The blockchain industry is worth billions of dollars, with the decentralized finance infrastructure underpinning the vast majority of that figure. Even just focusing on cryptocurrency alone, the total market value of crypto peaked at around 2 trillion, demonstrating the huge adoption that this industry has seen over the last few years.
As the industry has continued to grow, there has been a surge in the development of crypto trading platforms and DeFi applications. In this article, we’ll be exploring some of the most common features that a great crypto trading platform has, pointing you towards a great pick for beginner traders and one for experts.
What Features Does a Great Crypto Platform Have?
All decentralized exchanges offer purchasers the ability to buy, sell, trade, and get involved with cryptocurrency to a great extent. While central functions like a trading engine are on absolutely every crypto trading platform, not all of them are as comprehensive as others.
Typically, there are a few core elements that cryptocurrency traders are looking for when they sign up for a new crypto exchange platform:
Crypto Wallet Integration
Being able to connect a crypto wallet from another service like Metamask is a great function of the best exchanges out there. Equally, the ability to create an on-DEX wallet and use funds from that is another common feature.
Analytical Tools
Whether it be following the trading graphs of a certain cryptocurrency pair, or doing financial analysis, great platforms will offer traders the ability to conduct their own forms of analysis on something they want to buy.
History of Transactions
A detailed log of transactions enables traders to see exactly what they bought a cryptocurrency for, allowing them to see how that figure has changed over time.
Staking and Liquidity Pools
Staking is the act of putting cryptocurrency into a liquidity pool to help with Proof-of-Stake validation. This often allows buyers to get passive rewards on that cryptocurrency, with yields varying depending on the time the crypto is left in the pool and the promised rate of reward.
NFT Marketplaces
Non-Fungible Tokens have exploded over the last two years, with the ability to buy and sell NFTs being a central function of the leading crypto platforms.
While not an exhaustive list, the vast majority of crypto trading platforms will have all of these features and more. Depending on the skill level of the trader, they may only interact with a few of these features, meaning a service that provides the best features for that specific person will always be their preferred choice.
That said, let’s take a look at some of the leading platforms for both beginners and experts.
Which Crypto Platform is Best for Newbies?
For individuals that are entirely new to the world of cryptocurrency trading, starting off with a platform that has ample opportunities for education is one of the best places to begin. Bitcoin.com started off as an international news and education site, the domain bringing in millions of users from around the globe. Through this site, people were able to learn more about how cryptocurrency works, the latest trends, and big news that was only just breaking.
Recently, Bitcoin.com has announced that they’ve launched a Decentralized Exchange (DEX) platform, which brings all the elements of crypto trading directly to this educational platform. This transition brings all of the most important cryptocurrency features to the platform, including yield farming, trading, staking, and more.
Yet, even with these new features, Bitcoin.com doesn’t stray away from its educational past, holding training modules and learning at the center of the platform. With the introduction of their VERSE utility token, users are able to access discounts when using VERSE on the platform, reducing fees even further.
Equally, for those that want to stray into other digital asset forms, users of Bitcoin.com are able to access the NFT Marketplace, having the option to buy, sell, and trade more than just cryptocurrency. Again, the integration of their VERSE token provides additional rewards within these marketplaces.
Finally, ever-focused on beginner content and helping people on-chain, Bitcoin.com offers a referral program, with users being able to recommend the platform to their friends. With a range of introductory educational content, this is an easy way for many people to help their friends and family understand how cryptocurrency trading works.
If you’re looking for a comprehensive DeFi platform with a range of instructional support for new and intermediate users, then this is the platform for you.
Which Crypto Platform is Best for Experts?
If you’ve been trading cryptocurrency for a while and feel in touch with how exactly to get the most from your coins, then we recommend that you use a platform like Kraken. Established all the way back in 2011, Kraken is currently a market leader when it comes to cryptocurrency trading, offering over 120 different coins and a huge variety of different services.
Kraken attempts to accommodate experts by offering incredibly low fees, with advanced spot trading options allowing advanced traders to put in offers with very short delays. For those looking to day trade with market rates, then this platform is the right fit. Equally, it goes beyond just offering the major cryptocurrencies, also holding different stablecoins – all of which you can transfer into mostly any fiat currency that you would like.
One of the main benefits of Kraken is that it has very low fees, offering between 0%-0.26% per trade. Alongside this, they have very high trade bands, with users that add over $50,000 per month getting lower trading fees on all of their trades.
Of course, like all major trading platforms, users are able to stake and provide liquidity within Kraken, turning their cryptocurrency into a passive asset. Beyond this, the additions of indices, futures, margin trading, and OTC trading are what really sets this platform apart and push it into the expert territory.
With phenomenal security features, this is also a secure environment within which individuals can keep their cryptocurrency safe. They continually run pen testing, ensuring that there is always an expert team that’s looking for possible security flaws and getting to work on fixing them. Equally, with two-factor authentication protocols, you’re the only one that’s going to be getting into your account anytime soon.
For expert traders, this platform has everything you need to push crypto trading to the max.
Final Thoughts
Whether you characterize yourself as a total beginner in the world of cryptocurrency or are a seasoned veteran, the best platform for you is the one that you’re most comfortable with. Although Kraken is seen as an expert platform, beginners can jump straight into it and learn how to trade cryptocurrency. The same goes for Bitcoin.com; offering a platform that is easy to learn for beginners but with all the features needed for advanced crypto trading. No matter which platform you select, you’ll be able to get stuck into the world of cryptocurrency, diving headfirst into the blockchain community and everything it offers.
