Best Bitcoin Brokers For Trading with Leverage in 2019

Further Details About The Listed Bitcoin Margin Trading Brokers:

Note Upfront: Exception for US Traders

Due to certain legal reasons US residents aren't allowed to trade on all of the margin brokers listed on this page. If you are considering using a VPN to trade under a foreign IP, you must be aware that the platforms may require an ID at any time.

If your data doesn't match what you have specified in your account, or if you refuse to verify yourself, you'll likely get in trouble. Surely your account will be frozen immediately, and maybe you even won’t get your deposits back. So cheating isn’t recommended in this case.

PrimeXBT is a young yet highly promising Bitcoin broker allowing for leverage up to 1:100. Besides BitMEX it's the only broker in the field of cryptocurrency trading that allows such high leverage.

Trading BTC against USD for BTC Cash Outs:

PrimeXBT is an easy to use Bitcoin margin trading platform that suits traders who just intend to trade BTC against the US Dollar in order to get more Bitcoin. In principle trading on PrimeXNT works similar to Bitcoin leverage trading on BitMEX, however there are differences in the functionality of the platform. PrimeXBT is more simplified, with less options.

Withdrawal Limits:
As far as whe know there are no limitations for BTC withdrawals.

Advanced Order Types:
PrimeXBT offers the most important professional order types such as stop loss orders and take profit orders, besides the basic buy and sell orders.

• Limit order
• market order
• stop loss order
• take profit order

If you want to learn more about Bitcoin leverage trading, check out the expert portal TheMargin.io which discusses the topic in greater detail.

Bybit is currently one of the top Bitcoin margin brokers. A lot of traders have switched to them since the platform’s good reputations have spread quickly among trader circles.

What makes this broker outstanding is their great combination of features as they’re offering everything professional traders look for: Very flexible leverage settings (up to 1:100), perpetual contracts (the popular mixture of Bitcoin Futures trading and Spot margin-trading), three other cryptos to trade and reasonable trading fees.

For new customers Bybit offers a Welcome bonus of $10 just for the signup and another $50 for people making a first deposit of at least 0.2 BTC.

Protection from Market Manipulation
Like all good brokers, Bybit is protected from market manipulations by using the mark price of the biggest BTC exchanges when it comes to liquidation of positions. So it isn’t possible for a big trader to shake others out with large market buy or sell orders, which would manipulate the price on Bybit for a moment, visible as a rash in the chart. Liquidations are therefore always based on the "real" market price, so to say.

Excellent Trading Engine
Of course there is no lack of advanced order types and settings within the broker’s powerful bitcoin leverage trading engine. Traders can make use of

• Limit Order
• Market Order
• Stop Loss Order
• Take Profit Order
• Post-Only
• Close-on-Trigger
• Good-till-Cancel / Immediate-or-Cancel / Fill-or-Kill

Margin Trading on BitMex is generally enabled in each account. There is no such thing as ID verification and different verification levels. Note that BitMex only takes BTC deposits, and cashouts again are just possible in BTC.

2 Types of Margin Trading:
BitMex offers two types of marking trading option: Isolated and Cross-Margin. During Isolated Margin, you can select the amount you want to use for margin trading. For Cross-Margin however you are risking all your money in the wallet, not just the amount you placed for the order.

BTC and Altcoin Leverages on Bitmex:
Leverage for BTC is available up to 1:100. Leverage for the few listed major altcoins is lower and different for each altcoin. Still the leverage ratios for altcoins are very high compared to other brokers.

High Volume Margin Trading:
Bitmex is among the top BTC trading platforms as it's one of the world's largest BTC trading sites. They had been the first broker with such high leverage on crypto trading before a range of others started offering the same.

Unlimited Withdrawals:
Bitmex doesn't have a withdrawal limit, compared to other brokers. So big position traders can claim their profits unrestrictedly. The platfrom processes cashouts with manual review once a day, for security reasons.

Advanced Order Types:

• Limit/Market Buy
• Limit/Market Sell
• Stop Loss
• Trailing Stop
• Take Profit
• Post-Only
• Hidden
• Reduce-Only
• Good-till-Cancel / Immediate-or-Cancel / Fill-or-Kill

Binance have enormously expanded their platform in 2019 – so they finally turned into a bitcoin margin trading platform! You can now trade BTC against USDT or USDC (two USD linked stablecoins) on margin, and BTCUSDT futures with 1:20 leverage.

