Getting Started with Bitget: A Beginner’s Guide to Trading Cryptocurrencies

TL;DR
Although not the biggest (but also not the smallest), Bitget is one exchange that a crypto beginner won’t want to overlook. This exchange offers all the core products and features needed for any investor or trader, along with top-notch security and an aesthetically pleasing UX. This guide reviews Bitget’s main features that are most applicable to crypto beginners.

Just getting started on your crypto journey and looking for a solid exchange to do your business? Then welcome to Bitget. While it doesn’t have the same name recognition as some of the largest exchanges, Bitget packs a punch in terms of it offerings, and it’s ideal for beginners due to its straight-forward packaging and design.

So if you’re new to this space and thinking about making Bitget your home exchange, then this guide is for you.

Bitget at a Glance

• Ranked 12th Best Exchange by CoinMarketCap
• +30M Global Users
• Spot 24h Trading Vol.: $1.3B
• Derivative 24h Trading Vol.: $13.3B

What we like:

• +850 Cryptos
• Easy account setup and ID verification process
• Solid selection of trading products, order types, and additional services
• Low fees
• Super Secure
• Straightforward and nice UX

What we don’t like:

• Not available in the USA and a few other major economies
• Bank Transfer feature only available on mobile app

Established in 2018, Bitget is a cryptocurrency exchange based in the Seychelles Islands. Bitget provides crypto products and services to millions of users across more than 100 countries. According to CoinMarketCap, Bitget is currently ranked 12th in terms of spot trading and 4th in derivatives trading.

Bitget offers a solid selection of trading products, order types, and additional services that will likely appeal to both beginners and seasoned veterans. But Bitget really outperforms the competition in terms of its interface design. The exchange is intuitive, fluid, and silky, which helps make it particularly accessible to beginners.

Now let’s dig into the details with regards to the main components of Bitget.

Getting Started with Bitget

Here’s the down and dirty to getting your Bitget account up and running.

Account Setup

To start your account, just go to https://www.bitget.com, click “Sign Up”, enter either your email or phone number, and set your password. Once you’ve confirmed your email with a verification code, your Bitget account will be live!

KYC

Next, you’ll need to verify your identity. This is otherwise known as KYC, or “Know Your Customer”. KYC refers to a set of ID verification regulations that governments impose on crypto exchanges in order to combat financial crime. Biget made ID verification mandatory for all new users as of 2023.

But the good news is that Bitget’s verification process is super easy. To do it, just hover over your profile icon at the top right of your home page. Your ID verification will be labeled as “Unverified”. Click on that, and then click “Verify”. Bitget will then take you through an automated process where you’ll upload the front and back of your government ID, and then you’ll upload a selfie.

Once you’ve done this, the system will compare your government ID to your selfie in order to verify your identity. You should receive a confirmation email anywhere between a few minutes to an hour.

Funding Your Account

After your ID has been verified, you’re ready to fund your account! Let’s look at each funding method on Bitget.

Debit, Credit, and E-Wallet Purchases

To make a debit card, credit card, or e-wallet (i.e. Apple Pay, Google Pay) purchase, just hover over the “Buy crypto” sub-menu, click “Debit/Credit card”, select your currency, enter how much you want to spend, and the crypto you want to purchase. After you’ve entered in your payment information and initiated the purchase, your account will be funded.

Bank Transfers

This is for mobile app users only. Select “Add funds”, and then click “Bank deposit”. Then just follow the prompts to complete the bank deposit, and you’re finished.

P2P Trading

P2P stands for “peer-to-peer”. With Bitget’s P2P exchange, you can buy and sell crypto directly with other Bitget users.

To make it happen, hover over the “Buy crypto” sub-menu and click “P2P trading”. From there, fill out your order details (i.e. buy or sell, the crypto, and your payment method), select your preferred merchant (i.e. your counter-party), and make the trade.

Please note however that if you’re new to crypto, we recommend that you become more experienced with the ecosystem before using P2P. Scamming can happen here. Having said that, if you do decide to use P2P, select merchants with high numbers of completed orders and completion rate percentages.

Crypto Deposits

If you’re a beginner, then this probably isn’t applicable, but you can always fund your Bitget account with any cryptocurrency that you are holding in another location.

To do this, just hover over your “Wallet” icon, which is at the top right of your home screen. Then click the “Deposit” icon, select your crypto, the correct blockchain network, and then confirm the deposit address details.

