Find the cheapest crypto exchange in 2025

Find the cheapest crypto exchanges: Pay attention to hidden costs!

When searching for the cheapest and best crypto exchange, it is essential to always carefully check all costs, i.e. the total costs. These are made up of the three main cost factors trading costs, fiat payment costs and crypto transfer costs and usually include the following cost items: 


1. trading costs = trading fee (taker or maker fee) + spread costs 

2. Euro payment costs = fixed fee + variable fee on the payment amount 

3. Crypto transfer costs = Fixed transfer fee + address setup fee

Typical pitfalls when comparing

Some providers prefer to advertise their product with one or more of their low-cost factors, but neglect to emphasize other cost factors that are associated with comparatively high costs 

For example, those who are fooled by supposedly low trading fees are often asked to pay elsewhere. Classic pitfalls include high spread costs, staking reward fees, excessively high fees for euro deposits and withdrawals and crypto transfers, as well as complex conditions within the fee structure, which can turn out to be cost drivers.

Search and find the cheapest crypto exchange: Examples of different cost strategies

The broker Bison, for example, emphasizes fee-free trading and free euro and crypto transfers, but charges comparatively high trading costs due to the high "non-natural" spread applied, which is not explicitly considered a "fee" but falls under the general category of "costs". 

In contrast, Binance advertises low trading costs, but even SEPA deposits in euros are not free of charge, which can be particularly disadvantageous for savings plans with numerous small deposits.

Coinbase and Bitvavo, on the other hand, charge a higher fee for staking and lending rewards for certain cryptocurrencies, but Bitvavo scores with free euro payment options and low trading costs, which is why Bitvavo is one of the best for trading and especially for the use of crypto savings plans.

Conclusion: What should you look out for to find the best crypto exchange for you?

It is important to always keep an eye on the individual total costs across all relevant cost factors.

Depending on the intended use and individual transaction behavior in terms of trading, transfers and payments, a provider with its cost structure may be cheaper for you than it would be for another person with a different transaction behavior.

Therefore, an individual comparison adapted to the individual transaction behavior is required. The cost comparison calculator provided above offers exactly such an individual comparison option in terms of costs.

The crypto exchanges with the cheapest trading costs

When searching for the cheapest trading costs, you should also consider two important things that quickly lead to higher costs.

Avoid indirect additional costs: Minimize currency exchange costs by comparing crypto exchanges correctly

Providers that only offer very few euro markets, such as Binance with just under 50 euro markets compared to Bitvavo and Kraken Pro with over 200, can incur additional costs as euro deposits must first be converted into USD or a USD stablecoin, which can result in additional currency exchange costs.

When making a comparison, you should therefore potentially expect double the trading costs, as two trades take place due to the prior exchange of EUR into USD. So find out in advance about the trading pairs you want to trade and compare the platform without the EUR trading pair with the double trading fee to another platform where you can trade directly in euros.

Cut your crypto exchange costs by up to 10 times!

Many platforms offer both a "normal" and a "Pro" variant. These variants can not only be different offerings within a platform, but can also appear as different platform forms with different brands, but ultimately belong to the same company or parent company. Examples are kraken / Kraken Pro, Coinabse / Coinabse advanced, BSDEX / Bison, Bitpanda / One Trading, Binance / Binance lite. 

The normal variants are characterized by a user-friendly interface, but often have significantly higher costs compared to their Pro variants, which have a trading interface. These price differences can sometimes amount to 6.5 to 10 times the cost of trading. The reason for this is most likely simply that inexperienced users simply pay them.

An exception: Bitvavo

Luckily, Bitvavo is a strikingly positive exception in this comparison. The user-friendly trading interface and the savings plan function are both easy to access and have a consistently low fee.

Most favorable trading costs at a glance:

Trading costs table

For liquid markets, trading costs (fee + spread) can be estimated according to the following guidelines: 

Favorable trading costs: 0 - 0.3% 

Medium trading costs: 0.3% - 0.5% 

High trading costs: > 0.5%

Comparison table: fees and spread costs at a glance

Which crypto exchange has the cheapest trading costs?

Bitvavo, Binance and Kraken Pro can be placed in the region of crypto exchanges with low trading costs. Even though Binance has the cheapest fees at 0.1% maker fee compared to Bitvavo at 0.15%, users for whom a large selection of cryptocurrencies that are tradable in euros is important should choose Bitvavo with over 200 euro markets compared to Binance with just over 50 euro markets. As a result, Unicorn Finance puts Bitvavo in first place overall in terms of trading costs, with a minimal gap to Kraken Pro and Binance.
Bitpanda, Coinbase, Kraken and Bison are among the crypto exchanges with high trading costs in this cost comparison by Unicorn Finance, as these are all above 0.5%.

Most favorable crypto transfer costs at a glance:

Crypto transfer costs can vary from platform to platform as some providers charge a surcharge on top of the normal network fee. In order to assess the level of costs, these should always be compared with the current average network transaction fee of the blockchain. If the platform's transaction fee is far away from this, it can be assessed as cheap or expensive

 

Comparison table: Crypto transfer costs at a glance

Which crypto exchange has the cheapest transfer costs?

Bison has the cheapest transfer costs by far, as they are free for receiving and sending. Receiving cryptocurrencies is generally free of charge with all providers, with the exception of Bitpanda, where receiving is only free of charge above a certain amount. Kraken may also charge a fee for setting up a receiving address for individual cryptocurrencies. With the other forms of payment, only the costs for sending are decisive. As the transfer fees for sending differ greatly depending on the platform and cryptocurrency, apart from Bison, it usually depends on the specific cryptocurrency, which is why a general ranking of the other payment methods is not easily possible.

