Winners Summary
Best overall for crypto - eToro
Company |
Minimum Deposit |
Stock Trades |
Options (Per Contract) |
Visit Site |
eToro
|
$100.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
|
EToro is great for traders seeking zero-commission stock and ETF trades, an efficient platform, and access to copy trading. EToro's crypto offering includes hundreds of cryptocurrency pairs, and I always enjoy using its platform to analyze bitcoin charts, thanks to its terrific ease of use. The broker offers the underlying cryptocurrency, and outside of the U.S. also offers cryptocurrency derivatives, known as CFDs (which are not available to U.S. residents).
Pricing: As an early pioneer in social copy trading, eToro was founded in Israel in 2006 as a financial trading technology developer. After launching its first product, it has since grown to serve over 9 million users with an innovative platform that continually evolves to be one of the largest social networks globally, with clients in over 170 countries.
EToro charges no fees for sending or receiving transactions; blockchain fees are applicable for sending and receiving. However, eToro does charge a conversion fee of 0.1%, set to market rates. Minimum withdrawal amounts and fees are also imposed for each type of cryptocurrency. The minimum bitcoin withdrawal amount is 0.0086 BTC and the withdrawal fee is 0.0005 units. Read review.
Best for holding bitcoin long-term - Fidelity
Company |
Minimum Deposit |
Stock Trades |
Options (Per Contract) |
Visit Site |
Fidelity
|
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.65 |
|
As a trusted financial institution with trillions in client assets under its brokerage, Fidelity is an excellent choice for passive investors looking for a reliable crypto custodian for holding bitcoin long-term. (While you can also day trade bitcoin at Fidelity, that is not its strong point.) I was able to open a Fidelity Crypto account and buy fractions of bitcoin with a minimum deposit of just $1 to set up the account.
Fidelity prepared for many years to launch its cryptocurrency services, with the result that it’s seamless to buy and sell buy crypto switching between your crypto and brokerage account, which use the same login. And if you want access to crypto ETFs, Fidelity has its own, the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC), which you can trade alongside the underlying crypto asset from within the web and mobile app.
Pricing: The fees for the FBTC ETF have been waived during an introductory period to help attract more capital as various bitcoin ETFs are competing for market share. If you’d rather trade the underlying asset, trading costs for crypto are based on a bid-ask spread of 1% of the execution price, and you can trade as little as $1 worth of crypto in your Fidelity account. Read review.
Best commissions for crypto - Interactive Brokers
Company |
Minimum Deposit |
Stock Trades |
Options (Per Contract) |
Visit Site |
Interactive Brokers
|
$0.00 |
$0.00 |
$0.65 |
|
Interactive Brokers offers both the underlying crypto assets, including bitcoin and several other popular cryptocurrencies, through its partnership with Paxos; and cryptocurrency futures that are traded on U.S. regional exchanges such as the CME, which are available within its trading platforms.
With over $370 billion in client equity and over $7 billion of excess regulatory capital, Interactive Brokers is a well-capitalized broker regulated in the U.S. and many other jurisdictions around the world. Interactive Brokers is publicly traded (NASDAQ: IBKR) and provides investors and traders access to 135 venues and exchange marketplaces, including for cryptocurrency trading. I was able to easily purchase bitcoin from within the IBKR web platform after setting up my IBKR crypto account via its Paxos integration (which just required a few electronic agreement pop-ups).
Pricing: Commissions for crypto futures and options at Interactive Brokers will depend on which contract you trade and can range from $0.10 per contract for a micro ethereum futures option to as much as $5 per contract for a CME bitcoin futures contract. Conversely, for trading the underlying crypto asset at Interactive Brokers with Paxos, there is a minimum cost of $1.75 per order but a maximum of 1%. This is based on a commission of 18 basis points or 0.18% for orders less than $100,000, with steeper discounts available for active traders. The key point is that Interactive Brokers doesn’t mark up the underlying spread, making it one of the most affordable brokers for crypto trading.
Read review.
FAQs
What are crypto exchanges?
A crypto exchange is an online platform that enables you to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, operating much the same way in which an online broker facilitates stock trading. The exchanges need to hold physical inventory of digital assets both belonging to customers and to process deposits and withdrawals, and can be subject to theft by hackers.
Ideally, the crypto exchange should be regulated in countries with trustworthy regulation to reduce your risk of dealing with a scam broker, and should have robust security and be sufficiently collateralized to stay solvent.
What crypto exchanges are available in the US?
There’s a growing number of crypto exchanges in the U.S. To legally offer crypto trading, exchanges must be licensed as Money Service Businesses (MSB) with FinCEN, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. But just being regulated doesn’t mean a broker is a great choice, as there are other factors that are important in assessing which to trust with your assets. In our research, the best crypto brokers with crypto exchange services in 2024 include the following brokers:
- eToro
- Fidelity
- Interactive Brokers
- Webull
- Robinhood
Decentralized exchanges, which are entirely smart-contract-based — that is, they offer direct person-to-person crypto trading — are best avoided due to low volumes, high slippage, and a lack of best execution mechanisms to prevent front-running.
Is crypto a good investment?
While it’s not a safe investment, whether crypto is good or bad for you can depend on a variety of factors, such as your goals and tolerance for risk, as well as how you plan to invest or trade this asset class (say, day trade versus long-term investing).
