If you’re looking to buy crypto but don’t know where to start, you might want to consider Coinbase or Robinhood. Both are user-friendly platforms that cater to first-time investors.

Both services offer custodial wallets that allow you to store your cryptocurrencies. However, Coinbase has a slight advantage with its air-gapped cold storage.

Coinbase

Coinbase is an online cryptocurrency exchange that allows users to buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrencies. It offers hundreds of cryptocurrencies to purchase, including bitcoin, ethereum, and other popular coins.

Unlike other exchanges, Coinbase offers a wide variety of advanced crypto features for its customers, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs), staking rewards, and more. It also offers crime insurance to help protect user funds from theft and cybersecurity breaches.

In terms of trading fees, Coinbase charges a flat fee for transactions on its platform. The exchange adheres to a maker/taker model, which means that you’ll pay a lower fee for orders that aren’t filled immediately.

Binance

Binance is one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges and is a popular choice among crypto traders, investors, and enthusiasts. The exchange offers high-quality customer service, fast trades, and low trading fees.

The exchange offers a wide range of cryptocurrencies to trade, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Binance Coin. It also offers futures, which allow users to buy and sell a specific amount of a particular coin at a certain price.

Unlike other cryptocurrency exchanges, Binance charges commissions based on the volume of trading. It does this via a series of pricing tiers, from the lowest tier (Tier 0) for trades in only Bitcoin and Ethereum to Tier 1 for everything else.

This makes it easy for Binance to differentiate between makers and takers on the site, but it can also make it difficult for customers to know exactly how much they’re paying. For example, a maker doing $20 million in 30-day trading volume pays 0.6 percent of that volume, while a taker doing the same amount gets charged as much as free.

Bittrex

Bittrex is one of the biggest exchanges in terms of trade volume. Its APIs and automated monitoring systems make trading efficient at scale, while its security features are among the best in the business.

Founded in 2014 by former cybersecurity engineers Bill Shihara, Richie Lai, Rami Kawach and Ryan Hentz, Bittrex offers a safe and secure trading environment for customers to buy and sell over 500 cryptocurrencies. Its security is the cornerstone of the platform, and it’s backed up by its founders’ years of experience in cybersecurity for companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and BlackBerry.

Bittrex’s platform is multi-layered in its security features, including wallet and IP address whitelisting to help reduce the possibility of hackers stealing your coins. It also takes user verification seriously and requires a lot of documentation for depositing and withdrawing.

Bitfinex

Bitfinex is one of the most popular exchanges in the world. It offers USD/BTC trading and also allows fiat deposits and withdrawals via bank wire.

The platform offers a number of different coins and is regularly adding new ones to its list. It also offers a crypto lending service, which is great for traders who need some extra cash without having to wait for banks to approve their requests.

Security is a major concern for many crypto investors, and this is something that Bitfinex has taken seriously. The platform keeps 99,5% of its users’ assets in cold storage devices and only stakes a small percentage to reduce the risk.

In addition, Bitfinex offers two-factor authentication and a host of other security features to ensure that client accounts are protected. This includes email encryption to monitor withdrawal IPs and a 24-hour withdrawal lockout for newly registered accounts.