10 Best Crypto Exchanges In Canada Ranked by Fees & Security

Searching for the most effective crypto exchanges in Canada to purchase and promote digital currencies? Whereas Canada is taken into account a crypto-friendly nation, it has applied stringent cryptocurrency legal guidelines and laws. In this text, we’ve recognized the highest Canadian exchanges primarily based on numerous parameters corresponding to options, charges, safety, and authorized compliance. We’ve additionally lined cryptocurrency tax guidelines in Canada and the way to decide on the precise crypto asset buying and selling platform. 

High Canadian Crypto Exchanges at a Look for 2026

10 Best Crypto Exchanges in Canada: Detailed Critiques

1. Crypto.com – Best for CRO-based advantages

Crypto.com is a world digital asset trade established in 2016 and headquartered in Singapore. Identified for its revolutionary merchandise, aggressive charges, and a large coin choice, Crypto.com serves 150M+ customers throughout 90 international locations. In Canada, it’s registered as a restricted supplier and controlled by the Ontario Securities Fee (OSC) and different provincial regulators. 

Key Options

• Spot buying and selling: Crypto.com helps 400+ cash and 599+ buying and selling pairs.
• Crypto baskets: The trade affords 8 thematic baskets with an auto-rebalancing characteristic.
• Earn: You may lock up 21+ cryptocurrencies and earn rewards of as much as 4.5% p.a in CRO. 
• On-chain staking: Traders can earn a passive revenue of as much as 19.23% p.a. by staking their idle crypto property.
• Visa pay as you go card: Crypto.com offers 6 card tiers: Midnight Blue (Free), Ruby Metal, Jade Inexperienced/Royal Indigo, Icy White/Rose Gold, Obsidian, and Prime. To qualify for at the very least a Ruby metal card, you will need to pay CA$6.99 per 30 days or CA$69.90 yearly. When you don’t choose subscription charges, you may lock up CRO price CA$650 for 12 months as a substitute.

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2. Bitbuy – Best for multi-layer safety

BitBuy is the oldest and first absolutely regulated crypto asset buying and selling platform in Canada. It’s licensed by the Canadian Securities Administration (CSA) and the OSC. It’s registered as a cash companies enterprise (MSB) with the Monetary Transactions and Experiences Evaluation Centre of Canada (FINTRAC). 

Key Options

• Professional Commerce: It’s a sophisticated buying and selling interface with refined charting instruments and technical indicators. 
• Staking: You may stake eligible cryptocurrencies and earn as much as 13.43% in rewards.
• Alpha: For institutional traders, Bitbuy offers an OTC desk and entry to the most effective charges on a number of crypto cash. It ensures zero slippage and permits customers to attach with dwell merchants for immediate quotes every day. Furthermore, Bitbuy has partnered with Bitgo to supply custodial companies. 
• Security: The trade shops 90% of buyer property in chilly storage and has insured the property in opposition to unexpected occasions. It has additionally applied extra safety measures like two-factor authentication (2FA), a closed-source codebase, and proof-of-reserves.
• Categorical Commerce: This characteristic means that you can shortly purchase/promote cryptocurrencies utilizing Canadian {Dollars} (CAD).

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3. Coinbase – Best for USDC rewards

Coinbase is the largest publicly traded crypto trade globally. It’s licensed to function in 100+ international locations, and boasts annual buying and selling volumes of over $1.2T and property price $376B. In Canada, Coinbase is registered as a restricted supplier in a number of provinces and as an MSB with FINTRAC.

Key Options

• Fast purchase/promote: You may commerce 200+ cryptocurrencies on Coinbase.
• Coinbase Superior: It’s a professional-grade buying and selling interface with cutting-edge charting instruments and APIs for superior merchants and builders. It lets you commerce 550+ spot pairs and perpetual futures with as much as 50x leverage. It additionally comes with real-time order books, TradingView integration, and customized watchlists. 
• Coinbase One: By subscribing to Coinbase One, you may unlock zero-fee buying and selling, precedence help, as much as 3.75% APY on USDC, and extra. 
• Staking: Merchants can stake eligible tokens and earn as much as 14% APY.
• USDC rewards: You may stand up to three.35% in rewards by merely holding USDC.
• Base App: From buying and selling and staking to exploring video games, the Base App enhances your buying and selling expertise on the go.
• Security: Coinbase has applied potent security measures corresponding to 2FA, password safety, information encryption, and multi-approval withdrawals. It additionally holds buyer funds 1:1.

