Our exchange scores focus on how platforms perform where it matters most: liquidity, execution quality, costs, security and real-world usability. We prioritize the actual trading experience over marketing claims, incentives or headline features that don’t hold up in practice.

Liquidity and execution: We assess how deep and reliable each exchange’s markets are across spot and derivatives trading. For CEXs, this includes order book depth, spreads and execution speed during volatile periods. For DEXs, we factor in onchain liquidity, routing efficiency, oracle quality and slippage.

Fees and trading costs: We evaluate maker and taker fees, withdrawal costs, funding rates, network fees and any indirect costs built into the trading model. Platforms with transparent, predictable pricing rate better than those relying on hidden fees or complex structures.

Supported assets and markets: We consider both the breadth and quality of supported assets. Exchanges with a wide range of liquid spot markets score higher than those listing large numbers of illiquid or low-quality pairs.

Security, custody, and transparency: Security is weighted heavily across both exchange types. For CEXs, we review custody models, proof-of-reserves disclosures, regulatory posture and historical incidents. For both CEXs and DEXs, we examine their audit history, security track record, settlement transparency and user-facing safeguard features.

Accessibility and usability: We test run each exchange across a range of trade types and tokens, to determine which ones offer the best user experience for everyday traders. Exchanges which include good quality-of-life features score higher than those with basic or clunky interfaces.

The final score reflects the real conditions users are likely to experience when trading on each platform. Our goal is to highlight the crypto exchanges on the market, across both onchain and centralized options.

September Research and Analysis Recap