HitBTC Exchange Review: The Only Review That You Need To Read

Founded in 2013, HitBTC is one of the oldest cryptocurrency exchanges you will find in the space. At the time of writing, HitBTC supports more than 560 cryptocurrencies and 1274 trading pairs. In addition to the most popular coins, this extended portfolio ensures you can find altcoins not available in other exchanges.

The platforms aim to offer multiple features and services for “demanding and sophisticated traders”. The exchange promises that these features come with low latency, high reliability, and peak performance. In addition to this, the exchange doesn’t require a verification process, which many traders would consider a benefit.

What Is HitBTC?

The exchange was originally headquartered in Hong Kong and claims to have office representatives in countries like Chile and Estonia.

This is considered a red flag by many investors due to the lack of assurance of its accountability. When combined with the lack of transparency around the team behind it and the less than perfect user reviews, this forced many investors to avoid using the exchange.

Despite this, HitBTC has continued to be a popular option in the crypto world. With over $4.5 billion in daily trading volume, HitBTC is in the top 10 of exchanges by trading volume.

How Secure is HitBTC?

Unfortunately, HitBTC doesn’t provide much information on its security practices. The exchange has limited itself to say it makes use of cold storage, white lists, and it deploys “comprehensive audited cryptography schemes”. However, it is not certain what percentage of funds are stored in cold wallets or if a geographical distribution is in place.

To better protect their accounts, users can enable the 2-factor authentication (2FA) feature. This will require them to use a third-party authentication app that will provide a code at the time of logging in. If your password gets into the wrong hands, that person will be unable to log in due to a lack of the 2FA code. Unfortunately, this feature is not mandatory and as such, many users might not activate it.

When it comes to hacks, there are no reports of the exchange having fallen victim to a cyberattack in the past. While many users have reported having their accounts hacked, such cases seem to have been the result of poor security practices on their end.

The exchange has also been known for freezing withdrawals on the platform as a result of cybersecurity threats. The company claims that this action is not the result of an actual breach but just a precaution to ensure the safety of user funds. It is also worth mentioning that the exchange complies with privacy regulations like GDPR, which is a point in its favor.

HitBTC is widely considered to be a secure exchange. Reports that claim the opposite have never been substantiated.

What Features Does HitBTC Offer?

HitBTC will not provide you with features like staking, crypto loans, pool mining, etc. However, the exchange is especially popular among those looking for advanced trading features. Not only does it provide a lot of analysis tools when it comes to analyzing crypto but also a variety of order types.

Let’s take a look at the major features and services provided by the exchange:

How Good Is HitBTC Customer Support?

Like most cryptocurrency exchanges, online reviews for HitBTC are not especially favorable for the exchange. While this is not abnormal in the field, in the case of HitBTC these low ratings seem to be warranted.

First, the exchange doesn’t offer any form of live support. If you find an issue when using the platform, you will need to submit a ticket. While this in itself is not necessarily an issue, HitBTC is known for its slow response time to tickets submitted by its users. So slow that some would even claim their support is non-existent.

Many users have also reported that the exchange has suspended their withdrawals for no reason and can go weeks or even months without providing any updates.

The exchange has also been known to provide little information when maintenance or interruptions are taking place. It is not uncommon for users to find themselves unable to withdraw their cryptocurrency, having to wait days to be informed maintenance is taking place.

This being said, HitBTC provides a large number of resources on how its features, fees, interfaces, and other elements work. This means unless you are experiencing a problem that is technical in nature, you are unlikely to need personal support.

Slow customer support is not uncommon in the crypto space. However, we believe that HitBTC has plenty of room to improve in this regard.

Does HitBTC Charge Fees?

Yes, it does. As a centralized crypto exchange, HitBTC is a for-profit platform and as such, it charges for its services. They are however known for having some of the lowest fees in the space.

The exchange makes use of a “maker-taker” model, which means fees will vary. These fees will be lower if you are adding liquidity, and higher if you are taking. Your fees can also be lower depending on the number of HIT tokens you hold at the time of trading.

If you want to learn more about what the maker-taker model is, Binance wrote this detailed guide.

