Why Conduct a Review on Bittrex in 2023?
If you are a user looking to enter or are already experienced in cryptocurrency trading, you would probably already have heard of Bittrex or Trex for those who use Bittrex as their go to crypto exchange.
Bittrex is a US based crypto exchange that has given itself a name in the world of cryptocurrency exchange due to the sheer number of supported cryptocurrencies. As a matter of fact, Bittrex even offers coins that are so rare that you can only make trades on them on the Bittrex platform.
Bittrex – An Overview
Bittrex was established in 2014 and is headquartered in Washington state. They are a medium sized cryptocurrency exchange and boast an impressive 24 hour trading volume of over $45M dollars which makes them the top 50 of all crypto exchanges worldwide.
Bittrex’s founders consist of cyber-security experts who all have similar backgrounds working in network security entities such as Microsoft and Amazon.
Although mostly based in the US, Bittrex has recently expanded their trading operations globally and has created a subdivision that is based in Malta called Bittrex Global or Bittrex Malta. This allows Bittrex to offer its customer support and trading services to users outside of the US to access their features.
Bittrex Global uses the same platform and technology as the Bittrex exchange in the US and also offers the same features. This makes it very easy for Bittrex to regulate international traders on Bittrex Global.
When the Bittrex platform just started off, they were just a crypto to crypto exchange but up until recently, Bittrex has managed to approve themselves of a number of licenses which allows them to offer services such as trading pairs with fiat currencies to its customers. As such, this gives Bittrex an edge over other crypto exchanges which do not offer services such as trading pairs.
Bittrex Security
One of the most important features a cryptocurrency exchange could offer is its security due to the nature of cryptocurrency trading as well as recent crypto exchange hacks that have happened recently, you will find more about the features in this Bittrex review
As such, you would be glad to know that as of today, people who use Bittrex as well as the Bittrex platform itself have never experienced any hacks even though it is one of the more older exchanges out there. Bittrex could attribute this success to its founders who are all cyber-security experts.
To give you more insight on the security Bittrex has to offer, we have provided you information on some of the security protocols and features that Bittrex is utilising.
Exchange Security
On the Bittrex exchange and how they manage their BTC from a security point of view, Bittrex has claimed that they operate using a strategy called an “elastic and multi-staged wallet” which basically determines how Bittrex review and access their coins and transport them from physical wallets to online wallets.
This is because the majority of their Btc and other cryptos are stored on physical storages or cold storages since it is one of the safest methods any crypto exchanges in the world can use to store crypto.
This is because a cold storage prevents any online hacking or theft since you would need to physically access the storage device in order to steal it. This effectively keeps any btc and coins that Bittrex has in an “air-gapped” environment that can’t be touched.
Whenever the Bittrex platform needs access to this cold storage, the officers in charge would probably require some sort of biometric or multi signature authentication before they are able to be transported to the crypto exchange’s online wallets where they will be processed for any deposits or withdrawals.
Communication security
In this Bittrex review, you will find that, information security in this era would be as important as monetary security as such, Bittrex has made full use of SSL encryption on their website to ensure that any information that is sent to and from the website is free from interference.
An SSL encryption also helps its users to determine if they are being directed to a phishing website, as an invalid SSL certificate for any website would probably mean that hackers are trying to steal your information.
From a user’s point of view, it is also your responsibility to make sure that you access the Bittrex platform website directly and not through links from external sites. Another good point to take is to make sure that there is a green padlock on the browser once you have entered the Bittrex website.
User security
A majority of theft and hacks usually happen due to the carelessness of the user and as such, Bittrex has put in place a number of security features to ensure that this method of attack vector is prevented.
When users first access the exchange website and create their account, they will be prompted to enable two-factor authentication which acts as a second layer of protection in case unauthorized users manage to access your account.
This two factor authentication feature used by Bittrex is applied using Google Authenticator which is available both on the iOS store or Google Play. It is very simple to use and users need to just scan the QR code provided to them and confirm with the email that Bittrex will send. The two-factor authentication is available via a google app that is available on the iOS or Play store.
The two-factor authentication is a great addition to strengthen the security of Bittrex. After downloading the app and logging into your user profile, the two-factor authentication can be easily activated quickly.
