Thanks to record-breaking ETF launches by BlackRock and Fidelity, which accumulated $112 billion in bitcoin, as well as Donald Trump’s re-election in November, BTC crossed the $100 thousand mark. However, hype cycles create unreasonable optimism and the FOMO effect
Fear of missing out, so investors should be careful. This applies not only to the choice of tokens for investment but also to the choice of crypto exchanges. They differ significantly in terms of licensing, asset protection mechanisms, and trading opportunities. Those affected by the FTX crash in 2022 knows how important it is.
Rating of the best crypto exchanges in 2025 according to Forbes
- CME Group – is the world’s largest regulated bitcoin futures exchange with a trading volume of $1.4 trillion in 2024. Its reliability and high level of regulation earned it the top spot.
- Coinbase – is the largest public cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, storing 2.4 million BTC worth $245 billion. Security is a top priority for its 8 million active users.
- Bitstamp – a global exchange that is particularly strong in Europe. Recently acquired by Robinhood for $200 million.
- Binance – returned to the ranking after resolving legal issues. The exchange has 245 million registered users and processes almost 25% of all cryptocurrency transactions.
- Robinhood – a platform aimed at retail investors, has become the main trading center for meme coins. After the US election, its cryptocurrency trading volume increased by 780%.
Other key exchanges: Kraken, Gemini, Crypto.com, Fidelity, OKX, Bybit, Upbit, BitFlyer, and Bithumb. Together, they held more than $1.2 trillion in customer assets and had 438 million visits in November 2024.
The above graph shows both fees and spreads and demonstrates that the largest exchanges by market share tend to have the lowest trading costs, except Coinbase. Robinhood, which caters to retail traders, has a zero-fee trading model, but the figures above do not include spreads, which in Robinhood’s case are a major part of their business model.
There are a few firms that offer both high-cost and low-cost alternatives for large users, and Coinbase and Revolut are great examples. For retail customers with low volumes, Coinbase has created a monthly subscription service called Coinbase One that eliminates fees.
At the end of 2024, there were at least half a billion cryptocurrency users in the world.
The largest concentration of traders is observed in the Asia-Pacific region, which has 160 million visitors. Europe is in second place with 134 million. The United States and Canada added another 56 million. Latin America and the Caribbean has 40 million traders, and Africa has the lowest number at 18 million.
Out of the 12 firms in the ranking, 3 firms not included in the ranking have 10+ million unique visitors each. Firms such as Binance, Crypto.com, and Bitget show the number of «users» on their websites in the tens and hundreds of millions, but do not clearly define the term. These firms, like many others interviewed in the study, did not provide up-to-date data on active accounts. However, SimilarWeb’s monthly data gives a clearer picture and an approximate number of users that is the same for all exchanges.
Binance, for example, had 75 million unique users (17% of the total) compared to 56 million (13%) for Coinbase. Robinhood came in fourth with 37 million.
However, some providers focus on only one or two locations. The 49 million traders in South Korea are mainly served by two large institutions: Bithumb and Upbit, which account for 70% of all visitors to cryptocurrency exchanges.
The three largest firms serving 16 million visitors in Japan are Bitflyer, Coincheck, and Bitbank.
15 million visitors in Germany use Austrian Bitpanda, as well as Bitget and Binance.
In India, Binance is the largest exchange, accounting for almost all the country’s 6 million monthly visitors.