Bittrex vs Poloniex: What Works Better For Canadians?

Oleg Galeev

9 months ago

Bittrex vs Poloniex featured image

Bittrex and Poloniex are quite popular choices for Canadians and North Americans to buy crypto assets. None of them were included in our list of the best cryptocurrency exchanges for Canadians due to some reasons. Nevertheless, these two are still popular and we compared them. Check more in our Bittrex vs Poloniex review below.

Description

Bittrex is a Bermuda-based cryptocurrency exchange. You can instantly buy and sell hundreds of cryptocurrencies and tokenized stocks with your credit or debit card.

Poloniex is a cryptocurrency exchange offering 200+ trading pairs as well as staking, lending, and margin and futures trading. Backed by Tron founder Justin Sun, Poloniex also has a decentralized exchange where you can trade assets against Tron (TRX) and Tether (USDT).

Coins

100+

Fees

0.00%/0.05% to 0.75%/0.75% maker/taker fees
Free deposits
Small crypto withdrawal fee
3% card processing fee

3.5% or $10 fee for credit/debit card payments
0.145%/0.155% maker/taker fees (for <50k trading volume)
Small crypto withdrawal fees

Pros

Wide choice of cryptocurrencies
Tokenized stock trading
Instant buy/sell with credit/debit card
Old and reputable exchange
Corporate accounts available

Wide choice of cryptocurrencies
Decentralized Exchange available
Crypto lending
Low trading fees

Cons

Trading is USD or EUR only
High trading fees
You must submit a request and provide verification documents to link bank account
No Interac e-Transfer
Not many features e.g. no margin trading, staking or lending
Poor customer service

Credit/debit card purchases unavailable for Canadians
CAD not supported
No Interac e-Transfer
Must have a Simplex bank account

Account Limits

$50 USD minimum deposit
$10 USD withdrawal minimum

$50 minimum $20k maximum daily

App

Methods to buy

Credit/debit card (charged in USD or EUR)
Bank transfer (charged in USD)
Crypto to crypto

Simplex bank account
Crypto to crypto

Security

2FA
Whitelisting withdrawal and IP addresses

Account self-freezing
2FA

Mobile and Desktop Trading

Bittrex

Bittrex’s trading platform is not suitable for beginners. There is advanced charting, order books and trading tools that will appeal to the experienced trader, but beginners may want to stick with the instant buy option. When using instant buy, you simply need to select the coin you wish to purchase along with your payment currency (USD, EUR or USDT) and then enter the amount you wish to purchase. Enter your card details and hit buy. Although paying with a credit or debit card is easy, there will be a 3% fee charged in addition to the trading fees and any conversion rate fees your bank or credit card provider charges. Overall, using Bittrex to buy crypto can be expensive. If you’re able to link your bank account, you will still have to deal with the CAD to USD exchange rate, but at least deposits on Bittrex are free.

Bittrex’s desktop interface

Bittrex’s mobile interface

Bittrex app interface

Bittrex’s mobile interface while trading

Bittrex app interface while trading

Bittrex does not have many features. There is no staking or lending, crypto Visa cards, or NFTs. Bittrex is purely geared towards experienced traders who wish to have access to advanced tools when buying or selling cryptocurrencies.

When it comes to tokenizing stocks on Bittrex, it operates in the same way as CFDs (Contracts For Differences). It means you can speculate on the future value of stocks without actually owning the shares.

Bittrex’s mobile app is easy to use and well-built. You can view the markets, your order history and portfolio. You can also use the instant buy option. If you’re looking for advanced tools such as order books and charting, the app has that as well. The app has a 4.4-star rating from 120 ratings on the Apple App Store and a 4.3-star rating from almost 4,000 ratings on Google Play.

Poloniex

Poloniex does not offer credit/debit card purchases for Canadians. The only way to purchase crypto on Poloniex is to use a Simplex bank transfer. To link your bank account, you will need to verify your account. Once you’ve done that you can click the “buy crypto” button, enter the coin you wish to purchase and follow the onscreen steps.

