Top crypto futures exchanges compared

About Top crypto futures exchanges compared

Futures and derivatives trading rewards activity, and it decides what happens to a margin balance when a position moves the wrong way. This ranking covers 81 venues that offer derivatives, and it puts the cheapest to trade near the top without ignoring the safety of the money standing behind those positions. Most members here are centralised exchanges, so custody matters as much as the fee: a custodial platform holds your coins and can be regulated, while a self-custody venue leaves the keys with you. The trade-off running through the table is cost against protection. Some members list maker and taker fees of 0% and 0% and take a flat charge to withdraw. Others publish a spread that widens on thinner pairs, and a few add a per coin network estimate on the way out. Bank transfer is the most common way to fund an account in this category and card comes next, so funding routes separate the members as much as price does.

How we picked

Every member is scored on weighted measures, and the weights are set for this category. Trust carries the most at 40%, so licences, the custody model and published proof of reserves decide more than price on their own. Cost counts for 35% and is read mainly through the taker fee, with maker fees and withdrawal charges used to separate venues that look identical on a fee page. Offer counts for 25% and covers the size of the coin list, the funding routes, staking and self-custody options, and the support channels a trader can reach. Fee, coin and feature figures come from the exchanges' own trading, fee and account pages, and from market data listings where an exchange does not publish a rate. Licence and legal entity details come from the public register of crypto asset service providers kept by the European Securities and Markets Authority, and from regulator pages. Proof of reserves is read from public on chain reserve trackers. Across the site 848 brands are tracked, of which 355 are licensed. Partner exchanges appear first, in the order the score gives them, and the remaining members follow in score order. The weights and the sources set the order; partner status does not change a score.

Our top picks

1. 1. ActivTrades: best for top-pick

   ActivTrades takes the top pick in this ranking because it answers the cost question outright. Maker and taker fees of 0% and 0% sit at the cheap end of a category where the middle taker fee is 0.1%, and the business has traded since 2001, earlier than any other member here. Accounts are funded through card and bank and coins are held custodially, with custodial listing custodial holding. The trade a reader weighs is market breadth: 9 coins is a short list beside the 305 typical here, so hedging past the majors means looking elsewhere. eToro, next in this ranking, opens the list to from 150 but charges a taker fee of 1%.

   • Taker fee: 0%
   • Coins listed: 9
   • Fiat deposit methods: Card, Bank

   Pros

   • Taker fee of 0% and maker fee of 0% mean no commission on either side of the book.
   • Taker fee of 0% ranks 1 of 118 brands, well under the 0.2% exchange median.
   • Founded in 2001, so the brand has been in the market far longer than most of the 848 brands tracked here.
   • Custodial custody, so the exchange holds the coins, and funding runs by card and bank.

   Cons

   • Only 9 coins are listed, against an exchange median of 74.5 and from 650 at Bitpanda.
   • Funding is limited to card and bank, a shorter set of routes than most exchanges in this ranking accept.
   • Custodial custody means your coins sit with the exchange, which is the minority model at 13.1% of exchanges.
   • Taker fee of 0% applies alongside a maker fee of 0%, so the low cost is not limited to one side of the trade.

2. 2. XTB

   XTB is in this ranking for the fee structure and the help desk together. Maker and taker fees of 0% and 0% put it below the lower quartile of 0.07% for taker fees in this category, and its withdrawal charge is listed as Free above 100 USD/EUR. Support runs on email, chat and phone, the widest help setup among the members here, and Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) names the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission for the account run by XTB Limited. The limit is the market and the funding route: 45 coins is short against the 305 typical here, and accounts fund through bank. LBank, next in this ranking, trades the other way, with 888 coins and wider funding routes.

   • Monthly fee: £0
   • Legal entity: XTB Limited
   • Headquarters: Cyprus

   Pros

   • Access to more than 2100 markets across FX, indices, shares and commodities
   • More than 2700 instruments plus thousands of CFD opportunities in one app
   • Built in news alerts, courses and research tools support market decisions

   Cons

   • Focus stays on FX and CFD trading rather than wider everyday banking
   • Choice is structured around three account types with manager support

3. 3. eToro

   The other eToro entry holds its place in this ranking on the same strength, and a reader should not read it as a separate competitor. A taker fee of 1%, a withdrawal charge of $5 flat fee, a coin list starting at from 150 and a business founded in 2007 all match the entry above it, and Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) and SIPC names the same Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission and SIPC pairing. Counting one brand twice flatters a fee comparison without adding a real option, which is the point worth carrying into the rest of this ranking. XTB, the next distinct member, prices the other way: 0% maker and 0% taker fees, at the price of a shorter list of 45 coins and funding through bank.

   • Monthly fee: €0
   • Currency conversion fee: 0%
   • Free ATM withdrawals: €2,500 to €12,000

   Pros

   • Card upkeep with monthly fee at €0 and Visa acceptance for everyday spending.
   • Currency conversion at 0% with balances across 4 for travel use.
   • Cashback at 4% on debit spending with functions covering multi currency, crypto and travel.

   Cons

   • Trading taker fee is 1%, above the site median of 0.25% for frequent traders.
   • Broker withdrawals carry a charge of $5, which adds cost for moving funds off the platform.

What to look for

Trading cost sets most of the order

Taker fees do most of the sorting. The middle taker fee in this category is 0.1%, the lower quartile is 0.07% and the top of the range reaches 1%. Read the maker fee beside it, and read the withdrawal charge too, since a flat fee on the way out can outweigh the trading fees themselves.

Which entity stands behind the account

Check the legal entity and the regulators named against it. Venues here name the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, the Malta Financial Services Authority, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the Austrian Financial Market Authority or the Financial Conduct Authority. Where the account sits under a registered entity, that registration is the first question to answer before adding a funding route.

Proof of reserves on custodial venues

94.4% of the venues in this category publish proof of reserves and 5.6% do not. It matters most where the exchange holds the coins, which is the case for 78.6% of the venues in this ranking. Look at how recent the published figures are before treating them as settled.

How many markets you can hedge

The middle coin count in this category is 305, with a lower quartile of 46 and an upper end of 1,510. A shorter list is fine for hedging a handful of majors, and the long end matters when a position sits in a thinner token.

Funding routes and moving money in

Bank transfer is listed on 90% of the venues here and card on 58%, with SEPA on 38%. Some venues publish a single route, which is worth knowing before a margin call lands.

Help while a position is open

A help centre is listed on 86.8% of the venues in this ranking, a community on 50%, email on 51.5% and live chat on 32.4%. Phone support sits on 14.7% and is the one to value when you trade outside office hours.

Frequently asked questions

Top crypto futures exchanges compared by country

• Australia
• Canada
• Germany
• India
• Philippines
• Singapore
• United Kingdom
• United States

Providers compared head to head

• ActivTrades vs Gemini
• XTB vs Gemini
• eToro vs Gemini

The data behind this ranking

All data and the CSV