Coinbase has been crowned as the lowest-risk crypto exchange by research firm CryptoCompare. 

It secured a premium AA rating alongside Gemini, Bitstamp and Binance for anti-money laundering and customer identification checks.

FTX and Kraken secured an A rating but 35% of the 150 surveyed were identified as having poor or inadequate ‘Know Your Client’ (KYC) checks for new customers.

A worrying 27% of exchanges were found to send funds to higher-risk entities for more than 4% of transactions, according to CipherTrace, versus 25% in Aug 2021.

CryptoCompare, a UK-based data aggregator and index provider, has authorisation from UK regulatory body the Financial Conduct Authority to operate and issue benchmarks for financial instruments and measure fund performance for digital assets based on market research and methodologies.

The report also founded that top-tier exchanges have gained volumes market share since August 2021, increasing from 89% to an average of 91% in the six-month period between September 2021 and February 2022.