Contents
Binance is a leading cryptocurrency trading platform, with over 200 supported currencies for deposit and withdrawal. In this review, I'll cover the main things you need to know before signing up.
Summary of the review by Binance
Binance is a crypto-trading platform that offers one of the most competitive rates. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced trader looking to trade cryptocurrencies, this is probably the easiest and cheapest way to trade the markets.
The platform accepts users from all over the world and has received positive reviews from the entire cryptocurrency community. Recently, US users can trade on Binance-US, which is compliant with US trade regulations.
1. Overview of Binance
Binance is a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange launched by developer Changpeng Zhao (aka CZ) in July 2017. Zhao's company Beijie Technology created the exchange after a successful ICO (capital raising) that raised 15 Millions of dollars.
Investors who invested in the ICO got binance coin (BNB) in exchange, which can be used for cryptocurrency trading and to pay commissions on Binance. BNB's initial value was around $ 0,1, and as Binance has become more and more popular the BNB token has tremendously increased in value.
Beijie Technology and its founder have an impressive track record in the industry. Zhao's resume includes senior positions as a CTO at Blockchain.com, and his company now provides trading systems for over 30 other platforms.
After troubles with the Chinese government over cryptocurrencies, Binance now runs its servers from more lenient states, giving it the freedom to run a competitive exchange service:
“In response to China's decisions, we are moving our IP addresses from Hong Kong to an offshore location. So we are registered in different places and we have people in different places. That way, we will never be influenced by just one regulator, ”Zhao explained.
2. Services of Binance
Binance Exchange allows users to trade fiat currencies for Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. There are several ways to buy crypto on Binance:
P2P trade
A very neat feature, Binance provides peer-to-peer (P2P) trading service, which directly connects cryptocurrency buyers and sellers. This facilitates fiat payments, with a wide variety of payment options depending on the user's preferences.
Credit / Debit Card:
Binance recently partnered with Simplex to provide a credit / debit card brokerage service. This service allows you to purchase 31 different cryptocurrencies with a credit card. This service comes with up to 3,5% cashback bonus for USD purchases.
SEPA / WIRE TRANSFERS
Through integrations with other third-party vendors, Binance now allows its users to purchase cryptocurrencies directly with fiat currencies using sepa and wire transfers. This is a particularly attractive option, as SEPA & wire deposits incur no transaction fees. On the downside, however, while this payment method is available for several fiat options such as Euro, CAD and AUD, it is not available for USD deposits.
Finally, Brave, the privacy-focused browser, has integrated a Binance trading widget into the browser. The widget allows users to buy and trade cryptocurrencies through Binance, as well as view and manage their cryptocurrency wallet.
Trading on Binance is quite easy and user-friendly. There is an impressive selection of cryptocurrencies available for correlation trading with Bitcoin, Ether, BNB, XRP and Tether trading pairs. Crypto / fiat are also available on Binance fiat markets.
Users can choose between “basic”, “classic” and “advanced” interfaces for order book style trading and peer-to-peer and OTC trading options.
Spot trading
For spot trading, users can choose from three different interfaces, depending on their level of experience. The classic interface provides a quick view of the market and trading pairs, making it easy to switch pairs. The advanced view gives users access to advanced graphical tools.
For people who are new to trading there will be no difference between the two points of view.
Less experienced traders have a basic quick trading option that allows you to simply convert tokens at market rates, without charts or order books.
Trading on margin
Margin trading is available for some trading pairs, allowing users to trade with up to 10x leverage on some tokens. Users can choose between cross-margin, which risks the entire balance of your margin account, and isolated margin, which limits your potential losses to a single trading pair.
Binance also offers leveraged futures trading, which I will discuss in the next section.
Binance Futures and Derivatives
Binance Futures, launched in 2019, allows traders to speculate on the price (rather than buying and selling) of Bitcoin and various popular altcoins, including Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple and others.
The platform allows trading with leverage of up to 125x, which means that traders can multiply their profits (but also losses) by 125.
Binance futures balances are held separately from users' regular trading accounts and must be funded by Tether (USDT) as collateral. All profits and losses will also be realized in USDT.
