Best Crypto Futures Exchange Of (2024)

Compared to spot trading, cryptocurrency futures trading is very demanding in nature. It requires the right skill and platform to succeed in the market.

The interesting part is that the trades are made on borrowed funds (leverage), making it riskier but rewarding. In case of loss, you’ve to pay the amount back to the exchange with interest.

In cryptocurrency futures trading, timing, skills, and exchange platforms are crucial to profit from the market; else, it will break your back.

Therefore, you need to select the exchange that offers advanced trading tools, best-in-class liquidity, a clean interface, and can execute orders with speed.

Best Crypto Futures Trading Platform

• Bybit [up to 30,050$ Bonus & 100x Leverage Crypto Exchange]
• Stromgain [25$ Bonus & 500x Leverage]
• Phemex [Upto 2200$ Bonus & 20x leverage]
• PrimeXBT  [35% Extra Bonus On Deposit, 200x leverage crypto exchange]
• Binance Futures: World’s largest crypto exchange with 20x derivatives
• Deribit: Bitcoin & Ethereum Futures @ 100x leverage

#1. Bybit (Best Crypto Exchange For Futures Trading)

Bybit is a Singapore-based global crypto futures exchange launched in March 2018 and is credited for increasing retail participation in the futures market.

It is one of the fastest-growing futures exchanges in the market and is trusted by over 1.6 million users. And it is constantly ranked within the top 5 crypto futures exchanges by trading volume.

The exchange offers to trade in inverse perpetual contracts (BTCUSD, ETHUSD, XRPUSD, EOSUSD), linear perpetual contracts  (BTCUSDT, ETHUSDT, BCHLINK, LINKUSDT, LTCUSDT, XTZUSDT, ADAUSDT, DOTUSDT, UNIUSDT), and inverse futures contract (BTCUSD quarterly).

Bybit offers maximum leverage of up to 100X on BTCUSD and BTCUSDT contracts and up to 50X on the rest of the futures contracts. Moreover, it features a powerful and smart trading system suitable for high-frequency trading in the futures market.

 

Bybit Trading Fees

The trading fees on the platform are minimal and competitive. It offers a maker rebate of 0.025% and charges a taker fee of 0.075%.

Bybit fees are easy to work with, given that the exchange maintains the same fees for all trading pairs. Moreover, they do not charge any withdrawal fees, so you only need to pay the network fee. For example, the fee for withdrawing BTC is just the 0.0005 BTC network fee regardless of the amount you are withdrawing, making Bybit an inexpensive platform to use.

#2. StromGain

StormGain is a well-known name in the crypto futures trading exchanges, which has imprinted the market with its leverage offering capabilities.

It made its way into the crypto market in mid-2019 and since then has kept growing in the market tremendously. It has been regularly mentioned on many profound mainstream news websites.

StormGain offers volume-based leverage of up to 500X on the BTC/USDT and 100X leverage on LTC/USDT, BCH/USDT, ETH/USDT, XAU/USDT, XAG/USDT, and three other crypto indices. 

For the other trading pairs, it offers up to 50X leverage. StormGain puts minimum leverage of 5X on all trading pairs. The platform also offers all the major order types with advanced charting systems. 

The exchange is a preferred choice for beginner as well as experienced traders due to its unique feature and pricing combination. 

StormGain Trading Fees

StormGain’s trading fee follows a flat-fee structure; it charges a profit share of 10% and a 5% deposit commission when using your debit/credit card. Additionally, a 0.1% fee is charged on withdrawals but there are no maker or taker trading fees like other exchanges.  

 

#3. Phemex

Phemex is a Singapore-based spot and futures exchange with a simple and easy UI suitable for beginners and professional traders.

The Phemex exchange was started by eight former Morgan Stanley executives and was launched in November 2019. Phemex has attracted over a million traders and gets an average daily trading volume of more than $1.1 billion in a short span.

Phemex offers margin trading in 15 different cryptocurrencies with a maximum leverage of up to 100X on BTC perp and up to 20X on the rest of the futures.

Another advantage of the Phemex platform is that you do not have to invest real assets as you learn how to do margin trading. The exchange has a testnet that you can use to practice using fake funds. Their testnet includes fake BTC, ADA, XRP, ETH, and USDT.

