Why someone would look for the best P2P crypto exchange is clear — we’re talking lower fees and better privacy, but with so many options, which one should you choose?
From MEXC to Bybit and Binance Exchange, we’ve ranked and reviewed the 5 best peer-to-peer crypto exchanges based on security, fees, and TVL factors.
We’ve also compared each exchange we’ve shortlisted here, explained what P2P exchanges are in greater detail, and the pros and cons of using one.
Overview of the Top P2P Crypto Exchanges
Before we do a deeper dive into each of our top picks for the best P2P crypto exchanges, here’s a quick overview of why we chose them:
- MEXC – Best P2P Crypto Exchange for High Liquidity and Low Fees
- Bybit – Crypto Exchange with 600 P2P Payment Options
- Binance Exchange – Leading P2P Crypto Exchange with NTF and ETH Staking
- BingX – Crypto Exchange with 125x Leverage and Copy Trading
- Kucoin – P2P Crypto Exchange with Its Native Token
Peer to Peer Crypto Exchanges Analyzed
Time for the most exciting bit. Let’s look at the top P2P crypto exchanges in the industry in more detail.
1. MEXC – Lowest Fee and Largest Volume
MEXC is one of the most liquid crypto exchanges for futures and spot markets, with the deepest books and lowest slippages.
The exchange processes 1.4M transactions per second, all while ensuring stability and efficiency during high-volume periods.
You can buy $USDT, $BTC, $ETH, and $USDC with MEXC’s P2P trading window. There are also various competitions and giveaways for P2P trading.
For example, if your total P2P purchase volume is over $4K, you can earn a Futures Bonus Reward of 10 $USDT. Similarly, if you deposit at least $50 in the P2P market for 7 consecutive days, you can earn up to 20 $USDT.
There’s no shortage of instruments on MEXC, with over 2,000 spot pairs and 1,000 future contracts, making it one of the best crypto exchanges.
Another exciting thing about MEXC is its everyday airdrops. With 1,880+ total events, which translates to 200 events/month, the airdrop APY sits at 52.21%. MEXC has a massive reward pool of $107.08M $USDT.
MEXC also offers pre-market trading – an OTC (over-the-counter) trading facility where investors can buy or sell tokens before they’re listed on exchanges.
It’s similar to what we found in our review of the Best Wallet App, where there’s a separate meme coin zone where you can buy and sell trending meme coins.
MEXC has a success rate of 82.446% regarding meme coin listings. It’s also one of the quickest to identify market momentum and listing tokens on its platform.
461 new spot pairs have been listed in the last three months, 1.5x more than Gate.io.
Moreover, if you’re new to crypto investments, you can also benefit from demo trading (to practice trades in a simulated environment) and copy trading (copy successful traders) facilities.
2. Bybit – Crypto Exchange with 600 P2P Payment Options
Bybit is the world’s second-largest crypto exchange regarding trading volumes, with over 68M registered users. The platform allows trading in over 1,800 listed cryptocurrencies in 160 countries.
Bybit charges zero transaction fees on its P2P exchange, allowing traders to choose from 300 payment options, including credit cards and cash payments.
You can trade in spots, futures, and options on the platform, which has been optimized for traders with the help of various tools.
For instance, there’s a copy trading facility where you can imitate profitable traders’ trades, making it ideal for beginners.
We also found its TradingGPT and Tradingbot pretty handy, which lets you use the power of AI and automation to fine-tune and streamline your trading methodology.
Depending on your trading volume and account balance, many VIP tiers are available on the platform. A VIP status comes with several benefits, including lower fees.
Bybit also takes security seriously. They employ advanced multi-signatures, along with Threshold Signature Schemes (TSS) and Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), to prevent any unauthorized access.
Besides this, there are regular audits and an active bug bounty program that helps strengthen the overall security framework of the platform.
3. Binance Exchange – Leading P2P Crypto Exchange with NTF and ETH Staking
Binance Exchange is one of the best-centralized crypto exchanges, with an average daily trading volume of $65B and 267M+ users.