Just like Overbit, they don’t offer too high leverage, even “only” 1:20. But let’s be honest, that’s more than enough for reasonable traders. So. With the introduction of Bitcoin leverage trading
and a highly professional trading engine they can now even compete with the top Bitcoin margin brokers, other than before, when they were just a big brand when it comes to buying or selling altcoins.

Advanced Orders at Futures Trading
With their new margin trading option of course there comes another level of automated trading settings. While before they only had basic order types (including stops and One-Cancels-the-Other), Futures trading allows for placing take-profit orders as well as Post-Only, Fill-Or-Kill, Good-Till-Cancelled and Immediate-or-Cancel.

• Limit/Market Buy
• Limit/Market Sell
• Stop Loss
• Take Profit
• Post-Only
• Good-till-Cancel / Immediate-or-Cancel / Fill-or-Kill

+ Altcoins with leverage
This platform belongs to the high volume altcoin brokers. What makes BitMax special is their large altcoin portfolio in combination with the possibility to trade both BTC and altcoins on margin. The maximum leverage isn’t that high here, but to be honest – 1:10 is more than sufficient for most pro traders in this world.

Fees
BitMax’s trading fees are 0.04%, no matter if you’re maker or taker. The broker supports privacy, like most crypto trading platforms that don’t accept fiat money.
With this broker, we only get the basic order types, but of course stop orders - limit and market - are included, for proper risk management.

Exchange included: Buy and Sell Coins
Another point that sets BitMax apart from other cryptocurrency brokers is the fact that you can actually purchase Bitcoin on this platform. So there is a separate exchange section, where people can buy and sell cryptocurrencies, regardless of margin trading.

Order Types
BitMax only has the basic orders including stop loss, no further advanced automated trading settings.

This broker again offers a pretty unique combination of features:

No Fees
First of all – no trading fees at all. But what they do have is the usual position funding fees all cryptocurrency margin trading platforms charge for open positions over certain time intervals. You find those details in our reviews.

With Overbit, traders not only can trade BTC against USD but also against the JPY. Additionally, they offer 7 altcoin that can be traded on margin as well.

Demo Margin Trading
A very good thing about Overbit is that they have demo trading, so users can first try out the platform in play mode before using real money, or rather: real crypto coins.

For some traders a downside may be the lack of advanced order settings. But of course they do have stop orders in addition to limit/market buy/sell orders.

ID Verification
One particularity you should know in advance: Trading on Overbit requires ID verification by default, so there is no “anonymous” margin trading with this platform.

Order Types

• Limit Order
• Market Order
• Stop Loss Order
• Take Profit Order

High Margin on Request
Another relatively young trading platform offering high leverage. In addition to Bitcoin leverage trading, traders can choose between 11 other cryptocurrencies that can be traded with 1:20 leverage maximum.

This is the initial standard leverage when you open an account, also for Bitcoin (BTC/USD). If you’re interested in higher leverage this can be set manually by the support team on request. This looks like a quite reasonable approach for a BTC margin trading platform. Obviously they want traders to think twice before they really use higher leverage.

Here ID verification isn’t necessary in order to start trading.

Order Types

• Limit/Market Buy
• Limit/Market Sell
• Stop Loss
• Take Profit

This Bitcoin trading site is optimal for traders who are used to trade with MetaTrader, since this is the only broker where MT is used as trading platform. This broker also doesn’t claim ID documents from traders, hence you an trade anonymously here.

+ Altcoin Trading
The broker offers a huge amount of altcoins you can trade. But the alts aren’t on margin. Leverage is only available for the big pairs such as BTCUSD, ETHUSD, LTCUSD.

Fees
Bithoven charges the same trading fee for everyone which is 0.2%, no matter if you’re maker or taker.

Order Types

• Limit/Market Buy
• Limit/Market Sell
• Stop Loss
• Take Profit

Again a quite unique broker to trade Bitcoin with leveraged positions: BaseFEX offers high leverage, a range of altcoins that can also be traded with leverage (1:20), an especially simple and reduced trading interface and they support anonymity by not asking for ID documents by default.

Fees are 0.00% to 0.2%, depending on the coin you trade.

Possible Order Settings

• Limit/Market Buy
• Limit/Market Sell
• Stop Loss
• Take Profit
• Good-till-Cancel / Immediate-or-Cancel / Fill-or-Kill

SimpleFX is a highly specialized broker which offers a maximum leverage of 6x for BTC trades against fiat money. Leverage for Altcoins depend on the coin and are usually lower.