It is a high-performance crypto derivatives trading platform having the capacity to process 300K transactions per second, with an order response time of less than 1 millisecond. Other advanced functionalities include FIX API for institutional traders and Sub-accounts for quantitative traders.

 

Phemex Trading Fees

Regarding trading fees, the taker fee is 0.075% and offers a maker rebate of 0.025% for traders that add liquidity to their books. The fees are the same for both premium and standard members.

It is also worth noting that Phemex charges a funding fee, which is issued/charged every 8 hours between the short and long position holders. However, the exchange does not charge overnight fees as many other top exchanges do.

 

#4. PrimeXBT

PrimeXBT is an award-winning crypto futures platform used worldwide and is well-renowned for its platform technology and trading infrastructure.

Based in Seychelles, PrimeXBT is a multi-asset exchange established in 2018 and offers margin trading in five different cryptocurrencies, BTC, ETH, LTC, XRP, and EOS. Traders can open leveraged positions for various derivatives contracts with a maximum leverage of up to 100X. The minimum order size on the platform is 0.001BTC.

The exchange is integrated with 12+ liquidity providers and has an order execution speed of less than 7.12 ms. You can also take advantage of the PrimeXBT Covesting platform, which allows you to copy the trading strategies of successful traders and succeed in the margin trading of futures.

 

PrimeXBT Trading Fees

The exchange has a flat fee structure and charges a commission of 0.05% on all types of trading fees trade. The daily funding rate on the platform differs with the change in market conditions, but the exchange updates it every few hours to make it easy to keep track of the long and short-position traders.

#6. Binance

Binance Futures is the leading crypto futures trading exchange and has set a benchmark in the market in terms of product offering, trading volume, and leverage.

Binance got into the futures market in early 2020, and in a short span, it has become the top crypto futures exchange, grossing a daily trading volume of over $60 billion.

Binance is one of the largest exchanges in the world, given its daily trade volume that is currently over $50 billion. Additionally, it supports over 500 different digital assets, which is more than what you get from most exchanges out there. The exchange also has a platform for US traders, Binance.US, with at least 65 supported assets.

The exchange has become the preferred choice for professional and institutional traders when it comes to futures trading. It offers to trade in USDT-margined perpetual and quarterly futures, COIN-M (token margined with or without expiry futures contract), BTC options, and leveraged tokens. You can trade futures with a maximum leverage of up to 125X. And the exchange has over 20 futures markets to cater to all kinds of traders out there.

Other exchange features include an industry-leading matching engine that can manage 100,000 TPS with a minimum latency of 5ms, deep liquidity with minimum slippage, a trading platform compatible with multiple devices, etc.

 

Binance Trading Fees

The trading fees are competitive, and the exchange uses a tiered system with 10 tiers, starting from 0.02% as maker fee and 0.04% as taker fee.

With their tiered structure, your trading fees will reduce as your 30-day trading volume increases. For example, traders that trade over $25 billion per month will not pay any maker fees, and their taker fee is just 0.0170%.

Crypto traders can also reduce their transaction fees further by holding BNB and using it to pay the fees. BNB holders get a transaction fee discount of at least 10% or USD-M futures trading, meaning low volume traders will pay 0.0180% make fee and 0.0360% taker fee.

Interested in Leverage Trading? Here are some of the best crypto leverage trading platforms

#7. Kraken

Kraken is an ancient cryptocurrency exchange platform known for its fantastic customer services and fast bank withdrawals.

It is a US-based exchange set up in 2011 and launched its services in 2013, making it one of the first companies to enter the crypto exchange industry, when these digital coins were still relatively new in the market.

Kraken has a wide variety of products, from a spot market to derivates trading. The futures segment offers perpetual futures trading in XBTUSD, ETHUSD, LTCUSD, BCHUSD, and XRPUSD with a maximum leverage of up to 50X. Kraken is one of the few exchanges licensed to offer leveraged trading for US residents.

With a decade of experience in the cryptosphere, Kraken has vastly improved customer offerings based on customer suggestions and evolving market requirements. The platform interface is customizable, has added tooltips and a simplified order form. It also facilitates discreet trading through its dark pool feature.

 

Kraken Trading Fees

It has a tiered transaction fee structure, with maker fees starting from 0.02% and taker fees from 0.05% for the low-volume traders.

