How We Score Crypto Exchanges

The Seven Parts Of The Exchange Score

Each of the seven parts gets a subscore from 0 to 5. We multiply each subscore by its weight, add the results and round to one decimal place.

• Measured cost to buy (25%): what you pay to buy crypto, from our own price collector
• Safety and legal record (25%): hacks, regulatory penalties and registration
• Reserves and transparency (15%): whether the exchange shows it holds what customers own
• Reliability (10%): uptime, from each exchange's public status page
• Withdrawals (10%): the cost and speed of moving cash and coins out
• Coin selection and availability (10%): which coins you can buy, and where the exchange is allowed to serve you
• Ease of use (5%): how simple it is to open an account, buy and keep records

Here's how the math works on a made-up exchange with an average cost to buy of 0.40%, which scores 4.5 under the cost bands below. Subscores of 4.5 for cost, 4.0 for safety, 3.0 for reserves, 5.0 for reliability, 4.0 for withdrawals, 3.5 for selection and 4.0 for ease of use add up to 4.025, which rounds to an overall score of 4.0.

We store every exchange's subscores, overall score and sources in one shared data file. That keeps the score identical on our rankings, reviews and coin pages.

Measured Cost To Buy (25%)

The cost subscore is based on what it costs to buy $1,000 of crypto, measured by our own collector every minute. For each exchange, the collector takes the best asking price, adds the exchange's lowest-tier taker fee on its advanced trading platform and compares the total with the Cult of Money Price at that minute. The difference, as a percentage of the purchase, is the cost to buy.

On Nov 1, 2026, buying $1,000 of bitcoin this way cost about 0.07% on Binance.US, 0.1% on global OKX, about 0.36% on OKX US, 0.4% on Bitstamp, about 0.52% on Crypto.com, 0.8% on Kraken, 0.9% on Coinbase and 1.2% on Gemini. That's a difference of about $11 on the same $1,000 purchase. The order was the same for Ethereum, Solana and XRP. Averaged across all four coins, those costs earned cost subscores of 5.0 for Binance.US and global OKX, 4.5 for OKX US and Bitstamp, 4.0 for Crypto.com, Kraken and Coinbase, and 3.0 for Gemini.

We turn a month of readings into a subscore in three steps:

1. Take the monthly median. We use the median cost across all minutes of the month for BTC, ETH, SOL and XRP, so one odd minute can't move the score.
2. Apply the bands. A median cost of 0.25% or less scores 5.0. From there: up to 0.50% scores 4.5, up to 1.00% scores 4.0, up to 1.50% scores 3.0, up to 2.00% scores 2.5, up to 3.00% scores 2.0, and anything higher scores 1.0.
3. Check spread stability. If the costliest 5% of minutes in the month ran more than twice the median, we take 0.5 off. That catches exchanges whose prices jump when markets get busy, which is when many people buy.

We set these bands on Nov 10, 2026. The lowest-tier taker fee on the advanced platforms at the big US exchanges sits between 0.5% and 1%, and our earlier bands graded that normal US price as mediocre. The current bands still give the top grade to the cheapest venues, and they still separate them clearly from Gemini's 1.2%. An exchange we can't measure yet is graded on its published lowest-tier taker fee until our collector can read its prices. Uphold blocks our collector and has no separate trading fee, so until the collector can read it, Uphold's cost is estimated from the spread schedule on its own fee page. On Nov. 10, 2026, those published spreads averaged about 2.6% across BTC, ETH, SOL and XRP, using the middle of each range, for a cost subscore of 2.0.

The simple "Buy" button in most exchange apps costs more than the advanced platform, and that markup doesn't show up in any public data feed. Our cost subscore uses the advanced trading platforms we can measure. Apps that build their cost into the price and don't publish it, such as Robinhood, Cash App and PayPal, are listed without a score.

Safety And Legal Record (25%)

The safety subscore starts at 5.0 and loses points for hacks, withdrawal freezes and regulatory penalties. The records come from our crypto hacks tracker and our crypto fines and penalties tracker, which cite the regulator's own order or press release and the exchange's own statements.

We count every company in an exchange brand's group. A penalty against an exchange's Australian or European operator costs the same as one against its US company or its parent.

Each event gets a deduction based on how serious it was:

• A criminal guilty plea or a fraud case: 1.5
• Customer funds harmed or frozen, such as a withdrawal freeze that wasn't caused by a hack: 1.0
• A civil penalty, scaled by size: 1.0 for $100 million or more, 0.5 for $10 million to $100 million, 0.25 for $1 million to $10 million and 0.1 for anything smaller
• A hack where customers weren't repaid: 2.0
• A hack where customers were partly repaid, or the outcome is still pending: 1.0, adjusted once the outcome is known
• A hack where customers were fully repaid: 0.25
• A case that was dismissed, vacated or dropped: 0, though it stays listed on the penalties tracker

Each deduction is then multiplied by how long ago the event happened, so old problems count for less than new ones:

• Within the past 3 years: the full deduction (times 1.0)
• 3 to 6 years ago: times 0.6
• 6 to 10 years ago: times 0.35
• More than 10 years ago: times 0.2

We add up the results and subtract them from 5.0. The subscore never goes below 0.5, however many events an exchange has.

