Trusted Exchanges

Why do we label some cryptocurrency exchanges as Trusted Exchanges?

The problem of inflated trading volumes 

Cryptocurrency listing websites like CoinCodex are one of the main ways where cryptocurrency businesses such as exchanges can get exposure and reach potential customers. 

Previously, CoinCodex and many other similar platforms sorted cryptocurrency exchanges by trading volume – the exchange with the highest 24-hour volume was on the top of the list, and the exchange with the lowest daily volume was on the bottom. 

Unfortunately, some exchanges took advantage of this and started inflating their trading volumes in order to reach the top of the listings on cryptocurrency data websites and benefit from “free” publicity and exposure. Most commonly, volumes are inflated by one entity repeatedly trading with themselves – these trades have no result apart from boosting trading volume. Such non-economic trading activity is often referred to as “wash trading”. 

Some of the tell-tale signs of exchanges that are artificially inflating their trading volume are:

  • Almost all the trades happen within the spread
  • Long periods of time with zero volume followed by a surge in volume
  • Reported trading volume remains monotonic regardless of changes in market conditions and fundamental factors

Trusted Exchanges

In order to provide a more realistic picture of the cryptocurrency exchange market, we’ve decided to implement the “Trusted Exchanges” feature. Trusted Exchanges are exchanges where we have a good reason to believe that the majority of the trading activity they report is legitimate. Exchanges that have the “Trusted Exchange” tag are now listed on the top of our Exchanges section.

You can identify a Trusted Exchange by the blue tick next to the exchange’s name. 

If you go to the "Coin Details" page for any cryptocurrency, for example Bitcoin, you can also identify trading pairs listed on trusted exchanges by the blue checkmark.

coincodex trusted exchanges

How do we determine which exchanges are Trusted Exchanges?

There are a number of different criteria an exchange can meet in order to be included in our Trusted Exchanges list. This either includes membership in certain organizations, holding certain licenses, or receiving good scores in reports produced by cryptocurrency research firms. If a cryptocurrency exchange meets any of the following criteria, we will include it in the Trusted Exchanges list:

  • The exchange holds a BitLicense with the NYDFS (New York State Department of Financial Services)
  • The exchange is a member of Japan’s JVCEA self-regulatory organization
  • The exchange is listed as “BTI Verified” by the Blockchain Transparency Institute (BTI)
  • The exchange is one of the exchanges identified as having “real volume” by Bitwise Investments in their presentation to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from March 2019
  • The exchange was included in Group 1 AND achieved a score of 4 or higher in Alameda Research’s cryptocurrency exchange volume report from July 2019

Here's the exchanges that we currently have listed as Trusted Exchanges. The table also shows which of the selected criteria is met by each exchange.

  Bitwise report BTI Verified BitLicense Alameda report JVCEA
Binance ? ?   ?  
OKEx       ?  
BitMEX       ?  
Huobi Global       ?  
Bybit       ?  
BitMax       ?  
Coinbase Pro ? ? ? ?  
UPBit   ?   ?  
Kraken ? ?   ?  
Liquid   ?   ? ?
Bitstamp ? ? ? ?  
Bitfinex ?     ?  
Coinone       ?  
Bittrex ? ?   ?  
Gate.io   ?   ?  
BitFlyer ? ? ? ? ?
Gemini ? ? ? ?  
Coincheck       ? ?
Poloniex ? ?   ?  
Binance.US       ?  
OKCoin       ?  
Bitbank       ? ?
Bitso   ?      
Indodax   ?      
itBit ? ? ?    
Zaif       ? ?
CEX.io ?        
Binance Futures ? ?   ?  
KuCoin          
PrimeXBT          
Crypto.com          
CEX.IO Broker ?        

Important: The “Trusted Exchange” tag is for informative purposes only and does not represent an endorsement from CoinCodex.

Please note that just because an exchange does not have a “Trusted Exchange” tag, that does not mean that we believe that most of the exchange’s trading activity is not legitimate. It simply means that the exchange does not meet the criteria we selected for inclusion in the Trusted Exchanges list.