HitBTC: How To Trade & Exchange Cryptocurrencies User’s Guide

About HitBTC Cryptocurrency Exchange

As claimed on the website, HitBTC is an advanced Bitcoin exchange company. HitBTC is a multi-currency trading platform with support for over 150 tradable digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, tokens and initial coin offerings (ICOs). Besides trading cryptocurrencies, tokens and ICOs, HitBTC provides proper markets for fiat trading, including USD and EUR trading pairs. HitBTC is one of the few exchanges that support direct fiat/cryptocurrency trading in the market.

HitBTC was started in 2013 with 6 million euros in venture capital funding. Since its inception, it has continued to add new currencies and tools to its platform, including features that facilitate adding tokens to the exchange.

An intuitive user interface makes HitBTC a user-friendly exchange for new traders and advanced users to get started with. It also offers a robust API for people to use in third-party applications, especially people that are into creating trade bots. HitBTC can be regarded as an exchange where both newbies and trading professionals will be able to trade with ease. It was built on top of modern technologies to provide fast, secure and reliable service.

There are quite a number of outstanding features of the exchange including High liquidity, Core matching engine, No-limits for funding/withdrawal of cryptocurrency, Large selection of tools and High level of security.

One exceptional quality of HitBTC is that it’s focused only on the major markets. Meaning, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin & Litecoin can be exchanged directly with USD & EUR, but it does require verifications.

Major Features Of HitBTC Exchange

Trading Tools

HitBTC has an information-packed terminal that displays recent trades, currency pairs, and movement over a set period of time.

Executing trades from Market Depth

Users can use the market depth module to place trades. With just a click on the point in the graph with the desired price, the trade is automatically for you at the exact price.

When selling, exactly the same process can be followed. Search for the highest volumes where traders have put their stop orders. With this, users can predict that the price is going to start falling as when a lot of traders sell at the same time the price will drop due to the demand going down significantly.

Stop Order Level on the Chart

Buy and Sell limits are displayed on the price chart to help users keep a better track of orders:
Green line is displayed at the price level of the Buy Order.
Redline sits on the price level of the selected Sell Order.

Guest Mode

Users can explore markets effortlessly. Anyone is allowed to check the very latest market data, charts, and order book, without having to log into an account, providing extra convenience.

Demo Trading.

The Demo Trading option of Hitbtc can be used by novice traders to gain valuable trading experience and gives them an opportunity to learn exactly what Hitbtc has to offer. This feature also allows skilled users API users to test out their third-party applications.

Market Maker contracts

A market maker is a “market participant” of an exchange that also buys and sells securities at prices it displays in an exchange’s trading system for its own account which is called principal trades and for customer accounts which are called agency trades. Using these systems, a market maker can enter and adjust quotes to buy or sell, enter, and execute orders, and clear those orders.

On HitBTC, Market Maker contracts permit API traders to maximize their trading experience. The contracts are accompanied by cash incentives and rebate bonuses. It allows traders to add a new currency to the exchange if two users take Market Makers contracts to support the cryptocurrency on HitBTC. Every contract is valid for one currency pair. HitBTC sends Market makers detailed daily reports with order book snapshot to help them evaluate their performance and develop the most efficient trading strategies. Here is a handy guide to HitBTC market making contracts.

API

HitBTC is popular for its extremely stable API, which satisfies the needs of algorithmic traders. It provides an easy back-office integration, and it is compatible with HFT set-ups, and algorithmic trading systems.

HitBTC API allows you to access the full range of features of the exchange. It also makes it easy to implement into custom software. The interfaces include the RESTful API, socket.io, and Streaming API. RESTful API lets users access market data, perform trading operations, and manage funds. Socket.io is a protocol that lets you receive market data, and Streaming API lets you access market data and trading operations. Also, with the responsive and feature-packed terminal, users can trade effortlessly any of the currency pairs in milliseconds.

Security

The developers have worked on a very impressive set of protection matters as the mentioned state of art cryptography combined with FIPS validation and offers of two-factor authentication.

HitBTC provides two-factor authentication for all users through the commonly used Google Authenticator. This security feature is used for all logins and withdrawals.

Another additional security feature is the ability to view recent activity at the bottom of the settings page, which lets you check if someone is attempting to access your account from some location maliciously.

Like some other exchange platforms, HitBTC also adopts the use of cold wallets in securing users’ funds. This measure prevents hackers from gaining unauthorized access to users’ funds.

Affiliate Program with HitBTC

You can also be an affiliate with HitBTC, which means that you can earn through your referrals! They actually give a lot back to their affiliates, so if you want to be a part of people that have nice passive income with them, don’t miss it.

Fees Structure

HitBTC used to charge low trading fees. They only charge 0.1% on every market trade and LP orders have a 0.01% rebate. However, it should be noted that users are now being forced to pay a Bitcoin deposit fee.  Right now, this fee is 0.0003 BTC. It is unclear if it will remain fixed or change depending on the price of Bitcoin.

For now, these deposit fees will be deducted from incoming BTC amounts, which implies any deposit lower than the fee will be used to pay the fee and not be refunded to customers.

However, the company argued this decision was made to strengthen all Bitcoin processes on the HitBTC platform. Claiming, the company aims to “provide stability in the functioning of the major cryptocurrencies.”

