Cryptocurrency exchange reviews - how do we write them?
Our goal at Cryptolorium is to offer as factual reviews about every single exchange as possible.
And this is only possible if we know what we are talking about.
This means that before we write any crypto exchange review, we create an account there ourselves, so that we could look around as much as possible.
In case of most of the exchanges we have written about, we are actually trading there ourselves as well.
We haven't traded in all of the exchanges you can see on our site, but we do have accounts in each and every one of them.
What aspects do we write about in our exchange reviews?
Cryptocurrency exchanges vary, so in case of each of them there are specific topics we talk about in only that crypto exchange review, but in general, we try to pay attention to specific aspects of all the exchanges.
This makes it possible to later also compare cryptocurrency exchanges with each other.
Now let's look at what information we look at when writing the exchange reviews.
Exchange details
We talk about all the possible exchange details we can find. The amount of information we share depends on what we can find, but normally, at the very minimum, we try find the following information:
- When was the exchange launched
- Where is the exchange located
- How many people are trading there
- How many countries are accepted
- How many coins do they have
- Do they have a mobile app
- Can you deposit fiat money on the exchange
And as mentioned, normally these are just some of the details you can find in our cryptocurrency exchange reviews.
Exchange Bonus
When it comes to crypto exchanges for HODLing, nobody is normally looking for bonuses. But some exchanges sometimes actually do offer something for signing up as well. Such as free money or discount on normal trading fees or anything else like that.
If the exchange offers this type of sign up bonus, we will talk about.
Exchange safety
Crypto exchanges are mostly still operating in gray area. This means that the regulation and licensing of the exchanges isn't very widespread.
This means that before joining an exchange, it's even more important to do your homework and make sure it's a trustworthy exchange.
Obviously, nobody can guarantee it, but you can often base your opinion on exchange safety and trustworthiness based on their previous conduct.
Exchange coins list
How many coins does the exchange have available for trading? Do they have a lot of crypto coins you can buy or do they only have a small amount of major cryptos available?
And how often do they add new cryptocurrencies to their platform?
We look at all this information when writing about a cryptocurrency exchange.
Payment options
Which payment options does the exchange offer to deposit or withdraw money from the exchange?
Many exchanges offer you the option to buy crypto instantly using your bank account or credit card, for example, but don't offer the option to deposit fiat money and then decide which crypto to buy.
Some exchanges might offer the option to deposit with fiat (such as Binance, Coinbase, Kraken), but not offer the option to withdraw fiat money to your bank account (such as Kucoin).
These are all rather important details when it comes to any crypto exchange and we do try to share with you as precise information as possible.
Exchange fees
Fees are another very important aspects of any exchange.
How much does the exchange charge you for deposits and withdrawals?
How much does the exchange charge you to make trades?
The exchange trading fees can vary more than 10x. You can find exchanges where the base trading fee (Maker and Taker) is 0.09%, but you can also find exchanges where it's 0.75%. You can learn more about crypto trading fees in different exchanges here.
Of course, the trading fees go lower with higher trading volumes, but for people who just want to buy a few cryptos for HODL, these base fees are what they need to pay.
Another important aspects about the fees is the crypto withdrawal fee and minimums.
While some exchanges might ask 0.00002 BTC for Bitcoin withdrawal, many exchanges charge 0.0005 or even 0.001 for Bitcoin withdrawal.
And the minimum withdrawal amount might vary between 0.0001 BTC and 0.011 as well.
The same applies for other cryptos as well, not just Bitcoin (BTC).
Check out cryptocurrency exchange fees comparison here.
KYC requirements and process
When writing out crypto exchange reviews, the identity verification requirement is anothe important topic we talk about.
There are exchanges that don't really require you to go through KYC process.
There are exchanges where you can trade without KYC process, but only up until small limits.
And there are exchanges where you definitely need to verifiy your identity right after signing up.
Earn options
Does the cryptocurrency exchange offer any options for passive income? Do they offer users the option to earn money with their crypto holdings?
And if they do offer something, what are the different ways of earning?
The most common option is crypto staking, but there are actually numerous other possibilities as well. Including, but not limited to, crypto lending, cloud mining, learn to earn features, crypto raffles, liquidity mining and much more.
Customer support
Nobody wants to have problems, but sometimes they do happen.
And when you need help from the exchange customer support, how can you contact them?
Pros and Cons
Our cryptocurrency exchange reviews are sort of long, we're very aware of that.
So we always try to give you a quick overview, quick summary of all the positives and negatives in a simple to follow list.
Questions you might have about the exchange
Sometimes there are also some questions we have noticed other traders have had in the past about the exchange. If we find that it's an important question that hasn't been answered well elsewhere, we try to answer it ourselves in the bottom part of our crypto exchange reviews.
We have noticed that sometimes there can be questions about the simplest things like where you could find all the fees you have paid or whatever else.
One thing we are yet to discover in any exchange is an easy way to see how much all of your cryptos have gained in value compared to the buy amount.
For that our suggestion is always to create a free Cryptolorium account, as that's what we initially created Cryptolorium for.
What don't out crypto exchange reviews tell you?
While our exchange reviews can tell you how many cryptos the exchange has, they will not tell you how much research the exchange has done before listing it in the exchange.
We can not tell you how trustworthy all the listed altcoins are. The less known crypto, the more risk is involved. That much we can tell you.
We don't tell you everything - to cover everything related to each and every exchange, our cryptocurrency exchange reviews would end up being 100 pages long and nobody wants to read that.
We try to concentrate on topics that 99% of the people might find useful.
Conclusion
Our crypto exchange reviews will hopefully help you make a better decision when choosing a cryptocurrency exchange.
There are a lot of exchanges around and if you're looking for just one, finding the best exchange for you might be quite difficult.
Keep it mind though, that if you're planning on buying a lot of different smaller altcoins, you will probably want to join more than one exchange, because the crypto selections vary from exchange to exchange.
I became interested in cryptocurrencies only a bit more than two years ago. Since then I have been in investing in cryptos using different exchanges. And I also launched Cryptolorium.com when I started trading, just to share my crypto journey and my results.