## Security & Trust

30% weight

- Public proof-of-reserves / audit posture  
- Regulatory licensing in operating jurisdictions  
- Historical incidents and their resolution  
- Insurance funds, cold-storage policy, 2FA enforcement

## Fees

25% weight

- Spot maker / taker fees as documented  
- Real fee paid in our hands-on test (vs documented rate)  
- Spread above market mid on simple/instant flows  
- Withdrawal fees per major asset

## Asset Variety

20% weight

- Number of supported tradeable assets  
- Coverage of new-listing pipeline  
- Fiat on/off ramps and supported currencies  
- Derivatives, perpetuals, options availability

## Ease of Use & Features

15% weight

- Time to complete first trade, including KYC  
- Mobile vs desktop UX parity  
- Earn / staking / convert / OTC product depth  
- API quality if relevant

## Customer Support

10% weight

- Time to first human response on a real ticket  
- Time to resolution  
- Quality of self-service docs  
- Coverage hours and language support

## How the overall score is calculated

Each pillar is scored 0–5. The overall is a weighted average using the percentages above:

```
overall =
   security_trust * 0.30 +
   fees * 0.25 +
   asset_variety * 0.20 +
   ease_features * 0.15 +
   support * 0.10
```

The result is rounded to one decimal. We do **not** use a 0–10 or 0–100 scale because the human eye reads "4.2/5" more accurately than "8.4/10" or "84/100".