Favourite FIAT payments at a glance:

The SEPA bank transfer is almost unlimited and free to use with most European providers. With non-European providers such as Kraken, Kraken Pro and Binance, however, there are more fees and conditions for a simple SEPA bank transfer for depositing and withdrawing euro balances.

When comparing costs, make sure that the crypto exchange itself does not charge a fee for other payment options such as PayPal, credit card or Klarna, but the payment providers do. Therefore, deposits via other payment providers can result in indirect fees of between 1.5% and 3%, even if this is not directly visible on the crypto exchange's website.

Comparison table: FIAT deposits at a glance

The test results for the cheapest crypto exchange from the Unicorn Finance comparison

It is important to know that this comparison only includes a selection of crypto exchanges and does not cover the entire market. The test consists of two categories: "Spot" and "Savings Plan". Within the categories, the test winner was determined by the total costs incurred for an average estimated transaction behavior within one year. The total costs incurred for Bitcoin and Ethereum were taken and added together. The test parameters are stored in the comparison calculator as defaults in the "Spot" and "Savings plan" functions and can therefore be adjusted by the user. In addition, an attempt was made to incorporate other aspects such as exchange rate costs into the test result. Since your own transaction behavior is decisive, this should be reproduced as realistically as possible, although Unicorn Finance recommends entering your own values.

Everyone should also note that this comparison is primarily about costs, but other parameters such as user-friendliness, language, asset selection, transfer networks, support and security are important criteria that should be taken into account when making a decision. Especially with platforms that have almost equally low costs, it is advisable to pay more attention to the other aspects from a cost limit.

Test result: These are the cheapest crypto exchanges for spot trading

Due to the high trading costs compared to the other crypto exchanges, the total costs of Bitpanda, Coinbase, Kraken and Bison are already so high that these platforms can no longer be counted among the cheaper crypto exchanges in this comparison. The cheapest crypto exchanges in this comparison test are Bitvavo, Binance and Kraken Pro. Which crypto exchange ultimately has the lowest total costs depends on individual use. The number of transactions and payments in relation to the volume of crypto traded has a major impact on which provider is the cheapest. It is also important whether you trade with a limit order (post only) and therefore incur the usually low maker fee. Binance exchange rates with note. In terms of calculation, bitavao kraken pro covers all approx. 200 euromarkets at binance you have to convert 3/4 into usd first, which is why on average a fee of 0.18 or so entsthet (calculate) For amounts such as 5000 - 10000 € per trade and transaction Binance is the cheapest, closely followed by Bitvavo and Kraken Pro which are cheaper than Binance and Kraken Pro for smaller amounts. For amounts such as €800 per transaction and maker fee, Bitvavo is even the cheapest in terms of total costs. The reason for this is that the fixed costs of payments and transactions are quite high at Binance, which are only less significant for large sums and the lower trading fees are more significant. This can be seen from the fact that Binance is not the cheapest option even if you are currently trading Bitcoin as part of a promotion without fees. BSDEX and Bison only become cheaper in comparison with a very large number of transactions in combination with the lowest possible trading volume, as transactions are free of charge. In this way, the higher trading costs cannot have such a significant impact on the overall costs. However, these are more theoretical scenarios. For example, you would have to buy crypto from BSDEX for €6,000 (taker fee) and send it to your own wallet, divided into around 25 transactions, so that 25 transactions would make the other providers more expensive in terms of total costs than BSDEX.

For beginners advanced

In conclusion, it can be said that Bitpanda Pro, Bitvavo, Kraken Pro and Binance are close to each other with a 0.1 - 0.16 % maker fee and are definitely among the cheapest providers. With these providers, you can't really go wrong with any of them in terms of overall costs. Coinbase Pro, BSDEX and Bison still offer reasonably acceptable conditions with a user-friendly interface for newcomers, but some of these can no longer be considered cheap. The crypto exchange Bitvavo is definitely to be preferred here, which also offers a user-friendly interface for beginners among the providers of the favorable ones mentioned above. From the perspective of Unicorn Finance, the cost-benefit ratio of Crypto.com, Coinbase, Bitpanda and Kraken is simply too poor to recommend them with a clear conscience.

Test result: This is the cheapest crypto exchange for savings plans

While spot trading depends heavily on individual transaction behavior, the savings plan clearly does. Here Bitvavo simply convinces with free deposits and low trading fees. Although Binance has lower fees, the fixed costs for euro deposits are too high for the smaller amounts typical of savings plans. Which crypto exchange has the lowest total costs depends on individual usage. The number of transactions and payments in relation to the amount of crypto traded has a major impact on which provider is the cheapest. It is also important whether you trade with a limit order (post only) and therefore incur the usually low maker fee. For amounts such as €5000 - 10,000 per trade and transaction, the providers Bitpanda Pro and Binance are the cheapest, closely followed by Bitvavo and Kraken Pro, which are cheaper than Binance for smaller amounts and come even closer to Bitpanda Pro. With an amount of €800 per action and maker fee, Bitvavo is even the cheapest in terms of total costs. The reason for this is that the fixed costs of payments and transactions are quite high at Binance, which are only less significant for large sums and the lower trading fees are more significant. This can be seen from the fact that Binance is not the cheapest option even if you are currently trading Bitcoin as part of a promotion without fees. BSDEX and Bison only become cheaper in comparison with a very large number of transactions in combination with the lowest possible trading volume, as transactions are free of charge. In this way, the higher trading costs cannot have such a significant impact on the overall costs. However, these are more theoretical scenarios. For example, crypto would have to be purchased from BSDEX for €6,000 (taker fee) and sent to your own wallet in approx. 25 transactions, so that 25 transactions would make the other providers more expensive in terms of total costs than BSDEX.

FAQ

Which is the cheapest crypto exchange? Which is the cheapest crypto broker? Cheapest savings plan

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