While there are no one-size-fits-all solutions when it comes to choosing a crypto exchange, Swapzone takes the weight off your shoulders by doing all the evaluations for you. We only agree to collaborate with providers after doing a thorough research to help our clients avoid potential issues that could harm their trading strategy.
In this post, we pull back the curtain on our internal procedures to explain how we rank suppliers on Swapzone, ensuring that our customers always receive the best rates and services.
Table of contents
Trusted exchange providers: why is it important?
As you no doubt know, the cryptocurrency market has exploded in recent years. The total value of all coins as of August 2023 is over $1.11 Trillion U.S. but that doesn’t mean everyone who wants to invest in them can afford to do so. In fact, according to estimated data, only 10 percent of Americans own crypto or have invested in it at all—and that means there’s plenty of room for growth.
So, how does one decide where to buy or exchange coins? Like any investment opportunity, exchanges come with risks and rewards. That’s why it pays off to choose your exchange provider very carefully and only work with the platforms that will best suit your needs.
From security measures and user experience down to speed and ease of transfers (not to mention reputation), there are a number of factors you should consider when choosing an exchange provider for your investments in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum.
And here comes the turn of Swapzone – to ease this challenging process we’ve already compiled and reviewed leading cryptocurrency exchanges, and filtered these providers by rating, transaction time, stability, and diversity of assets.
Exchange reputation and legality: before the start
The evaluation process begins even before an exchange becomes a partnering provider on Swapzone – we make sure that it is legally compliant. Prior to integrating any of the exchanges, we check their terms and conditions, user agreement, and privacy policy. We also check if the exchange provider is licensed in accordance with all prescribed rules.
Also, one of the most important factors to consider when evaluating a cryptocurrency exchange is security. Cryptocurrency exchanges are targeted by hackers who want to steal users’ funds. Therefore, it’s important that an exchange has taken measures to protect user assets.
In case an exchange does not correspond to these parameters, it cannot be included in the providers’ list of the Swapzone exchange aggregator.
What determines providers’ rating
After identifying the legal status of an exchange provider, we examine several other factors before assigning a specific rating.
User experience: reviews
The user experience is significant to the exchange provider as it determines how satisfied the users are with their service. If a company has a bad user experience, then in the current competitive crypto space customers usually don’t go back to using this platform again.
One of the most indicative ways to determine if an exchange provider has a good or bad user experience is through reviews. You can find out what people think of a certain exchange by reading comments in the ‘Reviews’ section on our website. We collect reviews after transactions held on Swapzone through our providers so that our own rating is relevant and up-to-date. If you see that there are many negative comments about poor customer service, then this might be an indicator that there is something wrong with the chosen exchange provider when compared with others in its field of work. We usually take a closer look at negative reviews and investigate controversial situations with the provider.
Speed and ease of transfers: transaction time, restrictions, and limitations
The top exchange providers have an excellent reputation for fast and secure transfers. They allow you to transfer coins and tokens in a matter of minutes, so you can pay your bills without waiting for days or even weeks.
With some exchanges, however, you may find that the minimum amount you can send is more than what you need. Other exchanges require a separate registration process if they don’t accept fiat currencies from your country (for example US dollars), yet some do not require any registration or KYC procedures.
All these features also affect the rating positions of exchange providers: we compile the indicators and make adjustments to the rating depending on how much any of them affects the client.
The range of available crypto assets and pairs
We are primarily interested in providing our users with a number of rates and pairs to compare and choose from, so the possibility of our exchange providers offering a significant amount of assets also influences the provider’s popularity on our website. The more trading pairs an exchanger has, the more likely it is to take advantage of being the “best choice”.
The number of assets and payment methods (crypto to crypto/ fiat to crypto) does not affect the rating directly, yet providing more choices for the users can lead to more transactions, more reviews, and if the exchanger provides quality service – a better rating, therefore.
At the time of writing, it is possible to exchange more than 1600 assets on Swapzone – we collect all coins and pairs from all exchangers here.
Exchange benefits: fees and rates
Basic crypto exchanges charge fees for trading, depositing, and withdrawing funds. These fees can vary depending on the type of cryptocurrency being traded and the currency used as a payment method.
Usually, if an exchange doesn’t charge any transaction fees when buying or selling cryptocurrencies then it’s likely they’re doing something shady with their business model such as stealing user data/information through phishing attacks or running away with investor funds when things go south.
Fees and rates are determining factors when forming the list of offers for a specific exchange pair – as the users proceed to the exchange they see the rated list of different offers formed by estimation of rates and fees. As an exchange aggregator, we do not charge any additional fees, yet there are still ones the exchange provider requests.
Some exchanges offer better rates than others, yet provide only floating rates. Other exchanges might charge a fee for transferring funds to another account or out of the exchange altogether (such as via bank card). There are floating and fixed rates, some exchanges provide them both and some specify a particular type of rate.
We also compare payout and estimate and monitor the deviations – if the difference is substantial the provider could get a “Payout worse than estimate” badge.
Technical stability and support
The more uptime the exchange demonstrates, the fewer technical issues experiences – and, therefore, the clients get a much smoother experience in return. We carefully monitor the performance of our exchange providers to override one in time so our users do not lose any money or time due to technical troubles on the provider’s side.
Frequent technical problems and user complaints can negatively affect the rating of the exchange platform on Swapzone. If any technical issues caught you up as a user while using our services please do not hesitate to contact support through the chat form.
Conclusion
Keep in mind that each exchange has its own pros and cons. For example, one exchange may offer lower fees but have a less user-friendly interface, while another might be more expensive but more secure for investors. No exchange is perfect, but there are some that stand out because of their ease of use, security features, or low fees.
Swapzone aims to free your time by researching different exchanges and understanding what each one offers so that you can choose before making a decision and finding the right fit for your needs.
The most important thing to remember is that you should never invest more than what you can afford to lose. If you can stick by this rule of thumb all the way through, then we believe that your experience will be very positive.