-Best exchange to use? Binance all the way.
Let OP be informed that while Binance has relatively lesser complaints than the likes of YoBit or HitBTC, they also have records of suddenly requiring KYC from certain users who are making transactions well within their non-verified limits.
I can also say that Binance is the best so far that I have used. The friend of OP that used hitbtc isn't the only person that experienced that freezing of funds on that exchange. Most experiences that I've read which has been shared were bad experiences on the said exchange.
Some incidents also have reported in other exchanges that even there's no suspicious thing the user is doing, an exchange can do whatever they want. But once a staff from the exchange validates the reason, the user denies the reason that's brought to him.