Spot Trading Fees

Let’s take a look at the spot trading fees. These fees will vary depending on the designation of the trader as a “maker” or “taker”. In addition to this, the trading volume during the last 30 days will also play a role. At this time, the fees for spot trading are:

Tier	30-Day Trading Volume (BTC)	Maker	Taker
1	≥ 0 BTC	0.09%	0.09%
2	≥ 10 BTC	0.07%	0.08%
3	≥ 100 BTC	0.06%	0.07%
4	≥ 500 BTC	0.05%	0.07%
5	≥ 1,000 BTC	0.03%	0.06%
6	≥ 5,000 BTC	0.02%	0.06%
7	≥ 10,000 BTC	0.01%	0.05%
8	≥ 20,000 BTC	0%	0.04%
9	≥ 50,000 BTC	-0.01%	0.03%
10	≥ 100,000 BTC	-0.01%	0.02%

If you are a “maker”, HitBTC will give you a reward in the form of a “Rebate”. This incentivizes users to add liquidity to the market.

Fee Discount

As we previously said, you can get a discount on these fees if you are a HIT holder. These discounts can be as high as 45% and start at 5%. At the time of writing, you would need to have the equivalent of $185 to benefit from these discounts. You can see the discount structure in this table:

Discount	Tiers 1 & 2	Tiers 3 to 10
3%	500	–
5%	5,000	50,000
10%	50,000	–
15%	250,000	250,000
20%	500,000	500,000
25%	1,000,000	–
30%	4,000,000	1,000,000
35%	8,000,000	4,000,000
40%	16,000,000	8,000,000
45%	–	16,000,000

Margin Interest

If you are making use of the margin trading feature, you will need to pay a daily interest rate on your leverage. These rates will vary depending on the currency you are trading and will be independent of your position.

Tether (USDT) 0.10%	Bitcoin (BTC) 0.02%	Ethereum (ETH) 0.03%
Ripple (XRP) 0.03%	BCH (Bitcoin Cash) 0.02%	EOS 0.02%
TRON (TRX) 0.04%	Cardano (ADA) 0.04%	Litecoin (LTC) 0.02%
Ethereum Classic (ETC) 0.04%	Bitcoin SV (BSV) 0.02%	Zcash (ZEC) 0.03%
Stellar (XLM) 0.02%	Dogecoin (DOGE) 0.02%	Monero (XMR) 0.08%
NEO 0.02%	VeChain (VET) 0.02%	QTUM 0.02%
Binance Coin (BNB) 0.02%	Chiliz (CHZ) 0.02%	Maker (MKR) 0.02%
FTX Token (FTT) 0.02%	Verge (XVG) 0.02%	Chainlink (LINK) 0.02%
Basic Attention Token (BAT) 0.02%	IOTA (IOTA) 0.02%	NEM (XEM) 0.04%
Tezos (XTZ) 0.04%	TON Crystal (TON) 0.03%	HitBTC Token (HIT) 0.04%

While crypto deposits are free, you will be charged when withdrawing. Unfortunately, these fees are completely dynamic, which means they adjust depending on the market. As such, it is necessary to check them out at the time of withdrawal. These fees tend to be low for popular cryptocurrencies, they can be incredibly high for new coins.

What Currencies Are Supported By HitBTC?

With support for more than 561 cryptocurrencies, it is not possible for us to list all of them in this article. However, if you are looking to invest in one of the most popular cryptocurrencies, HitBTC is more than likely to support it. Some of the coins supported by the exchange are:

• Bitcoin       
• Ethereum
• Cardano
• Tron
• XRP
• Cosmos
• EOS
• Algorand
• Tezos
• Litecoin
• IOST
• Monero
• Dash
• NEO
• Chainlink
• Chiliz
• Zcash
• Stellar

At this time, HitBTC doesn’t offer support for any fiat currency. However, it is possible to buy crypto using a debit/credit card via a third party.

The exchange uses MoonPay, Mercuryo, and Banxa to support this feature.

Conclusion

While HitBTC remains a controversial exchange, its history and popularity have proved it to be a safe alternative to other exchanges. The flexibility it provides in terms of order types and available coins make it perfect for traders looking to find the next best thing.

The interface of the exchange might not be the simplest of them all, but it still remains highly accessible to new traders. When combined with its advanced API, it can also be taken advantage of by veteran traders.

The low fees make it a great option for any trader. However, you will need to consider the withdrawals fees before investing in a cryptocurrency. As new currencies will be more expensive to withdraw, you would likely be better off trading for a popular currency before withdrawing.

It is also important to keep in mind the negative reviews the site has received when deciding whether or not to use this exchange. The safety of your funds should be a top priority and you should consider it when deciding how much money to put on the platform. Remember, never invest more than you are willing to lose.

Overall HitBTC is a great exchange for anyone looking for a variety of trading features and opportunities.