Getting Started With HitBTC

Create an account

In order to create a new account, visit the main page of the site. Then click the ‘Register' button in the upper right corner.

Enter your valid email address in the ‘Email'

Set up a strong password consist of more than 8 characters with uppercase, lowercase and numeric characters in the ‘Password'

As a security measure, make sure you follow the best practices specified by HitBTC here

After filling all fields, click the ‘Register‘ button.

Activate your account by confirming the link sent to your inbox

Note: The confirmation message is sent immediately after registration, so if you do not receive it within 2-5 minutes, please check the spam folder or click on ‘Resend confirmation email’ as shown above

After the confirmation of your account, you will be re-directed to the trading terminal where you can start trading.

Verify your account

There are levels of accounts that you would be able to get with HitBTC – General, Verified, and Qualified. Each of these levels has their own advantage, and the higher the level, the higher the trading volume.

General accounts

For this tier you can traders can only deposit cryptocurrencies. Your daily withdrawal limit is EUR 5,000 worth of cryptocurrency per day.

Verified accounts

For this second-tier, traders can deposit and withdraw a maximum of EUR 25,000 worth of cryptocurrency per day. FIAT deposit/withdrawal would be $2,000 (USD, EUR) per week and $10,000 (USD, EUR) per month.

Qualified accounts

This account can withdraw more than $25,000 worth of cryptocurrency per day. Also, FIAT limit would be $10,000 (USD, EUR) per week and $50,000 (USD, EUR) per month; for deposits and withdrawals.

To verify your account:

1. Contact HitBTC at compliance@hitbtc.com with the following information included in your email in order to have your account verified:

• Personal Information (ID’s issued by the government)
• Address
• Bank account information (For those people who want to use FIAT)
• Proof of Residence (PoR) document
• Proof of bank account ownership document/certificate

Note: It’s very important to keep in mind that before you submit any requirements to them, you should take care of the below precautions so that you wouldn’t experience any issues when it comes to your account verifications.

• Make sure you use the email address that you registered with them to send the verification email
• As stated on the website: “Screenshots and/or electronic documents are not accepted. This document should be paper-based and drafted on original bank letterhead.”

Making Deposits to your account

Note: Depending on the volume and type of currency to be deposited or withdrawn, funding your account can take up to fourteen (14) business days, while the withdrawal of funds can take up to twenty (20) business days.

 From your account page, click the green “Deposit” button.

Find a row of currency you want to deposit and click the fund button. This will generate your wallet address.

Copy the address generated, and paste it into the wallet from which you are transferring your fund.

Once your funds reach HitBTC, you will see a pending transaction at the very bottom of the Account page, in the “Latest transactions” section.

You can contact the HitBTC support in case you are experiencing any issue.

Executing Trades on HitBTC

Transfer your funds to the trading

To start trading, you would need transfer funds from your Main account to your Trading account. Depending on the destination of your transfer, click either of the blue arrows between the accounts. Specify the necessary amount and click “Transfer”. In the example below, we are transferring to the trading account as specified in the diagram below:

Set up an order

 After your funds have been transferred to the Trading account, navigate to the trading terminal, and select a trading pair in the “Instruments” tab as shown below.

Fill-up the order by specifying the amount and price you are willing to buy depending on the type of order you are placing.

Note that there are four types of orders available. Market, Limit, Stop and Stop Limit.

Market order

The market price is defined as the best available price for the trade at the moment when the order is placed.

 Limit order

A limit order to buy would be at the limit or lower, and a limit order to sell would be at the limit or higher. Limit orders are used by traders who have decided on the price at which they are willing to trade. A limit order requires a specified amount of funds to be reserved on your account.

Stop order

Unlike the limit order, when the stop price is reached, a stop order becomes a market order. Stop order doesn't require reserved funds and will not appear in the order book before it's activated.

Stop limit order

Stop limit order means you are creating a limit order at a specific price. That is when the stop price is reached, a stop-limit order becomes a limit order. So, you're specifying two prices: stop price, thereof reaching triggers a creation of a limit order, and a limit price for that limit order. This type of order doesn't require reserved funds and will not appear in the order book before it's activated.

An example below shows how to create a market order for BCC:

Making Withdrawal from your HitBTC Account

To withdraw your digital assets:

• From the account tab, specify the amount you'd like to withdraw and paste the receiving address into the “Address” field.
• Make sure that the amount you'd like to withdraw is stored on your main account by transferring it from your trading account if needed, then click the “Withdraw” button.
• Type the authentication code from your Google authenticator app if 2FA for withdrawals is enabled on your account

After clicking the withdrawal button, the following notification is going to be displayed: “Your withdrawal request requires a confirmation by e-mail.” Kindly proceed to your email inbox and locate a new message from support@hitbtc.com, titled “Withdraw verification”. As shown below:

Note: Make sure the link is directly from HitBTC before clicking on it, to avoid a phishing attack

Confirm your withdrawal request from your e-mail by clicking this link.

Note that some digital assets require extra options for sending transactions. For example, to withdraw XMR you would need to specify wallet address and payment ID. You must make sure you have followed the instructions correctly to avoid any mistake.