Once your 30-day volume crosses the $100 million mark, Kraken will not charge you any fees if you are a market maker. The fees also greatly reduce market takers as the maximum they can pay per transaction is 0.0100%.

#8. Deribit (Best Bitcoin Futures Exchange)

Deribit is an institutional-grade crypto futures exchange that started its operation in 2016 and is based in the Netherlands.

This crypto exchange offers to trade in options, perpetual and traditional futures of both Bitcoin and Ethereum. It offers maximum leverage of 100X on Bitcoin futures contracts, 50X on Ethereum contracts, and 10X on options.

The minimum contract size on the platform is $10, making it possible for low investment traders to participate. Also, small contract size is handy for traders who want to try futures without risking a colossal investment.

Deribit API integrated with third-party trading bot software like HAASONLINE, FMZ Quant, and Actant. The platform features dark and light mode and supports multiple order types like Limit, Market, Stop-limit, and Stop-market.

 

Deribit Trading Fees

The trading fees on the platform differ according to the type of futures. It offers a maker rebate of 0.01% on BTC weekly futures and charges a taker fee of 0.05%.

For BTC/ETH perpetual, the maker fee is NIL, and the taker fee is 0.05%. And, for BTC/ETH options, both maker and taker fee is 0.03%.

Traders also need to note that deliveries of future and options attract a fee. However, daily and weekly futures are exempt from this fee, while perpetual BTC/ETH futures attract a 0.025% delivery fee.

You can also expect a fee when you liquidate your future position. Deribit charges a 0.75% liquidation fee for Bitcoin Futures & Perpetuals and a 0.90% liquidation fee for Ethereum Futures & Perpetuals.

#9. BitMEX

BitMEX is an industry leader when it comes to crypto derivatives trading. The exchange allows traders to buy and sell futures and perpetual contracts on a wide variety of crypto assets.

The exchange has been in business since 2014. It is a Seychelles-based company but with a few other offices in other parts of the world like Hong Kong, where it has its headquarters.

Many traders know BitMEX for its deep liquidity thanks to high daily trading volumes that are currently almost hitting the $2 billion market and solid financial backing from some of the most reputable liquidity providers in the industry.

Currently, the exchange supports close to 20 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). However, the exchange allows for BTC deposit only, meaning you have to send the asset from another wallet and then swap it to the crypto you want to trade. Also, it does not accept deposits in USD or any other fiat currencies.

BitMEX allows bitcoin futures trading with a maximum leverage of up to 100X. The leverage is also the same for ETH, but for the other supported coins, the leverage ranges between 5x and 50x. For example, the maximum leverage for Zcash is 5x, but you can trade futures with up to 20x leverage for Cardano.

 

BitMEX Trading Fees

BitMEX is one of the cheapest crypto futures trading platforms out there, and it will hence be the perfect choice for traders whose trading strategy entails making several transactions a month.

The exchange uses the maker-taker fee model like most other top exchanges. The system aims to reward market makers that add liquidity with maker rebates and charge liquidity takers a higher fee.

The fees also depend on the crypto contract. The exchange will give you a maker rebate of 0.025% for traditional futures contracts and charge you a 0.075% taker fee for bitcoin futures contracts. Also, there is a 0.050% settlement fee. The taker fee is higher for other contracts like ETH, LTC, and XRP as BitMEX charges 0.25%

Besides the low trading fees, the exchange will not charge you any fees to deposit or withdraw from the platform, given that it operates with bitcoin as the only base currency. Therefore, it is generally one of the most cost-effective platforms among all crypto exchanges.

#10. Gate.io

Gate.io is one of the oldest crypto exchanges in the world. Although it rebranded from Bter.com to Gate.io in 2017, the exchange has been operating since 2013. The company was established in China, but it has its headquarter in George Town, Cayman Islands.

One of the key things that make Gate.io an excellent futures trading platform is that it allows access to more digital currencies than most exchanges out there. Currently, the platform supports over 600 cryptocurrencies for trading and at least 30 for making direct purchases. Traders on the platform can form over 1,000 trading pairs, which is quite impressive.

Additionally, Gate.io provides more fiat currency options for buying crypto or making deposits into your account. Traders can purchase crypto using over 20 different fiat currencies that include all the top ones in the world like USD, GBP, EUR, AUD, and JPY.

