A crypto derivatives exchange facilitates the buying and selling of crypto futures and options. Many exchanges also support margined or leveraged trading, enabling you to take large positions in the crypto market without owning or purchasing the underlying cryptocurrency.
If you are scouting for the best crypto futures trading platform in 2024, you have landed on the right page! This article will provide deeper insights into the top crypto futures exchanges to help you make an informed choice.
Key Takeaways
1. What Is Crypto Futures Trading?
A crypto future is a type of derivative instrument that enables traders to buy or sell the underlying cryptocurrency at a pre-determined price on a specified future date. Similar to a standard futures contract, crypto futures allow investors to speculate on the future price movements of the underlying asset.
Depending on the market conditions, you can take a long or short position in crypto futures. Usually, traders go long when the price of the underlying crypto is rising and go short when the price is falling.
2. How To Spot The Best Crypto Futures Trading Platform?
Before I unveil my top picks, I will share the key parameters to consider when evaluating the suitability of a platform for trading futures.
2.1 Security
The crypto exchange(CEX) you choose must conform to global security standards. It should have robust safety measures such as 2FA, cold storage, proof of reserves(PoR), triple-layer asset protection, etc., to safeguard your confidential data and digital assets.
Additionally, the platform must be legit. It should possess the necessary licenses to operate in various geographical locations, ensure regulatory compliance, and enjoy a good reputation in the global crypto community.
2.2 Pricing
You must opt for a crypto futures exchange that has a fair and transparent pricing policy. The maker or taker fee, funding rates for perpetual contracts, deposit or withdrawal charges, and other transaction costs must be nominal.
2.3 Slippage
The crypto futures trading app or website you select must have a large registered user base to maintain high liquidity. It should also have powerful matching engines, advanced order types like stop loss or limit orders, and other value-added features to reduce slippage.
2.4 Trading tools and features
Innovative and technology-driven trading tools and functionalities help you curtail risks, minimize losses, and amplify gains. These include automation tools such as the Futures Grid Trading Bot, copy-trading, demo mode, and advanced technical analysis indicators to study price patterns.
Trading bots execute buy and sell strategies automatically based on preset algorithms, enabling you to profit from the price fluctuations of the underlying assets.
The copy-trading feature allows you to replicate the trading strategies of seasoned investors and learn successful investing practices to maximize your gains.
The best crypto futures trading platforms also offer a demo mode – a simulated environment where you can practice complex trades and try different strategies under live market conditions.
Lastly, the chosen CEX must provide a snapshot of the hottest cryptocurrencies, new coin listings, leaderboards, and the top gainers or movers, updated in real-time.
2.5 User interface(UI) and user experience(UX)
A trading platform’s website or app must have a responsive UI-UX design. You should be able to access its features, trade seamlessly, and get an optimal viewing experience across all devices – be it a laptop, desktop, mobile, or tablet.
2.6 Customer support
As the crypto market operates round the clock, a trading platform must provide 24/7 customer support. Fast response rates, prompt query handling, and quick resolution of urgent issues are the hallmarks of quality customer service.
2.7 Educational Resources
Any crypto derivatives exchange you choose must possess a rich repository of learning materials in the form of blogs, manuals, simulation courses, and video tutorials for both newcomers and professionals.
2.8 Product range and geographical penetration
The wider the geographical coverage of an exchange and the higher its product and service offerings, the better. If you want to trade crypto futures, ensure that the chosen exchange primarily offers USDC & USDT-margined contracts, coin-margined contracts, perpetual futures, and leveraged tokens.
3. The Best Crypto Futures Trading Platforms In 2024: My Top Picks
After reviewing numerous platforms based on the above assessment criteria, I have identified and compiled a list of the top crypto futures exchanges below.
4. Best Crypto Futures Trading Platforms: Reviewed!
In this section, I have highlighted the unique features and the pros and cons of each crypto futures exchange mentioned above.
