Bittrex, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, is headquartered in Seattle, Washington. The Co-Founder and CEO of the company is Bill Shihara, who previously worked as a security professional at Amazon, Blackberry and Microsoft. Bittrex is renowned for the vast number of cryptocurrencies it has listed, offering a large number of trading pairs into Bitcoin (EXANTE: Bitcoin) - including all the major cryptos such as Darkcoin, Nextcoin and Litecoin.
Bittrex describes itself as “a global leader in the blockchain revolution.” According to its official website, the trading platform designed for customers who demand lightning-fast trade execution, dependable digital wallets, and industry-leading security practices. Its mission is to help advance the blockchain industry by fostering innovation, incubating new and emerging technology, and driving transformative change.
Bittrex has a good reputation for its security and fast transactions, including updates on balance, trade and wallet information. The company claims to have the fastest transactions available today.
Token management not rocket science
Bittrex facilitates trading of nearly 200 digital currencies, including Bitcoin (EXANTE: Bitcoin), Ethereum (ETH/USD), Litecoin (LTC/USD) and Ripple(XRP/USD) and many upstart currencies that are only recently getting some attention. Nevertheless, the company gives utmost importance to tokens management.
“Every token we consider listing on Bittrex goes through a comprehensive review to determine if it’s a good fit,” Bittrex claim.
The platform has also been known to proactively de-list coins on its platform when the project team behind a coin does not appear reactive to addressing technical or compliance concerns.
“We take our responsibility seriously, which is why we have lengthy and boring policies on how we determine which tokens to list and what tokens we might have to remove. We’re simply trying to make the best choices for our customers, our platform and the industry by judging tokens solely on their merits. It’s not rocket science, it’s just good token management.”
Trading
To open a Bittrex account, users will have to register their name and email, and make sure they activate 2-factor authentication (2FA) to further secure the account against hacks. The next thing to do is to verify the account by furnishing the personal information and the official identification documents. Verification allows to increase the withdrawal limit from 0.4 BTC to 100 BTC.
Fiat currency cannot be directly deposited into Bittrex to trade for a cryptocurrency. Users must simply purchase digital coins elsewhere and transfer them to the Bittrex wallet to buy one of the hundreds of altcoins available on the exchange.
This video shows how to deposit and buy coins.
Bittrex fees
Bittrex trading fees stand at 0.25% and customers can trade the equivalent of 1 BTC a day with an unverified account and 2 BTC a day with a basic account, provided 2FA is enabled. There are no fees for deposits. Withdraws fees vary from coin to coin.
Bittrex will provide paper copies of electronic correspondence on request for a fee. The fee is $10 plus $1 per page for shipping and handling to an address within the United States. Shipping outside of the United States may incur additional fees.
Transfer Limits
Bittrex has more restrictive transfer limits than other pure cryptocurrency exchanges due to their United States headquarters. Any amount can be deposited into Bittrex account. However, if users ever want to withdraw funds, they need to verify the account. The daily withdrawal limit at each verification level is:
- No Verification — 0 BTC
- Basic Verification — 0.4 BTC
- ID Verification (without 2FA enabled) — 1 BTC
- ID Verification (with 2FA enabled) — 100 BTC
Security as a priority
The founders’ cybersecurity backgrounds mean that Bittrex takes fund security seriously. The platform uses an elastic multi-stage wallet strategy in which the majority of users’ funds are held offline. The platform also uses two-factor authentication and IP address detection to prevent fraud.
“Security will always be a top priority in every decision we make, and we incorporate multiple layers of protection, using the most reliable and effective security technologies available to keep your funds secure,” the company claims.
Balance, a Software-as-a-Service by HashChain, allows for fast and secure automated digital currency financial reporting for the exchange’s users. Users directly upload digital wallets or accounts and then Balance takes over, calculating exact values of each transaction and logging cost basis and days carried. Users can generate a fiat denomination worksheet to report capital gains and losses as required by law.
Highly demanded
Bittrex, along with Binance and Bitfinex, had temporarily stopped new user registrations due to high demand since December 2017. On April 10, 2018 the company open registrations for new users but was again forced to temporarily stop new user registrations after just a couple of hours again due to the high demand.