Traders don't have to verify their account in order to use margin trading. Only the option to use fiat currency payments requires an account verification, as usual.

Fiat Currencies Supported
At verified accounts traders can deposit and withdraw major fiat currencies. Withdrawals are proceeded through the same payment method as the preceding deposits or as the biggest preceding deposit.

No Fees – But High SWAP
They don't charge any trading fees, however the SWAP rates are pretty high.

Withdrawal Limits:
There are no limitations for withdrawals stated.

Advanced Order Types:

• Limit Buy/Sell Order
• Market Buy/Sell Order
• Stop Order
• Take Profit

Bitfinex allows BTC margin trading up to 3.33:1 leverage ratio. Bitfinex also has its own Margin Trading Wallet. This separation of an extra wallet for margin trading within user accounts is very useful as it helps to keep control of funds.

(Margin) Trading Disallowed for US Traders with Verified Accounts:

Strangely, the platform doesn't allow margin trading, or trading in general, for US citizens anymore. But this only concerns verified accounts. US traders with basic accounts (which don't provide information where somebody comes from, just e-mail and password) are able to trade with leverage. However, there will be no support of USD deposits or withdrawals, as basic accounts allow crypto transfers only.

High Volume Trading:
Bitfinex is among the brokers which is also used by big position traders, as the high trading volume maximizes chances that large orders get filled.

Advanced Order Types:

• Limit Buy/Sell Order
• Market Buy/Sell Order
• Stop Order
• Trailing Stop Order
• Fill or Kill Order
• One Cancels Other (OCO)
• Hidden Order
• Post-Only Limit Order

USD Deposits and Withdrawals – Important for People who trade to get more Dollars:
With a verified account traders (except US) can deposit and withdraw US dollars. Such accounts of course aren't anonymous anymore, as people have to provide their real name and bank information. That way you can start using Bitfinex even if you don't own cryptocurrencies yet.

Deposits and withdrawals are possible for all supported cryptocurrencies, already in unverified basic accounts.

Withdrawal Limits:
There is no limit for cashouts on Bitfinex.

OKCoin is one of the largest Chinese Bitcoin tradings sites, so again great for big position traders. The broker offers the option to trade on margin up to 3x leverage with a maximum amount of 500,000USD.

Trading BTC against USD for US Dollar cashouts:
OkCoin is a good choice for traders who want to be able to cashout USD. The account has to be fully verified, so a photo ID has to be provided. While Bitcoin withdrawals are available from Level1 (basic account with phone- and e-mail verification ), USD can only be cashed out with a Level2 account (with photo ID provided).

Withdrawal Limits:
Daily withdrawals are limited to 200BTC or $500,000.

Advanced Order Types:
OkCoin is a highly professional trading site with all types of orders which are needed for professional trading.

Big position traders find specialized order types such as Iceberg or TWAP.

• Limit order
• market order
• OCO
• Trigger order
• Trail order
• Iceberg order
• TWAP

Margin trading is available at Poloniex up to 2.5x leverage.

As Poloniex is a specialized altcoin trading platform, their main focus lies on providing a big altcoin portfolio. They are one of the very few platforms which support trading certain altcoins on leverage.

Deposits and Cash Outs in Cryptocurrencies only:
Traders can deposit all supported altcoins and withdraw them as well. Fiat money on the other hand is not supported at all.

BTC/USDT:
Bitcoin can be traded against USDT only, not against USD directly. Tether is a crypto substitute for USD. Platforms which don't support fiat money always use USDT, so traders can still trade against the Dollar.

Withdrawal Limits:
Poloniex only allows a BTC equivalent of $2,000 USD daily (basic "potentially anonymous" accounts) and $25,000 USD daily for accounts with level 2 verificaton (photo ID required)

Bitcoin Futures are a Bitcoin derivative trading product that can be traded on Deribit wit up to 100x leverage. The Deribit platform is specialized in BTC Futures trading offering an easy to use and well organized trading platform for that purpose.

Trade BTC Futures on Margin against the US Dollar for BTC Profits:
On Deribit traders can deposit and withdraw BTC only.

Withdrawal Limits:
There are no BTC withdrawal limitations.