While Gate.io is more popular as a bitcoin futures exchange, it has a broad product offering that includes margin trading with a maximum leverage of 3x to 10x depending on the specific asset you are trading.

The exchange also offers perpetual contracts, which are similar to futures but with no specific settlement date, copy trading that allows you to emulate the trading strategies of successful traders and NFTs for digital art collectors.

 

Gate.io Trading Fees

Gate.io trading fees will depend on your 3o-day trading volume, and like most crypto exchanges, the company also uses the maker-taker models to calculate the fees traders pay

The exchange uses a tiered system for margin and futures trading with 17 tiers from VIP 0 to VIP 16. Traders at VIP 0 are those that have no holding and trade less than 1.5 BTC in the 30 days. These traders will not pay any maker fees for futures trading, and their taker fee is 0.05%.

Those with the highest volume on the platform (over 75,000 BTC) at the 17th tier, VIP 16, will not pay any maker fees and instead get a maker rebate of 0.025%. The taker fees for these traders are also much lower as they only need to pay 0.030%.

Gate.io will also reduce the trading fees for futures contracts further for traders holding their GateToken (GT) and using it to cover the trading charges.

#11. OKEx

OKEx was founded in 2017 in the Seychelles, where it still maintains its headquarters to date but has several other offices across the world, including one in Malta and another in Hong Kong.

The crypto exchange is among the top 20 largest globally based on its volume of trade per day, which is currently averaging over $4 billion. Also, the crypto trading platform has a global presence and accepts traders from over 200 different countries. Moreover, it already has over 20 million registered users.

When it comes to their product offering, OKEx is also one of the best crypto exchanges as it has a long enough products catalog that does not just restrict you to spot trading or P2P. Besides offering a robust futures market, it also supports margin trading with up to 20x trading and has options contracts.

Additionally, you will not be restricted to trading bitcoin futures only. The exchange also supports several other crypto futures contracts. There are over 300 digital assets on the platform, and traders can form trading pairs for futures contracts with many of them, such as ETH, USDT, and EOH.

 

OKEx Trading Fees

OKEx charges their trading fees according to the market and contracts you are trading. For example, traders in the spot market will pay different fees to those trading futures contracts. They also break down the payments into tiers depending on your 30-day trading volume.

OKEx has two categories of users: Regular Users and Vip Users. Regular uses are classified into 5 groups from level 1 to level 5. Traders at level 1 hold less than 500 OKB, which is the OKEx native token, and they will pay 0.080% and 0.100% in maker and taker fees, respectively, when trading futures. At level 5, the costs reduce to 0.060% and 0.080%, respectively. Traders at level 5 hold more than 2,000 OKB.

VIP traders have a 30-day trading volume of more than $10 million, and they are classified into eight groups from VIP 1 to VIP 8, depending on their trading volume. VIP 1 traders have the lowest trading volume, and they will pay 0.060% and 0.080% in maker and taker fees. VIP 8 traders transact more than $10 billion a month and will get a maker rebate of 0.010% and pay just 0.025% as the taker fee.

#12. Margex

Sometimes it is good to give new crypto trading platforms like Margex a try as they come with new things and technologies you might not get with the older exchanges.

Margex is a Seychelles-based crypto exchange established in 2020, but its popularity is growing steadily.

Although its product offering is pretty diverse for a relatively newer entrant into the market, Margex focuses primarily on derivatives trading. It allows traders to go long or short on leveraged positions with a maximum leverage of 100x.

The exchange allows traders to open leveraged positions using 6 different trading pairs: BTCUSD, ETHUSD, YFIUSD, EOSUSD, XRPUSD, and LTCUSD.

Additionally, despite being a new company, the company has one of the deepest liquidities. It combines the liquidity of 12 popular leverage trading exchanges. With Margex, traders can be sure of getting a modern and user-friendly platform for trading their futures coins.

 

Margex Trading Fees

Margex charges competitive trading fees within the industry average and much lower than what you pay when using many older and well-established crypto exchanges.

Like most other exchanges that allow you to trade bitcoin futures, they use the maker-taker fee model, which rewards liquidity providers with lower fees and then charges liquidity takers higher fees.

The exchange has a standard fee for all trading pairs. They charge 0.019% and 0.06% in make and taker fees, respectively.

