Are you looking to diversify your investment in the crypto space and purchase other coins than the mainstream ones such as BTC and ETH? Well, that’s a great idea because you never know which coin worth pennies now may give you thosuands of dollars in profits tomorrow (We’ve all seen DOGE).
So to purchase altcoins, you need to work with the best altcoin exchanges with a range of cryptocurrencies and high trading volume. Read this guide to learn about them and more.
What’s An Altcoin Exchange?
First, let’s establish what an Altcoin is. In short, these are all the cryptocurrencies alternative to bitcoin. An altcoin exchange is the online platform where you buy and sell altcoins in exchange for fiat (government regulated) currency or other cryptocurrencies.
The bigger an exchange is, the more trading pairs it will have. This means you will be able to trade your choice of currency directly without having to purchase bitcoin first and then trading it with your choice of altcoin.
There are hundreds of altcoin exchanges out there, but the problem is that not all of them have good trading volume.
Granted, most of them will have good BTC trading volume, but since we are talking about altcoins, we need to use the exchanges where large quantities of altcoins are traded on a daily basis. So for this, we have hand-picked the best altcoin exchanges; let’s check them out below.
Top Altcoin Exchanges in 2021 & Beyond
Coinbase Pro
Coinbase was established to help beginners buy bitcoin without being confused by complex procedures. The platform’s design, interface, and transaction processes are very simple and easy to grasp, even for someone with no technical background.
However, there are hefty fees associated with Coinbase, like a 1.5% fee on bank account transactions and 4% on credit/debit card transactions. And when you buy crypto, a trading fee is added on top of these fees. This is the price first-time buyers pay for a simple and easy crypto purchase experience.
This is where Coinbase pro comes into play. It is the subsidiary of Coinbase but geared towards advanced crypto traders. The fees are incredibly low – 0% to 0.5% for trading and free for most deposit methods, including credit cards. Plus, the transfer of funds is also faster. But beginners might find it difficult to navigate through the platform, which is why watching a few videos on YouTube before buying altcoins will help a lot.
- A wide range of altcoins including ETH, ADA, LINK, XLM, UNI, LTC, and a lot more.
- Great trading volume
- Well established and highly secure
- Range of payment methods including a credit card with 0% fee
eToro
Launched in 2007, eToro has grown a lot in the past decade, and now, with over 13 million users from 140 countries; it has made it to the top-tier financial brokers in the world. The platform gained recognition through its social investing feature, where users can copy trades made by other investors.
Although eToro has multi-asset trading like stocks, forex, and commodities, it has also added crypto to the portfolio. You can buy from over 18 altcoins and copy trades of other experienced users to increase your chances of success.
- Has very high deposit limits
- Highly reputed and trusted platform
- Crypto can be bought via PayPal outside of the U.S
- Multiple fund deposit ways
- Over 18 altcoins
Bitpanda Pro:
Just like Coinbase and Coinbase Pro, Bitpanda and Bitpanda Pro are also two exchange platforms with varying user experience and fees. Bitpanda is made for beginners and makes it incredibly straightforward to buy any cryptocurrency available.
However, the Pro variant is made for experienced crypto traders and investors, so navigating through it to purchase crypto can be a little challenging for newbies.
However, watching YouTube videos can help you quickly get the hang of things. The best part of using Bitpanda Pro is its incredibly low trading fees that range from 0.15% to 0.05%, depending on your trade volume.
- One of the best altcoin exchanges with over 50 coins
- Very fast verification and deposit times
- Trade crypto with European fiat currency pairs
- A range of payment methods, including bank transfer and credit card
How to Safely Store Altcoins After Purchase?
You can store altcoins either in a virtual wallet provided by your altcoin exchange or a 3rd party platform. It’s safer to move your digital assets to a third-party wallet because you never know how secure the exchange platform is, and we’ve seen many of them getting hacked in the past.
However, the threat of getting your wallet hacked is still there even if you get one from a 3rd party. For absolute maximum security, you need to go off the grid and store your coins offline, which can be done via a hardware wallet.
It’s a USB-like device that only goes online when you need to send or receive coins. Otherwise, it stays offline with your coins inside, meaning no hacker can reach it.
Investing a couple of hundred dollars should get you a pretty good hardware wallet. We suggest looking into Ledger and Trezor wallets as they support a range of altcoins.
