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Best Crypto Trading Platforms of March 2024

Steven Hatzakis

Written by Steven Hatzakis, Blain Reinkensmeyer
Edited by Carolyn Kimball
Fact-checked by Dayana Yochim

March 28, 2024

I first mined bitcoin in 2013 and have invested in over 70 cryptocurrencies, holding dozens of accounts across crypto exchanges globally. During that time I have witnessed the fast pace of the industry evolving and can attest that the best crypto brokers in the U.S. for bitcoin and other crypto trading offer three essential benefits. The first, and most important, is that they are properly licensed and regulated by FinCEN as a Money Service Business (MSB), and follow best practices for crypto custody security with two-factor authentication, cold storage, and integrated safe wallets.

Second, they should have a user-friendly website and platform with the necessary trading tools that traders need. And third, they should allow trading of a variety of cryptocurrencies beyond just bitcoin and ethereum.

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Best Bitcoin Trading Platforms 2024

Here's a breakdown of some of the best online brokers for U.S. crypto trading.

  • eToro
    - Best overall for crypto
  • TradeStation
    - Best for advanced order types
  • Interactive Brokers
    - Best commissions for crypto
  • Fidelity
    - Excellent crypto custodian, low fees
  • Webull
    - Large selection of crypto assets
  • Robinhood - User-friendly mobile app
eToro
4/5 Stars 4.0 Overall

Best overall for crypto

Minimum Deposit$100.00
Stock Trades$0.00
Options (Per Contract)$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 currency pairs. 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. Read full review

Pros
  • Takes social investing to the next level
  • 26 coins to choose from
  • User-friendly website and app
Cons
  • Limited investment choices
  • You can't go short or borrow on margin
Visit Site

Deposit $100 and get a $10 bonus!

TradeStation
4/5 Stars 4.0 Overall

Best for advanced order types

Minimum Deposit$0.00
Stock Trades$0.00
Options (Per Contract)$0.60

TradeStation Crypto allows you to buy, sell, and trade bitcoin, litecoin, ethereum, bitcoin cash, AAVE, COMP, LINK, MATIC, MKR, SHIB, and USDC and caters to both institutional and recreational clients. Under its simple pricing structure, account balances below $100,000 pay a maker fee and taker fee that ranges from 0.12% to 60%. Read full review

Pros
  • Web trading platform is well thought-out
  • TradeStation Crypto is powerful and intuitive
Cons
  • User experience can be frustrating
  • No third-party fundamental research
Visit Site

Trade Stocks, Options, Futures, & Crypto.

Interactive Brokers
4.5/5 Stars 4.5 Overall

Best commissions for crypto

Minimum Deposit$0.00
Stock Trades$0.00
Options (Per Contract)$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. Interactive Brokers doesn’t mark up the underlying spread, making it one of the most affordable brokers for crypto trading. Read full review

Pros
  • Astounding array of customizable tools
  • Allows trading in foreign markets
  • Convenient apps for individual investors
Cons
  • Restrictive trading permissions
  • Main platforms might feel cold
Visit Site

New clients, special margin rates.

Fidelity
5/5 Stars 5.0 Overall

Excellent crypto custodian, low fees

Minimum Deposit$0.00
Stock Trades$0.00
Options (Per Contract)$0.65

Fidelity, one of the world’s largest brokers, is the latest market entrant into the cryptocurrency industry and allows you to buy the two most popular cryptocurrencies, bitcoin and ethereum. Fidelity Crypto is still emerging from beta and doesn’t currently charge a spread, but states that it may charge up to 1% on the execution price in the future. Read full review

Pros
  • Excellent research and mobile app
  • Top-notch education
  • Decades of reliable client service
Cons
  • No dedicated mobile app for active trading
Visit Site

Trade at Fidelity. 1

Webull
4/5 Stars 4.0 Overall

Large selection of crypto assets

Minimum Deposit$0.00
Stock Trades$0.00
Options (Per Contract)$0.00

Webull offers 44 crypto assets and is known for its ease of use. Though it has a ways to go to compete with the best crypto trading platforms, the large variety of assets available make it an attractive option. Although there is no commission charged for trading crypto, you still pay the spread, where Webull charges a markup of 100 bps, or 1%. Read full review

Pros
  • Terrific user experience across all devices
  • Zero-cost option trading
  • 44 cryptocurrencies
Cons
  • Limited investment options
  • 1% markups and markdowns on crypto trades
Visit Site

Get up to 75 free fractional shares!