4.1 Kucoin
Headquarters: Victoria, Seychelles
Countries covered: 200+
Global user base: 27M+
Number of listed tokens: 750+
Kucoin is one of the best crypto exchanges for futures. It offers two types of margined contracts – USDT & USDC-settled linear contracts and coin-settled inverse contracts. While the former use stablecoins (Tether and USD Coin pegged to the US Dollar) as collateral for margining and settlement, the latter are collateralized in their base cryptocurrencies.
If you want to eliminate liquidation risk, margin maintenance, crypto loans, or collateral, KuCoin’s leveraged tokens can be helpful. They are tradeable on the Kucoin spot market and come with a dynamic rebalancing mechanism to help traders minimize losses and maximize profits.
Kucoin also offers three Futures Bonus packages – Super Surprise, Discount, and Pro+. Depending on the package you choose, you can get a deduction coupon of 10, 40, or 100 USDT, respectively. You also receive additional benefits like bonus rewards and trial funds.
At the time of writing, the platform has over 24 million active futures traders, 305 tradable futures contracts, and a transaction volume of more than $47 billion in futures.
Pros
Cons
4.2 Bybit
Headquarters: Dubai, UAE
Countries covered: 160+
Global user base: 20M+
Number of listed tokens: 400+
Bybit is a renowned crypto derivatives exchange that enables you to trade over 412 cryptocurrencies with USDT, USDC, and coin-settled perpetual contracts at a leverage of up to 125x. You can also hedge or bet on future prices of cryptocurrencies through Bybit’s USDC and coin-settled weekly, monthly, and quarterly futures.
To facilitate efficient trading and risk optimization, Bybit provides traders with many robust tools.
These include Webhook for automated signal trading with TradingView, Position Builder to customize and simulate the profit & loss of derivative portfolios, and Arbitrage to capitalize on the differences in the listed prices of coins across various markets.
For splitting orders, Bybit provides a scaled order tool that divides large orders into smaller sub-orders within a predefined price range. Each sub-order is placed as a distinct limit order at incrementally higher or lower prices. To execute big orders at regular time intervals, consider using the Time-Weighted Average Price(TWAP) strategy.
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If you are a market maker, you can try Bybit’s Iceberg order. It reduces slippages and allows you to impact market dynamics without exposing your position.
Lastly, Bybit’s chase limit order lowers your trading fees by ensuring swift market order execution. It adjusts limit order prices in real-time to the top bid or ask.
Pros
Cons
4.3 Bitget
Headquarters: Singapore
Countries covered: 60+
Global user base: 25M+
Number of listed tokens: 750+
Bitget is one of the best crypto futures trading platforms to buy or sell USDT-M, USDC-M, and Coin-M futures contracts. It provides adequate liquidity to traders with its perpetual and delivery futures and advanced matching engine.
Besides, Bitget safeguards your assets with third-party asset custody services, Proof of Reserves (PoR), and a protection fund. It discloses its platform reserves, Merkle tree proof, and reserve ratio monthly.
The platform also has a robust risk control mechanism. For example, the automatic margin call in isolated margin mode functionality promptly tops up the additional margin amount to prevent the liquidation of your respective position. Similarly, the auto deleveraging (ADL) program liquidates counterparty positions when extreme market conditions cause a 30% drop or complete depletion of the risk provision.
Currently, Bitget permits trading in 230+ futures trading pairs. It is also the largest futures copy-trading platform in the world with over 165,000 expert traders and 800,000+ followers.
Pros
Cons
4.4 Deribit
Headquarters: Panama City, Panama
Markets covered: 29
Number of futures trading pairs offered: 82
Deribit is an efficient, inclusive, and fast-growing marketplace for all types of traders, regardless of their background, experience, or trading style. It is also touted as a unique exchange. Thanks to its high liquidity, low latency, robust matching engine capacity, and sophisticated risk controls!
Recently, Deribit became the first crypto futures exchange to obtain a Virtual Asset Service Provider license from the Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority of Dubai. It is also a top-notch exchange for trading European-style cash-settled crypto options.
A valuable tool offered by the platform for crypto futures trading is the Price Ladder. It enables you to place or cancel orders with a single click by selecting the desired price levels on the ladder. Thus, you can create or edit multiple orders instantly while being aware of changes in the surrounding price levels.
