Bittrex Overview
Bittrex Services
The primary service provided by Bittrex is a cryptocurrency trading platform. They provide a spot market exchange where amateur and professional traders alike can trade many different trading pairs such as BTC/USD, BTC/EUR, and BTC/ETH.
The exchange platform has many of the advanced features that experienced traders expect. There’s a very nice customizable trading view with all the technical analysis tools you’d expect such as charts, indicators, and candles. When submitting an order you have different order types available like limit orders as well as conditional orders such as stops, stop limits, trailing stops, ladders. There are also different time frames that can be selected that define how long an order will remain in force (Good-Til-Cancelled ( GTC) or Immediate-Or-Cancel). Fee conscious traders can also use the Post-Only option with Limit Orders, which ensures that their orders enter the order book and receive the maker fee when executed.
Bittrex recently announced that they will offer trading of tokenized stocks on their platform. You can now trade a fraction of a stock and trade 24/7. This service allows traders and investors direct access to listed companies through their Bittrex account. However, unlike FTX, Bittrex users will not be able to withdraw or redeem their tokenized stocks for the underlying stock.
Mobile Support
The Bittrex Global Mobile App is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play. As of Dec 2020, the 53 MB app has a rating of 3.2 out of 5 and over 100k downloads. Despite a few small UX issues we thought the App was quite good and works well enough.
Our rating of the App:
Bittrex Liquidity
Liquidity is a very important consideration for any exchange trading platform. In general, it refers to how quickly and easily orders are processed without slippage. Highly liquid exchanges have higher volume, better price stability, quicker executions, and help avoid price slippage for market orders.
On coinmarketcap, you can see a Liquidity score assigned to each exchange. This scores a market pair, for example, BTC/EUR, from 0 to 1000 based on the slippage incurred by various order sizes. A higher score indicates a more liquid market, which is good for traders. 1,000 reflects the most liquid of markets and 0 for the most illiquid. There’s decent liquidity for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, and Akoin (Bittrex is currently the only exchange listing Akoin).
However, liquidity is not as strong as some other large exchanges like Binance, Kraken, and Huobi.
Some of the smaller cap coins have very little liquidity across all exchanges and you may find it hard to execute a limit order.
Bittrex Security
- 2FA
- Trusted devices
- IP whitelisting
- Withdrawal whitelisting
- E-mail notification for coin removals and logins
Is Bittrex regulated?
Bittrex Global is regulated by the government of Bermuda. The company registration number is 5559. The Bermuda Monetary Authority has duly licensed Bittrex as a Class F Digital Asset Business effective 30th September 2020.
It’s important to note that Bittrex Global is not available in every country outside of the United States. The company cited regulatory reasons for terminating services for customers based in a number of countries.
Bittrex Inc has many state licenses in the U.S as each state has different laws that govern cryptocurrencies. New York residents are not permitted to be customers as the Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) denied Bittrex a Bitlicense in 2019.
Bittrex Payment Methods and Cryptocurrencies
Initially, Bittrex was a crypto-only trading platform and didn’t support fiat. As of 2020, Bittrex now offers users the ability to purchase crypto with fiat currencies. You’ll first need to be verified and onboarded to enable fiat deposits and withdrawals.
There are three mechanisms available for depositing Euros into your Bittrex Global account:
- SEPA Credit Transfer
- International Wire Transfer
- Credit/debit card. Bittrex is currently rolling out debit and credit card purchases in different locations.
There are 320 coinsavailable to trade on Bittrex at the time of writing. In 2017 Bittrex was the first exchange to list Cardano’s Ada cryptocurrency and many people began trading ADA/BTC with Bitter. In November 2020, hip hop artist Akon announced that the Akoin cryptocurrency has been listed on Bittrex. They also offer leveraged tokens, but not yet to customers in the EU and the EEA. These tokens give 3x exposure in either direction – long or short. For more on how leveraged tokens work see here
Buying Bitcoin on Bittrex
- Log in to your account
- Click on Instant Buy & Sell
- Select Bitcoin and the fiat (USD and EUR) or Tether you want to spend.
- Review purchase
- Insert payment details
- You’re Done
- Log into your account
- Select Market: https://global.bittrex.com/home/markets
- Choose the pair you want to trade
- Fill in the order details such as order type, amount, price, etc.
