I first used BitShares in August 2017 and find myself using it more and more for crypto trading. Because it is a "decentralized" exchange, you only need to provide a user name to get started, a major difference from the traditional "centralized" exchange where you must provide numerous personal identifiers to open an account. I find the network is very quick to process transactions; the UI is laid out well and you can margin trade, although margin positions must be fully collateralized--thus different than margin trading you might use at a traditional brokerage. BitShares doesn't have the volume and liquidity of a major centralized exchange (pick any one) but that is changing as more and more users adopt it. Check it out here --> https://bitshares.org/
Noticed this article on Zero Hedge today where BitShares was mentioned. The author discusses Decentralized vs Centralized currency exchanges and Wall Street manipulation of Bitcoin and Ripple.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-01-04/anatomy-crypto-nightmare-ripple-ceo-now-richer-zuckerberg
Pull quote:
"This is why I continue to bang on about the need for decentralized exchanges where the kind of manipulation described above is harder, if not impossible, to pull off. I fundamentally do not believe most of the ‘liquidity’ that exists on exchanges like HitBTC, Bittrex, GDAX, etc. exists."