- >Best Crypto Exchanges 2024
- >The Best No-Fee Crypto Trading Exchanges Reviewed and Compared
A Quick Summary of the Top No-Fee Crypto Exchanges
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Our Top Three Picks for No-Fee (Or Extremely Low Fee) Trading
If you are new to the world of cryptocurrency and are wondering how to buy fee-less bitcoin, we have good news for you. We have put together a list of the top 5 crypto exchanges that allow you to trade digital assets without paying any fees/commissions.
- Great for crypto beginners
- Solid crypto/general trading platform
- Reliable company with solid trust in the community
- Fully supports credit cards for deposits and withdrawals
- Exceptionally secure exchange with proof of reserves
- Supports many different funding options
- Accepts users from across the globe including USA and Canada
- Very high trading volume
- International exchange with hundreds of different cryptos
- Extremely simple sign-up process
- Very high level of security
- Users can invest in the success of KuCoin through KuCoin Shares
- One-stop shop for crypto with built-in exchange, app, lending platform, debit card and more
- Native CRO token gives users a huge variety of perks and can be staked for over 10% APY
- Potential for earning high amount of interest when storing digital assets on Crypto.com
- A long-term goal of building cryptocurrency adoption on whole
Understanding How No-Fee Exchanges Work
Typically, no-fee crypto exchanges make money by charging deposit or withdrawal fees but very little (or nothing) on crypto trading. Sometimes the model also works by using a “spread” which means there are technically no fees but each cryptocurrency will be slightly more expensive than what’s listed on CoinMarketCap or Coingecko.
Basically, crypto exchanges have to make money somewhere, so it’s more about prioritizing what’s important to you. Maybe that’s free deposits or perhaps you need extremely low-cost fees for high-volume trading. You also might be interested in margin trading or trading crypto with leverage.
Are No-Fee Crypto Exchanges a Good Idea?
Here’s the harsh reality of no-fee crypto exchanges: They generally still charge a fee.
For example, some exchanges that promise no fees instead charge slightly more for Bitcoin (or any other crypto) to make up for that 1-2% loss in revenue. That’s the “spread” that we mentioned above. There are also subscription models where you instead pay a flat monthly fee. Exchanges have to make money somehow.
That’s why we, at CryptoVantage, usually prefer transparency from exchanges rather than cut-rate crypto fees. Customers also have different needs. If you’re planning on making a single large Bitcoin purchase than we’d suggest picking the most reliable, safe exchange, regardless of the fees it charges.
With that said, here’s a list of best no fee crypto exchanges or ones with low fees:
eToro: Best for Flat-Rate Fees
eToro is one of the oldest online trading platforms and has one of the most intuitive pricing models for trading crypto. It charges a flat 1% fee for buying and selling crypto. That’s it.
There are potentially lower fees on competing exchanges, but they are usually harder to unlock or don’t come with the security of eToro. That’s why we really enjoy the simple, no-fuss model of a flat fee exchange.
- Great for crypto beginners
- Solid crypto/general trading platform
- Reliable company with solid trust in the community
- Fully supports credit cards for deposits and withdrawals
Kraken: Best for High Security and Low Fees
Kraken is one of the most high-quality crypto exchanges in history, and it just so happens that it also charges extremely low fees. You’re not going to buy crypto with no transaction fees here, but they’re very reasonably priced.
They boast some of the highest customer satisfaction in the industry thanks to its high level of security and proof of reserves system so that you can actually confirm the assets it currently holds. The exchange also offers numerous digital assets including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, Polygon and many others.
Kraken charges no fees for deposits or withdrawals and crypto trading fees are extremely low at 0.16% and 0.26% respectively. That can also be improved depending on your crypto trading volume. With the zero in front of the decimal point, we can say that it’s one of the best zero fee crypto exchanges to buy Bitcoin & cryptos. Just keep in mind it’s not a full 0.00%.
Also, you’ll still have to deal with network fees when you withdraw but that’s the case of nearly every crypto exchange.
- Exceptionally secure exchange with proof of reserves
- Supports many different funding options
- Accepts users from across the globe including USA and Canada
- Very high trading volume
KuCoin: Best for High-Volume Trading
Established in 2017, KuCoin is one of the most secure and advanced cryptocurrency exchanges in the world for buying/selling Bitcoin, Litecoin, and more than 250 other digital assets. KuCoin offers fiat-to-crypto and crypto-to-crypto (with more than 440 trading pairs) services, as well as staking, futures trading, and lending.
Recently, the platform has launched its Instant Exchange service. The service provides customers with the best available exchange rates in the global market and allows them to instantly purchase all supported digital assets based on the provided rates. Furthermore, Kucoin charges 0 percent trading fees for these trades.