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4. Wealthsimple – Best For Robo Advisory Providers

If you wish to construct a diversified portfolio and entry expert-designed, customized portfolios, Wealthsimple is price exploring. It’s an all-in-one ecosystem designed to assist traders handle their monetary wants, together with taxes and mortgages, in a single place. Its hallmark options embody commission-free inventory/ETF investing, fractional buying and selling of bodily gold, and zero-cost choices buying and selling. Wealthsimple Crypto is registered as an MSB with FINTRAC and controlled by the Canadian Funding Regulatory Group (CIRO).

Key Options

• Crypto buying and selling: Wealthsimple lets you purchase/promote 140+ cash, together with common cryptocurrencies like Solana, Ethereum, and Bitcoin. Furthermore, you may immediately deposit and begin buying and selling after you join.
• Low buying and selling charges: You may commerce crypto with charges as little as 0.05%. You may additional minimize your transaction time and prices in half by swapping one eligible crypto for one more.
• Automated order execution: You simply have to specify a goal worth, and the platform will execute the order as soon as the cryptocurrency reaches that worth.
• Staking: Wealthsimple facilitates Ethereum, Cardano, Polkadot, and Solana staking. Relying on the coin you stake, you may earn as much as 9% p.a.
• Security: Every custodial associate of Wealthsimple maintains a chilly storage protection price $75M to safeguard your property in opposition to hacks/thefts. The trade shops the majority of user assets in cold wallets, whereas these mendacity in sizzling wallets are lined too.

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5. Kraken Professional – Best For Superior Merchants

Whether or not you wish to have interaction in spot, derivatives, margin, or OTC buying and selling, Kraken Professional serves as a one-stop vacation spot. It helps a number of order sorts and affords quite a lot of technical indicators, enabling you to trace 4 markets concurrently. Although Kraken is a US-based trade, it is likely one of the high platforms to purchase/promote crypto in Canada. It’s registered underneath Payward Canada Inc as an MSB with FINTRAC. It is usually registered as a restricted supplier with OSC and securities regulators in numerous Canadian territories/provinces. 

Key Options

• Large asset choice: Kraken Professional lets you commerce 630+ property, together with stablecoins and fiat currencies. 
• 24/7 buyer help: You may contact the help staff through electronic mail, cellphone, and dwell chat. Normally, the Kraken help staff has a speedy response time of lower than 30 seconds.
• Earn: You may stake your crypto holdings and earn a passive revenue of as much as 24% APY.
• Futures buying and selling: Kraken Professional lets you commerce 300+ perpetual futures and helps a number of collateral and payout choices. 
• Margin buying and selling: The platform affords as much as 10x leverage for spot buying and selling and as much as 50x leverage for derivatives buying and selling.

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6. NDAX – Best For Superior Order Varieties

NDAX is a Canada-only crypto trade that caters to each newbie and superior merchants. It helps 65+ tradeable cryptocurrencies, together with stablecoins, memecoins, and high digital currencies like BTC, SOL, and XRP. Based in 2018, NDAX is a legally-compliant trade that’s registered with FINTRAC, Income Quebec, and CIRO.

Key Options

• A number of order sorts: NDAX helps completely different order sorts, together with restrict, cease, trailing-stop, IOC, reserve/iceberg, and fill/kill orders.
• Auto Make investments: This characteristic makes use of Greenback Price Averaging (DCA) to automate your scheduled crypto purchases.
• Institutional-grade safety: NDAX has applied sturdy safety measures like 2FA, DDoS safety, MPC sizzling wallets, chilly storage, and multi-signature approvals. It has arrange a $3M and $5M insurance coverage protection per incident for hot and cold wallets, respectively.
• Easy buying and selling: NDAX supplies a streamlined interface that will help you purchase/promote cryptocurrencies in a number of clicks.
• Superior buying and selling: For knowledgeable traders, NDAX affords a complicated interface with dwell market information, technical indicators, customizable charts, and intuitive order books.

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7. Newton – Best For Low Fees

Newton is a Canada-focused platform that buys from and sells cryptocurrencies to its customers instantly. It imposes a nominal buying and selling price and doesn’t gather deposit/withdrawal expenses. Furthermore, Newton is registered with FINTRAC, CIRO, and the Canadian Securities Directors (CSA).

