Best crypto exchanges
Centralized spot trading venues. We scored 15 of them 0–10 from public data — on-chain reserves (defillama) + our latency and status-page checks — and ranked the 15 we could measure well enough to place fairly. No affiliate links: the order reflects the evidence, nothing else.
Last collection 2026-08-25: probed 252 services, measured 233, over a 90-day window. Collected by our own script, not by hand — reproducible, and reproducibly boring.
The full ranking
| # | Service | Score | TVL | Age | Latency | Median fix | Status feed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bitstamp | 9.54100% | $1.53B | 15.7y | 22 ms | 51 min | statuspage |
| 2 | Coinbase | 9.2872% | — | 14.7y | 165 ms | 104 min | statuspage |
| 3 | Gemini | 8.66100% | $5.29B | 12.7y | 122 ms | 381 min | statuspage |
| 4 | Kraken | 8.5372% | — | 15.7y | 102 ms | 343 min | statuspage |
| 5 | Bitfinex | 8.2482% | $19.22B | 14.7y | 82 ms | — | none |
| 6 | Bybit | 8.0582% | $15.62B | 8.7y | 198 ms | — | none |
| 7 | OKX | 7.6682% | $29.88B | 9.7y | 319 ms | — | none |
| 8 | Crypto.com | 7.66100% | $2.42B | 10.7y | 627 ms | 568 min | statuspage |
| 9 | Binance | 7.4454% | — | 9.7y | 348 ms | — | unknown |
| 10 | KuCoin | 7.3282% | $3.25B | 9.7y | 321 ms | — | none |
| 11 | Bitget | 7.3282% | $5.84B | 8.7y | 329 ms | — | none |
| 12 | MEXC | 7.3282% | $5.11B | 8.7y | 271 ms | — | none |
| 13 | HTX | 7.3282% | $4.32B | 13.7y | 283 ms | — | none |
| 14 | Gate.io | 6.4454% | — | 13.7y | 262 ms | — | none |
| 15 | Upbit | 6.4454% | — | 9.7y | 304 ms | — | none |
Every figure carries the date it was taken, on the service’s card below, linked to its open source. Score is out of what we could measure — the % beside it is coverage.
How we scored crypto exchanges
These weights belong to this category alone. Signature measurement here: On-chain reserves (DefiLlama) + our latency and status-page checks — Centralized venues: how much they demonstrably hold, how long they have run, and whether they are transparent and stay up.
How much value the market trusts it with — TVL, reserves or market cap.
How long it has run and survived — time is signal.
Response latency we measure ourselves from a public endpoint.
Whether it publishes a status page anyone can audit.
How fast it resolves incidents, from its own timestamps.
Latency in this category is timed at a public API endpoint for every service, so the comparison is like-for-like. We never compare latency across categories — a DEX interface and an exchange API are not the same thing, and pretending otherwise would just reward whoever we happened to probe more cheaply.
The brief also defines FEES and UX (0%, 0%). We don’t publish them: we can’t measure them ourselves, and an estimate dressed as a measurement is worse than a gap. Full methodology
The services
Bitstamp
$1.53B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
Live 15.7 yr (since founding (2011), public record). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
Publishes a machine-readable incident archive (statuspage) — its whole record can be checked by anyone, including against us.
Median 51 min from published report to resolution across 8 logged incidents. Scored on repair speed, not on how many it logged.
Median 22 ms to first byte from a public API endpoint, our own probe, slowest sample discarded, single location. Compared only within this category.
Over the 90 days the feed covers. Not scored — logging granularity varies between services.
Coinbase
No public on-chain value to measure — not a smart-contract service, or not tracked by DefiLlama.
Live 14.7 yr (since founding (2012), public record). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
Publishes a machine-readable incident archive (statuspage) — its whole record can be checked by anyone, including against us.
Median 104 min from published report to resolution across 50 logged incidents. Scored on repair speed, not on how many it logged.
Median 165 ms to first byte from a public API endpoint, our own probe, slowest sample discarded, single location. Compared only within this category.
The provider’s feed returns its 50 most recent incidents and no more, which here reaches back 48 days. The remaining 42 are blank because we cannot see them — not because nothing happened.