Advanced Order Settings:
According to the needs of many professional traders, Deribit offers advanced order settings such as

• limit order
• stop loss limit order
• post only order
• hidden order

Leverage is available at Kraken up to 5x for several cryptocurrency pairs, including bitcoin. The fees are depending on the volume of the margin account.

Caution: US traders must know, that they are not allowed to maintain margin positions longer than 28 days on kraken.com. Open positions will automatically be liquidated after that period.

Deposits and Cashouts in BTC only:
To enable bank transfer deposits and withdrawals in one of their supported fiat currencies, the trading site need's its users' proof of identity in form of a photo ID. For cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals only, users don't need to proof their identity.

Withdrawal Limits:
The trading site only allows maximum withdrawals of $25,000 daily (and $200,000 per month) for the highest account levels (Tier 3). Fiat money withdrawals are limited to $2,000 per day (and $10,000 per month) at Tier 2 accounts. Our review shows the details.

To enable bank transfers deposits, the trading site need's its users' proof of identity in form of a photo ID.

Only Basic Order Types left:
Unfortunately, kraken got rid of their many advanced order settings, e.g. the trailing orders amoung others. There are just the basic buy and sell orders left. However, the Conditional Close order is left, which is useful for margin trades to set a profit target already when opening the position.

FXOpen is an older, well established, regulated CFD broker offering traditional trading assets but also cryptocurrency margin trading with small leverage.

Deposits and Cashouts – Fiat Money Supported:
The professional international broker supports fiat money payments as well as cryptocurrency transfers. So traders can Cashout USD, EUR, GBP or AUD as well as BTC or the other listed cryptocurrencies.

A account verification with photo ID is only required for fait money transfers. Users who only want to make cryptocurrency deposits don't need to proof who they are.

Withdrawal Limits:
There are no limitations for withdrawals.

With Thinkmarkets and eToro we’re listing 2 more of the leading regulated derivatives brokers that also offer cryptocurrency CFD trading with (smaller) leverage. Such traditional financial brokers have upsides and downsides compared to the specialized cryptocurrency brokers.

On the one hand you cannot trade anonymously with regulated brokers, since ID verification is the first you need to do when opening an account.

On the other hand, they are regulated, which in this case also means that user funds are secured by insurances and, of course, in this case you can deposit and withdraw fiat money.

Bitcoin Margin Trading – Explanations for Newbies:

Caution:

• Only use leverage as an experienced trader.
• Don't use high leverage as a beginner, as the risk to lose a lot of money very quickly is very high.
• Develop your trading skills before using this powerful tool.

Tip: If you're a trading beginner or just not yet profitable and need to refine your trading skills, giving a professional trade group a try could be very useful for you. The members of Bitcoin Trade Group are able to grow their trading accounts by about 20% per month (on average). Read our review here.

Margin trading is basically borrowing funds to be able to trade with bigger positions. This allows you to trade with more bitcoins that you would normally be able to do, in the hope of making bigger profits on the price movements.

Several bitcoin trading sites offer the opportunity to trade bitcoin on margin. After opening the account, a minimum deposit, called the minimum margin must be funded to the margin account that is a function of the maximum leverage available for the user.

Depending how much leverage a bitcoin broker allows, you can go up to 1:100, meaning you can trade with a position that is 100x bigger than your stake. This means you only have to fund 1 BTC from your own account and in case of 1:100 leverage ratio, the total bitcoins available to be purchased on the margin account is 100BTC.

This additional funding however costs money, the fees on margin trading vary by trading platforms. Also in case the price drops below a certain limit, the maintenance margin must be filled up in order to keep the position open, once a so called margin call is made.

Bitcoin trading sites offer leverages up to a hundret fold, however the most common leverage ratio is around 1:10 and some of the platform only allow bitcoin margin trading to 1:2 and 1:3.

Advantages of Margin Trading

The biggest benefit of margin trading is that you can take advantage of the additional funds when the market moves in the direction you expected. The overall profit of the positions once the bitcoins are soled and the loan is repaid is significantly higher compared to an ordinary trade execution without leverage.

Disadvantages of Margin Trading

The disadvantage of this very powerful trading tool is by nature the amount of risk a margin account can hold. The higher amount of leverage you take the bigger amount of money you can lose in case the market moves in an unfavorable way. Due to the margin call, the margin account must be funded continuously that involves significant amount of liquidity.

It is only advisable to margin trade if you have enough experience already on the market. To mitigate the associated risk, many trading platforms only offer limited amount of leverage trading opportunities.