Trading Fees
In this Bittrex review, you will find that Bittrex has one of the best trading fees structure compared to most cryptocurrency exchanges as they charge a flat fee of 0.25% on all transactions which includes trading pairs.
One advantage of charging a flat fee is that it is easy to understand when trading. However, there is one downside to this as users who have a high trading volume would not benefit from flat trading fees since they are the makers in the transaction. In such cases, the “maker-taker” fee model would actually be beneficial.
As such, the trading fees that Bittrex utilises only provides an incentive to investors who wish to add more liquidity to the order books with limited orders. As such, it is safe to assume that the exchange does not require the excess liquidity but you as the user would not get any fee benefits if you are to place a higher than normal trading volume order on the exchange.
Deposit & Withdrawal Fees
This Bittrex review also explains the deposit and withdrawal fees. There will be no deposit fees charged into your Bittrex account if you wish to add funds. However, Bittrex does charge a fee when you are performing any withdrawals of crypto from your Bittrex wallet which is known as a “miners fee”
One benefit you will have of trading with Bittrex is that they do not charge any fees on fiat trading. The only fees that you would incur would probably be any fees that your banks will charge for moving the fiat currencies.
Coin Coverage
As mentioned before earlier, one of the strongest advantages that Bittrex has over most other exchanges are the number of cryptocurrencies that you can trade using your Bittrex account. They are probably one of the best cryptocurrency exchanges in terms of sheer number and variety of cryptos supported.
This is further supported by Bittrex’s recent decision to introduce fiat trading since this means that you can easily perform trading pairs and convert fiat currencies to cryptocurrencies.
Other than their trading pairs list and prices, Bittrex also offers four different types of markets for some of the coins such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, XRP, ZCash and Litecoin. For example, Bittrex offers a BTC market which has more than 200 coins that you can trade with.
Registration Process
This Bittrex review also covers the registration process. In order to start trading on Bittrex, you would first need to create a Bittrex account and sign up on their exchange. Once you prompt their registration form, you will be required to input your email address and your desired password before signing up.
Once that is done and you have successfully created your Bittrex account, you will be prompted to confirm this registration by clicking on the link that will be sent to your email. The link will then navigate you to a page where you are required to provide some personal information which includes name, age, and address.
This part is required since Bittrex is a regulated exchange and they have to confirm the identity of the user as per KYC requirements in order to activate said account.
KYC and Verifications.
In this Bittrex review, you will note that although some users including yourself may see anonymous accounts great for privacy purposes, international financial regulators actually view them with suspicion and a great deal of scepticism so you would probably not be able to set up an anonymous account with Bittrex or Bittrex global as both entities are trying to expand worldwide, and so they are required to eliminate all of their anonymous accounts.
What this means is that investors who are looking to do some cryptocurrency trading on Bittrex, mandatory KYC and AML procedures will be forced on them and even then, the most basic level of verification is required which is to provide Bittrex with some form of identification provided by the government.
Additionally, Bittrex employs the use of a third party verification called NetVerify. What this third party does is that they will request you to upload your ID and also provide a photo so that they can confirm that it is you. One very important aspect when submitting your photo to them is to make sure that you do not crop out any corners during the verification process.
Once the documents are ready for the verification process, you can expect this to be done within the next few hours because NetVerify is automated and does not require any human input – most of the time.
This is because back in 2017, the verification process actually took several days which could be time confusing for its users. This is because during this time, Bittrex actually received a ton of new users registering on their exchange. Bittrex could not handle the surge of new applicants to the point that they had to halt any new users for a certain period of time to register on the exchange.
In 2020 however, due to both the lower demand of trading due to how many cryptocurrency exchanges are popping up and also Bittrex increasing their supported applicants, you should only expect about a 2-3 hour time period for the verification process to be completed.
Corporate accounts
In this section of the Bittrex review. If you are an institutionalised investor that is trading cryptocurrencies on behalf of a company, you may want to consider applying for a corporate account over an individual account on Bittrex.
This is because corporate accounts have comparatively fewer restrictions, less expensive fees and access to better customer support compared to individual accounts. Additionally, corporate accounts also have no limitations placed in terms of deposits, withdrawals and purchasing of cryptos.
