US crypto exchange comparison: fees, state availability and exportable history
What a $1,000 bitcoin purchase really costs on 24 platforms, from 20 cents to about $28, which ones serve your state, and how much of your history each lets you get back. That last point matters more since Form 1099-DA.
Checked on 7 October 2026 against each platform’s own fee schedule and terms of use. This comparison is updated every six months at the same address; the changelog is at the bottom of the page.
This US crypto exchange comparison won’t name “the best” platform. It compares which states each one serves, what a purchase costs, and how much history you can get back. Since Form 1099-DA, that last point matters to your tax preparer too. I measure it in the code of Crypto Master and on my own accounts: Kraken returns my whole ledger, OKX forgets my trades after 90 days.
The comparison at a glance
| Platform | Serves US residents | Taker fee, first tier | History you can get back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coinbase | every state | 0.90% (Advanced) | API: buys, sells, sends, rewards; a file for old conversions |
| Kraken | all but Maine and New York | 0.80% (Kraken Pro) | API: everything since you opened the account |
| Robinhood | every state, DC, Puerto Rico, USVI | no commission, a spread | API: every trade; deposits and withdrawals only in a yearly CSV |
| OKX US | all but New York and four territories | 0.35% | API: 90 days of trades; one file per quarter |
| Gemini | all 50 states | 1.20% (ActiveTrader) | export file |
| Crypto.com | all but New York | 0.50% (Exchange) | export file |
| Binance.US | not in 12 states and 4 territories, including New York and Texas | 0.02% | export file |
| Bitstamp | not in Hawaii or Nevada, per its last notice (2025) | 0.40% | export file |
| Binance, Bybit, Bitget, KuCoin, MEXC, Gate, HTX | no: their terms exclude US residents | 0.05% to 0.20% | export files, if you have an old account |
History depths for Kraken and OKX are measured on my own accounts, and OKX US runs the same API. The others come from their documentation.
What each platform charges
Exchanges with an order book charge a percentage per order. Apps and brokers sell you the coin with a fee, a spread (the gap between market price and the price you’re shown), or both. Figures taken on 7 October 2026 from each platform’s US schedule.
Exchanges with an order book
“Maker” means your order waits in the book at your price (a limit order). “Taker” means it fills at once at market price. Compare taker rates.
| Exchange | Maker | Taker | $1,000 bought at market | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Binance.US | 0% | 0.02% | $0.20 | 0.01% taker on BNB/USD; card deposits 3.99% |
| OKX US | 0.20% | 0.35% | $3.50 | no fee on four stablecoin pairs |
| Bitstamp | 0.30% | 0.40% | $4 | Bitstamp USA, Inc.; schedule valid from 1 September 2026 |
| Crypto.com Exchange | 0.25% | 0.50% | $5 | 0% / 0.44% with a balance of 50,000 CRO |
| Kraken Pro | 0.40% | 0.80% | $8 | same first tier as in Europe |
| Coinbase Advanced | 0.50% | 0.90% | $9 | cut from 0.60% / 1.20% in September 2026 |
| Robinhood, exchange routing | 0.50% | 0.95% | $9.50 | optional; the default routing has no commission |
| Gemini ActiveTrader | 0.60% | 1.20% | $12 |
US schedules aren’t always what comparison sites copy: Coinbase’s entry taker rate is 0.90% in the US, 0.50% in Europe. Check the page that serves your country.
Apps and brokers
| Platform | Cost of a $1,000 bitcoin buy | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Charles Schwab | $7.50 (0.75%, no spread) | bitcoin and ether only; still rolling out, its page offers early access |
| Cash App | $9 (0.9%) plus a spread of up to 0.75% | bitcoin only; no fee and no spread on Auto Invest, Round Ups and buys over $2,000 |
| Robinhood | about $9.60 of spread | no commission; 0.96% is Robinhood’s own example, of which it keeps 0.95% |
| Webull Pay | $10 (1% spread) | |
| eToro US | $10 (1%) | not available in Nevada, Hawaii, Puerto Rico or the USVI |
| Fidelity Crypto | $10 (1%) | shown as a separate fee since December 2025 |
| Kraken, instant buy | $10 (1%) plus the spread | 1.5% on custom orders; Kraken+ waives the fee on up to $10,000 a month |
| OKX US, Buy and Convert | up to $10 (spread of up to 1%) | no separate fee |
| Bitstamp, Basic Trading | $18 to $23 | a fixed 1.8% spread plus up to 0.5% when markets move |
| SoFi Crypto | $19 (1.90%) | 1.90% on your first $1,000 of the month, down to 0.90% above $10,000 |
| Uphold | $20.50 to $22 (spread of 2.05% to 2.2%) | altcoins 2.85% to 3.8%; $0.99 more on trades under $500 |
| PayPal and Venmo | $18 (1.80%) plus an estimated 1% spread | 2.20% under $75; PYUSD exempt |
Coinbase, Gemini, Crypto.com and Binance.US publish no rate for their app’s “Buy” button: the spread, and sometimes a fee, only shows on the review screen before you confirm.