Poloniex depositing money on desktop version

Once you have bought crypto, you can use the exchange to trade. The trading platform itself offers all the advanced tools that experienced traders will appreciate.

Poloniex trading process on the desktop version

Poloniex also offers a decentralized exchange where you can trade many TRX and USDT pairs against low-market cap coins that aren’t on centralized exchanges.

Poloniex’s mobile app has a 4.6-star rating from 2,000 reviews on the Apple App Store and a 4.3-star rating from over 6,000 reviews on Google Play.

With the app, you can see market data, your wallets and portfolio, and order history. You can make deposits, trade futures and access spot or margin trading. The app is useful for anyone who wants to make advanced trades on the go and it has many positive reviews.

Poloniex’s mobile app

Poloniex app interface

Poloniex app trading

Poloniex app interface while trading

Bittrex vs Poloniex: Security

Bittrex claims to prioritize security, but there is nothing we could find on the website outlining their security measures. However, Bittrex does support whitelisting withdrawal and IP addresses and two-factor authentication.

Poloniex is also not transparent with security measures, however they offer two-factor authentication and whitelisting of withdrawal addresses. There is also a handy feature called self-freezing. If Poloniex detects a new IP address login on your account, they will email you with a link to freeze your account and stop all activity.

Bittrex vs Poloniex: Regulatory Compliance in Canada

Bittrex is regulated in Bermuda and to deposit or withdraw fiat you must go through a verification process which includes uploading a government-issued ID and a selfie, plus you must provide proof that the bank account is your own.

Poloniex was a US-based exchange but after the US tightened crypto regulations in 2019, Poloniex moved to the Seychelles and removed its KYC procedure for credit/debit card purchases. Simplex bank transfers will require verification. Poloniex is therefore unavailable to anyone in the US, but is available to Canadians.

It is not clear whether Bittrex and Poloniex are compliant with Canadian regulations, so keep this in mind if you choose to use these exchanges.

Bittrex vs Poloniex: Customer support

Bittrex has several complaints about its lack of customer service. Additionally, there have been many people who have complained of Bittrex freezing their account. If you trade on Bittrex, use it with caution and move your funds to a private crypto wallet. If you need technical support, you can fill out a support ticket on their website.

Poloniex offers 24/7 multilingual support should you need it. They have a knowledge centre on their website and you can submit a support ticket on their website. Generally Poloniex has mixed reviews with many people say the customer support is slow.

Conclusion

Both Bittrex and Poloniex offer good trading platforms for anyone who has experience and is looking for advanced tools. The downside to these platforms is that Canadian dollars aren’t supported. With Bittrex you can pay using credit or debit card but Canadian banks don’t usually allow crypto purchases. It means you must deposit funds using wire transfers. Poloniex does not allow Canadians to buy crypto with cards and instead requires you to have a Simplex bank account. Of course, you can always purchase crypto on another exchange and transfer them to Bittrex or Poloniex to trade for other coins.

Both exchanges offer hundreds of trading pairs. Choosing between the two is difficult but we think Poloniex takes the winning spot simply because it offers a decentralized exchange, margin trading, and crypto lending. While Bittrex offers tokenized stocks, it is purely a trading platform without any other features. Poloniex also has slightly lower trading fees, which can make a big difference when you trade frequently.

Author

Oleg Galeev

Cryptocurrency Specialist

Oleg is a crypto expert who has been trading since 2016. He started out with Coinbase, Kraken and Peer-to-Peer exchanges. After some time, centralized exchanges started charging crazy fees to their users.

He decided to review different crypto exchanges in order to educate Canadians on what kinds of things are going inside each one while giving them unbiased advice. On top of that, Oleg also has experience with NFT, airdrops, and crypto staking and he is constantly checking on new crypto assets.

His writing has been featured in popular Canadian media sources such as Toronto Sun.