Key Options

• Crypto buying and selling: Newton lets you commerce 60+ cash effortlessly. It affords an array of options, together with portfolio trackers, widgets, worth notifications, and month-to-month statements, to spice up your buying and selling expertise.
• Low charges: The trade covers as much as $5 of community charges and helps you commerce with as little as $10. When you’re a high-volume dealer, your charges could be as little as 0.50%
• Earn: You may stake ETH, SOL, ADA, SUI, ATOM, DOT, or NEAR tokens and obtain as much as 12.10% APY.
• Security: Newton is an SOC2 Kind II-certified group with potent safety features like chilly storage, MFA, AES256-bit encryption, theft insurance coverage, and many others.

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8. VirgoCX – Best for API buying and selling

VirgoCX is likely one of the finest Canadian exchanges, that includes a lot of cryptocurrencies, together with sizzling cash. It’s a non-custodial platform, granting you full management over your digital property. It’s registered as an MSB with FINTRAC and adheres to the Private Data Safety and Digital Paperwork Act (PIPEDA).

Key Options

• Purchase/promote crypto: VirgoCX means that you can buy, promote, and commerce cryptocurrencies utilizing CAD and USD. It additionally lets you arrange recurring buys.
• API: The platform supplies easy-to-use software programming interfaces to assist merchants and builders automate transactions and optimize their buying and selling experiences. 
• Security: VirgoCX has formulated stringent cybersecurity insurance policies. Your fiat property are held by the trade’s trusted banking companions. Moreover, VirgoCX is PIPEDA-compliant, a knowledge privateness regulation in Canada.

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9. Shakepay – Best for buying and selling Bitcoin

Launched in 2015, Shakepay is a crypto app completely designed to assist Canadians pay/ship cash and earn/purchase Bitcoin easily. At present, it has a consumer base of over 1M. It’s registered as an MSB with FINTRAC and as an funding supplier with Canadian securities regulators throughout provinces. It is usually regulated by CIRO.

Key Options

• Visa pay as you go card: You’ll earn as much as 1.5% cashback in BTC everytime you buy at a supported service provider outlet. 
• Security: ShakePay has established industry-leading safety measures like multi-party approvals, withdrawal whitelisting, 2FA, gadget locks, and segregated accounts for storing CAD. It additionally shops most buyer property in insured chilly storage, defending them in opposition to injury, theft, personal key loss, and different surprising occasions.
• Shakepay Blue: Shakepay affords three reward statuses: Base, Vibrant, and Blue. The upper your standing, the upper your BTC rewards. If you qualify for Blue, you’ll earn 1.5% cashback in Bitcoin, 3% curiosity on money, and 500 shakingSats. You’re additionally entitled to precedence help and 0 card FX charges.

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10. Coinsquare – Best for Institutional Merchants

Coinsquare is a good Canadian-based trade that was launched in 2014 enhance investor participation within the crypto market. It’s the pioneer CIRO-regulated crypto market and is registered as an MSB with FINTRAC. It helps 50+ cash and over 1,300 buying and selling pairs.

Key Options

• Commerce: You should buy, promote, and maintain cryptocurrencies utilizing the Coinsquare Commerce app and luxuriate in feeless deposit/withdrawal choices.
• Wealth: Coinsquare supplies traders with personalised companies from wealth specialists. It additionally affords an OTC buying and selling desk that harnesses superior applied sciences to spice up liquidity and execute giant orders optimally. Furthermore, Wealth shoppers achieve entry to CIRO-registered funding representatives.
• Professional: It’s an intuitive interface particularly designed for superior merchants. It comes with a high-performance buying and selling engine, depth charts, and real-time order books.
• Staking: You may stake eligible tokens for tenures ranging between 1 and 36 months and earn as much as 13.43% in rewards.
• Alpha: It completely caters to VIP merchants and institutional traders. It encompasses OTC companies, spot buying and selling of 65+ property and 4,200+ buying and selling pairs, API connectivity, and custodial options.

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The best way to Select the Best Crypto Change in Canada?

1. Buying and selling Fees

When you’re a novice or an lively dealer, a crypto buying and selling platform charging comparatively low charges is preferable. Many exchanges supply price rebates to high-volume merchants and native token holders. Some crypto platforms gather maker and taker charges, whereas others embody service charges in spreads.

2. Person Interface

Platforms with an intuitive UI/UX design improve your buying and selling expertise, whether or not accessed from a desktop, laptop computer, or cellular gadget. Widespread exchanges present responsive interfaces, enabling you to commerce even on the transfer.

