The short answer: beginners should only pick from the global top tier. Binance, OKX, Bybit and Bitget are the four mainstream choices — similar on safety, different on fees, product focus and app feel. These six checks let you judge any platform yourself.
Big platforms have both less motive and less room to disappear with deposits. More important is whether they publish proof of reserves (PoR) — evidence that user assets exist 1:1 on-chain rather than being quietly lent out. All four majors publish reserve pages you can inspect. No reserves page, no signup — treat it as a baseline filter.
Platforms that survived full bull-bear cycles and extreme volatility days without freezing withdrawals have earned some trust. Also search their incident history: a past hack isn't disqualifying — how they handled it is. Full reimbursement and a public post-mortem is what good looks like; silence and cover-ups mean walk away.
Trustworthy platforms publish their full fee schedule: spot maker/taker, futures maker/taker. The going rate is ~0.1% spot and ~0.05% futures taker. Much higher than that deserves suspicion; hidden entirely means exclude. Compare the four side by side on our comparison page, and learn the math in Crypto Fees Explained.
For a beginner, the daily experience hinges on funding: can you buy USDT quickly, and do withdrawals actually arrive? Deep P2P merchant benches and reliable rails are a big-four advantage. Obscure platforms are where "easy to deposit, impossible to withdraw" happens.
All four majors have these — the gap is whether you turn them on. Do it the day you register; the checklist is in Step 3 of the Beginner Path.
When something goes wrong, reachable support matters more than a pretty interface. In our experience OKX and Bitget respond relatively well in-app; Binance's sheer size means ticket queues can be slower, with more self-service through the help center.
It has happened historically, which is exactly why you stick to the top tier — and add your own layer: don't keep large long-term holdings on any single platform. Move them to your own wallet; see Wallet & Seed Phrase Safety.
One is enough for a beginner. Every extra account is extra security surface and bookkeeping. Open a second only when you have a concrete reason, like an exclusive campaign.
Referral programs are run by the exchanges themselves, and signing up through one never raises your price — it can lower your effective fees. The one thing to verify is the domain: the signup page must sit on the exchange's real domain (okx.com, binance.com). Anything else, close it.
For regular users they're close: OKX's spot maker at 0.08% is the lowest of the four, most others are 0.10%; futures taker is 0.05% at Binance and OKX, 0.055% at Bybit, 0.06% at Bitget. Full table on the comparison page.