The Best Decentralized Crypto Exchanges for Australia in 2023

1. Changelly Exchange

• Country: Czech Republic
• Currency: USD, EUR & GBP
• Fees: Varies (5% for crypto-to-fiat)
• Available cryptocurrencies: 90+ Cryptocurrencies

Changelly is a leading decentralized exchange, transparent and unique in many respects. It was established in 2015 and is currently headquartered in Malta. It’s available in over 190 countries and has millions of users. Changelly is the perfect solution for traders who look for instant crypto purchases.

What makes Changelly different from any other decentralized exchange on the market is the automatic trading robot that’s integrated with other industry “giants” like Binance and Bittrex. It makes bids and asks the other exchanges to guess the rates of various trading pairs. 

Changelly offers convenient and relatively anonymous trading with over 150 supported altcoins and three fiat currencies: EUR, USD, and GBP.  When it comes to fees, deposit fees depend on the payment method, whereas takers and makers pay a flat rate of 0.25%. Bitcoin can be withdrawn for a 0.0001 BTC withdrawal fee.

You can access the platform from their website, mobile app, or directly through a third-party wallet. Changelly integrates with Ledger, TREZOR, Jazz, Exodus, and Edge. It also offers its own API and a payment widget for websites that can be customized and used to buy and sell crypto without visiting the Changelly website.

2. ShapeShift Exchange

• Country: Switzerland
• Currency: Crypto Only
• Fees: Varies
• Available cryptocurrencies: 70+ Cryptocurrencies

ShapeShift is also a well-established name in decentralized crypto trading and a direct competitor to Changelly. It was founded in 2014 by the Swiss crypto enthusiast Eric Voorhees in Geneva. ShapeShift aims at fast conversion of Bitcoin and other supported cryptocurrencies with impeccable transaction protection. In this context, in 2017, the company made a big step by acquiring the well-known hardware wallet KeepKey. Now, users can have the best of both worlds: they can use the web platform for trading purposes but store their tokens safely offline, without the risk of cyberattacks.

ShapeShift is now available in 15 languages in almost every country worldwide and it offers exceptionally fast trading options in real-time. The platform’s trading efficiency is achieved through its clean interface. Plus, users can switch from one asset to another with relative ease.

ShapeShift allows crypto-to-crypto exchange with around 40 altcoins. Fiat-crypto pairs are not available unless you use Simplex, a credit card provider, but it’s not really a good solution as you need to undergo a very expensive local fiat/BTC conversion. In general, the fees on ShapeShift are low, depending on the altcoin being traded.

You also have the chance to become a FOX club member, applicable to ShapeShift brands. You need to buy FOX tokens and store them in your wallet for 30 days. Over this time, you are awarded additional bonuses and benefits.

Until recently, users could make transactions on ShapeShift instantly, without registering on the platform. However, now there is an obligatory KYC (Know Your Customer) process that every user must complete before trading.

3. Bisq Exchange

• Country: Global
• Currency: Most currencies supported
• Fees: 0.1% to 0.7%
• Available cryptocurrencies: 11+ Cryptocurrencies

Bisq (formerly known as Bitsquare) has everything a trader could ask from a decentralized crypto exchange. It’s a peer-to-peer, open-source application where you can buy and sell altcoins in your local currency or other cryptocurrencies. Bisq was established in 2014 by the Austrian developer Manfred Karrer, and since then, it operates globally supporting a large variety of altcoins.

Unlike other crypto exchanges, Bisq isn’t an online platform. It’s a desktop application that you can download for free on Windows, Mac, Ubuntu, Linux, and Fedora operational systems. 

Users can also download a mobile app for iOS and Android, even though the mobile version doesn’t support the full range of Bisq services. However, it’s convenient to have it downloaded to keep track of the latest crypto news.

According to many user reviews, trading on Bisq is said to be a 10-minute affair. You simply choose your national currency and browse a list of offers for that currency. Bisq facilitates all the payments and offers an escrow service and arbitration for any potential dispute. 

However, the Bisq fee system is based on a complex algorithm. The taker’s fee starts from 0.002 BTC whereas makers are charged starting from 0.006 BTC. Note that there are also mining fees you should take into account.

