What are the best cryptocurrency exchanges?

Question

Accepted Answer

There's no single "best" exchange — it depends on what you're optimizing for. Here's how the majors compare (fees and trust scores per CoinGecko):

Exchange	Maker/Taker fee	Trust score	Est.	24h vol (BTC)
Binance	0.10% / 0.10%	10	2017	~123K
OKX	n/a	10	2017	~24K
Bybit	0.10% / 0.10%	9	2018	~25K
Bitget	0.10% / 0.10%	10	2018	~12K
MEXC	0% / 0.05%	9	2018	~16K
KuCoin	0.10% / 0.10%	9	2017	~17K

By use case:

Biggest & most trusted overall — Binance tops the list: highest CoinGecko trust score (10), by far the largest 24h volume, deep liquidity, and strong beginner + futures + API tooling. It's the usual default if you're starting out and want the deepest market. Binance
Lowest fees — MEXC is the outlier at 0% maker / 0.05% taker, the cheapest of the group, and also a common pick for listing lots of smaller/newer altcoins early. MEXC
Futures / derivatives — Bybit and OKX are both well-regarded for leveraged derivatives trading, alongside Binance's futures suite. Bybit OKX
Altcoin selection — KuCoin and Bitget are known for broad altcoin listings and frequent new listings, good if you trade smaller projects. KuCoin Bitget

A few caveats:

All of these require basic KYC (identity verification) to trade.
Bybit, OKX, Bitget, MEXC, and KuCoin do not serve US-based users — Binance has the most global availability of the set.
Trust score is CoinGecko's own composite rating, not a guarantee of any kind.

Want me to narrow this down — e.g. which one is best for futures trading, beginners, or by your specific country? Tell me your region or goal and I'll give a targeted pick.