This year provided much-needed relief to cryptocurrencies on the back of the broader rise of risky assets and tech stocks, in addition to some industry-specific news. Earlier this year, Grayscale Investments scored a legal win after a court ruled that the SEC shouldn’t have rejected its application to convert its Bitcoin trust into a spot Bitcoin ETF. Grayscale recently filed a form S-3 with the SEC to register its $18 billion Bitcoin trust as a product under the Securities Act of 1933.
A 2023 outlook report on cryptocurrencies published by BitMex earlier this year said that it was unlikely that the Federal Reserve would keep raising interest rates. The report was optimistic amid signs of declining inflation and economic reopening in China. But the latest comments from the Federal Reserve’s chair Jerome Powell have made it clear that the central bank is more than ready to keep raising rates if inflation does not get back to its required levels. The BitMex report advised investors to practice caution and only invest in “legitimate” crypto projects with real use cases. The report also said that the events of 2022 and early 2023 will eventually bode well for the crypto industry as more regulators will embrace legitimate currencies and users will only invest in legal and legitimate cryptocurrencies with real-life applications. The report also mentioned some important positive events for the crypto industry that show that more and more institutional investors are embracing digital currencies. The report said:
“The year also saw a growing number of institutional investors from the TradFi world buy into the crypto premise12, with banks introducing their own stablecoins13 and governments around the world launching pilots14 of CBDCs. On the regulatory front, while developed markets such as the US and European Union15 are putting frameworks in place to oversee the crypto industry and VASPs, the emerging markets of the world are taking the lead.”
The report also said that if inflation does not slow down and liquidity does not come back to crypto industry at full force, crypto investors would still be better off practicing patience and waiting for a broader market rebound. The report quoted comments from Arthur Hayes, the co-founder of BitMEX, who said that when the crypto downturn started bears were predicting “death of Bitcoin” but those predictions did not realize.
A 2022 report from KPMG said that an industry survey showed that the biggest impediment in digital assets investing was high volatility and lack of regulations. While increasing regulations and crackdowns are not boding well for the crypto industry in the short-term, if more regulations end volatility and let legitimate projects solve real problems, investing in digital assets could see more growth in the years to come.
The survey also showed some other interesting results which demonstrate the customer psychology in the industry:
“All respondents who are currently investing in digital assets own Bitcoin and 87 percent currently hold Ethereum – comprising 19 percent and 20 percent of their digital asset holdings respectively [Figure 5]. The top three areas of interest for them with regards to digital assets are store of wealth, decentralised finance and non-fungible tokens/metaverse. Respondents that are not currently investing in digital assets also tend to be more interested in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and stablecoins [Figure 6 on next page]. Several interviewees expressed their interests in investing in decentralised finance and metaverse, as both sectors had gained mainstream attention and presented huge growth potential. One high-net worth investor said he does not currently invest in digital assets but is open to gaining digital asset exposure in the future. In particular, he said he was bullish on Ethereum’s scalability and ecosystem development following the upgrade to its blockchain technology, which took place as expected in September.”
Crypto Predictions for 2024 and 2025
Amid this backdrop, countless crypto predictions are started to flood the markets, estimating that cryptocurrencies could register huge rebound this year and in 2024 and beyond. One such prediction came from a crypto analyst known by their pseudo name TechDev, who is very famous on Twitter and is known for their accurate predictions. Earlier this year TechDev said that Bitcoin could be on the cusp of major rebound. To be specific, the analyst thinks Bitcoin could potentially reach a price range of $100,000 to $140,000 by or before 2025.
Another prediction earlier this year came from Standard Chartered Bank, where analysts said that Bitcoin could reach $50,000 by the end of the year, and $120,000 by the end of 2024.
But not all analysts are bullish on cryptocurrency. In October, Mike McGlone, chief commodity strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence, took to Twitter to share his concerns regarding Bitcoin. The analyst believes rising interest rates are expected to take a toll on the currency as he believes Bitcoin could fall to as low as $10,000. The analyst shared a chart and said that Bitcoin liquidity in the fourth quarter of this year is expected to remain negative. The analyst also said that the Fed likely “doesn’t care” about crypto benchmarks. He said that Bitcoin has seen a rise in 2023 along with other risky assets, but this could be only a short-term rally.
