Best Crypto Exchanges in Canada For 2024

Where do I buy crypto in Canada?

If you’d like to invest in cryptocurrency, creating an account with a crypto exchange licensed to operate in Canada is the most straightforward way to buy and sell.

Our crypto exchange comparison tool at the top of this page can help you choose the best option for your risk appetite, budget and investment goals. While it’s tempting to focus primarily on trading costs and account fees, you’ll also want to consider the number of coins available to trade, security and overall trading volume. Choosing the exchange with the lowest transaction fees might not always prove to be the best for your investment in crypto. Take a moment to think about what you want to do with your crypto before you choose your Canadian crypto exchange.

Factors when picking your crypto exchange:

• Trading costs
• Account fees
• Which coins are available
• Security and where it is regulated
• Overall trading volume

All of the exchanges we’ve reviewed here are centralised. That means they’re licensed and regulated by Canadian financial regulators and must follow certain rules about how they handle clients’ funds. The exchange will also be responsible for holding any crypto assets you purchase on your behalf, so it’s important to choose one that you trust.

Once you decide on the best cryptos to buy, try one of the exchanges at the top of this page. Some exchanges even facilitate crypto staking, allowing you to earn passive income from your crypto assets. Compare the best crypto-staking platforms right here.

If you prefer to retain total control over your crypto, you can buy and sell coins on decentralised exchanges. These types of exchanges won’t ask for the passcode to your digital wallet - “not your keys, not your coins” - however, they’re not subject to any third-party regulation or oversight. This limits your ability to recover your funds or hold bad actors accountable if something goes wrong.

What fees do I pay on a crypto exchange in Canada?

This question will help you to decide what is the best exchange for crypto in Canada.

• Monthly fees. Some crypto exchanges in Canada charge a flat fee to keep your trading account open and active.
• Transaction fees. Similar to a traditional brokerage, crypto exchanges charge a processing fee to execute trades on their platforms. These are usually calculated as a percentage of the total transaction value. For example, you buy 1 Bitcoin at $25,000. If the exchange charges a 1% transaction fee then you pay $250 to buy the Bitcoin.
• Deposit or withdrawal fees. Some Canadian crypto exchanges charge a small fee each time you deposit or withdraw fiat money into your trading account to make purchases on the exchange.

What is the lowest-fee crypto exchange in Canada?

This may sound obvious, but when you are trading cryptocurrency on an exchange, you pay a fee every time you buy and every time you sell. These are the transaction fees we discussed above. Exchanges change their transaction fees frequently, so the lowest-fee exchange in Canada varies.

Looking for the cheapest crypto exchange in Canada is a good idea to start with. But you should consider all the different costs that you will be exposed to when choosing the best crypto trading platform.

It can be useful to take a step back here to answer some of the top cryptocurrency questions. We examine them below.

What is cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency is a type of virtual money secured by powerful encryption algorithms. While traditional fiat currencies like the dollar are controlled by governments, cryptocurrencies are issued by large, decentralized computer networks called blockchains.

Unlike the tangible money you’re used to spending and saving, cryptocurrency is entirely digital. That means you’ll never hold a Bitcoin in your hand or make a withdrawal from an ATM. This can limit its usefulness as a tool for buying and selling, but does allow for more efficient transactions.

When you make a purchase with fiat currency, a bank will handle the movement of money between accounts and guarantee the security of the transaction. For this service, the bank charges a processing fee. When you use cryptocurrency, you exchange directly with the person selling a product or service with no intermediary. The blockchain makes a record of the transaction that anyone can access, and powerful encryption technology protects your money.

Because it’s not guaranteed by a recognized authority, like a central bank, cryptocurrency can gain and lose value rapidly. On the other hand, governments cannot manipulate the value of cryptocurrencies as they do fiat money. Cryptocurrency is also nearly impossible to counterfeit.

How do cryptocurrencies work?

In order to understand how cryptocurrency works, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the underlying technology, known as blockchain.

