venue review / crypto
Five large crypto exchanges compared on the things that are documented in public: which legal entity you contract with, which licences it holds, what the published fee schedule says, whether reserves are attested by anyone independent, and what happened in the last three years of regulatory history.
The comparison in one table
| Venue | Entry maker / taker | EU status | Independent proof of reserves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Binance | 0.100% / 0.100% | No MiCA licence; suspension announced June 2026 | Self-published, no auditor named |
| Coinbase Exchange | 0.40% / 0.60% | MiCA via CSSF Luxembourg, June 2025 | cbBTC only; exchange-wide not verified |
| Kraken | 0.40% / 0.80% | MiCA CASP entities, Central Bank of Ireland | Yes, quarterly, independently attested |
| Gemini ActiveTrader | 0.600% / 1.200% | MiCA via MFSA Malta, August 2025 | Audited accounts and SOC reports instead |
| Bitstamp | Not verified | MiCA via CSSF Luxembourg, May 2025 | Not verified |
The spread between the cheapest and the most expensive entry-tier taker fee on this page is twelve times. On a 10,000 round trip that is the difference between roughly 20 and roughly 240 units of currency, before anything happens to the price.
What we checked
01
Entity and licence
The company you contract with, the supervisor and the licence reference, taken from official sources.
02
Published fees
Maker and taker at the lowest volume tier, from the venue own fee schedule.
03
Reserves and custody
Whether reserves are attested by an independent firm, and how the venue describes insurance.
04
Regulatory history
Material enforcement and licensing events in the last three years, stated factually with dates.
01 / listed, US
Coinbase
Coinbase Global, Inc. has been listed on Nasdaq under COIN since 2021 and was founded in June 2012. Coinbase, Inc. holds money transmitter licences in all fifty US states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, plus a New York virtual currency business activity licence numbered 122466. Coinbase Custody Trust Company is chartered by the New York Department of Financial Services, and Coinbase Derivatives is a CFTC-designated contract market. In June 2025 Coinbase obtained a MiCA licence from the Luxembourg CSSF and made Luxembourg its EU hub.
| Field | Published figure |
|---|---|
| Entity | Coinbase Global, Inc. (Nasdaq: COIN) |
| Founded | June 2012 |
| EU licence | MiCA CASP, CSSF Luxembourg, June 2025 |
| Entry-tier spot fees | Coinbase Exchange: 0.40 per cent maker, 0.60 per cent taker |
| Insurance as described | Crime insurance on digital assets in storage, excluding credential-compromise losses; customer USD in pooled custodial accounts at insured institutions structured for pass-through cover to 250,000 USD; crypto not FDIC or SIPC insured |
| Enforcement | SEC dismissed its case against Coinbase on 27 February 2025 |
| Proof of reserves | Published for cbBTC; an exchange-wide attestation was not verified |
nasdaq listedmicanydfs custody
02 / the fullest public disclosure of the five
Kraken
Payward, Inc. was founded in 2011 and is based in San Francisco. The group publishes an unusually complete licence list: Payward Europe Solutions Ltd (Central Bank of Ireland C468360) and Payward Global Solutions Ltd (C559106) as MiCA CASPs, Payward Ltd registered with the FCA as a cryptoasset firm under FRN 928768, Crypto Facilities Ltd under FCA FRN 757895, Payward Europe Digital Solutions (CY) Ltd under CySEC MiFID licence 342/17, Bit Trade Pty Ltd registered with AUSTRAC, Kraken Financial as a Wyoming special purpose depository institution, and Payward Digital Solutions Ltd under Bermuda Monetary Authority licence 202403268.
