Poloniex vs Binance | Features, Trading Fees, Pros & Cons
Jack Moreau
Feb 2024
9 min read
Fact checked
Poloniex vs Binance: Which cryptocurrency exchange is superior? Our team has extensively researched both platforms to determine which one is the best. We've analyzed everything from their respective signup processes and KYC requirements to trading fees, supported countries, product offerings and user experience!
eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk.
eToro USA LLC: Investments are subject to market risk. Including the possible loss of principal. Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest.
eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk.
eToro USA LLC: Investments are subject to market risk. Including the possible loss of principal. Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest.
When it comes to cryptocurrency exchanges, Binance is one of the most popular and well known exchanges out there while Poloniex very much less so. Let's begin with a basic overview of both exchanges to see how they compare.
Poloniex was founded in 2014 and is registered in Seychelles with its headquarters located in Boston, Massachusetts. The exchange offers an impressive selection of over 350 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, TRON, and various other altcoins.
Poloniex exchange
In terms of products offered by Poloniex, it's users can enjoy spot, margin, and futures trading with up to 100x leverage. Poloniex has over a million users and supports over 500,000 downloads of its Android app, which has a weak rating of 3.8 stars based on 9,000 reviews.
Poloniex app
On the other hand, Binance was founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao and is registered in the Cayman Islands as Binance Holdings Ltd.
In terms of cryptocurrency offerings, Binance offers over 350 cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH, SOL, BNB, DOT, ATOM, ADA and numerous others.
Binance exchange
Binance offers a comprehensive suite of services which includes spot trading, futures trading, options, staking, earn products and much more.
The exchange supports over 350 cryptocurrencies and numerous trading pairs, catering to millions of users worldwide. The Binance Android app has been downloaded over 50 million times and has a rating of 4.4 based on over 1 million reviews.
Binance app
Poloniex vs Binance Signup & KYC
When it comes to signing up for Poloniex or Binance, there are some key differences in their KYC requirements and signup processes.
Poloniex takes a more relaxed approach, allowing users to deposit and trade cryptocurrencies without any KYC verification. This means that signing up only takes a minute or so and users can start trading right away.
Poloniex signup
However, if you want to deposit fiat currencies or access higher withdrawal limits, you'll need to complete KYC verification.
Binance has taken a firmer approach to KYC and requires all of it's users to verify themselves in order to access any of it's services.
Creating an account on Binance is quick and easy but users won't be able to access all of the platform's features until they've completed the verification process.
Binance verification requirements
To upload the required documents such as government ID and some additional information takes a few minutes to do. Once done, the verification process on Binance shouldn't take longer than 15 minutes to complete.
Poloniex vs Binance Products & Services
Poloniex and Binance are two cryptocurrency exchanges that offer a wide range of trading services, but differ in terms of user experience and product range.
Poloniex offers spot and futures trading, grid trading, and launchpad that supports new token launches, earn products and an NFT marketplace. While the user experience on Poloniex is not very polished, it is easy to navigate and should not be too hard for beginners to use.
Poloniex spot trading
In terms of trading volumes, the average daily spot volume on Poloniex is over $80 million. The exchange also offers traders the option to leverage up with a futures leverage of up to 100X with a maximum leverage of 3x for cross margin trading.
Poloniex earn product
Compared to Poloniex (and most exchanges), Binance offers a wider range of trading and financial services. This includes spot, futures, margin, perps and options trading. The exchange also offers additional features such as copy trading, trading bots, and leveraged tokens.
Binance spot trading
The user experience on Binance is quite good considering the wide range of products that the exchange offers. Liquidity on Binance is world class with daily spot trading volumes frequently exceeding $10 billion.
Binance offers a max leverage of up to 125X on futures and margin trading is available with up to 5X leverage with USDT, BUSD, BNB, BT, alts, and fiat as underlying collateral.
The exchange also offers different types of financial products such as earn, staking and different types of vaults that allows users to earn yield on their digital assets.
Earn products on Binance
Overall, while Poloniex offers a decent range of products and leverage, Binance's superior user experience, additional products and higher liquidity make it a more popular choice among traders.
If you're looking to trade cryptocurrency on an exchange, it's important to know the fees you'll be charged. Poloniex and Binance offer similar products but how do their trading fees compare? Let's take a closer look.