Think of a blockchain as an enormous virtual notebook filled with lists of different transactions. Anyone can open the book at any time to review these lists, no questions asked. This is what’s meant when people describe blockchains as public ledgers. Now, imagine that this notebook uses a special, completely permanent ink and indestructible paper. Transactions recorded are immutable. Once they’re written in the notebook, they can’t be erased or altered.

To ensure that the notebook contains only accurate information, the owners agree to record new transactions only after a specific group of trusted individuals have reviewed them. These trusted individuals must all agree before including a transaction in the notebook. In blockchain lingo, the trusted individuals are called nodes. Because they work independently and don’t communicate with one another when checking the transactions, the trusted individuals work in a decentralized fashion.

With thousands, sometimes millions, of transactions taking place in a short period of time, recording them all in the notebook takes a significant amount of time and energy. To make the process more efficient, the trusted individuals agree to add them to the notebook page by page, rather than one by one. Think of these pages in the notebook as the blocks of the blockchain.

Where does cryptocurrency come into play? Many of the transactions recorded in the notebook use crypto as the medium of exchange. Blockchains are also the organizations responsible for issuing new cryptocurrencies and controlling the supply. The Bitcoin blockchain, for example, has stated that it will cap the number of Bitcoins in existence at 21 million.

Blockchains issue cryptocurrency to allow users to buy and sell assets or services seamlessly, without an intermediary like a bank. The transactions recorded in the giant, permanent notebook? They’re all in cryptocurrency. Blockchains also use cryptocurrency to reward users, called miners, who do the work of adding new blocks to the chain. In some cases, blockchains use coins the way a typical company uses shares. Investors who provide fiat currency to fund the blockchain’s projects receive coins in exchange. If the project succeeds, the coins increase in value.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of cryptocurrency?

As with any other asset, it’s important to consider the underlying characteristics of cryptocurrency before investing. A solid understanding of the pros and cons of this digital asset will help you determine whether cryptocurrency fits within your overall investment portfolio.

If crypto seems like a good fit for your financial goals and personal values, read on for guidance on purchasing, storing and using cryptocurrency in Canada.

What are the best cryptocurrencies?

There are many different currencies available in the crypto-world. The cryptocurrencies listed below are far from the only ones available, but they do represent the most popular ones to trade or invest in at the time of publication. The order is ranked based on current market share and not based on any preference.

These will all be available on any Canadian crypto exchange as they are the most frequently traded. These high trading volume cryptocurrencies will allow you to buy and sell them with ease.

Cryptocurrency	Market Share	Highest price	Lowest Price
Bitcoin	$892 billion	$67,566.83	$105.21
Ethereum	$397 billion	$4,812.09	$0.7084
Tether	$81.4 billion	$0.97	$0.02
BNB (Binance)	$71.1 billion	$695.95	$7.61
Polkadot	$22.4 billion	$55.24	$2.73
Dogecoin	$19.7 billion	$0.74	$0.01

The prices above show you the historical range that each cryptocurrency has traded in. This might give you an indication as to the affordability. Few people will be able to buy the actual bitcoin for example. You can buy derivatives of each cryptocurrency though. Meaning that you don’t need $20,000 to $60,000 to buy Bitcoin or $2,000 to $5,000 to buy Ethereum.

How do you buy cryptocurrency in Canada?

You can buy cryptocurrency in Canada two ways:

• from another individual using the blockchain
• or via an exchange.

To get started, you’ll need to create a crypto wallet. Some Canadian crypto exchanges will do this for you, but many people prefer to have their own wallets.

Once you’ve set up your wallet, you can buy and sell coins directly from other individuals via the blockchain. While this does allow you to avoid the transaction fees of an exchange, you’ll need to do the work of locating sellers holding the coins you’d like to purchase and be comfortable engaging directly with the chain.

Cryptocurrency exchanges like Bitbuy and Coinbase provide access to a wide range of cryptocurrencies and simplify the transaction process, but charge a fee for facilitating trades. Exchanges may also require that you hold your coins in a wallet under its control.

What is a crypto wallet?

A crypto wallet is a tool that you use to store your passwords that give access to your cryptocurrency and NFTs. Your actual cryptocurrency is stored in the blockchain.

