Bittrex was founded in 2014 by four security professionals with a shared interest in cryptocurrencies and experience in online security.
Bill Shihara (CEO) worked as a security manager at Amazon and Blackberry Limited, and as a lead program developer at Microsoft. Richie Lai led security teams at Amazon, Qualys, and Microsoft. Rami Kawach built his expertise in system security at Qualys, as the director of engineering. And Ryan Hentz, who oversees security operations at Bittrex, previously worked as a senior security engineer at Mercury Payments Systems.
8.9
Score8.9
Score Android
Score iPhone
LocationSeattle, Washington, USA
Currencies
LanguagesEN
Buy withBTC
Fees0.25%
AltcoinsYes
Margin tradingNo (Exchange does not support margin trading)
Trust scoreA
Beginner friendlyNo (Exchange is complex and difficult for beginners)
Stability2. Most (Exchange has occasional outages)
FiatNo (The Exchange does not support Fiat currency like USD, EUR, etc ...)
Support speedFew week (Technical support is slow to respond within a few weeks)
SafetyA (Very secure)
APIYes (API is available for public to use)
Rest APIYes (The Exchange has Rest API support)
WebsocketYes (The Exchange has Websocket support)
Mobile appNo (Exchange does not have a mobile app)
Credit cardNo (Exchange does not support credit cards)
ReferralNo (Exchange does not offer an affiliate program)
LendingNo (Exchange does not support lending)
Stop limitNo (Exchange does not support stop limit)
US licenceNo (Exchange don't have US licence for Money transmitter)
PGP supportNo (Exchange does not have PGP encryption)Advantages of Bittrex
- Fully US-regulated and compliant
- Maximum security: never been hacked
- Minimum possible personal information for verification
- Account verification process is faster than competing exchanges
- Withdrawals of up to around $3,000 per day on basic verification
- A flat fee of 0.25%, roughly average for the exchange industry, easy to calculate
- Supports more than 250 cryptocurrencies
- Excellent security features including 2FA
- No limit on deposits
- Majority of funds held in cold storage, enhancing security in the exchange
- Available in most countries
Disadvantages of Bittrex
- Relatively invasive verification requirements, especially for residents of New York
- Not as many coins as lesser known crypto exchange & Bittrex competitor, Yobit.
- Like most "crypto-only" exchange, Bittrex does not support fiat deposits or withdrawals
- Does not support margin trading and lending
- Low liquidity can create wait times of up to 10 minutes for large trades
- Lack of accountability, such as in the 2016 hack
- No freebie incentive like on Coinbase - encouraging new users to join
- Slow response to customer queries
- Ongoing enhanced verification issues
Manuals for Bittrex
Bittrex supports two types of accounts:
- Basic Account – a withdrawal limit of 3 BTC/day.
- Advanced Account – a withdrawal limit of 100 BTC/day.
Step 1: Create an Account
Go to this link to visit Bittrex’s official signup page. You will be prompted to go through a typical account setup process. If you run into any issues, you can use this guide as a reference.
Step 2: Buy Bitcoin or Ethereum
Once your account is set up, you’ll need to transfer some money in so you can start trading. You’ll remember that Bittrex doesn’t allow you simply pay in with USD or Euros so you’ll need to buy BTC elsewhere (many people use CoinBase although they charge higher fees) and transfer the BTC to your new account on Bittrex.
This can be done by generating a Bittrex-specific address and transferring the BTC there. Ethereum can also be used. A complete guide is here, if needed.
Step 3: Start Making Some Trades
With your Bittrex account loaded with funds, you can now start trading.
From the dashboard, search for whatever coin you want to buy, Litecoin for example. Click on the currency ticker when it comes up and you will be directed to the page seen below.
Here you have your basic price chart, which you can adjust to show data by the minute by the hour or by the day. You can play around with other settings under the chart tab to turn your candle depictions into a line or bar graph.
On the right-hand side of the screen, you’ve got your latest price, trading volume (number of transactions), bid and ask price – the difference between them being your spread.
At the bottom, you’ve got the 24-hour high and 24-hour low. All of these figures are shown with their USD equivalency (or another currency you choose).
At the top, you have the available amount of BTC (in this case 0) and as you can see there are options to buy and sell. Enter the amounts you wish to purchase, accept a rate from the order book below, and click buy.
- “Unit” refers to the number or percentage of a new coin that you are buying.
- “Bid” refers to the price per unit.
- “Type” refers to timing and you have two options, “Good ‘Til Cancelled” and “Immediate or Cancel”.
- “Good ‘Til Cancelled” means the transactions can be done in a piecemeal manner.
- “Immediate or Cancel” means the transaction must be done at once or canceled altogether.
- “Total” refers to the total amount of coin you will be spending for the coin you desire to buy.
Security rating of Bittrex
The signup process on Bittrex takes moments: provide an email address, create a password and you're done. The site offers a 32-character alphanumeric password generator for added security.
Like most site signups, Bittrex sends a confirmation email to verify your address and enable your account, switching on crypto deposits and trading, but not withdrawals.
The site monitors IP addresses very closely. The first time you log in from a new IP address (including the first login of the day, every day), you'll receive a confirmation email. Just like at signup, you must click the link in the email to confirm that it's really you trying to sign in from a "new" address.
Once you're signed in, you can switch on two-factor authentication (2FA). Bittrex uses Google Authenticator to verify your logins, whether you use a smartphone app or a desktop version such as WinAuth.
Enabling 2FA adds a variety of security options on the site. You can whitelist IP addresses for orders and withdrawals, effectively blacklisting all addresses not on the list - a very useful way to limit trading to certain IPs, but allowing you to check in from anywhere.
You can also setup whitelisting for coin withdrawals. White-listing means the limiting of funds release to specific addresses only for each cryptocurrency.
On the coin offering side, Bittrex thoroughly vets any prospective addition before adding it to the exchange, reducing the possibility of scam coins or those hoping for a short pump-and-dump lifespan.
The security background of its founders adds to Bittrex’s image of being one of the most secure exchanges. The image is reinforced by the fact that the exchange has never had a major security breach of the magnitude of the Mt.Gox or Bitfinex hacks. "Never been hacked" is a rarity in the crypto-exchange industry.
Bittrex - Safety report
While Bittrex is one of the most secure exchanges, users can still lose funds. On 7th December 2016, hackers compromised Bittrex user accounts without 2FA verification and stole an unknown amount of currency. Taking the line that users are responsible for their own accounts, Bittrex has never accepted responsibility, and has not compensated users for lost funds.
Review of Bittrex
Bittrex is great in terms of things like security, transparency, UI, coins supported and access to inbuilt wallets. The Bittrex fee schedule is also competitive in comparison to other well-known exchanges.
Being based in the US, having a strong reputation and being relatively easy for beginners to pick up all make it a great option for trading cryptos. But what you actually do on Bittrex is solely up to you.
The explosion of cryptocurrencies is shaping up to be the biggest story in the history of finance. There are tons of reasons to get excited (and involved!) but do your homework, be measured, develop a system and stick with it.
Mobile apps review of Bittrex
Unfortunately Bittrex does not have a native mobile app. However, third-party applications exist that connect to the exchange through its API. Blockfolio and TradeBit both work and are well-received by users. TradeBit fares better than other compatible mobile applications.
However, given that Bittrex has no in-house app, you should perform separate security due diligence before using any third-party offering. The safest option is to access all Bittrex services through the browser interface, regardless of device.