The trap: instant buy
Order book rates only apply in the “advanced” or “pro” interface. The app’s “Buy” button costs a fee plus the spread. Kraken publishes both:
| How you buy | Fee | On a $1,000 purchase |
|---|---|---|
| Instant buy (app) | 1%, plus the spread | $10, plus the spread |
| Kraken Pro, market order (taker) | 0.80% | $8 |
| Kraken Pro, limit order (maker) | 0.40% | $4 |
The spread, which no schedule quantifies, widens the gap. On a monthly buy, a limit order makes the fee two and a half times smaller. Compare taker with taker.
The fees people forget
- Paying by card: 3.99% at Binance.US, 4% for Bitstamp’s instant purchase. A bank transfer is usually free.
- Withdrawing coins to a wallet: a fixed amount per coin and per network, heavy on small sums.
- The currency of the fee: some exchanges charge it in another asset. A buy price worked out without it comes out too low.
An honest opinion: on a $100 monthly buy, Binance.US and PayPal differ by about $3 a month, and Cash App’s Auto Invest costs nothing. On small sums, state access and history matter more.
The global giants: lower fees, but not for US residents
The world’s biggest exchanges charge less than most US platforms, but their own terms of use rule out US residents.
| Exchange | Maker | Taker | Paying fees in its own token | Serves US residents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEXC | 0% | 0.05% | 0.04% taker with MX | no |
| Binance | 0.10% | 0.10% | 0.075% with BNB | no: Binance.US instead |
| Bybit | 0.10% | 0.10% | 0.075% with MNT | no |
| Bitget | 0.10% | 0.10% | 0.08% with BGB | no |
| KuCoin | 0.10% | 0.10% | 20% off with KCS | no |
| Gate | 0.10% | 0.10% | 0.09% with GT | no: its site sends US visitors to a separate US site |
| HTX | 0.20% | 0.20% | 0.15% with HTX | no |
These are the global schedules at the first tier, for a pair like BTC/USDT; KuCoin charges 0.2% or 0.3% on its smaller pairs.
Binance and Binance.US are two different companies: Binance.com’s November 2023 settlement with the US Treasury requires its “complete exit from the United States”. OKX works the same way, with OKX US.
If you opened an account on one of them before you moved, or before they closed the door, export your full history while you can still log in. Without it, the next platform only sees a deposit, with no cost.
Form 1099-DA: why your history matters more now
Since 2025, US brokers report your crypto sales to the IRS on Form 1099-DA. The IRS page on digital assets sets the timeline: “Brokers must report gross proceeds for transactions effected on or after Jan. 1, 2025. Brokers must report basis on certain transactions effected on or after Jan. 1, 2026.”
Read “certain transactions” twice. Per the Form 1099-DA instructions, basis is only reported for a coin acquired after 2025, in an account where that broker holds it for you. Everything else comes with the sale price and no basis:
- coins you bought before 2026;
- coins you transferred in from another exchange or from your own wallet;
- coins from an exchange you no longer use.
For those, you document the basis yourself, from the history of every platform you used. The IRS figures that basis lot by lot, not as an average. Crypto Master keeps that history in one place, and works out those lots account by account.
How much of your history each platform lets you export
Beyond the thirty days a screen shows, there’s the API, which a read-only key opens to a tracking tool, and export files. Three different limits:
- Retention: beyond a certain date, the API no longer keeps the data.
- A rolling window: the API only returns the last few days, and what falls out is gone from it. That’s OKX, and it’s the costliest trap.
- A missing door: the API has no endpoint at all. That’s Robinhood’s deposits and withdrawals.