Over the 48 days the feed covers. Not scored — logging granularity varies between services.
Incident repair time: Median 104 min from published report to resolution across 50 logged incidents. Scored on repair speed, not on how many it logged.
Gemini
$5.29B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
Live 12.7 yr (since founding (2014), public record). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
Publishes a machine-readable incident archive (statuspage) — its whole record can be checked by anyone, including against us.
Median 381 min from published report to resolution across 26 logged incidents. Scored on repair speed, not on how many it logged.
Median 122 ms to first byte from a public API endpoint, our own probe, slowest sample discarded, single location. Compared only within this category.
Over the 90 days the feed covers. Not scored — logging granularity varies between services.
Incident repair time: Median 381 min from published report to resolution across 26 logged incidents. Scored on repair speed, not on how many it logged.
Kraken
No public on-chain value to measure — not a smart-contract service, or not tracked by DefiLlama.
Live 15.7 yr (since founding (2011), public record). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
Publishes a machine-readable incident archive (statuspage) — its whole record can be checked by anyone, including against us.
Median 343 min from published report to resolution across 49 logged incidents. Scored on repair speed, not on how many it logged.
Median 102 ms to first byte from a public API endpoint, our own probe, slowest sample discarded, single location. Compared only within this category.
Over the 90 days the feed covers. Not scored — logging granularity varies between services.
Incident repair time: Median 343 min from published report to resolution across 49 logged incidents. Scored on repair speed, not on how many it logged.
Bitfinex
$19.22B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
Live 14.7 yr (since founding (2012), public record). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
No incident feed we can read, so no repair time to compute.
Median 82 ms to first byte from a public API endpoint, our own probe, slowest sample discarded, single location. Compared only within this category.
Status transparency: No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Anyone who needs to know when it breaks: no status feed, so you find out it is down by discovering it yourself.
Bybit
$15.62B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
Live 8.7 yr (since founding (2018), public record). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
No incident feed we can read, so no repair time to compute.
Median 198 ms to first byte from a public API endpoint, our own probe, slowest sample discarded, single location. Compared only within this category.
Status transparency: No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Anyone who needs to know when it breaks: no status feed, so you find out it is down by discovering it yourself.
OKX
$29.88B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
Live 9.7 yr (since founding (2017), public record). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
No incident feed we can read, so no repair time to compute.
Median 319 ms to first byte from a public API endpoint, our own probe, slowest sample discarded, single location. Compared only within this category.
Status transparency: No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Anyone who needs to know when it breaks: no status feed, so you find out it is down by discovering it yourself.
$2.42B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
Live 10.7 yr (since founding (2016), public record). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
Publishes a machine-readable incident archive (statuspage) — its whole record can be checked by anyone, including against us.
Median 568 min from published report to resolution across 9 logged incidents. Scored on repair speed, not on how many it logged.
Median 627 ms to first byte from a public API endpoint, our own probe, slowest sample discarded, single location. Compared only within this category.
Over the 90 days the feed covers. Not scored — logging granularity varies between services.
Incident repair time: Median 568 min from published report to resolution across 9 logged incidents. Scored on repair speed, not on how many it logged.
Anyone who cannot sit out a long outage — when it breaks, the median fix runs into many hours.
Binance
No public on-chain value to measure — not a smart-contract service, or not tracked by DefiLlama.
Live 9.7 yr (since founding (2017), public record). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
A status page exists but publishes no feed we could parse — readable, not auditable. Part of that may be our blind spot (we read three platforms).
No incident feed we can read, so no repair time to compute.
Median 348 ms to first byte from a public API endpoint, our own probe, slowest sample discarded, single location. Compared only within this category.
Status transparency: A status page exists but publishes no feed we could parse — readable, not auditable. Part of that may be our blind spot (we read three platforms).
KuCoin
$3.25B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
Live 9.7 yr (since founding (2017), public record). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
No incident feed we can read, so no repair time to compute.
Median 321 ms to first byte from a public API endpoint, our own probe, slowest sample discarded, single location. Compared only within this category.
Status transparency: No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Anyone who needs to know when it breaks: no status feed, so you find out it is down by discovering it yourself.