Here's how that works for Kraken, using the events in our data:

• Australian court penalty, December 2024: the Federal Court ordered Kraken's Australian operator to pay A$8 million (about $5.1 million). That's a civil penalty of $1 million to $10 million (0.25), less than 3 years old (times 1.0), for a deduction of 0.25.
• SEC staking settlement, February 2023: $30 million, a civil penalty of $10 million to $100 million (0.5), 3 to 6 years old (times 0.6), for a deduction of 0.30.
• CFTC settlement, September 2021: $1.25 million, a civil penalty of $1 million to $10 million (0.25), 3 to 6 years old (times 0.6), for a deduction of 0.15.
• SEC lawsuit filed in 2023: dismissed in March 2025, so no deduction.

The deductions add up to 0.70, which gives Kraken a safety subscore of 5.0 minus 0.70, or 4.3.

Reserves And Transparency (15%)

The reserves subscore measures how much proof an exchange offers that customer assets are there. Points add up to a maximum of 5.0:

• Audited financial statements, made public: 1.5. Public companies such as Coinbase file these with the SEC, and they can be read on SEC EDGAR.
• Proof of reserves that covers customer liabilities, published at least quarterly: 1.5. A report that shows assets only, with no matching liabilities, earns 0.5.
• Reserve report checked by an independent accounting firm: 1.0
• Published wallet addresses that anyone can check on-chain: 0.5. We compare these with DefiLlama's exchange transparency data.
• Customer terms that say your assets are held for you and aren't lent out unless you opt in: 0.5

Proof of reserves has limits. A report is a snapshot of one day, and an exchange can borrow to look solvent for that day. That's why audited financials and customer terms count alongside it.

Reliability (10%)

The reliability subscore comes from uptime on each exchange's public status page, which our collector checks every hour. Any hour with a major or critical incident affecting trading, deposits, withdrawals or logins counts as down time. An hour with degraded service counts as half.

On Nov 1, 2026, Kraken's status page showed "Partially Degraded Service" while Coinbase, Gemini, Bitstamp and Crypto.com reported all systems working.

We score uptime over the past three months: 99.9% or better scores 5.0, 99.5% scores 4.0, 99.0% scores 3.0, 98.0% scores 2.0, and anything lower scores 1.0. Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, Bitstamp and Crypto.com publish status pages, which our collector reads every 10 minutes. For exchanges without one, including Binance.US, OKX and the international exchanges, we use how often their public price feed answered our collector each minute.

Withdrawals (10%)

The withdrawals subscore splits evenly between what it costs to get your money out and how fast it arrives. We check each exchange's fee schedule and help pages every month.

Cost (up to 2.5 points):

• Crypto withdrawal fees: up to 1.5. We compare the fee for sending BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP and USDC with the live network fee at the time, from mempool.space for bitcoin and public chain nodes for the rest. An average markup under $1 earns 1.5, $1 to $5 earns 1.0, $5 to $15 earns 0.5 and more than $15 earns nothing.
• Cash withdrawals to a bank: up to 1.0. Free bank transfers earn 1.0, a fee earns 0.5 and no bank withdrawals earns nothing.

Speed (up to 2.5 points):

• Crypto processing time: 1.0 if withdrawals go out automatically within an hour, 0.5 if within a day
• Hold on new bank deposits before you can send coins out: 1.0 for under three days, 0.5 for three to seven days
• Low minimums: 0.5 if the minimum lets you move a small balance of each coin

Coin Selection And Availability (10%)

The selection subscore splits evenly between how many coins you can buy and where the exchange is allowed to serve customers.

Coins (up to 2.5 points) are measured against the top 100 coins by market value on our price pages, not counting stablecoins and tokenized funds. Listing 60 or more earns 2.5, 40 to 59 earns 2.0, 20 to 39 earns 1.5, 10 to 19 earns 1.0 and fewer earns 0.5.

Availability (up to 2.5 points) is measured by state for exchanges that serve the US. All 50 states plus Washington, D.C., earns 2.5, 45 or more earns 2.0, 35 or more earns 1.5 and fewer earns 1.0.

Exchanges that don't serve the US are scored on the other markets we cover instead, at 0.625 points each: the UK, Canada, the European Union and Australia. We check each against the regulator's own register: the UK's Financial Conduct Authority, the Canadian Securities Administrators, the EU's MiCA register and AUSTRAC in Australia. These exchanges appear in our tables under "All exchanges" and never under "Available to me" for US readers.