As always, take care to ensure that you’re using the correct blockchain network and deposit address when making your transfer.

Trading

Once your Bitget account has been funded, you’re ready to start trading. Let’s review Bitget’s trading products and order types that are most applicable to beginners.

Trading Products

Trading products refers to the type of asset that you’re trading. So for example, if you’re considering whether you should trade real Ethereum (i.e. spot) versus an Ethereum paper contract (i.e. a derivative), then you’re considering which type of product you want to trade.

Here’s Bitget’s main trading products.

• Spot: The instant exchange of two assets at the current market rate. The buyer pays for the asset, and the seller delivers it to the buyer immediately. Plain and simple.
• Margin: Same as spot, but you use assets in your account as collateral to buy or sell crypto with leverage. Bitget offers up to 10X leverage on most of its coins. More risk, more reward.
• Convert: Simply swap two assets with no transaction fees and no “slippage”. Bitget’s Convert product uses a quoting model to avoid these issues.
• Perpetuals (Futures): Contracts tied to an underlying crypto asset that allow you to speculate on the asset’s price indefinitely. Leverage is a key component to perpetuals. Bitget offers up to 100X on many of its perpetual contracts.

Please understand that only spot and convert trading are recommended for new users. Even for the experts, playing around with leverage is a good way to lose all your money.

Order Types

Order types refers to how the trade is to be executed. Here’s the full menu of Bitget’s order types.

• Market: Order to buy or sell an asset at the market’s current price.
• Limit: Order to buy or sell an asset at a specified price.
• Take Profit: Order to sell an asset at a specified price that would result in a profit.
• Stop Loss: Order to sell an asset at a specified price so as to protect from further losses.
• Trailing Stop: Dynamic order that follows behind an asset’s price, so long as price is moving in a profitable direction. But if price moves in the opposite direction, the trailing stop is triggered.
• Conditional: Orders that can only be activated or executed once a specified, conditional “trigger” is fulfilled.

The order types above are listed in order of complexity. Beginners will probably want to become comfortable with the more simple order types first before using the more complex ones.

Additional Products and Services

Bitget has a respectable menu of additional products and services. Here’s the ones that will be most appealing to beginners.

• Markets Center: One designated place to review crypto prices, market data and analytics, opportunities, insights, and news.
• Copy Trading: Tool that allows you to copy the trades of other more seasoned and successful traders. Copy trading works for both spot and perpetuals.
• Trading Bots: Automated bots that will execute trades on your behalf. Take is slow and easy with this, and do plenty of experimenting.
• Earn: A large menu of investment products (like DeFi) where you can deposit crypto assets for a fixed or flexible lockup period in order to earn interest.

Supported Cryptocurrencies

At last count, Bitget offers approximately 857 cryptocurrencies for trade on the exchange.

Fees

Bitget’s fees are competitive and lower than many of its competitors. Here’s the fee-breakdown for the “VIP 0” level, which will apply to beginners.

Like most other exchanges, Bitget uses the maker / taker fee model. Market makers are those whose trade orders are not immediately filled (e.g. limit orders). Market takers are those whose trade orders are immediately filled (e.g. market orders).

Here’s a more comprehensive overview of Bitget’s fees, if you want more details.

Security

Bitget’s security is as good or better than most other exchanges.

Bitget has a AAA rating from crypto security firm CER, making Bitget the 7th most secure exchange according to the company. Bitget has passed CER’s penetration test and has an active bug bounty program. However, the exchange does not publish proof of reserves.

Bitget users have broad flexibility when customizing their own security settings. Bitget offers 2FA, anti-phishing protection, address whitelisting, account monitoring, and third-party account management, amongst other features.

Availability

Bitget is available globally except for the following countries: Canada (Alberta), Crimea, Cuba, Hong Kong, Iran, North Korea, Singapore, Sudan, Syria, United States, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Lebanon, Somalia, Netherlands, and South Sudan.

Closing Thoughts

Crypto investors in 2024 have access to many top-tier exchanges. But after digging through Bitget’s details, it’s clear that this is one exchange that should be considered.

Bitget has solid liquidity, great security, plenty of trading products and additional services, and one of the best UX designs that I’ve ever seen. So if you’re new to crypto, then spending a few minutes to start a Bitget account and explore the platform will definitely be worth your time.

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