4. Uniswap Exchange

• Country: United States
• Currency: Crypto Only
• Fees: 0.3%
• Available cryptocurrencies: 185+ Cryptocurrencies

Uniswap is a young, fully decentralized exchange protocol that massively attracts new users thanks to its devotion to the core principles of blockchain philosophy. It was created in 2018 by Hayden Adams as one of the largest projects of Ethereum and the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

The platform was formed on the Ethereum blockchain to swap ERC20 tokens. It operates with a relatively new type of trading model called an automated liquidity protocol that is different from what we already know of the traditional order book model. It enables users to swap tokens and trade without a third party acting as an intermediary.

Uniswap is not built to charge fees as a real decentralized exchange. Rather, it’s an open-source tool that uses the pools of tokens to establish prices without charging any trading or transaction fees. Users can trade any ERC-20 token if there is an available liquid pool and infrastructure wallet services like MetaMask and MyEtherWallet.

Handling tokens on Uniswap is not complicated but still requires some technical know-how.

To put it simply, Uniswap allows users to exchange tokens directly from their digital wallets without any custody assistance. It runs on “Exchange” and “Factory” smart contracts to exchange tokens and provide/remove liquidity respectively.

5. IDEX Exchange

• Country: Panama
• Currency: Crypto Only
• Fees: 0.2%
• Available cryptocurrencies: 300+ Cryptocurrencies

IDEX is a promising Ethereum-based exchange, launched in 2016, and the first of its type to offer real-time trading. It can be categorized as a hybrid crypto exchange since it incorporates features of both centralized and decentralized exchanges. 

According to the reviews, it’s the most advanced trading platform on the market and a perfect alternative for high-profile crypto professionals. They can trade 18 coins with Ethereum as a base counterpart.

Primarily being a decentralized exchange, IDEX includes P2P trading with smart contracts to manage users’ private keys as well as MetaMask Wallet integration, which enables them to control their own assets without entering the private key as a measure of safety. 

However, the method by which smart contracts are designed allows IDEX to submit only signed trades. This makes IDEX closer to centralized exchanges, giving the platform full control over the way transactions are executed and processed. Users are not able to revoke any completed trades, but at the same time, the exchange can’t initiate unauthorized limit orders.

When it comes to fees, IDEX charges a relatively low trading fee of 0.01% and 0.02% for takers and makers respectively. Note that takers are additionally bound to a gas fee.

6. Balancer Exchange

• Country: USA
• Currency: Crypto Only
• Fees: Varies
• Available cryptocurrencies: 100+ Cryptocurrencies

In the ecosystem of crypto trading, 2020 was the year of DeFi. Speaking of promising DeFi stories, Balancer also started operating in 2020, but nobody predicted its instant success to such an extent. This platform was created a year before with a budget of $3 million by Fernando Martinelli and Mike McDonald.

By definition, Balancer ($BAL) is an automatic market maker protocol (AMM) whose aim is to reduce costs and potential slippage between trades of various altcoins. In simpler terms, Balancer is a decentralized version of the regular market-makers that give liquidity to the assets being traded.

The protocol provides the funds required for completing the trade by employing the available funds from Balancer pools. It can be called by different decentralized platforms to automatically predict the best prices and exchange rates with the assistance of Smart Order Routing (SOR).

Balancer offers a broad range of available tokens such as Ethereum (ETH), WBTC, WETH, DAI, BAT, USDC, SNX, ZRX, MKR, COMP, OCEAN, REP, BTC++, LEND, LINK, UMA, REN, DZAR, KNC, LRC, etc. There are also tokens with no pools including tBTC, ANT, cDAI, imBTC, cUSDC, sUSD, pBTC, sBTC, PNK, RPL, and AST. Apart from gas fees, there are trading and withdrawal commissions, used for further development and liquidity providers.

7. 0X Protocol Exchange

• Country: USA
• Currency: N/A (Swaps)
• Fees: Varies
• Available cryptocurrencies: 300+ Cryptocurrencies

The 0x platform was co-founded by Will Warren and Amir Bandeali in 2016. It’s an open-source protocol that allows the permissionless peer-to-peer exchange of assets on the Ethereum blockchain.

