Centralized exchanges have always been a key component of the Crypto industry. They not only provide Crypto buying and selling services, but also undertake important responsibilities such as fund custody, financial management and pledge, and transaction settlement, which directly affect the liquidity and stability of the entire Crypto market. Although the main trading products of various exchanges are generally similar, there are actually some differences in the details, and these differences are often the key factors affecting the user experience of the exchange. In addition, some exchanges also provide unique auxiliary functions to meet the diverse needs of users. Therefore, it is crucial for traders to choose an exchange that suits their needs.
In view of the product situation and the current competitive environment of centralized exchanges, TokenInsight selected 9 influential centralized exchanges in the Crypto industry and conducted a comprehensive comparison of the three key dimensions of products, transactions, and user experience. This report aims to reveal the unique characteristics of these exchanges and show their strengths and weaknesses, so as to provide a reference for investors and help them choose an exchange that is more in line with their personal trading habits.
Looking at the product classification of all exchanges, in addition to the basic spot and derivatives trading products, each exchange has its own unique positioning, so the product types are different. For example, Binance, OKX and Gate, as the leading centralized exchanges, have been built relatively maturely, so their products cover the widest range. From NFT markets, wallets to academies and data dashboards, almost all the popular content of Web3 is included. As a listed compliant exchange, Coinbase's products are more inclined to professional traders and large institutional users. Emerging small and medium-sized exchanges represented by CoinEx are more focused on serving novice users, providing them with easy-to-use, simple and convenient basic trading products.
Therefore, these exchanges have their own advantages in terms of product richness, but they differ in their focus. This report only selects some major products for in-depth horizontal comparison, such as financial products, wallets, and launchpads.
Financial products
In addition to basic trading products, financial products are the most popular exchange products for retail and institutional users. Similar to traditional financial management, it can help users increase their income more simply and conveniently, and it is relatively stable. Therefore, each exchange has launched its own financial products to attract users. Among all the exchanges we counted, the exchange with the most financial products is Gate. It has 16 financial products, including basic Simple Earn (current/fixed), structured products, fixed investment, pledge, etc., as well as some more unique products such as cloud computing power and slot auctions.
Of all financial products, Simple Earn is undoubtedly the most "foolproof" financial product, which is more suitable for novice users. For this reason, each exchange has launched basic Crypto current/fixed-term financial products. High-yield structured products are another type of financial product that is widely popular with users. Among them, Dual and Shark Fin are the two most common structured products, both of which can bring higher returns to users, with an average Max. APR between 100% and 150%.
Wallet & Launchpad
Wallets are products that most centralized exchanges will launch at present, aiming to provide users with functions such as on-chain transactions, token storage, and NFT transactions. The functional dimensions of various exchanges are almost the same, and the differences are mainly reflected in the design of auxiliary functions. For example, the web dashboard of the OKX wallet has an additional blockchain browser viewing function, providing users with a more convenient way to access on-chain data.
It is worth noting here that although Bitget's wallet claims to support more than 100 chains, in fact, this is because it allows users to add their own networks to it, and there are also a large number of test networks mixed in. Therefore, the networks that users can actually use only account for a small part of them, which may affect the user experience and convenience of operation to a certain extent.
In terms of launchpad, except for Gate, most exchanges currently do not regard it as a key product for development. For example, the launchpads of exchanges such as Binance and OKX launched a large number of new projects within a period of time after their launch, but subsequent updates were relatively rare, resulting in a low overall update frequency. Nevertheless, as a function that not all exchanges have, the launchpad may become one of the key development focuses of some exchanges in the future, because it can provide users with more investment options and trading opportunities in the bull market.
Trading Comprehensive
Trading products are mainly divided into two categories: spot trading and derivatives trading. The spot trading products of major exchanges are basically similar, but there are big differences in derivatives trading. For example, Binance supports options trading in addition to U-based and coin-based contracts; while Bybit supports reverse contracts and USDC options trading.
In the report, we compared the basic trading products available on all exchanges with the strategy robot products and copy trading products available on most exchanges.
Basic trading products
In terms of the number of currency updates for basic trading products, MEXC has always maintained a very high update frequency, and even launched more than 50 new currencies in a single week when the market is good. However, it should be noted that a large part of these launched currencies are so-called Meme coins, which may experience a certain increase when they are first launched, but then both the trading volume and the price are likely to experience huge fluctuations, so investors need to be extra careful when trading these tokens.
By contrast, Binance and OKX update their currencies less frequently, mainly because the two exchanges have stricter rules for listing currencies. However, whenever a new currency is launched on these two platforms, it often causes a period of market hotspots, leading to a short-term rise in the prices of these currencies. Therefore, despite the low update frequency, the currency listing behavior of these two exchanges can often serve as a weather vane for the Crypto market, leading the investment hotspots for a period of time.
Advanced trading products - strategy robots
In terms of strategy robots, the products of OKX, Gate and Bitget are the most prominent. They not only have a rich variety of types, but also have designed more advanced versions for the basic Grid and DCA strategies. In addition, these exchanges have also thoughtfully classified these robots to help users quickly choose robots that suit their needs. What is more worth mentioning is that the strategy robots of many exchanges also support automatic filling of parameters through AI, which is particularly friendly to novice users.
At the same time, some exchanges such as Binance and Bybit also provide a Webhook function, which allows users to set trading orders triggered by specific conditions. However, to make full use of this function, users need to have a certain understanding of TradingView and code, which may have a certain threshold for getting started. In addition, some exchanges such as Binance only allow Pro+ or Premium level accounts to use this function, so this function is more for professional traders.
User Experience
For centralized exchanges, good user experience is one of the most important factors in attracting new users. This is often reflected in many details, including the design of the exchange's main interface, the convenience of buying and selling cryptocurrencies, the convenience of operations during trading, and so on. We compared the main interface, deposit channels, and some details of the trading interface of each exchange to provide a reference for novice users.
Exchange official website main interface
For novice users who have just entered the world of Crypto, the design of the exchange's main interface is a key factor affecting the user experience. First of all, in terms of functional clarity, the navigation bar above the main interface needs to be able to clearly display all the products of the exchange in terms of classification, so that users can locate the products they want to use in the first place. The leader in this area is OKX, which has the clearest classification rules and clear priorities.
Secondly, BingX and CoinEx are the most outstanding in design and layout. BingX has the highest exposure to products and has a quick link to directly link to the product; CoinEx's interface design is quite outstanding, with a unified theme color and a simple and elegant appearance. It also provides basic/advanced trading tutorials, rolling currency information and important announcements, and is easy to use.
Deposit
Fiat currency deposit channels are also an important factor in measuring the user experience of exchanges. The more channels an exchange supports, the more convenient it is for users in different countries and regions. According to our statistics, Bybit's P2P trading (USDT:USD) supports up to 219 payment methods, which is the most convenient. However, MEXC's P2P trading does not support the US dollar, but only supports the exchange of three fiat currencies: Korean won, Vietnamese dong and ruble, which is not friendly to users in regions where the main payment currency is the US dollar.
Gate is the best in terms of on-chain coin charging, supporting 16 networks including large basic Layer1, Layer2 networks and its native networks Gate Chain and OK Chain.