Its P2P platform is one of the most comprehensive we’ve seen. Besides common assets such as BTC, USDC, and USDT, you can even buy tokens such as DAI, FDUSD, TRUMP, and TST on Binance, making it a versatile choice.
You can also apply to become a P2P merchant for benefits like verified badges, a 50% discount on fees, and exclusive customer support.
Like other crypto exchanges, Binance has a comprehensive tier of trading fees, depending on your VIP level.
A regular user with a 30-day trading volume of less than $1,000,000 must pay a maker-and-taker fee of 0.10%.
A trader at the VIP 3 level (with > $20M trading volume) will have to pay only 0.0400% maker fees and 0.060% taker fees.
Even if you’re not a regular trader, you can use Binance’s auto-invest feature to accumulate your favorite digital assets regularly over a period of time, much like a SIP.
Plus, there’s a separate NFT marketplace where you can buy and trade in popular NFT tokens. Binance also does a good job on the security front with protocols like 2FA.
Moreover, you’ll get safe biometric-based sign-ins and access control. It complies with KYC and anti-money laundering norms, too, to ensure its users stay safe.
4. BingX – Crypto Exchange with 125x Leverage and Copy Trading
BingX, a name you must have seen on a Chelsea jersey, is a popular P2P crypto exchange with 20M+ users.
You can also trade 1,000+ spots and futures with a 125x leverage. We also love that BingX allows you to deploy a grid trading strategy for both futures and spots.
This is also one of the best no-KYC crypto exchanges, as you can enjoy benefits like 20K $USDT withdrawals without any verifications.
With BingX, you can become a registered P2P merchant if you meet certain requirements. For instance, you need to:
- Hold more than (or equal to) 200 $USDT in your Fund Account
- Link your phone number and email to your account and
- Submit your social media account details
The most significant benefit of becoming a merchant is that you can post ads without any fee, saving you a lot of money if you’re a regular P2P trader.
You can also access BingX’s marketing resources and one-on-one customer support. You can also enable security verification while posting a P2P ad.
This way, potential buyers won’t be able to see the payment details on the ad unless they complete a 2FA verification on chat.
You get a lot of traders to choose from – try applying various filters, such as account level, account assets, ROI, and so on, to find the perfect trader.
BingX’s trading fee structure is similar to Bybit’s (between 0.05% and 0.10%). To enjoy a lower fee, you can become a VIP member with at least 10 M of trading volume in the last 30 days.
5. Kucoin – P2P Crypto Exchange with a Native Token
With more than 40M investors in 200 countries, Kucoin is one of the most trusted P2P crypto exchange platforms on the market.
Its P2P portal allows you to buy and sell $USDT, $USDC, $BTC, and $ETH with over 100 payment options, including 30+ local currencies.
Plus, KuCoin doesn’t charge any fees on P2P trading, allowing you to cut down on ancillary trading costs.
You get spot and margin trading facilities on Kucoin, with up to 10x leverage. Plus, a handy trading bot for various strategies, such as Martingale and DSA, helps you get a detailed overview of crypto markets.
Just like MEXC, there’s also a pre-market trading window. However, we found the selection of assets smaller than MEXC.
Now, let’s say you own more than 10,000 $KCS; in that case, the charges are reduced to a 0.072% taker fee. To pay a 0% taker fee, you need to own at least 80,000 $KCS.
You can also apply to become a P2P merchant. Kucoin has three levels of merchant benefits – Verified, Gold, and Fox King, each with its own set of benefits and requirements.
Holding $KCS also comes with other benefits, such as higher withdrawal limits, customized OTC channels (over-the-counter), more sub-accounts, etc.
One of the most impressive features of Kucoin is its KuCard, which allows you to make instant crypto-to-fiat payments. With KuCard, you can use your crypto funds to make real-time POS and online payments at VISA-accepting stores.