The team behind this ambitious project believes that all types of assets will be tokenized on the Ethereum network very soon. Accordingly, the 0x protocol provides a way of exchanging a broad range of “tokenized” assets like gold, real estate, gadgets, etc. 

In a nutshell, 0x provides an exchange plugin for Ethereum-based decentralized apps or dApps. When 0x is integrated into the dApp, it gains a function of a decentralized exchange and its native token can be seamlessly traded for any other integrated ERS-20 token. 

Some of the main 0x services include:

• 0x instant, a facility for instant exchange of Ethereum-based tokens on relayer; 
• 0x API, which enables easy integration to aggregate liquidity from Uniswap, 0x Mesh, Kyber, etc. and swaps tokens at competitive prices; 
• an over-the-counter service that allows users to exchange large amounts of Ethereum-based tokens without using a relayer once the user proves that they have already been connected with their trading counterpart through email, messenger, or other direct means of communication.

8. AirSwap Exchange

• Country: USA
• Currency: Crypto Only
• Fees: No Fees
• Available cryptocurrencies: 300+ Cryptocurrencies

AirSwap was established in 2017 by Michael Oved, Sam Tabar, and Don Mosites. This successful team also co-founded Fluidity, AirSwap’s parent company. It’s a well-recognized decentralized exchange that implements the Swap P2P protocol for trading Etherum-based tokens and the stablecoin Tether (USDT). AirsSwap’s native token (AST) plays a central role in the platform.

The key objective of AirSwap is to increase the efficiency in the process of token trading using the services of AirSwap Index and Oracle. The purpose of the AirSwap Index is to help traders find each other. So, you can either search for counterparts who intend to trade or browse those who have already appeared as “discoverable”. Oracle, on the other hand, is a pricing tool that provides data simplifying the overview of trade prices.

You may find this surprising, but Airswap doesn’t incur trading fees nor does it charge any withdrawal fees. This user-oriented feature promises an unquestionably bright future for AirSwap. Now, you’re wondering how the platform manages to survive without any income. Well, the only source of revenue for AirSwap is from the growing value of the AirSwap token.

9. Bancor Network Exchange

• Country: Switzerland
• Currency: Crypto Only
• Fees: No Fees
• Available cryptocurrencies: 270+ Cryptocurrencies

The Bancor Network (BNT) is a popular blockchain protocol that provides a straightforward exchange of assets. This decentralized protocol was developed in 2017, in Israel, by Eyal Hertzog, Galia Benartzi, and Guy Benartzi. According to their official statement, Bancors ensures a price that is already determined and a mechanism of autonomous liquidity for tokens executed through smart contract blockchains.

On Bancor, you can trade a wide range of tokens on EOS and Ethereum. You can also deploy a liquidity pool of a custom token or their native token BNT. Bancor can be integrated into a dApp for which the trader could earn from affiliate fees.

The key advantage of Bancor is the time it saves when performing an exchange. If the potential investor decides to trade a token, Bancor automatically determines the price without an exchange, order books, buyers, or sellers. For this purpose, the platform applies a formula that generates the price calculated on the current market price and liquidity. As a drawback, Bancor doesn’t accept direct fiat payments. All possible fiat gateway services on Bancor are executed by a third-party provider.

10. Kyber Network Exchange

• Country: Singapore
• Currency: Crypto Only
• Fees: 0.1%
• Available cryptocurrencies: 108+ Cryptocurrencies

Kyber Network is a full-on-chain liquidity protocol that enables liquidity aggregator reserves to ensure secure and fast token exchanges in various dApps. It started operating in 2018 and the very next year Kyber Network was singled out as the most widely used Ethereum DeFi application.

Kyber Network offers various types of services to its users among which you can find individual crypto enthusiasts, professional crypto traders, reserve entities, contributors, and managers. The protocol doesn’t include any off-chain components and provides immediate settlement of token-to-token transactions like MANA/BAT for example.

Similar to previously listed protocols, Kyber Network allows decentralized integration of token swaps within any application. By using Kyber, developers can create innovative and modern payment services like instant token swaps, financial dApps, and ERC20 payment systems. What makes this protocol unique is the incredible ease of use, transparent transactions, and high level of security as it doesn’t store any data or funds.