Bittrex review 2023
Editor’s note: As of May 8, 2023 the U.S. arm of Bittrex has filed for bankruptcy, after announcing that it would cease operations in the country in April. The company anticipates that customers will receive the full value of any crypto assets that remain with the firm. Bittrex Global will continue operating for customers outside the U.S.
Bittrex offers a steeply declining commission structure that offers cheaper trades to those who bring volume to their trades, and those looking for a wide selection of coins will have plenty to choose from here, even if some popular names are missing. Clients can also have staking rewards, albeit on just one cryptocurrency. Your choices for customer support include service tickets, email and 24/7 live chat – but no phone support.
Traders who need an even wider selection of tradable coins should have a look at Coinbase or Crypto.com. For those looking to make crypto a sideline to more traditional trading and who need only the most popular coins, TradeStation and Interactive Brokers are worth comparing.
Bittrex at a glance
| Category | Bittrex |
|---|---|
| Minimum balance: | None |
| Securities tradable: | 108 cryptocurrencies |
| Cost per trade: |
|
| Customer service: | Self-help, support tickets and 24/7 live chat |
| Mobile app: | The Bittrex mobile app is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store |
Pros: Where Bittrex stands out
Commissions
Bittrex’s commission schedule is relatively straightforward and structured similarly to rivals’. Like many others, Bittrex has a maker-taker commission structure that gives some preference to those who create liquidity in the marketplace (makers) over those who reduce it (takers). It also offers discounts to those who bring a lot of trading volume to the crypto exchange.
Here’s the commission structure as well as the 30-day volume needed to reach each pricing level:
| 30-day volume | Maker | Taker |
|---|---|---|
| Less than $25,000 | 0.35 percent | 0.35 percent |
| $25,000 – $50,000 | 0.25 percent | 0.30 percent |
| $50,000 – $100,000 | 0.15 percent | 0.25 percent |
| $100,000 – $1 million | 0.10 percent | 0.20 percent |
| $1 million – $5 million | 0.06 percent | 0.16 percent |
| $5 million – $10 million | 0.05 percent | 0.15 percent |
| $10 million – $60 million | 0.02 percent | 0.10 percent |
| $60 million – $100 million | 0 percent | 0.08 percent |
| $100 million and up | 0 percent | 0.05 percent |
Your commission is the product of your rate times your trade value. For example, if you bought $10,000 in cryptocurrency and had no prior 30-day volume, you’d pay $35 at either the maker or taker rates. Now assume that you already had $30,000 in volume and placed another $10,000 order: a maker would pay $25 for that trade, while a taker would pay $30.
The volume-based pricing is attractive, especially if you’re doing high volume regularly. However, other players offer better pricing at lower volume levels, including Binance.US, which offers commission-free trades on Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Bittrex also charges more reasonable fees for debit card transactions, 3 percent, when some rivals hit the 4.5 percent level.
Other fees
Bittrex is also good about other fees. It charges no deposit or withdrawal fees for U.S. dollars, and it charges no fees for deposits of cryptocurrencies. However, it does charge a fee for the withdrawal of cryptocurrency to cover the network transfer fee. Bittrex displays this fee overtly, so you’ll know what to expect before you get to the decision point.
Cryptocurrency selection
Bittrex offers 108 different cryptocurrencies – one of the largest crypto buffets out there – and like many rivals, it’s adding new ones all the time. You’ll get the most popular options such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, but also other top options such as up-and-comer Cardano as well as meme coins such as Dogecoin. And that’s on top of dozens of altcoins, too.
While more than 100 choices certainly are a lot, Bittrex doesn’t offer all the most popular cryptocurrencies, at least not yet. So it doesn’t matter how large the selection is, if Bittrex doesn’t offer the coin you’re looking for. Conversely, if the buffet already offers your favorites, then an even larger buffet doesn’t really add much to your experience.
This range compares favorably to many traditional brokerages that offer just four to seven cryptocurrencies, and only the most popular ones. For example, Interactive Brokers and Robinhood offer trading in only a handful of crypto coins.
Cons: Where Bittrex could improve
Limited staking options
Bittrex does offer staking rewards, but they’re limited to one cryptocurrency – Cardano – for now. Staking allows holders of a cryptocurrency to put up their holdings and participate in the rewards that accrue to those who validate transactions in a cryptocurrency and therefore support it. As of January 2023, Bittrex is offering 5.5 percent staking rewards on Cardano.
With just one cryptocurrency available in the staking options, it’s slim pickings. Those looking for a little more variety could turn to Binance.US, which offers staking rewards on 23 cryptos, as of the last count.
Customer support
The customer support at Bittrex is a bit better than most of the rest of the field. That’s not to say it’s good, only that it’s somewhat above the level of support that many crypto traders have come to accept. As at many other crypto exchanges, clients can look for answers on self-help pages and have access to support tickets, where you send an email and then wait until a rep responds back to you. Bittrex edges out the competition with its 24/7 live chat functionality, though.
Still, in comparison to the world of traditional online stock brokers, where you can often get a helpful and knowledgeable person on the phone to answer that tricky question in less than a minute, the support options at Bittrex leave something to be desired.
Missing key coins
Bittrex does offer some of the most popular coins in the market – the real biggies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, of course, but also Dogecoin, Cardano and key stablecoins such as Tether and USD Coin. But if you want to trade some other popular currencies, you may be out of luck here.
Bittrex does not offer Polygon, Solana, Polkadot or Shiba Inu – all top 20 coins, as of this writing, according to CoinMarketCap. If that’s what you’re in the market for, then those missing coins are likely a deal-breaker for you. Still, you may find a more obscure coin further down the ranks that Bittrex does offer, and that could be a key driver for choosing to trade on this exchange.
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