The Best Decentralized Exchange Platforms Compared
Here’s a quick table highlighting the key differences between all our top picks to help you better compare them:
|
Exchange Platform
|
Fees
|
Account Minimum |
Supported Cryptocurrencies
|
Fiat Supported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEXC |
0% maker fees
0.02%-0.05% taker fees
|
$1 |
2,900+
|
20, including $USD, $EUR, $JPY, and $KRW
|
|
0.0200%- 0.15% maker fees
0.0550%- 0.20% taker fee
|
$1 |
1800+
|
60+ options, including $USD, $EUR, $AUD, and $AED | |
| Binance Exchange |
0.0200%-0.10% maker fees
0.0500%-0.10% taker fee
|
$1 | 500+ |
115 options, including $USD, $EUR, $AED, and $JPY
|
| BingX |
0.0200%-0.1% maker fees
0.0500%-0.1% taker fee
|
$1 | 800+ |
Only $EUR, $CHF, $JPY, and $AUD
|
| Kucoin |
0.020%-0.100% maker fees
0.060%-0.100% taker fee on futures
|
$1 | 700+ |
50, including $USD, $EUR, $GBP, $VND, and $INR
|
What Are Peer-to-Peer Exchanges?
A peer-to-peer crypto exchange is a platform that allows buyers and sellers to exchange cryptocurrencies on the blockchain network without the involvement of any third-party centralized or decentralized exchanges.
Let’s say [X] wants to sell 2 BTC, and [Y] wants to buy 2 BTC. Usually, they’d have to find a crypto exchange, deposit funds, pay gas fees, and execute the transaction individually.
Alternatively, [X] can make and list an ad on a P2P crypto exchange. [Y], upon seeing the ad, can show interest in buying 2 BTC.
The P2P exchange will hold the crypto in escrow until the seller confirms the receipt of payment. Once confirmed, the exchange will deposit the asset in the buyer’s wallet.
Thus, a P2P exchange acts as a mere middleman.
P2P Crypto Exchanges Pros and Cons
Before diving in, knowing the good and seemingly inconvenient aspects of P2P exchanges is crucial. Here are their pros and cons in detail.
Pros
Below is a selection of pros for using P2P crypto exchanges:
Lower Fees
Since there are no intermediaries between the buyer and seller in P2P transactions, the overall fees paid for P2P transactions are also less.
However, the exchange and payment provider fees may differ from one exchange to the other. Still, this is often less than what you’d pay if you purchased these assets from the open market.
Bypasses Censorships
A lot of the time, certain crypto assets or exchanges might be banned in some countries, which prevents buyers from transacting in the open market.
However, the P2P exchanges bypass these censorship measures as the transaction is between the buyer and the seller.
Financial Inclusion
Unlike traditional exchanges, you get more control over the buying and selling price during P2P transactions. If you manage to strike a good deal, you can even buy assets at prices lower than the market price.
Increased Privacy
The transaction is purely between two parties, so there’s no need for extensive KYC processes, although basic identification is still required. This helps you maintain privacy and protect your data from identity thieves.
Cons
Along with all the positives of P2P transactions, there are also some downsides you need to be wary of:
Liquidity and Liquidity Pools
P2P markets work a lot like matchmaking. If you want to buy $BTC, someone must also be willing to sell it.
Given the simultaneous and opposite needs requirement, liquidity can be an issue with P2P transactions.
Scams
It’s easier to fall prey to scams while doing a P2P transaction. Common scams include fake payment confirmations, chargebacks or reversible transactions, identity theft, etc.
It’s essential to rely only on a trusted P2P exchange for better due diligence.
Slow Transactions
P2P transactions are not as quick as directly buying crypto from exchanges.
You’ll have to manually pay the seller, send them a payment confirmation, and wait for them to acknowledge the payment. The whole process can take a few hours or more.
A Guide to Picking the Best Decentralized Exchange
Because there are many options on the market, you must be careful when shopping for the best P2P crypto exchange. Here are some things you need to keep in mind:
- Security – Check whether security protocols, such as 2FA and biometrics, are in place and that the exchange goes through regular smart contract audits.
- Safe Storage – It’s also worth checking if the exchange stores a major portion of funds in cold storage, which protects them from unauthorized access and cyber hacks.
- Liquidity and Slippage – A liquid exchange means that there are a lot of market participants, leading to lower slippages. Look at the Total Value Locked (TVL) of an exchange – the higher the TVL, the more the liquidity and the lower the slippages.