Other notable features of Deribit include Options Wizard, Tight Futures Spreads, Insurance Fund, Position Builder, Fiat gateway for over 41 currencies, zero-cost spot trading, and a PoR-based security system.
Pros
Cons
4.5 Binance
Headquarters: Malta
Countries covered: 180+
Global user base: 150M+
Number of listed tokens: 350+
Binance is the best crypto futures trading platform globally. It offers five futures products – USDT-M Perpetual, USDC-M perpetual, USDT delivery for BTC and ETH, Coin-M Perpetual, and Coin-M Delivery. Currently, you can access 250+ futures & options contracts, numerous trading tools, and multiple margin modes on Binance Futures.
A distinct feature of Binance is its unparalleled commitment to fostering responsible trading. It offers a cooling-off period feature to help users temporarily block derivative trades. Once a user enables the cooling-off functionality, it cannot be unblocked till the pre-defined cut-off time is over. During this period, all the confirmation tabs and trading capabilities will also be suspended.
Moreover, Binance Futures offers advanced risk control functionalities. For example, when you enable the price protection feature, it will safeguard your position from potential market manipulation, particularly during violent market fluctuations. It prevents unscrupulous traders from exploiting market efficiencies to set off stop losses or take profit orders from genuine users.
Binance also provides an insurance fund that limits the losses of bankrupt traders and pays out 100% of the profits of successful investors. Additionally, it minimizes ADLs. The ADL indicator helps you view a position from the lowest to the highest priority.
Lastly, Binance has a powerful matching engine that processes a large volume of transactions per second and provides industry-leading liquidity and execution.
Pros
Cons
5. Best Crypto Futures Trading Platform – Pricing!
Based on the latest pricing data available on CoinMarketCap, Deribit is the cheapest futures trading platform for market makers and Binance is the most cost-effective for market takers.
Deribit collects a 0% maker fee, while the remaining exchanges on the list levy a maker fee of 0.02%. For taker fees, Binance has the lowest at 0.04%, followed by Deribit at 0.05%, and Bybit at 0.055%. KuCoin and Bitget impose higher taker charges of 0.06%.
However, if you opt for the VIP program of these platforms, your trading fees decrease progressively as you reach higher VIP levels. You also receive exclusive VIP perks such as transaction fee rebates, low-interest loans, API whitelist, higher deposit & withdrawal limits, etc.
6. Which Platform Is the Best For Crypto Futures?
Kucoin is the best for pre-market trading, while Bitget is excellent for copy-trading. Similarly, Deribit is suitable for advanced traders, whereas Coinbase and Gemini are beginner-friendly. In the European crypto market, Bybit is a major player. Thus, the ultimate choice of a crypto trading platform depends on your requirements, location, and trading experience.
FAQs
Q.1 Which is the best crypto futures trading platform in Australia?
Coinspot is the best crypto futures exchange in Australia. It is Blockchain Australia-certified and has 2.5M+ registered customers. Its distinguishing features include support for 450+ cryptocurrencies, competitive transaction fees starting from 0.1%, a multi-coin wallet, and multiple AUD deposit options – PayID, Direct Deposit, Cash Deposit, and BPAY.
Q.2 Which is the best crypto futures trading platform in India?
CoinDCX is the premier crypto derivatives exchange in India, offering futures trading in 220+ pairs and up to 25x leverage. It is FIU-compliant and ISO/IEC 27001:2022-certified. Its notable features include automated tax reports, unlimited INR deposits & withdrawals, low transaction fees, and an intuitive crypto futures trading app.
Q.3 Where to trade crypto futures in the US?
For retail traders, Kraken is the best crypto futures trading platform in the US. It offers 95+ USD linear perpetual futures, flexible funding options (fiat, card, and crypto), capital-efficient leveraged trading, and advanced trading analytics. For institutional traders desiring to hedge their cryptocurrency exposure with BTC and ETH derivatives, CME Group is better.