Perhaps the biggest challenge for the crypto world is its inability to mark a real dent in the actual economy. Crypto naysayers and bears always ask what could be bought online or in brick and mortar stores using cryptocurrencies and what are the actual benefits of investing in crypto? A Wall Street Journal report earlier this year highlighted that gaming could be the answer to this question. In video games players can buy and sell items using crypto, nonfungible tokens and other digital coins.
The report also quoted Tom Duff Gordon, Coinbase’s vice president of international policy, who said:
“The more we can readily point them to humanitarian use cases around the world and what is happening in gaming, the easier it will be” to prove crypto’s worth and usability to regulators.”
Best Cryptocurrency Exchanges and Apps in 2023
Our Methodology
For this article we scoured different crypto forums online, including Reddit threads, and listed all cryptocurrency exchanges and apps with the best customer and user reviews in 2023. We gave importance to different indicators while narrowing down to our selection, including reliability, security, ease of use, support for different coins, ease of withdrawal and deposits, among other factors.
Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD) does not enjoy a strong reputation at least on Reddit (hint: GME) but the platform does have some factors that make it a decent option for those looking for crypto exchanges and apps in 2023. Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD) is a good option for using debit card instant deposit and buying Bitcoin and withdrawing to a cold wallet. Robinhood is not cheap but its fees is lower than many other platforms. Reddit’s crypto community is usually skeptical of using Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD) for crypto due to the company’s history with GameStop but so far there has not been any major hacking attack or scandal around Robinhood.
Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD)’s management talked about the company’s crypto operations and future plans during Q2 earnings call and said:
“Turning to crypto, we continue to innovate and grow market share while staying mindful of applicable regulations. Our goal is to be the safest, most trusted place for customers to hold, trade and transact with their crypto. We see our recent launches of Robinhood Wallet and Robinhood Connect resonating with customers and we look forward to continuing to invest in crypto.”
Answering a question on crypto, Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD)’s CEO Vladimir Tenev said:
“I’d also add that we’ve offered customers great value in addition to a great customer experience. Like at Robinhood, you get more crypto for your dollar than most of our competitors. And I think we’ve started to do a better job communicating that in the user interface. So, we’re making it incredibly clear to – we’re trying to make it more and more clear to customers, just how good of a value they’re getting. And, of course, I’d add that it’s very important for us to be the most trusted and safest company in crypto. And I think with all the turmoil in the space over the past year or so, I think there has been a little bit of a flight to safety. And we’re seeing that reflected in some of the market share gains you’re seeing and that’s something that we’d like to continue to invest in.”
xGo ranks 11th in our list of the best cryptocurrency apps and exchanges in 2023. The platform is praised for its easy to use design, speed and seamless user experience.
10. Binance
Despite many controversies and criticism, Binance remains one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges and apps in 2023. Binance’s reviews suggest Binance is stable, offers seamless and fast experience and offers a lot of crypto options to buy. Binance is also widely used since it’s available in many countries. It’s also easy to buy crypto on Binance and then move to other platforms.
9. NDAX
NDAX is a top crypto exchange platform for Canadians. NDAX is praised by users for its easy to use interface, support for advanced orders and unlimited recurring buys based on time.
8. KuCoin
KuCoin is one of the most popular crypto exchanges and apps in 2023. This year has been tough for the exchange, which is mostly popular in Canada, amid lawsuits and regulatory pressures in the US. However, crypto enthusiasts like KuCoin’s relatively lower fees and interface.
7. Coinbase Pro (Now Advanced Trade)
Coinbase Pro version ranks 7th in our list of the best cryptocurrency exchanges and apps in 2023. Earlier this year, however, Coinbase said it was closing Coinbase Pro and instead unifying everything into Advanced Trade. Since Coinbase would be running Advanced Trade, it’s safe to assume that all the good features customers liked about Coinbase Pro would be available in Advanced Trade as well. Some of the notable features that make Coinbase Pro popular among users include in-app crypto conversion, stability, safety, reliability, automatic DCA, among others.
Some drawbacks included a lack of support for smaller coins and high fees.
6. Bybit
Bybt ranks 6th in our list of the best cryptocurrency exchanges and apps in 2023. The exchange is another non-KYC platform that is known for its speedy processes. Users also like its profit-loss feature, which gives access to spot and derivative trading with exit positions. Its charting tools feature also allows users to analyze trends using candlestick chart patterns. The platform is also powerful and is known to handle thousands of transactions per second without any hiccups.
