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If you are buying and holding the legal ownership of cryptocurrencies, you will have security and storage issues which will impose a cost.

I mentioned earlier that major Forex currency pairs can be traded at a cost of only about 0.08% of the value of the asset traded. It is relatively considerably more expensive to trade cryptocurrencies. For example, the major cryptocurrency Bitcoin typically has a spread/commission structure of about 0.40% of the asset traded, about 5 times the cost of trading EUR/USD. This can make profitable short-term trading in cryptocurrency more challenging to execute in cryptocurrency than in Forex.

Cryptocurrencies, with the possible exception of Bitcoin, are much smaller in capitalization than the national currencies which are traded in Forex. They are more sensitive to micro issues that affect their own markets such as their integrity, adaptability, and popularity. In a sense, it is widely believed that in the end there will be a few successful cryptocurrencies which become widely used, so the value of the smaller cryptocurrencies will tend to rise or fall depending upon how their chances of becoming a “successful” cryptocurrency are seen.

Cryptocurrencies have, in recent years, been far more volatile than Forex currency pairs or crosses. Over a year, a cryptocurrency might rise in value tenfold – 1,000% - while a major Forex currency pair might typically fluctuate by 10% over a similar period of time. Forex currencies have central banks and national governments managing them, while cryptocurrencies really have nothing but market forces acting on them, meaning they are far more likely to fluctuate wildly in price. This means that large amounts of money can be made by trading or investing in them, but risk levels are much higher. Cryptocurrencies are also far less liquid than most national fiat currencies.

Due to their relatively high risk and volatility, most brokers offer trading in cryptocurrencies at very low rates of maximum leverage – typically 2 to 1 in more tightly regulated jurisdictions.

Unlike Forex, crypto markets tend to be open at weekends, meaning you can trade them on Saturdays and Sundays. You cannot do this with Forex with most brokers.

Finally, note that although more and more brokers are offering cryptocurrencies, typically only the larger cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, and Ripple are commonly available.