Robinhood
4/5 Stars 4.0 Overall

User-friendly mobile app

Minimum Deposit$0.00
Stock Trades$0.00
Options (Per Contract)$0.00

Robinhood Crypto allows users to trade bitcoin, ethereum, bitcoin cash, litecoin, dogecoin, ethereum classic and bitcoin SV, and 10 additional coins can be added to a watch list. The broker does not charge a commission for placing crypto trades, but its user agreement states that it may receive activity-based rebates from crypto exchanges, brokers, and market-makers, which can impact trading costs. Read full review

Pros
  • Famously easy to use
  • Extensive crypto support with zero commissions and no markups or markdowns
  • Learn section has some excellent writing
Cons
  • Charges $5 monthly fee for data and research that’s free at many other brokers
  • Limited investment choices
  • Not enough tools for active trading

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Winners Summary

Best overall for crypto - eToro

Company Minimum Deposit Stock Trades Options (Per Contract) Offers Visit Site
eToro logoeToro $100.00 $0.00 $0.00 Deposit $100 and get a $10 bonus! Visit Site

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. 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.

Webull crypto coin detail

Best for advanced order types - TradeStation

Company Minimum Deposit Stock Trades Options (Per Contract) Offers Visit Site
TradeStation logoTradeStation $0.00 $0.00 $0.60 Trade Stocks, Options, Futures, & Crypto. Visit Site

TradeStation supports casual traders through its web-based platform and active traders through its award-winning desktop platform, all with $0 stock and ETF trades. TradeStation Crypto allows you to buy, sell, and trade bitcoin, litecoin, ethereum, bitcoin cash, AAVE, COMP, LINK, MATIC, MKR, SHIB, and USDC. TradeStation Crypto caters to both institutional and recreational clients.

Headquartered in Plantation, Florida, TradeStation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Monex Group, Inc., one of Japan’s largest online financial services providers (1). TradeStation's roots date back to 1982, when the company was formed under the name Omega Research. The company's flagship TradeStation platform was launched in 1991, and TradeStation Group was a NASDAQ listed company from 1997 - 2011, until it was acquired by Monex Group (2).

Pricing: TradeStation Crypto features a simple pricing structure. Account balances below $100,000 pay a maker fee and taker fee that ranges from 0.12% to 60% depending on the size of your trade value in U.S. dollars. Account balances over $100,000 have a discounted maker fee, paying 0.1%, and a taker fee of 0.18%. Further discounts are available for high-volume traders, making Trade Station Crypto an excellent choice for active traders. Read review.

TradeStation Crypto homepage overview

Best commissions for crypto - Interactive Brokers

Company Minimum Deposit Stock Trades Options (Per Contract) Offers Visit Site
Interactive Brokers logoInteractive Brokers $0.00 $0.00 $0.65 New clients, special margin rates. Visit Site

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.

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 off 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
  • TradeStation
  • Interactive Brokers
  • Fidelity
  • 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.

What is the best platform to trade crypto?

Among U.S. stockbrokers that offer cryptocurrency trading, my favorite platform is with TradeStation, one of the first brokers to offer cryptocurrency in the U.S. The desktop TradeStation platform contains an extensive variety of features to satisfy even the most demanding traders and professional investors, including tools to trade crypto.

The TSCrypto module at TradeStation comes with one-click order entry, analysis tools and the ability to build a custom portfolio and view market depth within its consolidated orderbook, just as you would expect from the largest crypto exchanges.

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:

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About the Editorial Team

Steven Hatzakis
Steven Hatzakis

Steven Hatzakis is the Global Director of Research for ForexBrokers.com. Steven previously served as an Editor for Finance Magnates, where he authored over 1,000 published articles about the online finance industry. Steven is an active fintech and crypto industry researcher and advises blockchain companies at the board level. Over the past 20 years, Steven has held numerous positions within the international forex markets, from writing to consulting to serving as a registered commodity futures representative.

Blain Reinkensmeyer
Blain Reinkensmeyer

Blain Reinkensmeyer has 20 years of trading experience with over 2,500 trades placed during that time. He heads research for all U.S.-based brokerages on StockBrokers.com and is respected by executives as the leading expert covering the online broker industry. Blain’s insights have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and the Chicago Tribune, among other media outlets.

Carolyn Kimball
Carolyn Kimball

Carolyn Kimball is managing editor for Reink Media and the lead editor for the StockBrokers.com Annual Review. Carolyn has more than 20 years of writing and editing experience at major media outlets including NerdWallet, the Los Angeles Times and the San Jose Mercury News. She specializes in coverage of personal financial products and services, wielding her editing skills to clarify complex (some might say befuddling) topics to help consumers make informed decisions about their money.

Dayana Yochim
Dayana Yochim

Dayana Yochim is a Senior Writer/Editor at Reink Media Group who has written about personal finance and investing for more than 20 years. Her work has appeared in outlets including HerMoney.com, NerdWallet and the Motley Fool, and has been syndicated nationally. Dayana has also been a guest expert on "Today" and Good Morning America.

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