How do I exchange Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies with Skrill?

There are more than 1,600 cryptocurrencies in circulation today, with a combined market cap of over $289 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data. Investors around the world are eager to trade in this rapidly-growing space, and a slew of cryptocurrency platforms have emerged to meet the need for infrastructure to support the exchange of digital currencies. Though they call themselves "exchanges," from an investor's standpoint they function similarly to e-brokerages and their rapid rise is reminiscent of the explosion of electronic discount brokerage firms during the dotcom bubble of the late 1990s.

These exchanges allow consumers buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrencies, whether through fiat currency like dollars, euros, or yen, or another cryptocurrency like bitcoin or ether. Less common cryptocurrencies, called altcoins, often must be traded against bitcoin and cannot be purchased directly with fiat currency. Not every exchange supports every coin, and many investors use more than one platform.

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Some exchanges are better suited to less experienced traders and retail investors, while some are geared towards institutions or full-time traders.

To date, there are more than 200 cryptocurrency exchanges that support active trading, and the combined 24-hour trade volume of the top ten is more than $6.5 billion.

Below, take a closer look at some of the major exchanges operating today.

Coinbase: San Francisco, California

Founded in 2012, Coinbase is a wallet, an exchange, and a set of tools for merchants, all built on the same platform. Most consider it to be the blue-chip among crypto platforms. Users can buy, sell, store, and trade tokens, and Coinbase partners with companies like Expedia, exchanger24, and Dish who want to accept bitcoin payments.

Coinbase was one of the first exchanges to find mainstream popularity in the United States. It was also the first cryptocurrency startup to attain “unicorn” status (a valuation of more than $1 billion). The platform is easy to use and popular with beginners, and it now has more than 20 million accounts. Coinbase’s sister platform, GDAX, is intended for more advanced traders and has far lower fees per trade (see below). GDAX will become Coinbase Pro later this month.

BitMEX: Hong Kong

BitMEX is the Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange, a platform intended for dedicated traders rather than retail investors. It consistently processes over $2 billion in transactions in a 24-hour period. The platform offers very high leverage on trades, up to 100x.

BitMEX is unique in that it offers leveraged contracts (futures contracts and perpetual contracts) that are bought and sold using bitcoin rather than direct ownership of coins themselves. This means that even if users trade in altcoins, all profits and losses will be in realized in bitcoin. BitMEX does not handle fiat currency and is not available to customers in the United States.

Binance: multiple locations in Asia

Launched just last year by Changpeng " CZ" Zhao, Binance has quickly become one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges. After moving its offices out of China and its servers offshore, Binance now supports more than 130 coins and consistently processes over $1 billion in transaction value over a 24-hour period. It has both beginner and advanced trading modes, and while users are not currently able to exchange fiat currency for coins, news reports indicate that a separate but affiliated fiat-to-cryptocurrency platform, based in Malta, is in the works.

OKEx: Hong Kong

OKEx, based in Hong Kong and helmed by CEO Chris Lee, is a robust trading platform with access to 145 coins. The exchange announced in May that it will expand to Malta, citing the country’s “comprehensive blockchain initiatives.”

The platform also issues its own token, the OKB, which gives users a discount on trading fees, voting rights in the company, and other premium services like fiat trading and margin trading for verified traders. The exchange also manages trades of about $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin futures daily, according to its website.