However, when registering for such an account, Bittrex does require information related to the company such as business address verifications and articles of incorporation. Additionally, Bittrex also requires anyone who owns more than 25% shares of the company to go through a “significant persons’ KYC process and altogether could take up to 7 business days.
Funding/Withdrawal
After going through all the verification processes and identification procedures, you can then access your Bittrex account and start trading! Firstly you will need to choose the way you would want to fund your account and the quickest way would probably be to fund it through the wallet on Bittrex.
The first step to do when you want to fund your account with Bitcoin will be to navigate to the “wallet” section that is available on their website. The site will then proceed to bring you to the overview of your wallet depicting your balance in crypto and fiat currencies amount. There will be green and red arrows that are a shortcut to either deposit or withdraw the respective cryptos respectively.
Clicking the deposit button will present you with the option to generate a deposit address on Bittrex. You will then need to input this deposit address which is the address you can use to send external funds to. Once this part is completed, the transaction should take about 60 minutes or so as the speed will depend on the demand of the blockchain.
Withdrawing your funds will take you through a similar process on the Bittrex crypto exchange. Clicking on the red arrow will bring you to an interface that will show you relevant information such as the name of the crypto you are withdrawing, an option to input the value you are withdrawing as well as a small miner fee that you will be charged for doing the withdrawal.
Fiat payments
Bittrex has recently enabled fiat trading on the exchange and so what this means is that you will be able to either make payments or withdraw in USD EUR or equivalent. This option is only available to users that are accessing Bittrex through Bittrex global or one of the 31 qualifying states in the US.
However, an important point to note is that fiat trading is not available the moment you start trading on Bittrex as this feature is required to be personally requested to be added to your account.
To do this, you have to contact customer support and then fill up a form which Bittrex will ask you for some additional information to verify your fiat trading methods and wants. Both your corporate or individual accounts will be required to go through the same process.
Limit for transfers on fiat trading
For personal accounts Bittrex imposes a minimum deposit value of $1,000 and a minimum withdrawal; amount of $50. Bittrex does not impose any maximum limits on these types of transactions.
For corporate accounts, an advantage they have is that there are no minimum deposit and withdrawal limits placed on their transactions. There is an added safety protocol though on which if you are looking to withdraw more than $10m worth of funds from Bittrex, you are required to email corpcare@bittrex.com to confirm that you are greenlighting the transaction.
In both cases once you have completed the request form, Bittrex will provide you with their bank account information.
Bittrex Trading platform exchange review
Now that you know about the formalities and fees Bittrex will charge you, we will move on to the most important aspect of trading on this exchange which is their trading platform and also the matching engine.
The platform was upgraded a few years ago and accomplished being a more user-friendly interface for novices. The aforementioned matching engine is custom built according to Bittrex’s specifications and is able to handle large loads while simultaneously matching trades within seconds.
One look on Bittrex’s new user interface will definitely impress you as they have designed the layout to be very easy to understand as well as laying out the most important features to the front. There is also the option to view different markets using a toolbar that is placed on the left side of the board.
The main interface consists of the price chart and depth chart on the top of the interface but are not visible at the same time and you will need to toggle between them to view both charts. Below the dept/price charts will be the order book and also the order form for you to buy and sell btc.
In order to look at the history of your orders as well as any open orders, you will be required to scroll further down. The access button to your wallets are located on the top right of the platform as well as other markets and your general account settings.
One useful functionality which many users find about Bittrex is their functionality of their charting system which consists of plenty of studies, tools and indicators. Bittrex has an edge in this aspect over other exchanges due to the fact that they developed their charting systems on their own and do not use third party software such as TradingView and the likes.
As such, Bittrex would definitely be an attractive option to trade on for those of you who like technical analysis to support your trading and do not wish to switch to third party providers.
Their user interface also allows you to switch between the price charts and market liquidity charts and are particularly useful for technical traders since you are able to gauge market sentiment on the market. The option to make this switch is available on the top left of the market chart section.
On top of all the updates, Bittrex has also rolled out new updates on their trading and matching engines which increases the speed of exchange transactions. They announced that once the updates are performed, orders can be executed 20 times faster than the original build.
