Best Crypto Exchange UK

Searching for the best place to trade crypto in the UK? Look no further. Review the top exchanges serving traders in the UK and see how they compare.

As a trader in the UK, you have plenty of crypto exchanges to choose from.

To find your ideal platform, you'll want to consider

1. Secondary features
   
2. Fees
   
3. Security and privacy
   
4. Customer service
   
5. Liquidity, and the big one:
   
6. Location

Not to worry. We've done the legwork and ranked the top crypto exchanges for UK traders. Read on to see which is right for you, plus how to pick your perfect exchange.

Best Crypto Exchanges for the UK

The following platforms are among the highest-volume exchanges listed on CoinMarketCap.com and available in the UK. These represent the platforms with the best features, lowest fees, and easiest-to-use interfaces.

1. Binance: Best for Active Traders

Binance consistently comes in as the highest volume exchange on CoinMarketCap. With a high liquidity score, an extensive range of coins, and among the lowest trading fees available, it's a good option for active traders.

Keep in mind, Binance has been facing increasing scrutiny from regulators around the world, which is why they recently began suspending futures and derivatives trading in European countries.

While they are banned from operating in the U.K., Binance has said that U.K. traders can continue trading as normal. This is because Binance does not technically operate within the U.K.

Binance may have its fair share of regulatory issues, but for now they remain the most liquid exchange in the world.

Best Features

• Free peer-to-peer trading
  
• Trading widget compatible with the privacy-focused internet browser, Brave

Binance supports nearly 400 coins to trade, including the following:

2. Coinbase: Best for Beginners

It's hard to beat Coinbase when it comes to easy, intuitive cryptocurrency trading. Their simple interface makes it quick and easy to get set up and start trading.

Based in San Francisco, Coinbase started out offering the ability to buy and sell Bitcoin via bank transfers and they've been growing ever since.

Now they offer more than 75 cryptocurrencies to buy, sell, and trade, with more added regularly.

Best Features

• A Coinbase Visa card (lets you spend your crypto worldwide)
  
• The Coinbase Wallet (a separate app for securely storing coins; doesn't require Coinbase account)
  
• Educational tools that pay in crypto

Coinbase isn't the cheapest exchange out there, but if you're looking for a simple on-ramp to crypto trading, it doesn't get much easier.

One downside of Coinbase is its history of questionable user privacy. They are documented to have sold or made efforts to sell certain user data to government agencies in the United States.

3. Kraken: Best for Experienced Investors

Kraken is a trading platform that offers advanced features for more experienced traders.

Kraken also employs extensive security protocols, and users of Kraken Pro will enjoy fees comparable to those on Binance.

Due to limited funding options, users may find themselves frustrated trying to deposit money onto the Kraken platform.

Best Features

• Margin trading of 2x, 3x and up to 5x
  
• OTC (over the counter) trading
  
• Futures
  
• Forex trading (rare among crypto platforms)

As well as trading more than 55 unique cryptocurrencies, Kraken supports over 20 trading pairs directly with GBP.

Here's a look at some of the cryptocurrency that Kraken users can trade:

4. eToro: Best for Social Trading

There's a lot to be said for social trading platforms like eToro. It's an ideal place for new traders to learn the crypto ropes from experienced, successful traders.

Known best for their CopyTrading feature, eToro allows users to mimic the trades of other investors automatically. When they trade, you trade, meaning you can "take your hands off the wheel" once you find a trader you trust (if that's what you want to do).

Best Features

• Copyable traders have popularity ratings and risk scores
  
• Public feeds and comments sections offer valuable info
  
• Educational content and financial reports
  
• Smart Portfolios, which are curated sets of crypto coins from different sectors of the market, such as their FuturePayments and CryptoEqual portfolios

eToro offers a somewhat limited range drawn from the most popular cryptocurrencies, including:

They offer trading in stocks, CFDs, ETFs, Indices, and Forex.

5. Crypto.com: Best for Altcoins

Crypto.com aims to be your one-stop-shop for all things crypto. More than other platforms, they've made a point of diversifying their offerings across the spectrum of cryptocurrency products.

