Scoring weights
Security and licensing (25%) – CASP/MiCA licensing (or local equivalent), Proof of Reserves, insurance fund, segregation of client funds, history of security incidents, independent audits.
Costs (20%) – real maker/taker fees (after standard discounts), BTC/USDT spread at a $10,000 size, fiat and crypto deposit/withdrawal fees.
Liquidity (15%) – daily volume verified on CoinGecko (Adjusted Volume), order book depth at ±0.1% for BTC/USDT and ETH/USDT, slippage on a $10,000 order.
Fiat support and local UX (15%) – supported fiat on-ramps (USD, EUR and other major currencies), local payment rails, localized interface and support, tax reporting exports (CSV).
Range of instruments (15%) – number of spot pairs, availability of futures/perpetuals, staking, earn products, copy trading, tools for advanced traders.
App and UX (10%) – iOS and Android app ratings (>4.3 in app stores), stability, onboarding time, quality of 2FA and hardware key support.
Data sources
Licensing: the public CASP register maintained by ESMA, and national regulator registers (e.g. FinCEN, FCA, BaFin, CySEC, AMF).
Volume and liquidity: CoinGecko (Adjusted Volume + Trust Score) and CoinMarketCap, spot-checked against our own test orders.
Fees: official exchange websites — standard new-account rates without VIP tiers. Welcome bonuses are listed separately.
Security: Merkle-tree Proof of Reserves, audit reports (e.g. Mazars, Armanino), and public incident histories (Chainalysis, Rekt News).
Update frequency
Daily: crypto prices, daily volumes, exchange operational status.
Weekly: fees, pair availability, changes to welcome bonuses, regulatory decisions.
Monthly: a full methodology review and rescoring of every exchange. Publication dates are shown in the header of each review.
Ranking independence
An exchange's ranking position depends solely on its methodology score. We don't sell placements or reorder exchanges based on commercial terms with partners.
Every exchange is scored against the same criteria — the one with the best results in our scoring wins.