Kucoin charges a 0.10% flat fee on normal trades. It is indeed very low considering the global industry average is around 0.25%. Also, it doesn’t charge any fees for deposits.
- International exchange with hundreds of different cryptos
- Extremely simple sign-up process
- Very high level of security
- Users can invest in the success of KuCoin through KuCoin Shares
Crypto.com: Best for Low-Fee Stablecoin Trades
Crypto.com is a cryptocurrency platform that allows you to buy, store, transfer, and exchange more than 100 different cryptocurrencies. However, they offer a lot of other products and services. For example, through their crypto Visa Card, you can convert your digital assets and spend it anywhere Visa Cards are accepted. Other services include Defi Wallet, Crypto Credit, Crypto Earn, and many more.
Crypto.com offers some of the lowest fees among centralized exchanges. Using their Android and IOS app, you can deposit cryptocurrencies, exchange your digital assets with other cryptocurrencies, and transfer them to your Crypto.com wallet, all free of charge. Also, the platform allows you to buy bitcoin with zero percent credit card fees. Furthermore, new users can take advantage of 0% trading fees for the first 90 days.
- One-stop shop for crypto with built-in exchange, app, lending platform, debit card and more
- Native CRO token gives users a huge variety of perks and can be staked for over 10% APY
- Potential for earning high amount of interest when storing digital assets on Crypto.com
- A long-term goal of building cryptocurrency adoption on whole
Phemex: If You Really Want No Fees
Founded in 2019, Phemex is a cryptocurrency trading exchange for buying/selling digital assets with a innovative fee structure. Phemex was formed by eight top former Morgan Stanley Executives and is headquartered in Singapore. Currently, the platform is ranked number 6 based on daily trading volume.
Phemex works based on a zero-trading fee model. Instead, clients must pay for a premium membership ($9.99/month, $19.99/three months, and 69.99/12 months.) Aside from not paying any fees, premium members can take advantage of hourly withdrawals with no limit, set conditional spot orders, and endow friends with free trial premium memberships.
Furthermore, the platform offers extremely low makers/takers fees. They charge 0.075% per order and makes an attractive fee of -0.025%, meaning they actually get paid for each trade.
![Phemex Logo](https://www.cryptovantage.com/app/uploads/2024/02/Phemex-Logo-1-e1714554132362.png)
- Phemex Token (PT) gives trading fee discounts and VIP privileges
- Low trading fees for buyers and sellers
- Sign up for free without providing identity information
- Free trading bots for users along with copy trading feature
Begin Your Crypto Journey: Buy and Sell With No Fees
Buying and selling crypto with no fees is simply not realistic. Sorry to burst your bubble. What you should aim for is low fees. After all, if you want the crypto space to stay alive and thrive, then you need to have successful, regulated businesses that help lift up the realm. To do so, exchanges have to charge a small fee per trade so that they can make money, fund their model and succeed themselves. This brings credibility to cryptocurrency.
To buy and sell with low fees, use our recommended options. Phenex is the closest thing to a no-fee exchange, in some ways, as you pay a subscription cost and then don’t have to pay the trading fees. Even so, when companies present this model, keep in mind that there could be other fees like exchange fees (say, from US Dollars to a different currency), blockchain fees or deposit and withdrawal fees, which we’ll delve into below:
A Quick Breakdown of the Different Types of Cryptocurrency Fees
It would be wise to treat all claims about exchanges with 0% fees with a grain of salt. After all, fees are the primary source of revenue for these institutions. Even if they don’t charge fees for one specific service, they certainly charge for others, such as withdrawing or depositing. To give you a better idea of how cryptocurrency exchanges work, we have compiled here the standard types of commission fees.
Deposit/Withdrawal Fees
All crypto exchanges allow traders to swap their digital assets with other cryptocurrencies or fiat currency. In exchange for their services, they charge a fee when clients deposit or withdraw their fiat money. In general you should try to avoid withdrawal fees as this can cut into your profits. It’s even worse for deposit fees. You’ll often see heavy crypto exchange fees when you pay with a credit card. The best crypto exchanges tend to avoid charging deposit or withdrawal fees.
Deposit/withdrawal fees are quite often a flat fee ranging from $1-$5 but it can vary.
Exchange Fees
Crypto exchanges play an intermediary role between traders, and consequently, they charge makers/takers a fee for trades made on their platform. Makers/traders who place orders that can’t immediately be matched. In other words, they provide liquidity to a market. On the other hand, takers place orders to take liquidity from the order book. In order to provide traders with an incentive to place orders on the book, exchanges charge makers a lower fee, while takers generally pay higher fees.
