way, I've got specific tutorial guides for all of the different card programs down in the description below, so you can watch those. I'll just see which card programs are available or not in your region. But again, this

[09:16] changes over time, so some regions will add card programs in, and you can use look at the app that you might want to use, and just search for the card time you're watching this. These days, crypto platforms don't just offer crypto

[09:31] touch on here. So, the first one is, without a shadow of a doubt, crypto platforms are the best places to trade The platforms are everything that you

[09:43] would expect from a modern internet company giving you an app. They're quick. They're laid out in the right way. Everything is easy. And that really is a comparison to like the old stock trading apps, which are

[09:55] clunky, terrible, slow, awful things to use, right? These things are amazing. And the other thing is that they're basically all the same, right? Because is pressing a button to buy or sell. And so, you can see that they pretty

[10:09] So, this is Binance. You know, you have the chart here. You have the order book then you can put in your orders buy and sell here. Now, I've got tutorial videos for all of the crypto platforms. I'll list them below if you need to know how

[10:22] and out, how to trade, everything else. I'll leave all of that in the layout is a broadly similar across Binance, Bybit here. Again, right-hand You've got the order book here in the chart. And then the same for OKX. You

[10:37] can see it's basically the same. Is there any difference? Um what it comes down to is the actual market on that exchange. So, for the most part, Binance is the the largest crypto exchange, which means

[10:50] they're going to have the deepest liquidity to trade amongst pretty much something like that, you know, most exchanges going to have a liquid market, to trade smaller coins or a long tail of coins, you know, you may find that

[11:05] some exchanges have wider spreads, which is a cost to trade, uh or just have is the biggest exchange, they tend to have fantastic liquidity for most

[11:17] trading pairs. And you'll find that Binance has um a bigger selection of currencies, as well. And because Binance has much more trading volume than other exchanges, they can tend to make some of their

[11:31] they benefit from volume there. And so I'd say Binance is the deepest liquidity, but in terms of the app and how it's used, Binance, Bybit, OKX by far the best, no question. The others are not. Um I would say Kraken is very

[11:45] good, but the others are excellent. Um Coinbase is not good at all. Again, the clunky. I don't know why, but it just is. It's got a lot better over the years, but it's still not anywhere near the others. Um Revolut is Yeah, you you

[11:58] again, it's not the best. The other two points to make when it comes to trading is that these crypto exchanges now offer many more products than not just crypto. So, uh stocks are now available to trade on some of these exchanges and also

[12:13] ETFs, um and then commodities, and in some regions CFDs. So, if you're in the UK, you'll probably know CFDs, which are quite popular because they're tax-free for shorter-term trading versus buying the actual stock. Now, the other thing

[12:27] different in different regions, you'll have to be specific about what you're trading. So, for example, I think Binance now actually offers stock trading through a partner in the US where you do actually become a

[12:40] shareholder in the company when you buy it. Now, that's different to some other exchanges which may offer you stock tokens which track the price of tokens but don't actually offer uh share ownership. So, you're not the beneficial

[12:53] owner of the shares, but you own a stock token in your account which tracks the price. Now, depending what you want, um either of those may be suitable for you. these exchanges is as of right now, I haven't seen the ability to apply for

[13:08] any tax-advantaged accounts on these exchanges. So, traditional brokers offer tax-advantaged accounts. For example, in the US, you can apply for an IRA or a Roth IRA. In the UK, you'll be applying for an ISA.

[13:21] These can reduce or eliminate capital gains taxes and dividend taxes if you have the accounts and trade within them. Well, in traditional broker accounts, they'll have these accounts for you to apply for. I've never seen them on

[13:34] come in the future, but as of right now, if you are trading on these exchanges, these are all taxable accounts, uh which is a slight disadvantage if you're looking to just put some money away. So,

[13:46] you may, if you do have an ISA or an IRA or something like that, you traditional broker where you can buy a Bitcoin ETF or something like that, um account. As of right now, on crypto exchanges, you can't do that. Something

[14:00] that is very good in modern crypto exchanges, though, is using the earn or finance platforms. And so, the first thing here, I'll show you on Kraken, but every exchange has a version of this, and it's going to

[14:13] because regulations may be allow or disallow some products. But, I'll go to the yield uh portion here in uh Kraken. cryptocurrencies. That's too much for this video, but for the most part, these

[14:27] earn platforms let you hold dollars and then get a yield on those dollars. Now, which are just a modern version of a dollar. Um and so, what you can do is hold certain different stablecoins, and

[14:40] depending on which one is supported on the platform, they'll pass through some you're holding dollars, uh well, the government in the US pays interest on dollars held in in short-term bonds, for example, and

[14:54] that's what the stablecoin holds. So, they'll pass a lot of that uh yield from paying through to you via the stablecoin. So, what you can do is hold they'll pass through some interest rate.

[15:06] you're using, you'll find that they want to incentivize users, so they may up the rate a little bit or lower the rate. Um but, we can see, if I go to auto earn, you can see it says stablecoin rewards right here. So, if you hold on Kraken, I

[15:19] think it's USDG, which is a stablecoin they use. Um you can just hold that and then you can get an APY on there. Other exchanges may actually lend out higher interest rate and they'll pass extra back to you, but that maybe is a

[15:34] what they're doing. That's why you get a higher interest rate, right? So, you can figure out which platform offers what in terms of stable coin rewards, but most of them do offer that these days. The other thing is loans. And Kraken is

[15:48] introducing this uh quite soon. OKX has it, Bybit, Binance have it. I've got videos on taking loans, I'll list them down the description. But, what you can let's say you've got Bitcoin on the exchange, you've got $10,000 of Bitcoin,

[16:00] well, you can take a $2,000 loan against the Bitcoin instantly and the uh they'll give you that dollar loan in the form of stable coins and then you can bank account and you've basically taken

[16:13] a loan against your Bitcoin collateral. Um, that's very easy for them to do and if it falls in value or you don't pay it back, they'll just liquidate the they're also introducing is the ability to do this uh with any other assets in

[16:27] stocks and ETFs, etc. So, if you have really easy to take a loan against it. Not everyone wants to do that, but some people often need to take some liquidity out without having to sell the assets.

[16:39] found are really, really good for this. Um, it's very easy. I can't recommending taking loans against uh you know, assets, but if you crypto platforms are uh very good and offer you know, good services around

[16:53] exchanges in this video unless they were very good and I thought that they would be a great product for you to use. It's just going to come down to which types others and really where you live and

[17:05] list the uh deposit and trading bonuses to all the exchanges down at the the other videos I talked about will all be down there as well. I'm James with My Financial Journey. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one.