HitBTC

HitBTC Review

HitBTC is a crypto exchange originally from Denmark, which has been operating since 2013. The exchange claims to have a terminal built on the best technology that lets you trade effortlessly on any of the available trading pairs. With respect to trading pairs, HitBTC is one of the exchanges in the world with the largest selection. HitBTC itself claims to be the largest spot trading market in the industry (with over 800 trading pairs and 500+ spot instruments supported). So if you are looking for a specific less known altcoin, chances are good that you will find it here.

The exchange promotes three things in particular as advantages with choosing to open an account with HitBTC. First, they claim that the platform is “safe and secure”. Second, they say that it is “fast, responsive and feature-packed”. Third, they state that the platform has a “robot-friendly API”. Out of these three advantages, we dare to say that it is primarily safety and security that is equally important to all prospective traders.

Like many other exchanges, HitBTC does not accept US-investors on its platform. If you’re from the US and you’re looking for the trading platform that is just right for you, don’t worry. Use our Exchange Filters to find an appropriate exchange accepting US-investors.

Recently (the last update of this review was on 13 April 2020), HitBTC released a demo version of their platform. Using a demo account, users can try their hand at trading without risking any financial investment. They can trade simulated funds in order to get a feel for trading and educate themselves. At the same time, all the market data in the demo is the same real-time data from the real HitBTC exchange. Trading can be done manually or via the API – the test mode is as responsive as the regular exchange platform.

HitBTC Trading View

Different exchanges have different trading views. And there is no “this overview is the best”-view. You should yourself determine which trading view that suits you the best. What the views normally have in common is that they all show the order book or at least part of the order book, a price chart of the chosen cryptocurrency and order history. They normally also have buy and sell-boxes. Before you choose an exchange, try to have a look at the trading view so that you can ascertain that it feels right to you. The below is a picture of the trading view at HitBTC:

HitBTC Fees

HitBTC Trading fees

Every trade occurs between two parties: the maker, whose order exists on the order book prior to the trade, and the taker, who places the order that matches (or “takes”) the maker’s order. We call makers makers because their orders make the liquidity in a market. We call takers takers because they take this liquidity by matching makers’ orders with their own.

EXAMPLE:

Ingvar offers to buy 1 BTC for USD 10,000. And Jeff offers to sell 1 BTC for USD 11,000. If Bill comes along, and sells 1 BTC to Ingvar for USD 10,000, he takes away Ingvar’s order from the order book. Bill is here a taker and is charged the taker fee. If Bill on the other hand offers to sell 1 BTC for USD 10,500, he places an order on the order book that does not correspond to an existing order. He would then be a maker of liquidity. If someone would have accepted to buy 1 BTC from Bill for USD 10,500, then Bill would have been charged the maker fee (usually a bit lower than the taker fee) and the relevant buyer would have been charged the taker fee.

This exchange’s trading fees for takers are 0.25%. This fee is in line with the historic industry average (the historic industry average is arguably around 0.25%). However, we now see more and more exchanges charging much lower trading fees, many ranging from 0.10% to 0.15%.

Makers pay 0.10%.

HitBTC also offers trading fee discounts when you have a large trading volume during the preceding 30 days, and an "upgraded account". Trading fees can become as low as 0.02% for takers and -0.01% for makers. That is if they have a trading volume exceeding 100,000 BTC (which on the date of last updating this review, 30 March 2020, corresponded to approx. USD 620 million) during the preceding 30 days. So we doubt that anyone will ever reach the highest level of trading fee discounts at HitBTC in modern time. The exact trading fee discounts are set out in the below table:

HitBTC Withdrawal fees

HitBTC charges a withdrawal fee amounting to 0.00085 BTC when you withdraw BTC. This fee is exactly in line with the global industry average for BTC-withdrawals (0.000812 BTC).

Deposit Methods

HitBTC supports deposit in all of the major cryptocurrencies (BTC, ETH, USDT and many more). It does however not offer deposit via fiat currencies (wire transfer or debit/credit card). However, you can buy bitcoins using your Visa or Mastercard via service provided by Changelly that is built-in the HitBTC account. As HitBTC offers wire transfer as a deposit method, it distinguishes itself from many exchanges that only allows deposits in cryptocurrencies.

When depositing, you need to prove your identity (for instance by a passport copy). So, if you’re looking for anonymous trading, you’re looking at the wrong place.