A crypto exchange is a website, usually it is ran by a for profit company that is a centralized marketplace of people buying and selling cryptocurrencies and tokens. There are some decentralized exchanges, but many of the most popular exchanges are ran by companies like Coinbase, Binance and Bittrex.

There are also investing apps like Robinhood and neo banks like Revolut that offer access to some cryptos but typically don't offer the ability to send these cryptos to an outside wallet.

A crypto exchange's main aim is to convert Bitcoin or fiat into other cypto currencies and tokens. Those exchanges that take bank transfers or card payments of Fiats charge hefty fees, due to card processing costs. Many crypto exchanges offer trading pairs like BTC/USD or ETH/GBP if you don't have access to those Fiats we recommend using another service like Wise or Revolut to access that currency then transferring it to the exchange. The easier way to interact on an crypto exchange is with Bitcoin directly as this will save on fees.

Not every exchange offers support for every coin, so you may need to send Bitcoin from multiple exchanges.

We track close to 300 UK crypto exchanges, but there are any estimated 500-1000 exchanges. We highly recommend if you're using a crypto-exchange that isn't on our list you check their reputation. There have been a number of exchanges that defrauded their customers, been hacked or aren't licensed so lost their customers money. 

How many UK crypto exchanges?

There are 275 UK crypto exchanges and around 56 that accept GBP and not USD or BTC.

There are a minimum of 56 UK crypto exchanges that accept GBP, including Kraken, Binance, CEX, Coinjar, Luno, Paxful, LocalBitcoins and many more to compare the full list see our table comparison above.

There are a number of ways to exchange bitcoin to GBP, LocalBitcoins lets you sell your BTC for GBP but this is based on a bidders offer price. Uphold is a wallet and exchange where you can transfer BTC and sell for GBP (but there are fees.) Kraken and Binance also offer BTC to GBP exchange but also come with fees. Be sure to check our entire list to see which exchange is the cheapest place to sell btc for GBP.

How to buy Ripple UK?

Buying Ripple or XRP in the UK is pretty easy there are a number of UK ripple exchanges that alongside other currencies sell Ripple. Kraken and Binance are two large exchanges in the UK that let you buy Ripple. The easiest way to buy Ripple in the UK is Revolut, you can sign up and buy Ripple as soon as your account is approved.

How to sell Ripple UK ?

Selling Ripple in the UK is possibly even easier than buying it, if you used a crypto exchange you can just input your sale price and initiate an order, or sell it direct with Revolut (where you may get  slightly less.)

How to buy Monero UK?

Buying Monero in the UK is also pretty easy you can use Kraken, Binance and Poloniex and a number of other exchanges to buy Monero in the UK. Again the process is the same as any other crypto you need to sign up to an exchange to buy it. Unfortunately Revolut doesn't offer Monero yet.

Litecoin buy UK

Litecoin is another very easy to buy crypto you can use Kraken, Binance and Poloniex and a number of other exchanges to buy Monero in the UK. Again the process is the same as any other crypto you need to sign up to an exchange to buy it. Revolut is also offering Litecoin.

How to sell Litecoin UK?

Selling Litecoin is the same as every other crypto via an exchange make sure you set a price that is close to the price of the coin and let the exchange sell it. Via Revolut they set the price and you can sell direct for GBP.

Buy Ethereum in UK

There are many UK Ethereum exchanges, pretty much every exchange in our lists lets you buy Ethereum, Revolut the neo bank also offers access to Ethereum. Check out the full list above.

Sell Bitcoin UK

Bitcoin is by far the easiest crypto to sell you can sell via LocalBitcoins, Kraken, Binance or if you bought BTC on Revolut you can also sell there.

Buy Stellar Lumens UK

Buying Stellar in the UK is pretty simple it's possible to buy and sell via Kraken and Binance and also Revolut.

Buy Dogecoin UK

Dogecoin is available on Kraken and Binance (and many others see our list for other exchanges) for those in the UK who want to buy it with GBP. The process is the same as all the above coins.

There are a number of sites like Coinbase for UK crypto traders. Exchanges like CEX, Bittrex, Binance, CoinJar, CoinBurp, CoinFloor, Bitstamp and many others.

See the full list of alternatives to coinbase compared above.

There are number of exchanges where you can buy altcoins, the exchanges with the most altcoins that are available for UK based traders are:

Binance: 150 cryptos
Bittrex: 250 cryptos
KuCoin: 200 cryptos
BitZ: 196 cryptos
ProBit: 500 cryptos
Bithoven: 500 cryptos.

See the full list of UK exchanges you can buy altcoins above.

Binance has more cryptos on their exchange, around 150 versus Coinbase's 50. Both cover user funds if hacked.

Coinbases trading fees can be as high as 1% versus Binance's 0.1%. Both charge around the same withdrawal fee (to take cash out of the exchange.)

Bottom Line:

Coinbase has a simpler interface and accepts Fiat currencies, so we recommend Coinbase for those with less experience.

Binance has cheaper fees and with more offerings so we recommend this for the more experienced trader

Bitfinex has more cryptos on their exchange, around 143 versus Coinbase's 50. Both cover user funds if hacked, Bitfinex fully compensated its users for funds stolen in 2016.

Coinbase's trading fees can be as high as 1% versus Bitfinex's 0.2%. Both charge around the same withdrawal fee (to take cash out of the exchange.)

Coinbase has more cryptos on their exchange, around 50 versus Bitstamps's 10. Both cover user funds if hacked.

Coinbases trading fees can be as high as 1% versus Bitstamps's 0.5%.

What is the difference between Kraken vs Coinbase?

Coinbase has more cryptos on their exchange, around 50 versus Kraken's 40. Only Coinbase explicitly says they'll cover loses due to hacking but Kraken has been known to in the past. However Kraken keeps 95% of it's users funds in Cold Storage which is a super useful secritty mechanism meaning, that 95% of your funds are very well protected.

Coinbases trading fees are 1% versus Kraken's 0.26%.

Bottom Line:

Coinbase has more currencies but comes with a cost,  Kraken is a well respected and used platform with a great interface and a solid track record and is better for those trading more actively as they have much lower fees.

GDAX vs Kraken

GDAX was the original name of the company behind Coinbase, so GDAX is now Coinbase Pro.

Kraken is an easy platform to buy bitcoin from, you can use a card and either pay using GBP or EUR.

What is the difference between Kraken vs Bitstamp?

Kraken has more cryptos on their exchange, around 40 versus Bistamp's 10. Both exchanges will cover lost funds.

Bistamp's trading fees are 0.5% versus Kraken's 0.26%.

Bittrex has more cryptos on their exchange, around 250 versus Bitfinex's 143. Both cover user funds if hacked, Bitfinex fully compensated its users for funds stolen in 2016.

Bittrex's trading fees can be as high as 0.2% versus Bitfinex's 0.2%. 

Binance has more cryptos on their exchange, around 150 versus Bitfinex's 143. Both cover user funds if hacked.

Bitfinex trading fees can be as high as 0.06% versus Binance's 0.1%.