Poloniex charges a 0.145% maker fee and a 0.16% taker fee for spot trading. For futures trading, the maker fee is 0.02% and the taker fee is 0.05%. These fees can be lowered if you have a monthly trade volume exceeding $50,000 or if you hold TRX tokens.
Poloniex spot fees
Binance charges a lower spot maker fee of 0.1% and a spot taker fee of 0.1%. For futures trading, the maker fee is 0.02% and the taker fee is 0.04%.
Additionally, trading fees on Binance can be lowered if your monthly trade volume exceeds $1 million or if you hold at least 25 BNB tokens. It's clear that Binance offers lower fees than Poloniex across the board.
Poloniex and Binance once again differ when it comes to the fiat deposit methods that they offer. Unfortunately, Poloniex does not support any fiat deposits.
Users can thus not use traditional currencies like USD or EUR to deposit funds into your account. Instead, you can only make deposits through cryptocurrencies or credit card purchases via Simplex.
This is a bit downside because buying cryptocurrencies through third-party providers like Simplex is expensive.
Buy crypto with card on Poloniex
Binance contrary to Poloniex offers a wide range of fiat currencies to deposit. They support 26 fiat currencies including GBP, EUR, AUD and many others. Users can deposit fiat through bank transfers via Swift, Signet, SEPA, Faster Payments, Visa, Mastercard, PayID, and Advacash.
Binance fiat deposits
The fees for depositing fiat on Binance vary depending on the method used. Deposits with Visa or Mastercard incur a 1.8% fee while bank transfers via SEPA cost 1 EUR.
However, if you have an Advcash account you can deposit fiat currencies with a 1.5% commission. Overall, Binance is way more accommodating when it comes to fiat deposit methods as Poloniex limits users to cryptocurrency deposits.
Let's continue to see what each exchange delivers in terms of their withdrawal options and fees. As expected, Poloniex does also not offer fiat withdrawals so users can only withdraw cryptocurrencies. Withdrawal fees vary depending on the cryptocurrency being withdrawn.
For example, withdrawing Bitcoin comes with a fee of 0.0005 BTC while withdrawing ETH comes with a fee of 0.0032 ETH. Additionally, users will have to pay a 0.01 SOL withdrawal fee to send Solana and a 5 USDT fee to withdraw Tether USD.
Binance offers multiple methods for people to withdraw their fiat currencies. USD can be withdrawn via SWIFT, EUR via SEPA, and GBP via Faster Payments (FSP).
Binance charges a 1.8% withdrawal fee for fiat withdrawals with Visa and Mastercard. SEPA withdrawals have a fee of 1 EUR while bank withdrawals for other fiat currencies are free.
When it comes to cryptocurrency withdrawals, Binance charges a 0.0002 BTC fee for Bitcoin withdrawals, a 0.000768 ETH fee for Ethereum and a low 0.008 SOL fee for those who wish to withdraw their Solana from the exchange.
In conclusion, Poloniex offers over 350 cryptocurrencies and allows users to engage in spot, margin, and futures trading with up to 100x leverage.
Meanwhile, Binance supports over 350 cryptocurrencies and offers a more comprehensive suite of services, including spot trading, futures trading, staking, and DeFi products such as Binance Smart Chain and Trust Wallet.
When it comes to user experience and liquidity, Binance has the upper hand with superior user experience and one of the best liquidity in the world, with daily spot trading volumes frequently exceeding $60 billion.
However, Poloniex offers a decent range of products and features, and its average daily spot volume is over $80 million.
When it comes to fees, Binance offers lower fees than Poloniex across the board with very low spot trading fees of only 0.1% for makers and takers.
Both exchanges also offer rebates to users who either hold TRX or BNB tokens and whose trading volumes exceed certain threshold per 30-day period.
In terms of deposit and withdrawal methods, Binance is more accommodating offering a great selection of fiat currencies with plenty of cheap deposit and withdrawal methods. Poloniex can't compete at all in this category as it does not offer any fiat deposits or withdrawals.
eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk.
eToro USA LLC: Investments are subject to market risk. Including the possible loss of principal. Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest.
eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk.
eToro USA LLC: Investments are subject to market risk. Including the possible loss of principal. Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest.
Author
Jack Moreau
Jack is a crypto writer and reviewer who has been active in the space since he caught the crypto bug in 2017. With a passion for trying out new shiny things, Jack is always eager to try the latest cryptocurrency exchanges, wallets or DeFi applications.