Placing a trade
There are a few types of orders whenever you are placing a trade on the exchange which would be pretty standard by most crypto exchange measures and are basically split into four different types.
Limit Order – This is a default order when performing buy/sell orders on the exchange and what this means is that a default order will be placed at a predetermined level
Stop Limit (Conditional) – This order type allows you to place certain conditions on your order to be met before the order is proceeded. For example, you can determine the order to be made if the price is either above or below a certain level. What this means is that you as the buyer will be able to effectively place a stop position whenever you set the determined price for the stop order to be submitted.
Good until canceled – This is a limit order which is the default type and what this does is that it will remain active until you cancel it. As such you will be able to palace this order perpetually for an extended period of time until cancelled.
Immediate or cancel – Immediate or cancel order is useful for when you want the exact conditions to be met when placing your order. If the order you placed is not filled immediately, it will be canceled.
Although there is a certain degree of control over the type of orders you are able to make, they are less comprehensive compared to other exchanges on the market however, Bittrex has stated that improving their order types on their future roadmap.
Bittrex Apps
Although the Bittrex website itself is advanced and useful, they provide limited support in terms of mobile applications. As such, this places Bittrex in a disadvantage compared to exchanges who do provide mobile app support.
There is another way to access Bittrex using applications that are available both on the App and Google play store. These types of applications make use of a Bittrex API key that enables you to trade on your mobile device.
You would have to proceed with this option with caution however as you would not know if the advertised applications are actually safe. This is because you are virtually providing the apps the access to write your API interface which means they can steal your API keys and then they will proceed to run pump and dump schemes on Bittrex.
Customer Support
Customer service is a really important aspect that we will be considering on this Bittrex Review as slow and unresponsive customer service is very frustrating and is something that you as a cryptocurrency exchange trader may have experienced at some point.
The customer service on Bittrex can only really be contacted using three main methods. These are through a direct email, 24/7 online chat function or by submitting and raising a support ticket.
You would notice that they do not provide any telephone support numbers which can be easily contacted directly. This again places them in a disadvantage compared to other platforms such as the Coinbase exchange and Bitstamp exchange which both provide telephone numbers for direct contact.
There are other unofficial platforms in which you can get help which are their unofficial subreddit and also a Twitter account which you can tweet should you have any urgent queries.
Cons of Bittrex
Although overall, Bittrex charges some competitive fees while simultaneously providing a sophisticated user interface on their exchange and platform, there are a couple of things that we have noticed which could use some improvement.
The first thing would be the process to go through on the exchange before setting up trading pairs of fiat grading. It is a great way for investors to start investing in crypto but the process is rather lengthy and requires several steps to accomplish before an account can be verified for fiat trading.
Bittrex should take steps to reduce the burden of this process and make it easier to activate fiat trading on the exchange.
Another downside is that Bittrex actually does not have any support for mobile applications since this would mean users would be able to access the exchange virtually anywhere and with much more convenience. This is because most users would most likely want to have the option to access Bittrex’s accounts on their advanced platform while away from their desks.
Bittrex has some attractive trading pairs and fees which are simple and competitive, however one downside is that the exchange does not actually encourage the increase of liquidity by being the market makers. What this means is that other exchanges could potentially offer lower fees than Bittrex whenever those traders facilitate this kind of liquidity.
Conclusion
Overall, Bittrex is probably one of the most advanced platforms in the world and utilising the most advanced security protocols to prevent theft and hacks. Bittrex has an extensive range of crypto options that will mostly be taken advantage of by most traders on their advanced exchange platform.
As such, if you are looking for an exchange that offers over 200+ cryptocurrencies and strong security features as well as fiat currency trading options then Bittrex will be the exchange for you.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: Can US Citizens use Bittrex?
Bittrex in the US is only available in31 of the approved states
Q: Is Bittrex Safe?
Yes Bittrex is very safe and is one of the most secure exchanges in the world
Q: Can I withdraw from Bittrex to a bank account
Yes, Bittrex allows you to perform withdrawals from your Bittrex account into your personal bank account.
With over 10 years of experience working as a financial analyst, Eric is highly aware of the potential of cryptocurrency, particularly Bitcoin, and the impact it will bring towards the global economy. He is committed to share everything he knows about crypto here at Crypto Digest News.