Bitstamp is probably your first option. They are licensed and the people running it are well known.

The only exchange I've been able to get verified on successfully (and I've tried Coinbase, Gemini, Kraken, Bitstamp and probably others that I am forgetting) was Luno[1].

While it was relatively easy to get verified on Luno, their "instant sale" prices are quite high and I see no way to place bid/ask orders directly.

I'm also interested in other recommendations.

1 - https://www.luno.com/invite/XHBQ6 (Note, there is an invite code in this URL, feel free to remove).

At the moment you can only trade (place bids/asks) on Luno with the following currency pairs: BTC/IDR, BTC/MYR, BTC/NGN, BTC/ZAR (largest volume) and ETH/BTC.

I think they started out as a South African only exchange a few years back.

Disclaimer: anecdotal, heard from employees of an exchange.

Coinbase, Bitstamp and a Swedish exchange whose name I forgot are three that have all their user's assets covered/available.

BitStamp and Gemini are the safest, IMO. I'd recommend Kraken too, but they've been really overloaded lately.

Hrm, this is interesting. I looked up Bitstamp on Wikipedia and somebody edited the website from bitstamp.net to bitstamp.one recently[1]. Seems like a phishing attack.

1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bitstamp&type=rev...

i like binance personally. it’s the most popular. but maybe i’m naive

Gemini, Binance.

Here's a suggestion: Don't trust any exchange (or, let's face it, any company) whose only contact details on their website are email addresses or instant messenger. Binance looks as shady as they get.

Yet I've never had an issue withdrawing from them, where as I've had countless problems withdrawing from basically every other exchange, including (especially) the ones that have a US address listed on their website.

Binance fees are low but not so low that I doubt how they make money. They have a huge number of pairs without having too many shitcoins. Many of their pairs are now ETH/___, which is much better for many people due to high BTC fees.

But yeah, I'm going to completely ignore a great level of service and security, and instead be worried because they don't list an address on their website. /s

What good is a non-[insert your country] address really going to do for you anyway? A small-time crypto trader isn't going to have any power to get anything from most foreign domiciled companies without very significant effort.

Finally: this goes against the entire principle of cryptocurrency. The point is that I don't want to have to trust my nation (or any other nation). I trust Binance because they haven't fucked me over. The same can't be said for legally domiciled US exchanges I've traded on and the US government.

Binance actually has an active subreddit with actual employees from Binance that answer questions and do customer support there which is unheard of in the age of waiting weeks to get support tickets answered at places like Coinbase. Binance is as good as it gets for customer service in crypto in my opinion.

There are tradeoffs you have to accept. Coinbase used to be great- super user friendly and reliable, and most importantly, FAST. Buying anything from Coinbase now is a joke, and they have repeatedly committed fundamentally unacceptable actions for a company dealing with money and related analogues like, after a transaction was supposed to settle, push out the date that you'll receive your assets.

Unfortunately they are the best when it comes to quickly cashing out, and in terms of buying I have no other alternative that I've used thats reliable. Depending on the asset you might have some luck with Cex.io or others.

Here's a link I found with a quick Google search that might be of value to you: https://99bitcoins.com/buy-bitcoins-debit-card/

Don't ever hold your assets on an exchange for any length of time after acquiring them, counterparty credit risk is no joke.

You’d think they would make it easier to buy, the price would end up higher that way and they’d get more fees.

My only thought is maybe they slow down buys to get themselves a look-back period where they can decide to cancel transactions that don’t go their way before filling the order. That would maximize the average revenue per transaction a lot during periods of significant volatility. It would skew profitability upward, at the cost of user experience and goodwill.

Seems like more of a short-term strategy by a company that is trying the milk the crypto craze as much as possible and willing to burn market share in the long run as the fad dies down.

Then again, could just be unicorn growth pains.