Ease Of Use (5%)

The ease-of-use subscore is a five-point checklist, one point each, that an editor checks against each platform's own sign-up steps, fee pages and help center:

• Account approval within one business day
• The full cost shown before you confirm a purchase
• Recurring buys
• Live help by chat or phone for account problems
• Tax forms and a full transaction export you can download

How Often Exchange Scores Update

Exchange scores update once a month, using the previous calendar month's cost and reliability data and a fresh check of fees, reserves, coin lists and state availability. Every score shows the date it was last updated.

Some events can't wait a month. A new hack, enforcement action, withdrawal freeze, bankruptcy filing or exit from a market triggers a rescore of safety and availability within two business days. We don't pull an exchange from our rankings when it runs into trouble, because its track record already counts in its score. Instead, an exchange that has paused or limited withdrawals gets a caution flag next to its name in our rankings and on its review. The flag says which coins are affected and the date we last checked, and it comes off once withdrawals are back to normal.

Partners Can't Buy A Better Score

Some exchanges pay us when readers sign up through our links, and none of them can pay for a higher score. These rules apply to every exchange we score:

• No commercial input: The formula has no field for whether an exchange pays us, how much, or whether it advertises with us.
• One collector, one rubric: Partners and non-partners are measured by the same collector and scored on the same bands.
• No previews: Partners don't see scores before they're published and can't ask for changes. If a partner points out a factual error with a primary source, we fix it the same way we would for anyone.
• Fixed order: Tables sort by score or by how much crypto your money buys. A partner's "Visit Site" button never moves its row.
• No rescoring for deals: A partnership starting or ending doesn't trigger a rescore.

How we make money explains our partner links, and our editorial policy covers corrections.

What The Exchange Score Doesn't Measure

The Exchange Score compares exchanges as places to buy, hold and move crypto. It doesn't measure:

• Whether a coin is worth buying. We don't make price predictions or buy and sell calls.
• Whether an exchange will fail. A good safety record describes the past. FTX looked healthy to many customers until it collapsed in November 2022.
• Futures, margin and other derivatives. We score spot buying only.
• Staking and rewards rates. Those are covered on our crypto savings tracker, scored with its own method.
• How well customer complaints get resolved. Our page on how to file a complaint against a crypto exchange explains your options.
• Deposit insurance. No exchange score means your crypto is insured. The FDIC says its coverage doesn't extend to crypto assets.

What To Watch Out For

Treat the Exchange Score as a starting point, not a verdict. Fees, state availability and coin lists change between monthly updates, so check the exchange's own fee page before you buy. Status pages and reserve reports are published by the exchanges themselves, and we can only score what they disclose.

The lowest-cost exchange for a $1,000 bitcoin purchase may not be the lowest-cost one for a small purchase in the app or a large purchase of a thinly traded coin. Keeping a large balance on any exchange carries custody risk, which our page on why you can't trust centralized exchanges covers.

FAQ

What Is The Cult Of Money Exchange Score?

The Cult of Money Exchange Score is a rating from 0 to 5 that compares crypto exchanges on seven weighted parts. Measured cost to buy and the safety and legal record each count for 25%, and most of the inputs come from data we collect ourselves.

Can An Exchange Pay For A Higher Score?

No. Whether an exchange pays us isn't an input in the formula, partners can't preview or approve their scores, and a partnership starting or ending never triggers a rescore. Partners and non-partners are measured by the same collector.

How Often Do Exchange Scores Change?

Exchange scores update monthly from the previous month's data. A hack, enforcement action, withdrawal freeze or bankruptcy triggers a safety rescore within days instead of waiting for the monthly update.

Why Does Cost To Buy Count For So Much?

Cost to buy is the part of using an exchange that you pay every time, and it varies widely. On Nov 1, 2026, the same $1,000 bitcoin purchase cost about 0.07% on one US exchange and 1.2% on another, measured by our collector.

Why Did The Cost Bands Change?

On Nov 10, 2026, we widened the cost bands. The lowest-tier advanced-platform fee at the big US exchanges, such as Kraken's 0.80% and Coinbase's 0.90%, sits between 0.5% and 1%, and the old bands scored that normal US price at only 3.0 to 3.5. Now 1.00% or less scores 4.0, while 0.25% or less still scores 5.0 and Gemini's 1.2% scores 3.0, so the cheapest exchanges stay clearly ahead. The change raised Kraken's overall score from 3.7 to 4.0, Crypto.com's from 3.7 to 3.8, Coinbase's from 3.3 to 3.5, OKX US's from 3.3 to 3.4 and Gemini's from 2.8 to 2.9. Safety and the other five parts didn't change.

Does A High Score Mean An Exchange Is Safe?

A high score means an exchange has a clean recent record and shares more proof of its reserves than most. It can't guarantee the exchange won't be hacked or fail, and crypto held on an exchange isn't covered by FDIC insurance.

Are Exchanges Outside The US Scored?

Yes. International exchanges get the same score, with availability measured in the UK, Canada, the EU and Australia instead of by US state. They appear under "All exchanges" in our tables, and US readers won't see them under "Available to me."