The Binance Futures user interface is almost identical to Binance's cash trading, apart from some additional functions to control leverage and view open positions.
Binance's futures fees are slightly different from their cash markets, with a maximum trading fee of 0,04% on any exchange. The rates are lower for trade makers (who add liquidity to the order book before execution), or for users with large monthly trading volumes.
Binance also offers futures contracts that are backed by unstable cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or altcoins, under a separate tab called "Coin Futures".
Finally, Binance offers derivatives called leveraged tokens, which provide UP and DOWN contracts that bet on the price of certain cryptocurrencies. These give the buyer leveraged exposure to cryptocurrencies without the liquidation risk.
Binance funding
The latest addition to Binance's services is the funding option:
saving
Binance Savings allows users to get a return on inactive funds, through “flexible” or “blocked” account types. Flexible savings accounts pay variable interest rates, while blocked savings accounts pay higher interest on fixed-term deposits.
Stakeout
Binance also provides a staking service, which allows users to earn returns on proof of participation and decentralized finance (DeFi), without the need for technical knowledge to stake the tokens. As with savings accounts, the stake service is available in flexible and blocked options.
Binance Smart pool
Binance Smart Pool allows miners to join a larger group of miners who share the rewards. The hash power is automatically redirected to the most profitable cryptocurrency at any given moment, offering users optimization.
Binance Visa Card
The Binance Visa card allows users to spend their cryptocurrency holdings in places that only accept fiat currency via credit or debit card. Behind the scenes, your cryptocurrencies will be converted into fiat when you make a purchase (with zero fees), so you don't have to hold fiat currency.
Crypto loans
Binance offers loans to users in the form of BUSD and USDT, backed by BTC or ETH. This provides an easy way to get your hands on stablecoin, while maintaining the exposure of your cryptocurrencies and avoiding the taxable event of selling cryptocurrencies.
Binance Liquid Swaps
Binance Liquid Swap is an automatic market maker (AMM) platform, similar to Uniswap. Users can trade liquid swap tokens with minimal slippage, or provide their liquidity "in exchange" for a share of the fee. The main difference between Binance Liquid Swap and Uniswap is that Liquid Swap is centralized.
3. Currencies and Payment Methods
Overall, the number of cryptocurrencies available for trading, depositing and withdrawing in the market is nearly 200, including major altcoins.
Cryptocurrencies can be exchanged for fiat currency (or other cryptocurrencies) on the trading platforms or purchased directly using these payment methods:
Credit / debit card
Sepa
Bank transfers
4. Taxes Binance
In a competitive space, Binance's pricing structure is leading the way. His team members have sharpened their knives.
A fixed rate of 0,1% is very attractive to any trader who does not need immediate liquidation. Traders using Binance's futures trading platform enjoy even lower fees, starting at 0,02% / 0,04%.
Binance is lower than most other major cryptocurrency platforms, some of which charge more than 0,2%. This is a pretty big difference when working with large positions.
BNB (BNB), Binance's native token, offers an additional discount on these trading fees of up to 50% when trading with this token.
Deposits are free, as you would expect (apart from the blocking fee which is always paid by the sender). Withdrawal fees apply, although they are usually related to blockchain transaction fees.
Withdrawal fees appear to be updated regularly to try and offer a fair price.
5. Limits of Binance
Binance has a very simple structure, there are only withdrawal limits.
Level 1 verified accounts can withdraw up to 2 BTC every 24 hours.
Level 2 verified accounts that can withdraw 100 BTC every 24 hours.
Verification requires completing a basic KYC form and providing proof of identity and other documents.
6. Supported Countries
Binance does not mention which countries are supported by its exchange, essentially making it available worldwide. Customers in the United States can now use Binance US after Binance withdrew its main service from the country.
There is also no mention of exceptions for US citizens who have signed up and will certainly be under the radar of the US Department of Financial Services for the potential violation of New York's virtual currency regulations.
7. Customer support and reviews
There are a lot of good things about Binance, and many traders continue to be optimistic about the service. Low fees, responsive trading, and proven developers leave most people very satisfied with their services. Binance has generally been considered a complete success in its short life so far.
