Our Methodology

How we verify availability

Availability means an exchange will open an account for a resident of a given country or US state, allow fiat deposits, and permit trading of the asset in question. We treat these as three separate checks.

For each exchange we track, we review:

• The exchange's published list of supported countries and, for the United States, supported states
• Its terms of service and any geographic restrictions in its user agreement
• Its asset list, including any assets restricted by region
• Regulatory notices, license registers, and enforcement actions in the relevant jurisdiction

We record a status of available, limited (account creation allowed but with restrictions on deposits, assets, or products), or not available. Every record carries the date it was last checked.

We re-verify all records at least once per quarter. We also re-verify immediately when an exchange announces a change in supported regions, when a regulator issues guidance or an enforcement action, or when a reader reports an error.

We do not open accounts in every jurisdiction to test availability. Where published information is ambiguous, we mark the status as limited and note the ambiguity rather than guess.

How we estimate fees

Fee figures on this site are estimates for a standard purchase using the cheapest widely available payment method, calculated from each exchange's published fee schedule. They include trading fees, spread where the exchange publishes it, and deposit fees. They exclude network withdrawal fees, promotional discounts, and volume-tier discounts unless stated.

Estimates are shown for $500 on buy pages and for $100, $1,000, and $10,000 on comparison pages. Actual costs vary with market conditions, payment method, and account tier.

How we score exchanges

Each exchange receives a score out of 100, built from five factors:

Trust and security is scored against a fixed checklist, not editorial impression. An exchange with an unresolved regulatory action in a jurisdiction is capped at a trust score that prevents it from ranking first in that jurisdiction.

Rankings on jurisdiction-specific pages use the same weights but exclude exchanges not available in that jurisdiction.

Buyability grade

Every coin carries a buyability grade from A to E for the country or US state you are in. It answers one question: how well can we currently answer "where do I buy this here?"

A grade counts verified exchanges. An exchange counts when it carries an available listing for that coin in that jurisdiction, dated, and checked within the last 120 days. A listing marked limited, a listing with no date, and a listing older than 120 days all count as nothing.

The cost estimate an A requires is the one described above: taker fee, spread, and deposit fee together, from a published schedule. An exchange missing any of the three is never priced, so a jurisdiction with five verified exchanges and no complete fee schedule grades B and shows "cost pending" rather than a number we cannot support.

The grade does not depend on price, on our opinion of a coin or an exchange, or on any commercial relationship. A coin does not grade higher because it got cheaper, and it does not grade lower because it got more expensive. What moves a grade is the verification record: a new verified listing, or an old one going stale.

A US state with no records of its own is graded on the United States records and says so on the page.

What does not affect rankings

Affiliate relationships do not affect scores, rankings, or which exchanges are listed. We include exchanges that do not pay us and we rank paying exchanges below non-paying ones when the data warrants it. Exchanges cannot pay for placement, review changes, or removal of accurate negative information.

Corrections

If you find an error, use the "report an error" link on any page. We aim to review reports within five business days. Confirmed errors are corrected, and the correction date is reflected in the page's verification date.