How to Buy Crypto Without Fees (All Strategies Explained)

Cryptocurrency fees can silently eat away at your profits. This guide explains the different types of crypto fees and how to minimize them based on your trading habits and goals.

Understanding Cryptocurrency Fees

Trading Fees: These are fees charged by an exchange platform whenever you execute a buy or sell order. Usually, they’re a percentage of the total trade value.

Conversion Fees: When you swap one cryptocurrency for another on an exchange, you'll typically pay extra for the transaction. The exchange may charge a conversion fee or mark up the exchange rate. For example, swapping BTC to ETH or vice versa. In many cases this is presented just as a Trading Fee.

Deposit Fees: Some centralized exchanges (CEXs) may charge a fee when you move money (fiat currency or crypto) from an external account into your exchange account. The fee structure varies by payment method and platform.

Withdrawal Fees: When you move your crypto or fiat currency out of a CEX to an external crypto wallet or bank account, you pay a withdrawal fee. This fee is usually set by the exchange or the payment processor involved.

Maker and Taker Fees: In crypto trading, exchanges charge different fees based on order types. Makers are users who place limit orders that add liquidity to the order book and they typically pay lower fees. Takers are users who place market orders or immediately executable limit orders that remove liquidity from the order book and they usually pay higher fees.

Margin/Funding Fees: When you trade with margin, you're essentially borrowing money from the platform to increase the size of your trades. This means you have the potential to make bigger profits, but it also increases the risk of larger losses. Since you’re using borrowed funds, the platform charges interest on the amount you borrow, which is known as a margin fee.

In futures and perpetual swap markets, there’s also something called a funding fee. This is a small payment made between traders—sometimes you pay it, and sometimes you receive it. It exists to help keep the market balanced between people who are betting on prices going up (long positions) and those betting on prices going down (short positions). If more people are holding long positions, they may have to pay funding fees to those holding short positions, and vice versa.

These fees are important to understand because they can impact your overall profits and losses over time.

Credit Card / Payment Processor Fees: If you buy crypto using a credit card or certain third-party payment processors, additional fees may apply. They can be a flat rate or a percentage of the total amount, very often higher than regular bank transfer deposit fees.

Network/Gas Fees: These are payments made to the blockchain network to process and validate transactions. When trading on a decentralized exchange (DEX), users are interacting with smart contracts that requires more computational power than a simple transaction.

These fees aren’t set by the trading platform but are determined by the blockchain itself. Gas fees can change based on network congestion—when many people are using the blockchain at the same time, fees tend to rise. The cost also varies depending on which blockchain you’re using (e.g., Ethereum generally has higher fees than some other networks like Solana or Binance Smart Chain).

Blockchain Bridging Fees: When moving tokens from one blockchain to another via a bridge, you may pay bridging fees plus associated network/gas costs on both chains. While more common in decentralized finance (DeFi), it’s good to be aware if you plan on cross-chain activities.

Token Approval Fees: These are one-time fees paid when you first interact with a DeFi protocol or DEX. Token approval is essential for allowing smart contracts to interact with tokens in your wallet.

Slippage Costs: It’s not technically a fee but a cost incurred from price movement during transaction execution. It happens when the price of a token changes while your trade is being processed.

Let’s say you’re trying to swap 1 ETH for 3,000 USDC with the market order (trade executed immediately for the best price available). By the time your transaction is confirmed, the price has changed and you only get 2,980 USDC. This way you’ve lost 20 USDC due to slippage. This happens because crypto prices are always changing. This type of slippage can happen on a CEX or DEX.

Why Minimizing Fees is Crucial

Cryptocurrency trading fees can silently eat away your profits, before you grasp their full impact. Many traders focus on market trends, entry points, and trading strategies but overlook the importance of fee management.

Fees may seem minor in the short term, but their impact compounds over time, much like investment returns. Ignoring fees can result in thousands of dollars lost annually, affecting long-term profits.

For active traders, even a 0.1% fee per trade can quickly add up when making hundreds of trades per month. Similarly, for long-term investors, small recurring fees on deposits, withdrawals, and trades can reduce net returns.

The best traders aren’t just good at picking winners, they’re also masters at minimizing unnecessary costs.

Factors to Consider Before Choosing a Fee-Minimizing Method

Choosing the right trading fee minimizing method requires an understanding of your trading profile. To begin with, this includes convenience, volume, frequency, preferred assets, and geographic location. What works effectively for one trader, may not work for another.

High-volume, frequent traders might benefit most from VIP programs and platform token staking, while occasional investors might prioritize simplicity and withdrawal flexibility over achieving the absolute lowest trading fees. Similarly, traders in different jurisdictions face varying regulatory environments that impact available fee minimizing options.

Factors that you should take in consideration before trading crypto

Define your crypto trading goals

If occasional buying is your focus, the convenience of a simpler platform may be worth slightly higher fees. However, if you plan to trade daily, fees can compound over time and impact your profitability. Understanding your goals will help you choose the right strategy and platform.

Buying crypto for the first time

When buying crypto for the first time, CEXs or neobanks like Revolut, are often the more convenient option. They support fiat deposits via bank transfers, credit/debit cards, and even third-party payment providers, making it easy for beginners to purchase and trade crypto. Especially, if you’re planning to buy a smaller amount and hold. However, they come with the higher fees.

Buying crypto through MetaMask or similar crypto wallets can be done by using the built-in “Buy” feature. Third-party providers are enabling direct purchases via credit card or bank transfer. While wallet-based purchases offer convenience and full control over crypto, they often come with higher fees.

It’s important to keep in mind that many CEXs have a minimum deposit and trading requirement, often around $10.

Liquidity Considerations

Trading on smaller exchanges or with less popular cryptocurrencies might result in wider bid-ask gap. It’s the gap between the price people want to buy at and the price people want to sell at. This may lead to slippage and paying higher price than on other exchanges.

Even if a trader opts for a limit order instead of a market order to avoid potential slippage, a thin order book may prevent the limit order from being executed.

Geographic Differences

Exchange fee structures vary by region due to local regulations. For example, Binance.US has different fee structures from Binance Global, while Revolut trading fees vary by region.

Verification & KYC

Higher KYC (Know Your Customer) verification levels may unlock lower fees, but may require extensive documentation. Some exchanges take longer time for full verification, impacting quick access. Check out this guide if you’re interested in buying crypto without KYC.

Trading Platform Reliability

CEXs can go down when the market is very active, which might make you miss trades or get worse prices. If an exchange has poor security or can’t be trusted, your money could be at risk from hacks or shutdowns. That’s why it’s important to use reputable exchanges with strong security.

Customer Support

Some low-fee exchanges offer poor or slow customer support. Having support available in your language and region makes it easier to solve problems quickly.