Bitcoin Forum

I'd like to buy a few bitcoins (was thinking of 10 BTC) and now I'm wondering which exchange accessible to Europeans (supporting SEPA transfers) offers the best conditions.

I've started at the link (http://howtobuybitcoins.info/) provided by bitcoin.org (http://bitcoin.org) and the Buying bitcoins page on bitcoin.it (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Buying_bitcoins) and looked through a couple of them, but it seems to be very cumbersome to compare.

Yesterday I've signed up at ANXPRO (https://anxpro.com/) because the description on bitcoin.it (https://en.bitcoin.it) looked interesting with trading fees as low as 0.05%, but once logged in it shows me 0.60% fees for buying at market price and 0.30% for buying at a fixed price with a limit, though the exchange rate generally seems to be better than on bitcoin.de (https://www.bitcoin.de) for example. Any thoughts on ANXBTC/ANXPRO?

I'm now going to look at the well known large exchanges like Bitstamp (https://www.bitstamp.net/) (though they charge a SEPA withdrawal fee, which is something I do not think is appropriate), BTC-E (https://btc-e.com/) and Bitfinex (https://www.bitfinex.com/). coinbase (https://coinbase.com/) is out of question as they do not accept Europeans.

In case you already bought BTC at an exchange, care to share your experience and recommendation?

Any input is highly appreciated.

In Europe, you can choose bitstamp, bitcoin.de, hitbtc.

more bitcoin exchange review you can see: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=695082.0

edit: del hitbtc.

Thanks for the feedback, titulgn.

Not sure about bitstamp, I think it's inappropriate to charge a fee of 0.90 EUR for a SEPA withdrawal.

bitcoin.de charges 1% for each transaction (split between seller and buyer), the shown exchange rate looks to be slightly off, and it seems to be pretty hard there to get reasonable offers.

Haven't looked at HitBTC so far, but I've added it to my list.

It is pretty complicated to compare and choose, even more than finding a proper FIAT bank.

OK, my bad, ANXBTC has that SEPA withdrawal fee of 0.90 EUR as well, so such seems to be indeed common.

The the most complete of bitcoin exchanges reviews (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=695082.0) thread is very helpful, I was wondering about reviews of exchanges.

I think it's best to go for an exchange with large trade volume and which is under kind of control / licensed (for example Bitfinex claims to be still in none-licensed beta phase, so a clear no-go for me).

That all narrows the selection quite down, I'm going to look through them now one by one.

I recommend you to Bitstamp, it is, no fee for deposits has been incredible, you know it's always so complicated, but Bitstamp is trustworthy, and others are not sure.  :)

if you don't use the Euro, you can have more choices.

Yes, no way around EUR and SEPA for me, thus the limited selection of large trustworthy exchanges.

I'm going to take a look at Bitstamp, and I think I will sign-up at at least three exchanges and compare their offerings before my first BTC purchase.

I'm new to the BTC game, but I'm sucking in info like a sponge... ;-)

Well, I can tell that Bitstamp is pretty much ruled out because of the higher transaction fees. With my initial investment of around $6.700 I'd fall in the fee schedule of 0.40%.

I've to admit that I didn't pay enough attention to the offering of ANXPRO because the trading option Buying at Market Price is selected by default when going to the Trade tab. Of course buying at a fixed price with a limit will always only be the only reasonable option, and that one leads to a transaction fee of just 0.30%.

Right now ANXPRO is still my favorite, I like their web interface and Android app as well. I have no concerns that they are based in Hong Kong instead of anywhere within the European union. But my search is not over yet...

https://spectrocoin.com/

I think https://altocenter.com/ has European accounts and provides SEPA transfers as well.

Compared ANX, I was willing to use Bitstamp

According to Best Coin Exchange (http://bestcoinexchange.com/list-of-exchanges/) Spectrocoin has a transaction fee of 2%, which is not really acceptable, and they do not even indicate that on their website. In addition to that their SEPA charges for in/out payment are pretty high.


Not sure about Altocenter, SEPA in/out is not a problem there, they transaction fees are stated from 0.2% to max. 0.5%, but they do not provide any company information or address on their website, their About Us page is pretty much a joke. I think it's best to avoid such unknown uncertain exchanges that do not even provide their basic details.


Will take another look at Bitstamp as it has come up several times on my research, though I'm not convinced about their transactions fees.

I was just looking at BTC-e as comes up over and over again, but looking at their ridiculous SEPA in/out charges I'd say that's pretty much unusable:

SEPA Deposit: 1% (min fee 15€), Min sum allowed: 2000€
SEPA Withdrawal: Minimum withdrawal amount is eur 500, fee 1%, minimum fee = eur 100

What the hell? I wanted to send them an inquiry about that by e-mail, but they do not even provide an e-mail address, only their ticket system? I think it's save to say I can cross BTC-e off my list.

There really should be some ground rules for exchanges and market places:

• The exchange clearly has to identify itself and the company behind it.
• Details on location / address and contact details to reach a human from support staff.
• Statement under which regulations the exchange is operating / certified / licensed.
• Full listing of all charges and fees.