In addition, investing in nascent or emerging crypto tokens (akin to penny stocks) compared to more established crypto assets (akin to large cap companies) can have drastically different outcomes.
One characteristic of nearly all cryptocurrencies is the potential for extreme volatility; this makes it a highly risky investment where proper position sizing and diversification can be crucial for reducing potential risk.
Factors to consider include whether you want to have exposure to the underlying cryptocurrencies or through a derivative, such as a futures contract or CFD, or by holding an exchange-traded fund (ETF) or other structured product.
How can I trade crypto with no fees?
Currently, you can trade crypto with no transaction fee at Fidelity, though the broker has said it does plan to charge a 1% transaction fee.
Some crypto brokers will claim to offer free trading, but you end up paying fees in the form of the spread, which is the difference in price between the bid and ask (the rate at which you buy and sell are slightly different, which creates a spread fee).
Order types: Certain order types can be more expensive when you trade at certain brokers, such as when placing a market order (which takes away liquidity, known as a taker order), compared to a limit-order (which adds liquidity, known as a maker order). However, it’s important to note that not all brokers provide different pricing by order type, such as at Webull or Robinhood, where the rate is the same.
Active trader tiers: Finally, the best crypto brokers provide discounted fees when you trade higher volumes, where the most active traders can even reach a zero-commission rate when adding liquidity as a maker (using limit orders).
How do I start day trading crypto?
While it may seem easy to open a crypto account and start trading, given the number of crypto brokers available, there are a few tips traders should keep in mind to reduce risk of falling victim to potential scams.
Choose a suitable broker: The first and most important step when starting your crypto day trading journey is to choose the best broker that is also properly licensed to hold your money and begin with a small amount of risk capital.
Research blockchain public data: There are also data points relevant to crypto investors, such as on-chain data and fundamental news from social media and projects that can impact cryptocurrency market prices. For example, traders may track the wallet activity showing large transactions moving in or out of crypto exchanges, as potential signals of market direction, in addition to using technical analysis.
Develop a trading strategy: the way you operate your trading account as a day trader, including deciding when to open and close positions and how you manage the potential risk/reward of each trade — including deciding on the expected trade duration or how long to stay in each trade — will be the most crucial factors in determining your success.
This is where you want to spend time looking at formulas to determine what your win/loss ratio must be in order to increase your chances of success, and when calculating the size of each position as that will impact the size of any potential profits or loss over time for a given strategy.
For example, a smaller trade size can still risk as much as a larger trade, but the smaller position may take a longer time to reach that level, whereas a larger trade can have a greater impact much faster on your bottom line, resulting in a potentially larger profit or larger loss.
Here are some key questions to answer when day trading crypto:
- Which crypto assets should I trade?
- When should I enter and exit the crypto market?
- What is the ideal crypto trade size?
- How long should my expected crypto trade duration be?
- What are the ideal risk/reward levels I should use per crypto trade?
- What is my maximum risk per day, and ideal profit target day trading crypto?
- What win/loss ratio do I need trading crypto to succeed for a given risk/reward ratio?
- What other rules can I develop to stay on track and disciplined?
- How can I fine-tune the strategy based on my historical results?
- What amount should I test the crypto trading strategy with before scaling it higher?
Use trading tools for day traders: Becoming familiar with the trading tools and platform available from your broker will allow you to maximize your trading performance with all available resources.
Our Research
Why you should trust us
Steven Hatzakis, global director of research for StockBrokers.com's sister site ForexBrokers.com, has been an active forex trader for more than 20 years. Steven has held numerous positions within the international forex markets, including writing, consulting and serving as a registered commodity futures representative. He is an active fintech and crypto industry researcher and advises blockchain companies at the board level.
Blain Reinkensmeyer, head of research at StockBrokers.com, has been investing and trading for over 25 years. After having placed over 2,000 trades in his late teens and early 20s, he became one of the first in digital media to review online brokerages. Blain created the original scoring rubric for StockBrokers.com and oversees all testing and rating methodologies.
For this guide:
- Whenever possible, we used our own accounts for testing. For some exchanges, we used a test account that was provided to us.
- Our researchers maintain live accounts at multiple cryptocurrency exchanges and brokerages, and have been following developments closely for over five years.
- We made numerous live trades of various cryptocurrencies.
How we tested
For this guide to the best online brokers for cryptocurrency trading, our research team closely analyzed several key factors: security (including two-factor authentication and integrated safe wallets), ease of use of the broker’s app and other platforms, and access to a variety of cryptocurrencies. All research, writing and data collection at StockBrokers.com is done by humans, for humans. Read our generative AI policy here.
In our assessment and ranking of cryptocurrency exchanges, we focused on traditional brokers headquartered and regulated in the U.S., including incumbent online brokers that are expanding to offer cryptocurrency trading on top of regular stock trading (such as buying shares of Apple or Google) right from within your online brokerage account.
All websites and web-based platforms are tested using the latest version of the Google Chrome browser. Our Desktop PCs run Windows 11, and we use MacBook Pro laptops running macOS 12.5 to test trading on the go. We also test on mobile devices; for Apple, we test using the iPhone XS running iOS 16, and for Android we use the Samsung Galaxy S9+ and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra devices running Android OS 13.
Trading platforms tested
We tested 17 online trading platforms for this guide: