The market is a bloody mess. The new generation of market participants who have grown bold by investing in one of the most parabolic moves in crypto history now face severe losses. However, experienced traders who stood the test of time know what bear markets look like and how to survive them. You can still profit by mirroring their trades by using some of the best copy trading crypto platforms.
In this article, I’m explaining what a copy trading platform is and how it works. I’ll also give you a few pointers on how to pick a good platform. You’ll also get to check out the 10 best copy trading crypto platforms in 2022.
Copy trading is a strategy that involves copying the trades of professional traders. I long Bitcoin, you long Bitcoin. I short Bitcoin at $35,321.40, you short Bitcoin at $35,321.40, right to the last pip. The process is completely automated and allows you to trade on autopilot mode without having any trading knowledge.
Trading cryptocurrencies takes a lot of experience and knowledge. And even if you have both, planning a trade takes quite a long time. Not everyone can trade, so copying more skillful traders makes more sense than standing on the sidelines in a bull market.
Copy trading helped develop my own trading skills back when I first started trading. It allowed me to see how other traders think and act. Once I got inside the mind of a trader, I could slowly start trading on my own. It’s like riding a bike with exercise wheels until you're confident enough to ride the bike without them.
Copy trading is highly popular among beginners. It allows new market entrants to join the trading world without putting themselves at too much risk. I’d say that it’s the next level you want to take after paper trading.
Experience educates people in a way that theory can’t. But since speculating volatile assets includes both winning and losing money, you might be too scared to take the first step and trade. Copy trading helps in this regard by letting you copy traders knowledgeable enough to make profits in the crypto market.
The best thing about copy trading is that it finally gives you the perspective you need. You get to see why traders long when they long, and why they short when they short. You learn why and when they use risk management skills. You also get to know what you should do in an uncomfortable situation where you have to pick the lesser of two evils.
Copy trading teaches you invaluable lessons that studying technical analysis never could. Plus, it saves time and shows you how other traders approach the market.
Choosing a good copy trading platform for your crypto needs isn’t easy. You need something secure, profitable, and cheap. Let’s take a look at how these aspects surface on copy trading platforms.
A copy trading platform with no profitable traders is worth nothing. The goal is to trade profitably and rely on better traders. If a platform doesn’t have a good trader selection, you might as well forget copy trading.
The trader selection should have people who have great and consistent performance. They should practice safe risk management by keeping their leverage low and targeting trades with proper risk-reward ratios. They’re no use to you if they don’t fit this criteria.
Consistency is key here. Before you confirm your choice, make sure that the traders are profitable most of the time. You don’t want to pick someone with a good weekly performance only to see that they have a below average yearly performance.
Focus on security whenever possible – especially when letting 3rd-party platforms manage your money. Check the team behind the copy trading platform and look for reviews online. I also recommend checking out what Crypto Twitter says about the platform.
Once you’ve confirmed that the platform is legit and won’t steal your money, you’re ready for phase 2: exploitability. Confirm that the platform has a good security team and that it hasn’t lost funds due to exploits in the past. Just because a platform doesn’t directly steal your money doesn’t mean you can’t lose in a malicious event like a hack.
Copy trading isn’t free. You’ll likely pay a subscription to the platform facilitating this service. The trader you’re copying might also ask for a portion of the profits you make – or charge another type of fee. The fees you pay should be lower than what you end up making by copy trading. However, I suggest you pick the most competitive option so that you don’t end up paying more than what’s necessary.
After spending days researching the market, I have finally come up with a list of great copy trading platforms. The next section features 10 of the best copy trading platforms in 2022. Keep in mind that the list is not ranked in any particular order.
Pionex is a crypto trading bot platform with copy trading capabilities that’s absolutely free. It’s a great option for investors who might not have enough money to pay for a subscription or don’t want to risk wasting money on a service they won’t use.
The platform supports automated trading for more than 356 cryptocurrencies and features 16 unique trading bot strategies. You can create an account and instantly copy the best traders without paying any hidden fees.
Moreover, Pionex enforces no KYC regulations. You don’t need to verify your identity and wait for days before the platform accepts your account. This means you can start trading even faster than on all the other platforms.
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eToro is a famous forex and crypto trading platform that, out of its wide range of services, also features copy trading. eToro has a vibrant community of traders who you can connect with, share ideas, and communicate. It's almost like a social media platform, but for traders. eToro is extremely beginner friendly and offers an intuitive UI that's easy to navigate.
Although the platform focuses more on stocks and TradFi, you’ll still find a large variety of crypto assets. And if you’re not satisfied with the selection, you can move to eToro X – the company’s dedicated crypto trading platform.
One problem with eToro is that you’re not actually trading cryptocurrencies. You trade derivatives that follow the price of crypto assets. This means that you can withdraw crypto on eToro or store it in a digital wallet.
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3Commas is another crypto trading bot platform that features a marketplace where users can share and sell strategies.
They have a vibrant community that’s participated in the crypto market for years. You can find all kinds of trading bots and automate your portfolio with ease.
The great thing about 3Commas is that it has integrated a large number of crypto exchanges. You can connect your funds from more than 25 popular crypto exchanges.
Even though 3Commas might seem too complicated at first, you can always check their educational resources to find out how the platform works. And if you’re not sure whether 3Commas is the right choice, you can always test it out for free.
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Bybit is one of crypto’s largest exchanges. It offers high liquidity trading pairs for both spot and derivatives markets. You also have access to plenty of DeFi-related features and lending offers. Moreover, the high volume that Bybit offers ensures that the exchange always fills your orders .
Bybit also allows its users to trade with leverage, trade futures, and trade options. Their leverage goes up to 125x on some trading pairs, and you can also trade leveraged tokens and trade with margin without the risk of liquidation.
Even though Bybit is a traditional crypto exchange with no automated crypto trading bots, the exchange has recently launched a copy trading feature. This feature allows you to copy other profitable traders and grow your portfolio from seasoned traders.
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MoonXBT is a crypto trading platform that focuses on the derivatives market. The platform features one of the lowest trading fees in the crypto market and offers up to 150x leverage.
The platform is available in more than 200 countries and guarantees high liquidity.
The best thing about MoonXBT is their liquid contract trading feature – a type of derivatives contract that minimizes transaction times. You’ll execute trades faster than ever and experience almost no input lag.
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PrimeXBT is a crypto trading platform that allows you to trade Bitcoin, altcoins, stocks, and commodities. This is one of the best platforms for margin trading digital and non-digital assets. PrimeXBT processes up to $545 million in trading volume per day and features a trade execution time of 7.12 ms.
The platform also allows you to earn interest on your crypto assets through staking. They supposedly offer up to 14% APY on some of their most popular cryptocurrencies.
Their copy trading module is what allows users to copy other traders and share their own trades. If you’re a veteran trader who’d like to earn even more money by trading, you can share your trades and earn 20% of all profits generated by your followers.
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Zignaly is a copy trading platform that deals exclusively with cryptocurrencies. They have only integrated Binance, KuCoin, AscendEX, and BitMEX. However, the platform still boasts a large customer base of 430,00 users and more than $120 millions in assets under management.
The unique thing about Zignaly is their profit sharing feature. You can copy trade investors normally, but you can also share profits with other traders and only pay trading fees on profitable positions that you have closed. This helps minimize the costs you spend on copy trading crypto investors.
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Gate.io îs a cryptocurrency exchange that provides crypto trading services since 2013. The exchange offers thousands of cryptocurrency trading pairs for normal trading. For copy trading, you have access to 1600 spot trading pairs and 33 futures trading pairs.
The exchange also offers vast leveraged opportunities. You can trade with up to 100x leverage on futures contracts and 10x leverage on spot markets. Like Bybit, Gate.io has only recently started providing copy trading services – so don’t expect too many advanced features like crypto trading bots and portfolio rebalancing.
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Coinmatics is a copy trading platform that features crypto trading bots, signal trading, and custom automated strategies. You can choose from a wide range of strategies created by verified traders with a transparent track record and performance history. Coinmatics allows you to connect your exchange account, select which strategy you like, and track your gains in the background while passively earning money.
Coinmatics supports spot and futures trading on the following exchanges:
The platform claims to have a network uptime of 99.6% and a trade execution time under two seconds. And if you’re not interested in copy trading, you can trade yourself using Coinmatics’ advanced trading terminal.
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Copy trading other investors can be highly profitable. However, whether you make or lose money depends on which trader you’re going to copy. You will not make money copy trading if you consistently pick unprofitable traders.
I suggest properly analyzing your trading partners before letting them manage your capital. Try to pick traders who have a consistent and predictable track record. Avoid copying those who have a lucky streak but remain unprofitable on a long-term basis. Even if you use the best copy trading platforms, you’ll still lose money if you trust the wrong people.
If you want to learn more about making money by trading cryptocurrencies, I recommend reading the following articles:
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