So far not many exchanges comply to such, which is concerning.

ANX still looks best and most professional so far, I have requested account identification and soon after someone from their customer support gave feedback that they have sent the confirmation code to my postal address.

What I'm looking at right now:

HitBTC (https://hitbtc.com): Would look good with no SEPA despost fee, 0.90 EUR withdrawal fee and only 0.1% transfer charges, but again they do not provide proper exchange/company details and their Comodo SSL site certificate is not personalized, which is kind of awkward for an exchange. Not sure about HitBTC, at least they provide two telephone numbers and e-mail addresses. Can anyone tell anything about HitBTC?

Unfortunately, I have no idea with Europe.
But if you look at the world, in global USD market, I think you will try LakeBTC, http://www.lakebtc.com/, it's deposit free, and withdrawals fee 0.1% - 0.5%.

More crucially, whether you deposit any, please put it into CNY on LakeBTC, and then, you can enjoy free trading! (LakeBTC USD trading fee is 0.1% - 0.5%, but its CNY trading is free.) Just now, I asked LakeBTC support to open a CNY trading accounts, it only need to register, one account can enjoy the trading with USD and CNY both, very convenient.

After a lot of research I have signed up at the following five exchanges:

• ANXPRO (https://anxpro.com/)
• Bitstamp (https://www.bitstamp.net/)
• BTC-E (https://btc-e.com/)
• HitBTC (https://hitbtc.com/)
• Kraken (https://www.kraken.com/)

and I am going to use Kraken for my initial transaction (especially because their increase in transaction fees does not happen before 1st September). My account at Kraken has already been cleared for Tier 3 identification, which was quick and painless.

So far so good. :)

Should probably add bitfinex and itbit to your list.

With Bitfinex (https://www.bitfinex.com) the problem is that they do not properly identify themselves and have this statement in their FAQ:


They do not accept SEPA transfers and seem to trade USD as the only FIAT currency, so a clear no-go for Europeans.

With itBit (https://www.itbit.com) I find the Taker/Maker Fee scheme confusing and resulting in higher fees for my initital purpose, they also have quite high fees for SEPA deposit and withdrawal.

All in all I think my selection of five exchanges is a good one, though I'm not going to use them all (BTC-E was just a try before I've seen their ridiculous SEPA transfer fees). Considering safety and trust only Kraken, ANX and Bitstamp meet the rules, and I already have made up my mind to make my initial transaction with Kraken (before they rise the transfer fees with 1st September).

Inappropriate to charge a fee of 0.90 EUR for a SEPA withdrawal? Man, I know you guys got it good there (while we in the states in some cases are paying %s + fees to intermediary banks for wire transfers).... but come on. :P

Yes, my statement about the 0.90 EUR on SEPA fees has already been revised in my comment after the mentioned one, so 0.90 EUR for a SEPA withdrawal seems to be quite common, with Kraken with just 0.09 EUR being the exception. But you have to understand that a SEPA (Single European Payment Area) transfer indeed does not cause any extra costs for us compared to a domestic transfer.

The CoinTelegraph Exchange Review

http://cointelegraph.com/storage/uploads/view/1873

http://cointelegraph.com/news/111621/the_cointelegraph_exchange_review_results_and_more

very useful table, thanks.

Very interesting indeed. I have taken a few days to rethink the current situation and watch the exchange rate going down, but I'm still with the idea and I am 100% sure now that I will use Kraken for my first transaction.

Great info in the infographic!

Does anyone have any experience with Justcoin? Unfortunately it wasn't reviewed in the infographic.

nice info

Stay away from HitBTC (they scammed me out of $6000 USD, and other users have reported multiple issues with them blocking access to funds etc.).

I'd suggest you try either:

* ANXPro/Justcoin who are great, but their fees are a bit higher.
* Kraken who are a solid exchange and have the largest EUR trading volume.

Both of these are well established, and I've never had any problems with withdrawing funds etc.

/Steve

Now that Bitstamp is having issues, any reliable suggestions for purchasing BTC with EURO?

Anyone used Bitcoin.de ?

You should add Exmo.com to your list.

bitcoin.de

Useful, thank you!

Why btc-e is 3/10 of safety?

This table, upstairs is very primitive, and i think, that you can't hope on it very well... About Sepa friendly bitcoin - Bitstamp and Exmo, they have a bank accounts inside Europe....

It not a primitive,it is subjective... because i think, that autor can't do all necessary tests...

Maybe you are right.

Btw, try to read topics of these exchanges and you'll see :)

the assessment standard is too casual  :-[ and that is positively antique

A bit late to the party here, but coinbase has a bank in the EU.  If you are in the eurozone, you can deposit with them and take advantage of eurozone sepa rates...

Kraken without any doubt the best when it comes to SEPA. Usually you get the money from them right the next day after withdraw request.

If you want to sell Bitcoin with Sepa it is https://maxipay.eu :)