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Bitcoin and its fellow established tokens such as Ethereum plummeted into an abyss this month due to concerns over the Celsius exchange. They have not recovered yet, with BTC looming below its $20,000 support level and little confidence it will eventually trace last year’s record gains. But people will want to see how the market recovers, and they’ll need trustworthy exchanges to store their currency while they wait.
Experts with BrokerChooser, which analyses trustworthy brokers for consumers, recently analysed exchanges operating in the cryptocurrency world.
They studied the market’s chief handlers, looking over their regulation, consumer protection, fairness and transparency.
In each category, they provided top exchanges with a score out of five.
Overall, three had a score of 3.8 or more, placing them among the best places to keep cryptocurrency while the market toils.
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Coinbase emerged as BrokerChooser’s top exchange with an overall score of 4.1 percent.
Researchers found it was the safest of them all, with a regulation rating of 4.5 and a consumer protection rating of 3.8 percent.
A 3.5 and 4.8 for market fairness and transparency make it highly trustworthy.
Coinbase is also the largest exchange by trading volume in the US, reaching $309 billion in the first quarter of this year.
FTX is slightly behind Coinbase as the second most trustworthy, with an overall rating of 4.0.
The exchange has the highest regulation rate, achieving a perfect five, with another for market fairness.
The firm matches its top competitor on consumer protection with a rate of 3.8 but ultimately falls slightly short of its score due to a transparency rating of 2.3.
Bitstamp’s 3.8 rating makes it a close third best, as one of the most secure exchanges operating on the market.
The exchange scores consistently well across the board, reaching ratings of 4.0 on market fairness, transparency and regulation.
Bitstamp still performs well on consumer protection – the lowest – with a rating of 3.0.
People who use the firm’s services will likely have their assets stored primarily offline, as it keeps 98 percent of them in cold storage, keeping them safe and secure.
People judging new exchanges will need to keep recent warnings from industry experts in mind.
Outside the above top performers, more than 600 exchanges are operating in the crypto space.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the 30-year-old FTX founder, has recently suggested some are secretly on the verge of failure.
The venture capitalist said some “third-tier exchanges” are “already secretly insolvent”.
The information in this article does not equate to financial advice. Anyone considering investing in cryptocurrency should understand the risks involved.
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