- Hit Place Buy Order ( BTC)
- Wait for our order to be executed
- You’re Done
How to Sell Bitcoin for EURO on Bittrex Exchange
Withdrawal Limits
Bittrex Global has withdrawal limits to protect customer accounts. The limits are as follows:
- ID Verified Accounts (without 2FA): 1 (or equivalent) BTC per day.
- ID Verified Accounts (with 2FA enabled): 100 (or equivalent) BTC per day with 2FA enabled.
Note: Some coins also have a minimum deposit amount
How long do Bittrex withdrawals take?
If the name on your bank account is the same as the name on your Bittrex Global account, you can withdraw Euros/USD. To withdraw, go to your “Holdings” page, search for the EUR or USD currency and click “Withdrawal”. You can then select SEPA or Wire Transfer and enter your bank details. SEPA deposits and withdrawals take between 1-5 days and the minimum for withdrawal is €10. Note that weekends and Bank observed Holidays in Liechtenstein are a factor with deposits and withdrawals.
Bittrex Fees
Trading Fees
Bittrex, like many other exchanges, offers lower rates as users trade more. Trading fees are added when an order is executed on the Bittrex Global platform. The buyer and the seller are each charged a fee based on the total price of the executed order.
Fees vary by the currency pair being traded, the total 30-day trading volume, and whether the order filled is a Maker or a Taker. For example, for monthly volumes up to 50k (USD), the Maker and Taker fee is the same at 0.20%. However, when you start trading more than 50k a month the Maker fee drops to 0.12% and the taker fee to 0.18%.
Network Fees
Bittrex does not charge any fees for deposits. For withdrawals, they charge a small fee to cover the network fee. For Bitcoin, 0.0005 BTC is charged when you withdraw which is in line with what others such as Kraken charge.
Supported Countries
Bittrex Global doesn’t support U.S based customers. Also, the company has stated that due to regulatory requirements, customers from some other countries can no longer use Bittrex.
Customer Support
Bittrex uses zendesk for support. You can submit a ticket and they have a nice FAQ and a lot of articles. They have no live chat or phone support but compared to other exchanges they are quite responsive when it comes to answering support tickets.
Bittrex vs Binance
Both platforms offer comparable services, but Binance is by far the larger of the two in terms of the number of users and trade volume.
Bittrex is more user-friendly and they make it very easy for beginners to use the platform with features such as instant buy.
Binance has some of the best trading fees on the market and comes in lower than Bittrex with 0.1% compared to 0.2% for volumes under 50k per month.
In terms of security, they both offer great security features. Binance did have a large security breachin 2019, but the response and transparency to the breach were quite commendable. They used the #SAFU Fund to cover the cost and no user funds were affected.
In our experience, support from Bittrex is more responsive than Binance.
A close match, but to avoid sitting on the fence, we’ll give Bittrex the nod this time. If you’re doing large volume trades and need deep liquidity then maybe Binance is a better option – depending on the trading pair you wish to trade.
Bittrex Pros and Cons
Pros
- Fast signup and verification
- Reactive support team
- Excellent security and no reported hacks of the exchange platform
- 1-minute charts for traders
- Fiat deposits/ Withdrawals now supported
- Integrations and algorithmic trading via our extensive APIs.
- Quick to integrate and support for new coins, network upgrades (eg Cardano Shelley), and hard forks.
Cons
- No leverage/margin trading ( they do have leveraged tokens, however)
- Liquidity can be low with certain coins
- Large spread (the difference between the buy and sell prices) as a consequence of low liquidity
- The trading fees for maker and taker are both 0.2% for the first volume tier (under 50k USD per month)
- Customers in some countries denied services
Bittrex Global Summary
- Web address:https://global.bittrex.com/Account/Register?referralCode=NZS-BL1-PSM
- Support contact: support@bittrexglobal.zendesk.com
- Location: Liechtenstein
- Regulated: Yes
- Daily volume:$29.84M
- Mobile app available: Yes
- Parent Company: Bittrex, Inc
- Transfer types: Bank Transfer, Crypto Transfer, Debit/Credit Card Transfer
- Supported fiat: USD, EUR
- Supported pairs:Hundreds of different trading pair are available to trade
- Fees: Tiered starting at 0.2%
Conclusion
Bittrex is a solid exchange with a good reputation. Liquidity can sometimes be an issue, but the user experience is good, and it’s very easy to buy Bitcoin fast. They also now support Fiat and have a lot of new features available to traders. If you’re looking for a secure and trustworthy fiat-to-crypto exchange with a lot of altcoins then Bittrex is a good option.