Best Features

• Margin trading up to 3x
  
• Limit orders
  
• Derivatives with up to 50x leverage
  
• NFTs on their marketplace
  
• Crypto-rewards Visa cards
  
• Custodial and non-custodial wallets
  
• A pay feature that lets you to spend your crypto at local merchants

Crypto.com supports an ever-growing list of over 90 cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.

In addition to its wide variety of coins and features, Crypto.com charges reasonably low fees—not the lowest, but lower than many of the other popular exchanges.

The main drawback to Crypto.com is their heavy use of their proprietary token, CRO.

6. Gemini: Best for Security

If security is your main priority, then Gemini may be the right choice for you. Their exchange is of moderate size, including a selection of the most popular coins, like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The platform has a beginner-friendly interface for newer users, and more advanced traders may enjoy their ActiveTrader platform, which is more expert-oriented and offers more trading options. They support recurring buys for those looking to implement dollar cost averaging or similar strategies.

Best Features

• Crypto stored offline in air-gapped, geographically distributed facilities
  
• Insurance for any crypto stored in hot wallets
  
• FIPS 140-2 Level 3 rating or higher
  
• Multi-factor authentication
  
• Address allowlisting
  
• Bug bounties

Gemini offers more than 40 cryptocurrencies, including the following:

More UK-Friendly Crypto Exchanges to Consider

UK traders have even more crypto exchanges to choose from in this list of popular alternatives to the larger exchanges above. Review their features to see which platform is right for you.

1. Gate.io

Gate.io is a popular exchange where you can buy crypto via credit card or bank transfer. They support a number of trading options, including spot trading, peer-to-peer trading via their Push Transaction function, and Flash Swap, a quick way of exchanging one coin for another.

They recently introduced CopyTrading, making them the second social trading platform on this list, though their methods are a little different from those on eToro. To incentivize successful traders, 5% of proceeds from copied trades will go to the trader who originated them.

Other useful features include a Periodic Investment Plan, Liquidity Mining, which allows users to earn money from fees, and Cloud Mining, which allows users to mine crypto without investing in costly hardware.

One feature that sets Gate.io apart is the sheer number of coins available for trade: currently over 800. You can find the full list here.

2. KuCoin

KuCoin is another exchange with an impressive number of coins available, currently counted at over 300.

Users can trade anytime over their app or through their desktop site. They accept a range of payment options including Visa and Mastercard, Apple Pay, and SEPA, and users can also take advantage of instant buy options and peer-to-peer trading.

Advanced and institutional traders can use their custom API, practice margin trading up to 10x leverage, and try trading automatically using their newly introduced trading bot.

KuCoin also has a range of futures trading options, including their Futures Pro feature, which supports up to 100x leverage. You can lend out your crypto to earn rewards and take advantage of a range of other features.

3. Bitstamp

Bitstamp is a cryptocurrency trading platform that's been around longer than most. It has features that will appeal to experienced traders, but it may not be right for beginners.

Targeted toward institutions and professional traders, Bitstamp offers "high-performance FIX and HTTP APIs."

The platform runs 24/7, and emphasizes high liquidity and reliable order execution. For more experienced traders, they offer a wealth of data and charting options that can help them implement their trading strategies.

Trading is available through their desktop site and mobile app. They charge relatively low fees that decrease with trading volume, and are popular with high-volume traders, especially in the EU, where they are based.

Bitstamp also supports instant credit and debit card purchases in the UK, among several other countries and the EU.

Bitstamp supports trading over 30 cryptocurrencies and stablecoins:

Trades can be made in USD, GBP, and EUR.

The biggest challenge for potential Bitstamp users will be its advanced interface, which will likely overwhelm novice traders.

How to Choose an Exchange

Now that you've seen what options are out there, you may be wondering how to pick an exchange. When trying to decide which to use, there are several primary factors you ought to keep in mind.

Features

This is probably the most personally variable factor, and will depend on what's important to you as a trader, as well as your level of expertise, interest, and ability to invest time as well as money.