Kraken: everything, through the API
Kraken’s API returns its whole ledger since you opened the account, with a single permission: “Query ledger entries”. The only trap: Kraken writes bitcoin as XXBT, which a spreadsheet summing by ticker files apart from your other BTC. If you’d rather not create a key, its “Ledgers” export goes into Crypto Master instead, in the same account.
OKX US: the API forgets quickly
OKX’s API returns deposits and withdrawals since opening, but only 90 days of buys and sells, 31 days of funding bills and 24 days of savings interest. I watched the window slide: two rows from 21 August, imported on the morning of 21 September, were gone that afternoon.
For anything older, exports take over: one file per quarter at most. Its preamble states its time zone (UTC+8 on mine), which shifts every timestamp if ignored. Upload your quarters once, then have the API read your account monthly.
Robinhood: every trade, but no deposits
Robinhood’s crypto API returns your orders and nothing else: no deposits, withdrawals or transfers. The account activity report won’t help: Robinhood’s help center says it excludes crypto. Crypto transactions come as a CSV once a year, after your Consolidated 1099.
Until then, a coin you sent to Robinhood seems to come from nowhere. In Crypto Master, with the API connected, those transfers go in by manual entry, as the Robinhood page says.
Coinbase: an API, plus a file for old conversions
Coinbase’s API covers buys, sells, sends and rewards, but some old conversions may be missing. A CSV statement fills the gap, back to account creation (Settings → Accounts → Statements).
Gemini, Binance.US, Crypto.com and the apps: files
For these, use their exports:
- Gemini: the “Exchange Transaction History”, an .xlsx file for the date range you pick.
- Binance.US: “Export Reports”, then a custom CSV report, 12 months at most per report and 10 reports a month.
- Crypto.com: the app’s transaction export, which Crypto Master imports as it is.
- Cash App, PayPal, Venmo, Webull, eToro, Fidelity, SoFi, Uphold, Schwab: whatever statement each one offers. Keep them, even for an app you’ve stopped using.
The others go into Crypto Master by manual entry or a CSV template.
Several platforms: the real cost is keeping track
With one platform whose API keeps everything, its screen is enough, and so is a spreadsheet. From the second account on, formats, time zones and tickers differ. A spreadsheet counts your transfers as purchases, and each 1099-DA only knows its own broker.
What Crypto Master does when you have several
In Crypto Master, Coinbase, Kraken, OKX US and Robinhood connect through a read-only API key. Each one’s page tells you before the button what the API won’t return, and where to find the export that fills the gap.
- Files and the API feed the same account. A transaction already imported is skipped.
- The connectors can only read. A rule checked in the code rejects any order or withdrawal; keys are encrypted. Details are on the Security page. How to create such a key, and check it can’t do anything else, is covered in the read-only API key guide.
- API connectors are refreshed every night: on OKX, before the bills slide out.
Cost basis and gains are calculated across all your accounts. For your return, Crypto Master prepares Form 8949: each sale matched to its lots with FIFO, HIFO or LIFO, as one CSV row per lot and a PDF summary to check against your 1099-DA. The free plan covers three connected accounts and 500 transactions (see pricing).
FAQ
Which crypto exchange has the lowest fees in the US?
At the first tier: Binance.US at 0.02% taker, then OKX US at 0.35%. In the apps, Schwab charges 0.75% with no spread, and Cash App nothing on Auto Invest or buys over $2,000.
Can I use Binance in the US?
Not Binance.com: its terms exclude US residents. Binance.US is a separate platform, not available in 12 states and 4 territories, including New York and Texas.
Which crypto exchanges are available in New York?
Among those checked here: Coinbase, Gemini and Robinhood, with a few coins not tradable at Robinhood in New York. Kraken, OKX US, Crypto.com and Binance.US don’t serve New York residents.
Does Form 1099-DA show my cost basis?
Only for coins acquired after 2025 and held at the reporting broker. For older or transferred-in coins, you document the basis yourself, from your platforms’ history.
Which exchange keeps my whole history?
Kraken, whose API returns its full ledger. Robinhood returns every trade but no deposits or withdrawals, and OKX only 90 days of trades.
What should I do with an old account on an exchange that doesn’t serve the US?
Export your full history while you can still log in, then withdraw your coins. Without the history, your purchase price is lost.
Changelog
- 7 October 2026: first version. Fee schedules and terms of use published by 24 platforms, the IRS pages on Form 1099-DA.
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