- Fees and Network Costs – Maker and taker fees can chip off a chunk of your profits. Study the fee structure of various DEXs, including hidden fees. Some exchanges also offer zero fees on P2P and spot trading.
- Supported Assets – Besides common assets, such as $BTC, look at some other tokens offered for trading. The more assets, the more opportunities you have to make profits. Also, check if the exchange supports cross-chain swaps for easy asset transfers.
What Wallet to Use on a P2P Exchange?
Confused as to how you can go about buying crypto through a P2P platform? Here’s a complete step-by-step guide to help you through the process.
We’ve used MEXC for this example, but note that the process is similar for other exchanges.
Step 1: Open MEXC’s P2P Trading Window
Once you make an account on MEXC and log in, click ‘Buy Crypto’ in the top left corner and select P2P trading.
A new window will open, where you must choose a currency and seller from the ads. Click ‘Buy USDT.’
Step 2: Fill in Your Purchase Information
You’ll now see a new purchasing window, where you’ll need to fill in the quantity of $USDT you’re willing to pay.
Make sure you check the supported payment option listed by the seller. Once you’ve filled in the info, click ‘Buy USDT.’
Step 3: Make Payment
A new ‘Order’ window will load, where you’ll have 15 minutes to pay the seller as per your chosen method.
You can even contact the merchant through the live chat option. Once the payment is done, click ‘Confirm’ and wait for the merchant to release the $USDT.
Step 4: Transfer Crypto to Best Wallet
Although not necessary, we recommend transferring your purchased crypto to a secure crypto wallet like Best Wallet.
It’s a non-custodial wallet, meaning you’ll have complete control over your private keys.
Furthermore, it uses advanced cryptographic techniques and rock-solid authentication verification systems like 2FA and biometrics to ensure only you can access your crypto.
Wrapping Up: The Best Peer-to-Peer Crypto Exchanges
P2P crypto exchanges, unlike CEX and DEX platforms, allow crypto transactions directly between a buyer and seller without any intermediaries.
These platforms act as facilitators, lowering transaction fees and better privacy.
MEXC is one of the world’s leading P2P crypto exchanges with the largest liquidity and zero fees on P2P transactions.
Besides this, it charges 0% maker and taker fees on spot transactions. You can also benefit from daily airdrops and rewards, 2,900+ spot pairs, and 1,000+ future contracts trading.
You can even buy meme coins and tokens before they’re listed on exchanges. All in all, MEXC happens to be a one-stop solution for all crypto trading needs.
That said, doing your own research before diving in is important. Although we’ve tested and reviewed these platforms, none of this article is a substitute for financial advice.
FAQs
1. Which P2P crypto exchange is the best?
MEXC is one of the best P2P crypto exchanges, offering the industry’s highest liquidity and lowest fees. You can trade 2,900 spot pairs and 1,000 future contracts with 0% maker fees.
Besides this, there’s a special memecoin zone, where you can invest in trending meme coins, and a pre-market trading facility to invest in tokens before they’re listed on exchanges.
2. Which peer-to-peer exchanges are good for trading?
MEXC, Bybit, and Binance exchange are some of the most popular P2P exchanges. While MEXC offers the lowest trading fee, you get a wider selection of P2P tokens on Binance. Bybit is the world’s second-largest crypto exchange and charges zero transaction fees on its P2P exchange, making it a good choice for large-volume traders.
3. What’s the difference between CEX, DEX, and P2P exchanges?
A centralized exchange (CEX) facilitates trading between buyer and seller by acting as an intermediary. CEX holds your funds and private keys but allows for faster transactions.
On the flip side, decentralized exchanges use smart contracts so market participants can trade without intermediaries. Here, you retain full control of your private keys.
P2P exchanges allow buyers and sellers to connect directly to buy and sell crypto per their payment preferences.
4. Is P2P good for crypto?
Yes. You pay a lower fee on P2P transactions since you buy assets directly from the buyer without a middleman. P2P transactions also work in jurisdictions that otherwise restrict crypto exchanges. Besides this, you don’t have to go through an extensive KYC process and can even negotiate a better price, lower than the market value.