The Best No Fee Crypto Exchange Partners in 2024

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:

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.