Consider whether the platform provides market data or historical prices. Also consider what types of orders are available—like limit orders, stop orders, or margin trades.

For those who may wish to take their coins off the exchange, or even spend them, it's important to know whether the platform allows cryptocurrency withdrawals. Not all of them do, surprising as that may seem.

When you buy a coin on a non-withdrawal platform, you can speculate on its price, but you don't own it.

Beyond that, here are some of the more common secondary features you might be interested in:

• Staking Accounts
  
• Educational Resources
  
• Rewards Credit and Debit Cards
  
• Crypto Pay (allows you to spend your coins at retailers)
  
• Crypto-backed Loans
  
• P2P Trading
  
• NFT Marketplace
  
• Custodial and Non-custodial Wallets

Fees

When it comes to trading itself, little has more impact on your ultimate outcome than fees. High fees add up quickly, and frequent traders should aim for as low of fees as possible.

Here are some common fees you should watch out for:

• Transaction Fees: Charged by the exchange to cover the cost of trading.

• Spread: Frequently hidden, and may not even be listed by the exchange. This is the difference between the sell and buy price, often used by so-called "commission-free" exchanges as a way of profiting from a transaction without disclosing it. Some exchanges charge it on both buy and sell transactions, others only once.

• Deposit Fees: Typically exchanges offer a variety of methods to deposit, and sometimes they're free. Others may be extremely costly. Make sure you know beforehand. Common deposit methods include ACH bank transfer and wire transfer.

• Debit / Credit Purchase Fee: Many exchanges that support the option will charge more for these purchase methods, sometimes a lot more.

• Withdrawal Fees: Whether you're withdrawing cryptocurrency or fiat money, many exchanges charge you to do it, often depending on withdrawal method.

• Inactivity or Maintenance Fees: Charged for having an account, or having but not using one, usually for a period of 12 months.

• Gas Fees: Fairly uncommon on exchanges. Charged to pay for the cost of executing an operation on the Blockchain.

Security and Privacy

The truth about crypto is it's a risky investment. Not just because of volatility, though there is that. But there are bad actors as well. Here are some common methods used to stop them:

• Multi-Factor Authentication: The bare minimum for protecting your account. SMS is good; an authenticator app is better.

• Address Allowlisting or Whitelisting: This allows you to choose ahead of time which crypto wallet addresses you want to allow withdraws to—typically, yours.

• Cold Storage: Many exchanges keep most or all of their crypto stored offline, in "cold storage," rather than in "hot" storage, online.

• Insurance: Some exchanges take out private insurance policies, while others set aside funds to reimburse customers in the case of loss.

• Bug Bounty: Many large companies pay bug bounties to would-be hackers. The hacker finds the flaw, and instead of exploiting it, they reveal it to the company's internal security team for a high payout.

• Encryption: Encryption means that if an exchange's security is breached, your personal information is less likely to be stolen.

As for privacy, most exchanges are required to obtain personal information about their customers to comply with regulations such as KYC (know your customer) and AML (anti-money laundering). Seek out exchanges that promise not to share your data once they have it.

More Important Factors to Consider

Location
Not every exchange is available everywhere. It's important to find ones that allow trading in the UK.

Liquidity
Average traders shouldn't have to worry about this too much, but those dealing in large sums will want to take it into account.

Liquidity refers to the size of trade an exchange can support without the market price shifting. Higher trade volume exchanges will have higher liquidity as well.

Custodial or Non-Custodial
This is a major question in the crypto space, where there are no banks, and lost crypto is often lost for good.

A custodial exchange will hold your coins; a non-custodial exchange requires you have your own wallet, either hot or cold, to store them on.

Bottom Line

The fact is, no exchange is right for everyone—but everyone should be able to find one that's right for them. Luckily for traders in the UK, there are plenty of excellent exchanges to choose from.

Whether you're a professional trader looking for speedy execution and high liquidity, or a beginner willing to pay a little more for user-friendliness and ease of use, with this list, you'll be up and trading in no time.