Additionally, the exchange also charges a funding fee for traders that hold a position over a 24-hour period, but the fees are due every 8 hours. The actual cost depends on market conditions, which also determine whether the long or short position holders have to pay.

#13. Bitfinex

Bitfinex has been live since 2012, making it one of the oldest crypto exchanges in the world. The company was registered in the British Virgin Islands, but its headquarters and main office are in Honk Kong.

Also, it now has a global presence except for a few countries where it cannot operate due to regulatory restrictions or financial sanctions.

The Bitfinex exchange is tailored to cater to all kinds of traders with its product offering. It supports more than 150 different cryptocurrencies allowing traders to form hundreds of trading pairs. Additionally, it supports fiat payments through wire transfers to enable traders to buy crypto using top currencies like the USD, GPB, EUR, and JPY.

The exchange has a highly liquid spot market and also supports P2P trading, but its crypto derivatives market is what draws many traders to the platform. Traders can trade derivatives contracts with a margin of up to 3.3x. Moreover, the exchange also supports staking and lending to give traders even more options for earning from their crypto.

 

Bitfinex Trading Fees

Bitfinex charges its trading fees based on the market you are trading, so the spot market fees will differ from what you pay to execute derivatives contract orders.

However, the exchange still uses the maker-taker model and a tiered structure, meaning the fees will largely depend on whether you add liquidity to their books or remove it and the volume you transact every 30 days.

Traders with zero or slightly more 30-day trading volume will pay 0.0200% and 0.0650% maker and taker fees, respectively. The high-volume traders with a 30-day trade volume of more than $30 million get a maker rebate, meaning they do not pay any fees and their taker fees depend on their average trading volume.

For example, those who trade over $3 billion per month, such as high-volume institutional traders, can pay as little as 0.0200% in taker fees if they take advantage of Bitfinex discounts.

FAQs

• Can you trade crypto futures?

Traders can trade crypto futures if they choose a platform that supports them and create a crypto exchange account for futures trading.

Futures are derivatives contracts that give traders an obligation to buy or sell a predetermined asset at a predetermined price at some specific time in the future. Unlike options, the trader cannot opt-out of the agreement no matter how the market moves.

Therefore, if you choose an exchange that supports derivatives trading, you should trade crypto futures as most will support this product.

Also, whether you can trade futures or not will depend on where you are. It is hard to find a registered exchange that supports crypto futures trading in some countries like the USA.

Additionally, traders need to remember that trading crypto futures often entails adding some leverage when opening your position. Doing this amplifies your potential earnings but also increases the risk of liquidating.

For example, if you execute a futures contract with 100x leverage on an exchange that allows for this, such as Bybit, just a 1% movement of the price in the wrong direction is enough to the trigger liquidation process.

• Which crypto exchange is best for futures trading?

Every crypto exchange that allows your to trade crypto futures has something that gives it an edge over many competitors. Therefore, the right one for you will depend on your preferences and experiences.

That said, Bybit seems to outperform a majority of exchanges when it comes to futures trading as it has an advantage in various aspects.

To start with, the exchange offers one of the highest leverages out there, which is up to 100x for BTC. Therefore, you can open a full futures contract position worth $1 million by just investing $10,000, and if the market goes your way, the gains can be fantastic.

Overall, Bybit also has relatively lower fees, and it does it charge any maker fees. Instead, market makers get a 0.025% maker rebate. Market takers pay 0.075%, and the transaction fees keep decreasing as your 30-day trading volume increases.

Additionally, Bybit has some of the fastest and most reliable trading systems that can transact up to 100,000 transactions per second and hardly ever has server downtimes.

• What will happen when a futures contract expires?

Expiry of a futures contract means it has to be settled as per the predetermined terms. Remember that the size of the contracts and buying/selling price is determined when entering the contract.

Futures contracts are cash-settled, meaning there will be no transfer of cryptocurrencies between the two parties. Also, if the contract is for perpetual futures, there will be no expiry and will be settled anytime the buyer/seller wants.

Conclusion

Selecting the best Bitcoin futures trading platform is not an easy task. The exchanges discussed above are some of the best in the industry and make up a major portion of the market.

You should select based on your requirements and platform preference. Choosing an exchange should not be based on higher leverage or trading fees, but it should be based on liquidity, platform interface, and speed.

So happy trading !!