This wallet can be in the form of a mobile app, or even a USB drive. “Hot” wallets, like mobile apps, are connected to the internet and therefore more vulnerable to theft. On the other hand, they speed up transactions significantly by keeping your crypto readily accessible.

“Cold” wallets, like encrypted USB drives, aren’t connected to the internet. Many consider them a more secure option than hot wallets, but you will need to take steps to protect the drive itself from loss or damage. Storing your crypto offline can also make it more difficult to spend.

What are peer-to-peer exchanges?

Peer-to-peer exchanges are trading platforms for buyers and sellers to exchange cryptocurrency directly. The buyers will choose a seller from the list on the platform themselves. There is no centralized authority or intermediary between the buyer and the seller.

Some of the popular Canadian peer-to-peer exchanges are ByBit, Coinberry, NDAX, LocalBitcoins, Paxful and LocalMonero. There are more, but you will want to pick an exchange that has a lot of users so that you are sure that you have other users to buy from and sell to.

What is cryptocurrency mining?

By far the most common means of creating new units of cryptocurrency, crypto mining rewards those who perform the important work of creating and adding new blocks of transactions to the chain.

Mining cryptocurrency is a challenging and expensive task that requires a lot of technical know-how and specialized equipment. It also uses significant amounts of energy, which can cut into a miner’s profits and harm the environment. People interested in mining without the equipment where they live can still get involved by cloud mining. Cloud mining allows people to mine virtually through rent equipment physically located elsewhere.

Trading in already-mined cryptocurrency has lower up-front costs and does not have the same environmental impact. For this reason, we recommend focusing on buying and selling existing coins rather than mining new ones.

Which Canadian banks allow cryptocurrency?

Different Canadian banks have different policies when it comes to cryptocurrency. Some will accept it, but won’t allow you to use a debit or credit card to purchase crypto or fund an exchange account. Others will help you add money to an exchange account, but only via bank transfer or wire.

Bank	Crypto Acceptance	Credit Card	Debit Card	Interac e-Transfer	EFT or Wire Transfer
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC)
Toronto Dominion (TD)
Bank of Montreal (BMO)
Scotiabank (Bank of Novia Scotia)					Only Canadian cryptocurrency
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC)				-
National Bank of Canada
HSBC Canada			-
Tangerine

How to buy cryptocurrency with a credit card?

Unfortunately, many banks in Canada do not allow you to purchase crypto with a credit card. Unlike traditional merchants and exchanges, which have protocols in place to resolve disputed transactions, blockchains don’t yet have the infrastructure to help you or your bank recover funds advanced on credit in case of problems.

Due to the volatile nature of crypto trading, you can get yourself into trouble buying cryptocurrency on credit. If you intend to use the profits from selling any purchased coins to pay off your bill, a price drop puts you at serious financial risk.

Is cryptocurrency legal in Canada?

Yes! Cryptocurrency is legal in Canada. That said, individual provinces set their own rules and regulations when it comes to whether residents can purchase crypto or how they can use it. Ontario, for example, has placed stricter restrictions on crypto investment that other parts of the country.

Remember that if you are making capital gains when selling your cryptocurrency, you may need to report it to the Canada Revenue Agency at tax time.

How does Canada tax crypto?

The Canadian Revenue Authority assesses taxes on cryptocurrency in two cases: when you trade crypto as a business and when you accrue capital gains from your trades. Let's look at two examples. The first is business income and the second is capital gains.

Business income

If you trade cryptocurrency regularly and your profits serve as a primary source of income, you qualify as a professional trader. Revenue you generate is treated the same as income from any other type of business and taxed accordingly.

Capital gains

If you only occasionally buy and sell crypto and the money you make is not one of your primary sources of income, you’ll pay capital gains tax.

If you are buying crypto to use as you would another currency, then this is not an income that is taxable.

When calculating the tax on income generated, you will need to determine whether the income is a business income or a capital gain. This will be a factor that will determine the amount of tax you will pay on your transactions.

Read more about cryptocurrency in Canada

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