One of the hallmarks of margin trading is its potential for extreme risks and equally extreme rewards. For seasoned margin traders, digital currencies offer a new and exciting trading opportunity.
There are a number of crypto exchange platforms that allow margin trading, though most of them are plagued somewhat by volume and liquidity issues. For most of the exchanges that are able to overcome these obstacles, margin trading is available for only a limited number of trading pairs.
If you are looking for a crypto margin trading platform that aligns with your trading needs, perhaps one of the following exchanges will be the right one for you. We have compared the top five exchanges for crypto margin trading based on factors such as fees charged, the number of coins available for trading, leverage available, features, and more. Here’s what we found.
| Exchange | Description | Fee | No. of coins available for margin trading | Leverage Available | Features (pros and cons) | UX and UI | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BitMEX | BitMEX is a P2P crypto-coin trading platform that gives retail investors access to the global markets using cryptocurrencies. As one of the fastest-growing companies in the cryptocurrency and fintech space, it provides a unique, trading-focused experience to digital currency markets. BitMEX is the world's largest bitcoin/USD trading platform by volume, though US residents cannot use the service, per the site's terms of service. | 0.075% taker fee | 6 | up to 200x | - Instant deposits and daily payouts - Futures and derivatives trading available - Closing Fee is 0% - Advanced trading features - Most active crypto margin trading platform - High withdrawal fee - No fiat pairs available - Market manipulations suspected - System overload, can't get in or exit trades during huge movement | Complicated user interface, designed only for pro traders. | 4.4 |
| Prime XBT | Prime XBT is a bitcoin-based platform, offering leveraged trading on several digital assets including bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple. PrimeXBT offers a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders that demand highly reliable market data and performance. The entire infrastructure is designed to facilitate high number of orders per second and extreme loads, while offering ultra-fast order execution and low latency. | 0.05% taker fee | 5 | up to 100x | - Low trading fee - No KYC is required to unlock the advanced features of the site - Customizable user experience with add-on widgets - Relatively new exchange - No mobile app or pc program to trade outside the website - No fiat deposits available - Relatively Low liquidity | User friendly and interactive interface that is suitable both for beginners as well as pro traders. | 4.2 |
| Kraken | Founded in 2011, Kraken was the first bitcoin exchange to have its market data displayed on the Bloomberg Terminal, the first to pass a cryptographically verifiable proof-of-reserves audit, and one of the first exchanges to offer leveraged bitcoin margin trading. Kraken is trusted by millions of traders, institutions, and authorities across the world, from Toyko's court-appointed trustee to Germany's BaFin regulated Fidor Bank. In January 2016, Kraken announced that it was acquiring prominent bitcoin exchanges Coinsetter and Cavirtex to expand into American and Canadian markets. In 2019 Kraken acquired Crypto Facilities, a registered futures platform. | 0.02% taker fee | 6 | up to 5x | - Provision to leverage crypto fiat pairs - Excellect liquidity - Low trading fee - 6 cryptocurrencies in 16 different pairs - Exhaustive KYC process - Relatively poor customer support | An interface designed to cater to both beginners as well as institutions with an inclination toward institutions. | 4.2 |
| Poloniex | Poloniex is part of the Circle suite of products. Circle believes cryptocurrencies are fundamentally changing how the world uses money, and is dedicated to giving individuals and institutions the tools they need to prosper in this new financial reality. | 0.2% taker fee | 11 | up to 2.5x | - Super responsive customer support - exchange with high integrity that refunded its users in the past post-security-hack event - Good volume and liquidity on margin trading platform - high trading Fee - Relatively Low volume - Forced KYC for all users | Extremely interactive and user friendly interface designed for beginners, but also has some advanced trading tools for pro traders | 3.9 |
| Huobi Pro | Established in 2013, Huobi has become one of the world's largest digital asset exchanges with an accumulated trading volume of US $1 trillion. Having once accounted for half of the world's digital asset transactions, Huobi now serves more than 5 million users in over 130 countries around the world. With compliance teams in Singapore, the United States, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand, Australia and other countries and regions around the world, Huobi is able to provide safe and reliable digital asset trading and management services to its customers. | 0.2% taker fee | 11 | up to 5x | - Multi-language user interface as well as customer support - Faster KYC approvals - Headquarters available globally - Investor protection - Most information is available in Chinese - high withdrawal fees | Advanced user interface with most of the information available in Chinese | 3.9 |
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