Most of the time these fees are quite low but high-volume crypto traders will want to pay attention to this one. This is a basic cost of crypto trading.
Network Fees
Cryptocurrency is based on blockchain technology and crypto exchanges (especially decentralized ones), and their users must directly or indirectly pay a fee for the mining costs associated with blockchain. Quite frequently you’ll also have to pay network fees on centralized exchanges but they sometimes opt to pay them for their customers.
Market Spread
To understand what a market spread is, we must first have a basic understanding of the exchange order book. The order book is defined as the list of all open orders for a specific trading pair available at a particular time. And by an open order, we basically mean the price that people offer to buy or sell a particular asset. Now that we know the definitions of the order book and open order, let’s see what market spread is.
The market spread is defined as the gap between the lowest buy bid and the highest bid offer on the order book. This gap is the difference between the price the seller is asking to sell a particular asset and the price buyers are willing to pay to buy that asset. For example, let’s say you want to buy one Bitcoin from a seller. You offer to buy his/her BTC for $40,000, while the seller thinks the price should be $45,000. This $5,000, or the difference between your bid and his/her offer, is the spread. The lowest ask price and the highest bid price determine the market spread. You’ll notice slightly different prices between exchanges and is usually because of spread.
Market spread is frustrating to crypto traders because it’s rather vague and can vary immensely from exchange to exchange. Pay attention if users complain about the spread on a certain crypto exchange.
Monthly Subscription Fees
Some high-volume exchanges, most notably Phemex and Coinbase, have experimented with charging a single flat monthly charge rather than per trade. The Coinbase One monthly subscription launched in 2023 at $29.99 per month in the USA.
It’s an interesting model that might make sense for high-volume traders, and it certainly simplifies the entire concept of paying fees. It’s definitely not for everyone, however, and it wouldn’t make sense for infrequent crypto purchasers.
How Do the Major Exchanges Stack Up?
If you’re looking for even more information about some of the popular crypto exchanges and how they stack up against each other, you might want to look into our popular showdown articles:
- Kraken vs. Coinbase
- eToro vs. Coinbase
- Uphold vs. Coinbase
- Kraken vs. Coinbase
- Kraken vs. eToro
- Coinbase vs. Crypto.com
- Kucoin vs. Binance
The Best Crypto App with No Fees
The closest you’ll get to a no-fee exchange in terms of a per-swap basis, you might want to look at something like Phemex. They have a monthly subscription model, so you’re going to pay a certain amount each month to have access to the platform. From there, you’ll be charged no fees per trade. Keep in mind, you still might encounter some other fees along the way.
Are No-Fee Crypto Exchanges still popular?
When you’re in the crypto space – either investing or exchanging – you always have to be wary of scams. It’s gotten considerably better over the years and there is still a long way to go, but you have to keep your eyes peeled. That’s why when something is branded as “free”, some red flags go off.
Think about it: How is their business functioning if they’re not making money off trades? How else can an exchange survive and function? If it’s a promotion or temporary thing to start, maybe that makes sense. If it’s a long-term model, that’s too good to be true. As a result, a lot of people will shy away from anything that’s branded as a “no fee exchange” unless there is a clear and logical explanation how their business is sustaining itself.
Conclusion: Find the Right No-Fee Exchange For You
With literally hundreds of cryptocurrencies available and many more being launched every day, it could be overwhelming to find the perfect one that meets all your demands. In this article, we compiled a list of the top 5 crypto exchanges where you can buy bitcoin without paying any fees.
Of course, not all the services these platforms provide are free of charge. But in a world where cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology are going mainstream, and many countries are developing digital forms of their national currency, it won’t be long before institutions and governments provide all their services free of charge. Until such a day, you can use the exchanges introduced here to trade and buy bitcoin with zero fees or at least extremely low fees.
FAQ
You’ll read a lot about no fee crypto exchanges, but the reality is that outside of the odd promotion, you’re going to pay some fee to buy or sell Bitcoin or other cryptos. However, there are a number of low-fee crypto exchanges, which is what you should look for.
That will depend on the platform you’re using. If it’s a decentralized platform, use at your own risk. If it’s one of our recommended options, you’ll be in good hands.
It’s not exactly a hidden fee, but one unexpected fee might be the network fee. For example, if you buy or sell Ethereum, you might have to pay the gas fee on top of the cryptocurrency’s exchange fee. Different blockchains have different amounts of fees.
If you’re looking to buy Bitcoin with low fees, options like Kraken, Crypto.com and Kucoin are among the best-rated spots.