Most support requests should be made via the site's email contact form. As with most major exchanges, you may have to wait a while for an answer simply due to the growth in demand.
There is a chat bot customer service to operate, but some of the responses are automated (and some in Chinese).
Fortunately, the site is fully multilingual (15 in total supported). This is another real benefit for Binance as it seeks to compete as a global cryptocurrency exchange.
A major issue seems to be a thorn in the site's side - many comments talk about problems with a 2FA / SMS confirmation.
The whimsical nature of this setup for Binance means that some customers are having trouble withdrawing funds. Indeed, it is such a problem that allegations of scam have been leveled at the service.
To be honest, I see it more as a glitch than a scam. From personal experience, I can say that if you use Authy (not Google Authenticator) this problem does not exist.
8. Binance against other platforms
Since Binance only provides trading services, I will compare its pricing with that of other reputable trading platforms.
Binance vs Coinbase (Pro)
Coinbase Pro is Coinbase's trading platform. It is a major exchange in terms of reputation and adoption.
Aside from the limited availability of the platform worldwide (supports 103 countries), the platform charges a trading fee of 0,25%, which is 2,5 times what Binance charges.
Binance vs. Bittrex
Bittrex is an American cryptocurrency exchange that has gained popularity among cryptocurrency users since launching operations in December 2014. Its steady growth has made it one of the most popular altcoin exchanges on the market.
Bittrex charges a flat fee of 0,20%. That's double what Binance costs. The exchange provides a large variety of altcoins (over 250) which is more than what Binance currently provides.
Binance vs. Bitfinex
Bitfinex, one of the largest Bitcoin exchanges in the world by volume, offers advanced trading options such as Bitcoin margin trading and is not suitable for beginners.
Bitfinex supports over 100 cryptocurrencies and tokens, less than Binance which supports over 200.
Binance vs. Kraken
Kraken, headquartered in San Francisco, California, is one of the oldest cryptocurrency exchanges. It operates in the United States (except New York due to BitLicense) and Canada, as well as in the European Union and Japan.
The platform supports over 30 different cryptocurrencies (compared to Binance's over 200).
Like Bitfinex, Kraken is also working on a tariff program for manufacturers. Manufacturers have a maximum tax of 0,16% and customers have a maximum tax of 0,26%. Either way, Binance wins with lower fees.
9. Frequently Asked Questions
Can i withdraw money from Binance?
Yes, it is possible to withdraw cryptocurrencies from Binance. The option to withdraw fiat currencies from Binance is currently limited to AUD and RUB only (not USD, EUR, etc.)
Can i buy Bitcoin from Binance?
Yes, it is possible to buy Bitcoin from Binance with a credit card or any supported cryptocurrency.
How do you buy Bitcoins on Binance?
Register with Binance (Binance)
Deposit funds into your account
Find the trading pair for Bitcoin and the deposited cryptocurrency
Selling the cryptocurrency deposited for Bitcoin
Withdraw the Bitcoins in your wallet
Alternatively, you can simply buy Bitcoin directly with your credit card.
Is Binance Safe?
Binance is considered a secure exchange that allows the protection of the user's account through the use of Two Factor Authentication (2fa).
On May 7, 2019, Binance suffered a major hack 7000 Bitcoins stolen from the exchange. However, Binance has stated that all losses will be covered by its emergency insurance fund (aka SAFU (safu)).
10. Conclusion
The advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. This is more than can be said of other competitors.
The low cost of the exchange combined with the team's proven knowledge of how to build a trading platform is enough to make it a major player.
It's no wonder that success followed the service in its first few months. Add to this the opportunity to offer a truly global service away from the grip of the Chinese government, there is little to stop Beiji Technology.
Relatively limited fiat support is a bit frustrating, but understandable. That said, Binance is constantly adding more options with EUR and GBP trading pairs already available.
Benefits
Wide variety of currencies
Low trading fees
Multilingual support
Good corporate reputation
disadvantages
Slow customer support
2has technical problems
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