Bitget
$5.84B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
Live 8.7 yr (since founding (2018), public record). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
No incident feed we can read, so no repair time to compute.
Median 329 ms to first byte from a public API endpoint, our own probe, slowest sample discarded, single location. Compared only within this category.
Status transparency: No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Anyone who needs to know when it breaks: no status feed, so you find out it is down by discovering it yourself.
MEXC
$5.11B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
Live 8.7 yr (since founding (2018), public record). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
No incident feed we can read, so no repair time to compute.
Median 271 ms to first byte from a public API endpoint, our own probe, slowest sample discarded, single location. Compared only within this category.
Status transparency: No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Anyone who needs to know when it breaks: no status feed, so you find out it is down by discovering it yourself.
HTX
$4.32B in value locked (DefiLlama). Capital is the market voting with its money — scored on a log scale, so the jump from $10M to $100M counts for more than $10B to $20B.
Live 13.7 yr (since founding (2013), public record). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
No incident feed we can read, so no repair time to compute.
Median 283 ms to first byte from a public API endpoint, our own probe, slowest sample discarded, single location. Compared only within this category.
Status transparency: No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Anyone who needs to know when it breaks: no status feed, so you find out it is down by discovering it yourself.
Gate.io
No public on-chain value to measure — not a smart-contract service, or not tracked by DefiLlama.
Live 13.7 yr (since founding (2013), public record). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
No incident feed we can read, so no repair time to compute.
Median 262 ms to first byte from a public API endpoint, our own probe, slowest sample discarded, single location. Compared only within this category.
Status transparency: No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Anyone who needs to know when it breaks: no status feed, so you find out it is down by discovering it yourself.
Upbit
No public on-chain value to measure — not a smart-contract service, or not tracked by DefiLlama.
Live 9.7 yr (since founding (2017), public record). Most failures happen young, so time survived is real signal.
No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
No incident feed we can read, so no repair time to compute.
Median 304 ms to first byte from a public API endpoint, our own probe, slowest sample discarded, single location. Compared only within this category.
Status transparency: No public status page found. Nothing about its reliability can be verified from outside — including by us.
Anyone who needs to know when it breaks: no status feed, so you find out it is down by discovering it yourself.
Who we left out, and why
We looked at 15, ranked 15.
Head to head
How to choose crypto exchanges
Centralized spot trading venues — and the honest truth is that no single ranking fits everyone. Our scores tell you what is best-evidenced on public data: on-chain reserves (defillama) + our latency and status-page checks. Use them as a shortlist, not a verdict.
Start at the top of the table, then open the full breakdown for any service you are considering. Read the coverage figure beside its score — a high number on thin coverage is a narrower claim than the same score fully measured. Check the “where we docked points” and “who it’s not for” notes on each card; the service that scores highest overall is not always the one that fits your specific need. And remember what these scores deliberately leave out — fees and support quality — which you should weigh yourself before committing.
Crypto exchanges ratings — FAQ
How are crypto exchanges ranked on this page?+
Each service is scored 0–10 from public data — on-chain reserves (defillama) + our latency and status-page checks — weighted for what matters in this category, plus our own latency and status checks. 15 of 15 are ranked; the rest we could not measure enough to place fairly. Every figure is dated and links to its source.
What is the best crypto exchange?+
On the data we could measure, Bitstamp scores highest at 9.54/10, ahead of Coinbase (9.28/10). "Best" here means best-evidenced, not most advertised — open each service below for the full breakdown and decide what fits your needs.
Why isn’t the biggest name at the top?+
Size is not a criterion. A large service that publishes no audits or status page cannot demonstrate its safety from the outside, so it scores below a smaller one that can — even if it is perfectly sound. We rate what is verifiable, not what is famous.
What does the "% measured" figure under a score mean?+
It is the share of this category's criteria weight we could actually fill for that service. Anything we could not measure is marked n/a and its weight is redistributed across the rest — never counted as zero — so the percentage tells you how complete the verdict is.
Do you earn money from these rankings?+
No. There are no affiliate links, no paid placements and no sponsored entries anywhere in the ratings section. That is what lets this list put a smaller, audited service above a bigger, opaque one.
No affiliate links, paid placements or ads anywhere on this site. How this is funded · Methodology