3. Supported Cryptocurrencies

The upper the variety of cryptocurrencies supported by an trade, the higher. High crypto exchanges normally help a variety of cash, together with major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, alongside new altcoins.

4. Security Requirements

Crypto exchanges are extremely vulnerable to cyberattacks, so select a platform providing strong safety. These embody multi-factor authentication, insurance coverage funds, withdrawal whitelisting, bug bounty packages, and anti-phishing codes. Search for exchanges that maintain a overwhelming majority of consumer property in chilly storage and keep 1:1 proof-of-reserves.

5. Regulatory Compliance

Select a legally compliant trade that’s licensed to supply companies in Canada. Unregulated exchanges can shut down anytime, and authorized recourse could also be unavailable within the occasion of a rip-off.

6. Buyer Help

Choose an trade that provides 24/7 buyer help by a number of channels. Most centralized exchanges present round the clock help through electronic mail and dwell chat, together with helpdesks, self-help guides, and FAQs for simpler navigation. 

Understanding Cryptocurrency Laws in Canada

Canada treats blockchain technology-based digital property as securities or derivatives. Crypto exchanges should adhere to the securities legal guidelines by limiting particular options for retail traders. They’re additionally required to file undertakings and adjust to the nation’s strict reporting and custody requirements. In the event that they fail to take action, they’ll face enforcement motion or should shut down their operations in Canada.

In 2022, the OSC penalized KuCoin and Bybit for working in Canada with out correct registration. Later, it completely banned KuCoin from providing companies in Ontario, whereas Bybit and Binance exited the nation in 2023. In 2024, FINTRAC Canada imposed a penalty of over $6M on Binance, because the trade hadn’t complied with AML/CFT legal guidelines. 

Canada Crypto Tax Defined

• Enterprise revenue: In accordance with CRA’s tax guidelines, your cryptocurrency transactions might be handled as enterprise income underneath the next circumstances:
  • You actively commerce crypto with a transparent intention of creating income.
  • You promote a crypto-related product/service.
  • You conduct cryptocurrency transactions for industrial functions.
  • Your crypto actions are frequent and repetitive.

In case your crypto transaction is assessed as enterprise revenue, you will need to pay taxes on all the proceeds at your Federal/Provincial tax charge.

• Capital positive factors: When you promote cryptocurrencies for CAD, swap crypto for crypto, or commerce DeFi tokens, such transactions could be thought of capital positive factors. Gifting, donating, or spending cryptocurrencies can be handled as crypto disposal. It’s essential pay taxes on 50% of the full capital positive factors you make at your Federal/Provincial tax charge. 
• Capital losses: The 50% rule extends to capital losses as properly, which means you may offset half of your losses out of your positive factors. In case your losses are larger than income, you may carry ahead the loss quantity you couldn’t offset into the subsequent 12 months. You may offset this quantity in opposition to future positive factors. 
• Tax exemptions: Tax-free crypto transactions embody shopping for digital property with fiat, making transfers between crypto wallets, HODLing cryptocurrencies, and creating DAOs. Even the crypto you obtain as presents/airdrops is tax-exempt.

The best way to Purchase Crypto in Canada?

• Select an acceptable centralized or decentralized trade primarily based in your wants and preferences. Guarantee it’s licensed to function in Canada by FINTRAC and different regulatory our bodies.
• Create an account on the chosen platform.
• Complete identity verification by submitting the required paperwork.
• Fund your account by depositing fiat (CAD) or cryptocurrency utilizing an acceptable fee methodology.
• As soon as your account is funded, you should purchase the cryptocurrency you want.

Why Belief Our Crypto Change Critiques?

Our cryptocurrency trade opinions are primarily based on thorough analysis, knowledgeable insights, and market evaluation. We’ve got assessed quite a few platforms primarily based on key components like pricing, superior crypto buying and selling options, consumer suggestions, security, and compliance. Primarily based on our findings, we have now compiled the listing of the most effective Canadian crypto exchanges. Thus, you may belief our opinions when making funding choices. 

Conclusion

Whereas we’ve made each effort to current correct info, doing your individual analysis is crucial. Keep up to date on the most recent developments within the crypto area, together with adjustments in Canadian cryptocurrency laws. Lastly, contemplate your objectives, risk-return urge for food, buying and selling experience, and finances earlier than making a ultimate alternative.

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