Bittrex is an exchange for buying and selling crypto. It bills itself as The Easiest Way To Buy And Sell Instantly.
Bittrex can be funded three ways with US Dollars. The first way is to link a bank account for ACH transfers. This will depend on the US Bank that you use. Bittrex uses a third-party system for linking accounts called Plaid. Plaid works with larger banks, but not many small or regional banks. If your bank is not on the Plaid list, then you will not be able to fund with ACH transfers, which is the least expensive way.
The second way to fund with US Dollars is a debit card. Bittrex is not a US Exchange. If your debit card is Visa or Mastercard, you may inquire an additional fee for foreign currency exchange. This is in addition, to the 3 percent charge that Bittrex will levy for using a debit card. The two fees together can be around 6% which is pretty steep.
The third way to fund with US Dollars is to send a wire transfer. The fee for wire transfer will depend on your bank. Most banks charge $15 to $30 per wire transfer. The fee is normally a flat fee, so wiring a larger sum is more economical than wiring a small sum.
Once there are funds in Bittrex, the funds may be used instantly for trades, but depending on how you funded, the funds may not be available for immediate withdrawal. Bittrex may hold account funds for up to 14 days before allowing the funds to be withdrawn or transferred.
In addition to funding with US Dollars, Bittrex can be funded with crypto.
After your account has funds, you can execute purchases of crypto on Bittrex. However, not all crypto is immediately available for withdrawal.
Notice how some crypto has a yellow triangle? Those cyrptos can be purchased and sold, but not withdrawn or deposited from wallets. At any given time, up to 50% of Bittrex’s cryptos are not available for withdrawal to a wallet. And there is not time frame for when those cryptos will become available. This isn’t a problem if you plan to buy and sell crypto and never transfer crypto to a wallet. But it is a problem if you want to take your crypto to a secure wallet off the exchange. Bittrex doesn’t have a live chat system or phone system. There is an autobot for frequently asked questions and you can put a ticket in for a response. Ticket responses can take several days.
A quick discussion of security, Bittrex uses authentication. Our experience has been with Google Authenticator which we have found useful. However, the fact that we cannot easily move purchased crypto to an offline wallet makes us feel less secure.
We will be reviewing more exchanges in the future. What’s your thoughts on exchanges and what do you like or dislike about Bittrex?
