A survey of crypto traders

How do traders imagine a perfect exchange? In order to find out the answer, we asked 800 respondents from 75 countries a series of 29 questions about their trading habits and needs. Their answers are presented in our study in the form of charts and insights.

What do traders look for when choosing an exchange?

The speed of deposits and withdrawals is the first priority for most of the survey participants. This is due to the high volatility of the most popular cryptocurrencies: even a minimal trading delay can cost a trader some of their profit.

The other key parameters that complete the top three are:

1. Fees: 65% don't mind trading fees, but only 36% agree that charging a fee for crypto withdrawals is fair, while just 29% find fiat withdrawals acceptable.
2. Variety of available currency pairs: unlike forex brokers, crypto exchanges offer widely differing sets of trading pairs. In consequence, traders often have to use an extra exchange to convert a certain crypto coin into fiat. According to the survey, only 19% of the participants trade on just one exchange. The rest have to use two or more.

What crypto exchanges lack

Simplicity is the one key thing exchanges overlook. The crypto market is still young, and 80% of traders have been in the industry for less than a year. They don't require complex interfaces with dozens of charts, invest boxes, and marginal trading with a dozen leverage levels. 71% of traders stated they need demo accounts, while 37% ask for a simple and intuitive interface. 

What about security?

Security concerns are one of the key reasons why traders switch to a different exchange. For instance, 70% of the participants said they will start looking at other options if the exchange they trade on is hacked. Interestingly, the survey also showed that traders tend to lose money to fraudsters rather than to hackers. Nevertheless, only 16% of the respondents trust exchanges to store all of their assets. The rest keep their crypto in private wallets, sending only a part of it to trading platforms.

Differences between beginners and pros

Are there any significant differences in the habits and social status of those who've been trading for less than a year and traders with 5 or more years of experience?

There are indeed – the first of them being income. Only 7% of beginners earn more than $40k a year. For comparison: 43% of experienced traders fall in this income bracket. 

Among the experienced clients of crypto exchanges, 56% have traded in the forex market before. This is not surprising, considering how young the crypto market is. Only 9.3% of users with 5+ years of experience have traded exclusively in crypto all this time. 

As for traders' social media habits, the only clear division is found with the use of Instagram. 22% of traders with less than one year of experience tend to read crypto news on Instagram, compared to just 8% of those who have been trading for over 5 years. Still, most respondents – regardless of their experience level – prefer to follow the latest in crypto on Telegram and Twitter.

To learn more about various groups of traders, as well as their habits and needs, download the full version of our Crypto Trader Survey for free.