| Field | Published figure |
|---|---|
| Entity | Payward, Inc., San Francisco |
| Founded | 2011 |
| Entry-tier spot fees | 0.40 per cent maker, 0.80 per cent taker; 0.20 per cent both sides on stablecoin and FX pairs |
| Proof of reserves | Quarterly Merkle-tree attestation by an independent accountancy firm; December 2025 report attested as of 31 December 2025 and published 5 February 2026, covering spot, margin, futures and staked balances; open-source verification tool published |
| Insurance | States that digital assets and Kraken accounts are not covered by insurance against losses, and that e-money is not FSCS covered |
| Enforcement | SEC dismissed its 2023 action against Payward in March 2025 |
quarterly pormica irelandwyoming spdi
03 / largest by volume, most complicated by jurisdiction
Binance
Binance Holdings Ltd. was founded in July 2017 and has never published a conventional headquarters. It is the cheapest of the five on headline spot fees and the most complicated on regulatory status. In November 2023 Binance Holdings Limited pleaded guilty in the United States and paid over four billion dollars in penalties; in April 2026 a US senator publicly questioned the status of the resulting monitorships. In June 2026 Binance told EU users it would suspend services and new registrations after failing to obtain a MiCA licence before the 1 July 2026 deadline, having withdrawn its Greek application and stated it would apply in France.
| Field | Published figure |
|---|---|
| Entity | Binance Holdings Ltd., no stated headquarters |
| Founded | July 2017 |
| Entry-tier spot fees | 0.100 per cent maker and taker; 0.075 per cent when paying fees in BNB |
| Proof of reserves | Self-published Merkle tree with zk-SNARK verification; no third-party auditor named on the page |
| EU status | Told EU users in June 2026 it would suspend services after missing the MiCA deadline |
| Enforcement | Guilty plea and over 4bn USD in US penalties, November 2023 |
| Not verified | Custody and insurance arrangements, lending and earn restrictions by jurisdiction |
cheapest headline feesno eu licence2023 guilty plea
04 / oldest of the five, now owned by Robinhood
Bitstamp
Bitstamp was founded in Slovenia in August 2011, which makes it the longest continuously operating venue on this page, and its registered headquarters is in Luxembourg City. Robinhood Markets completed its 200 million dollar acquisition of Bitstamp in June 2025. Bitstamp Europe S.A. was authorised by the Luxembourg CSSF as a MiCA crypto-asset service provider under licence number N00000003 on 16 May 2025, and the company has announced a licence in Singapore.
| Field | Published figure |
|---|---|
| Founded | August 2011, Slovenia |
| Registered HQ | Luxembourg City |
| Ownership | Acquired by Robinhood Markets, completed June 2025 |
| EU licence | Bitstamp Europe S.A., CSSF MiCA CASP licence N00000003, 16 May 2025 |
| Asia | Licence announced in Singapore |
| Not verified | Entry-tier maker and taker fees from a primary source, UK registration, proof of reserves, custody and insurance detail, earn products |
since 2011mica luxembourgrobinhood owned
05 / trust company charter, expensive at the entry tier
Gemini
Gemini Trust Company, LLC is a New York limited liability trust company; the NYDFS granted the charter on 5 October 2015. The exchange was founded in 2014 by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and parent Gemini Space Station listed on Nasdaq as GEMI in September 2025. The Malta Financial Services Authority granted a MiCA licence in August 2025, following MiFID II approval in May 2025.
| Field | Published figure |
|---|---|
| Entity | Gemini Trust Company, LLC, NYDFS trust charter since 5 October 2015 |
| Founded | 2014, New York |
| EU licence | MiCA licence from the MFSA, Malta, August 2025 |
| Entry-tier spot fees | ActiveTrader and API: 0.600 per cent maker, 1.200 per cent taker |
| Controls | Publishes audited financial statements, SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 reports by Deloitte, ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and PCI DSS; states customer assets are held 1:1 and segregated from operating funds |
| Earn | Gemini Earn wound down. NYDFS announced in February 2024 that it had secured a commitment to return at least 1.1bn USD to Earn customers; the New York Attorney General settled for 50m USD |
| Enforcement | SEC action dismissed with prejudice on 23 January 2026 after a full in-kind return of Earn assets |
nydfs trust chartermica maltahighest entry taker fee
Before you fund any venue
- 01Find the entity name in the terms of service and search it on the supervisor register named in the footer.
- 02Compare the simple buy price against the exchange order book on the same venue. The gap is often larger than the fee.
- 03Deposit small, trade, withdraw fully, and time it. Do this before it matters.
- 04Turn on withdrawal address allowlisting and hardware-based two-factor authentication on day one.
- 05Assume an exchange balance is a claim on a company, not a holding in your own name, unless you are self-custodying.
Fees decide what a venue costs. Licences and custody decide what it costs you when something goes wrong.