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Let’s take a look at the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges and what they have to offer.

This list will be covering centralized exchanges.

For those who are new to crypto, yes the exchanges I’ll be going over today are all centralized, they use centralized servers and are a single entity that holds your funds and is subjected to regulations.
Keep an eye out for when I feature a list of decentralized exchanges, those are the exchanges that are peer-to-peer, requires little to no personal information to join, and they do not hold your funds for you, so they are not seen as a honeypot for hackers.

Now to briefly go over a few of the exchanges that are most commonly used:

Coinbase:

Very user friendly, but perhaps most well known now because of the attention from the IRS investigation that was launched nearly a year ago.

Kraken:

Less user friendly, but has maintained a good reputation throughout the years.

Poloniex:

Strictly a cryptocurrency exchange so you cannot deposit or withdraw fiat, but it has a good amount of volume so trades don’t take long

Bittrex:

Very similar to Poloniex in regards to trading capabilities and the fact that you cannot fund your account with fiat currency

Shapeshift:

An exchange that does not hold your funds, it is a fast way to trade one crypto for another.

Now that we’ve identified the top dogs of crypto exchanges, let’s take a look at how they differentiate themselves, what their fees are, which coins they support and what you’ll need to do to get an account.

You can find links to all of the following information down below.

Coinbase:

There has been lots of attention regarding the IRS investigation, but in my opinion, coinbase is only the first crypto exchange to be targeted by the IRS, they certainly won’t be the last. Which is all the more reason to consider looking into use decentralized exchanges. Not available in Hawaii, Wyoming, or Minnesota.

Fees:
Conversion fees vary depending on your location and also your method of buying/selling. Coinbase doesn’t charge fees to use their wallet service, but if you transfer to a different wallet they might pass on the network miner’s fee to you. They will notify you of this during the transaction.
Coins supported:
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin in addition to letting you fund your account with fiat currencies like USD and Euro.
Verification requirements:
As with any exchange, you can raise your limits by providing more of your personal information. You can get the bare minimum wallet with your full name and email. If you want to make a purchase using your credit or debit card then you’ll have to provide your bank details and verify your identity with government issued identification.

Kraken:

Is meant for experienced traders. You can trade with many different cryptos as well as a number of different fiat currencies. Allows for margin trading

Fees:
Kraken also is known for having relatively low fees compared to other big crypto exchanges. There are a few variables that will determine the fees you will pay. Things like the amount you are trading, which currency pairs you are trading and the tier of your account all are taken into account when Kraken calculates your fees. These fees can range from 0% to 0.26%, both the buyer and the seller pay a fee but the buyer pays a higher fee.
Coins supported:
They have a list of 17 cryptocurrencies and they also accept deposits and withdrawals with fiat currencies USD, Euro, British Pound, Canadian Dollar and Japanese Yen.
Verification requirements:
For a basic trading account you’ll need to provide your full name, address, phone number, and date of birth. If you want access to advanced trading options be prepared to supply them with a government issued ID and if you’re in the US you’ll need to provide your social security number.

Poloniex:

As I mentioned earlier, this exchange deals with a lot of volume which is good for making trades, but a few months ago it reached the point where the poloniex team was unable to handle the drastic surge in users. Causing trades to come to a halt mixed with severely delayed customer service which resulted in whole bunch of panic and a drop in faith in the exchange itself. That being said, Poloniex is still a very popular exchange that offers advanced trading options like margin trading and lending as well.

Fees:
The fees on Poloniex are determined by the last 30 days of trading volume on your account, the higher the volume, the more the fees are reduced. They can range from 0% to 0.25%. Also, there will be a 15% fee applied to earned interest for lenders.
Coins supported:
Poloniex supports 101 cryptocurrencies, you can see the full list by checking out the links down below in the description.
Verification requirements:
Again, like Kraken, for the basic level of trading on Poloniex you’ll need to provide your name, phone number, address and date of birth. This gives you a $2,000/day deposit/withdrawal limit and with the Level 2 verification you’ll need to provide proof of identity with a government issued photo ID and this will bring you up to a $25,000 daily deposit/withdrawal limit.

Bittrex:

Is also an exchange designed purely for cryptocurrencies and I personally think this exchange is slightly better designed than Poloniex and far better than Kraken.

Fees:
Bittrex applies a blanket 0.25% commission fee for all trades. They will not apply additional fees for deposits and withdrawals other than the normal network fees applied by the miners of that particular coin.
Coins supported:
Bittrex has an impressive list of 257 coins that are available to be traded.
Verification Requirements:
For their basic account you’ll need to provide your name, address and date of birth. If they cannot verify this information with public records, you can verify yourself by submitting your mobile phone number and verify yourself through text message. Their enhanced account requires you to submit a scan of your ID plus a selfie.

ShapeShift:

Similar to a decentralized exchange in that they do not hold any of your funds. They basically act as the medium for your trades.

Fees:
Shapeshift does not apply any exchange or service fees, they will only pass on the miner fees to you. However I highly suggest checking the exchange rate that they give you since this is how they make money. Shapeshift is easy and convenient, but you may pay in other ways like poor exchange rates so it’s always smart to double check this if it is important for you to save money.
Coins supported:
There is a total of 55 coins currently available to be traded using Shapeshift.
Verification Requirements:
No identification is required, all you need is the address of the coin you currently hold, and an address for the coin you would like to trade it for.

I’d like to cover a few more but for the sake of time I’ll just strongly encourage you to check out these other exchanges:

Bitfinex:

Perhaps the most advanced crypto exchange with a healthy list of trading options so if that’s something that interests you definitely check out Bitfinex. However, it’s important to note that very recently they’ve expressed their intentions to remove their services from US citizens.

Cryptopia:

An exchange that lists just under 1000 cryptocurrencies. The volume isn’t always impressive or helpful but you’ve gotta admit that amount of coins is noteworthy. What else is noteworthy about cryptopia is the fact that it’s also a place where you can sell anything to anyone for crytocurrency.

Local Bitcoins:

Your best bet to buy cryptocurrency if your local fiat currency isn’t accepted on the major exchanges. This is the site that connects buyers and sellers who are in the same area so they can meet in person to conduct the transaction, or you can also organize a deposit into a bank account. Local bitcoins then holds the bitcoin in their escrow service until the seller confirms that the transaction has taken place.