Uphold vs Binance | Which Exchange Is Best For Beginners?
Jack Moreau
Feb 2024
9 min read
Fact checked
Are you trying to decide between Uphold vs Binance for your cryptocurrency needs? Look no further! We've analyzed both exchanges based on KYC requirements, product offerings, trading fees, deposit methods, and more. Keep reading to find out which exchange is the right fit for you!
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.
Uphold and Binance are two of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, serving millions of users across the globe. While they may seem similar on the surface, each has its own unique features and benefits.
Uphold was founded in 2013 by Halsey Minor and is registered and based in London. The company has over 300 employees and is available in 184 countries, although it is restricted in certain countries such as Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.
Uphold exchange
Uphold is a versatile digital money platform that enables users to trade various financial instruments, including cryptocurrencies, precious metals, fiat currencies and stablecoins.
Uphold has gained popularity for its user-friendly interface, diverse range of assets and commitment to transparency.
Uphold supports an impressive range of over 300 cryptocurrencies and altcoins, making it a popular choice among traders who like to diversify their portfolios. Besides crypto, users can also buy additional currencies and commodities like gold and silver.
Uphold app
Uphold's unique "Anything-to-Anything" trading feature allows users to seamlessly convert between different asset classes in a single transaction.
Uphold prioritizes security and regulatory compliance, adhering to strict Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) protocols.
On the other hand, Binance was founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao and is registered in Cayman Islands as Binance Holdings Ltd.
As one of the largest and most popular trading platforms, Binance offers a comprehensive suite of trading and financial services including spot trading, futures trading, staking, earn products, launchpad, its own smart chain and much more.
The exchange supports over 350 cryptocurrencies, numerous trading pairs, and is the most liquid exchange in the world.
Binance has over 150 million users worldwide, and 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
Uphold vs Binance Signup & KYC
When it comes to signup and KYC processes, what are they like for Uphold and Binance? Let's take a closer look.
Starting with Binance, users are required to verify their identity through a Know Your Customer (KYC) process before they can begin trading.
While creating a Binance account takes less than a minute, users must complete KYC verification to unlock full account privileges.
Binance KYC verification
This involves submitting all required information and documents, such as country of residence, address, and government ID. Generally, the verification process can take as short as 15 minutes but may take up to 2-3 business days in rare cases.
Uphold signup
Similar to Binance, Uphold also requires KYC verification for all users. The signup process on Uphold is quick and straightforward, with users only needing to provide an email, password and select country of residence to open an account.
Uphold KYC
Once the account is open, users must complete KYC by providing additional personal information and government ID. Uphold's verification process can be done in as quickly as a few hours but may take up to 24 hours to process in some cases.
Uphold vs Binance Products & Services
Moving on to products and services offered, Uphold is a platform that allows users to buy and sell over 300 cryptocurrencies in addition to metals trading like gold and silver and national currencies like USD and GBP.
Uphold interface
Staking is also available on Uphold with over 30 different cryptocurrencies like Fantom, Ethereum, Algorand, Polygon, Solana and others. Uphold also supports repeat purchases allowing users to automate their investments.
Staking on Uphold
Additionally, Uphold provides support for 15 stablecoins, including popular options like BUSD, DAI, FRAX, GUSD, USDC, and USDT.
Uphold Crypto Markets
Uphold has a clean and simpler interface which is perfect for beginners. While Binance offers more features, let's face it, it's not the easiest place to navigate for total newbies.
Compared to Uphold, Binance provides a larger variety of trading services that includes spot trading, futures trading, margin trading, perpetual swaps (perps), and options trading.
Binance Spot Trading
Binance offers contracts that can be settled either perpetually or on a quarterly basis, using USDT, BUSD, or other cryptocurrencies.
Binance future contracts
Binance also offers trading bots and copy trading, which allows users to follow and copy the trades of successful traders automatically.
Binance cryptocurrencies
Lastly, Binance provides leveraged tokens and for users who want to earn on their assets, staking, lending and different types of vaults.
Binance levered tokens
Binance also has its own NFT marketplace and its own Web 3 wallet in Trust Wallet. The user experience on Binance is quite good considering the wide range of products on offer. It manages to offer this wide range without overwhelming the user.
Binance NFTs
Liquidity on Binance is one of the best in the world 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 on Binance with up to 5X leverage with USDT, BUSD, BNB, BT, Alts and fiat as underlying collateral.
Binance earn
In comparison, Uphold focuses more on making buying and sell cryptocurrencies and others assets super simple for beginners.
Binance, on the other hand, offers a much wider range of trading services which are suitable for beginners, professional traders and even institutional clients.
When it comes to trading fees, there are a plethora of exchanges to choose from. Two popular exchanges that have been gaining traction in recent years are Uphold and Binance. Let's delve into the fees offered by each exchange and see how they stack up.
First up let's talk about the trading fees of Binance which starts with a spot maker fee of 0.1% and a spot taker fee of 0.10%. For futures trading, Binance charges a maker fee of 0.02% and a taker fee of 0.04%.
Binance spot fees
It's worth noting that trading fees on Binance can be further lowered if monthly trade volumes exceed $1 million or if users hold at least 25 BNB tokens.
Now, let's take a look at Uphold trading fees which charges a $0.99 USD fee for cryptocurrency transactions under $100 and a spread of 0.9-1.8% depending on trades above that.
Spreads in US, EU, and UK are closer to 0.9%-1.2%. Unlike Binance, Uphold does not offer any rebates for higher trading volumes.
When it comes to depositing fiat currencies, Uphold and Binance offer different options.
Uphold, which supports USD, EUR, and GBP, allows users to deposit funds via debit/credit card, bank transfer (ACH/Wire) for USD, SEPA for EUR, and Faster Payments (FSP) for GBP.
All fiat bank transfers are free of charge on Uphold. However, Uphold charges a 3.99% deposit fee with credit cards and a 2.49% deposit fee with debit cards.
On the other hand, Binance supports over 20 fiat currencies including USD, EUR, AUD, GBP and many more.
The exchange offers fiat deposit methods such as bank transfers via Swift, Signet, SEPA, and Faster Payments (FSP), as well as Visa, Mastercard, PayID, and Advacash.
Binance fiat deposit
Depositing fiat currencies with Visa and Mastercard incurs a 1.8% fee while deposits via SEPA come with a 1 EUR fee. For those with an Advcash account, deposits come with a 1.5% fee.
So, if you prefer to deposit funds to your crypto exchange account via bank transfers, both Uphold and Binance satisfy that need in different ways for the major fiat currencies and at low to no fees.
Uphold is a great option for those looking for fiat withdrawals. Their fiat withdrawal methods include Bank transfers (ACH/Wire) for USD, SEPA for EUR and Faster Payments (FSP) for GBP withdrawals.
In terms of fees, Uphold charges a $2.99 fee for users who withdraw cryptocurrencies from the exchange (excluding blockchain fees) and $3.99 for those who conduct bank withdrawals. Both these fees are on the high end compared to other exchanges.
On the other hand, 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 Fiat Withdrawals
However, Binance charges a 1.8% withdrawal fee for fiat withdrawals with Visa and MasterCard. For those that wish to withdraw with SEPA, that can be done for a low EUR withdrawal fee with SEPA.
Moving on to cryptocurrency withdrawals, for those that want to withdraw Bitcoin, Binance charges a 0.0002 BTC withdrawal fee. For Ethereum and Solana, those fees are 0.000768 ETH and 0.008 SOL.
Binance Crypto Withdrawals
Once more, both Uphold and Binance offer reliable withdrawal methods for both fiat and cryptocurrencies. However, Binance stands out with more variety in terms of fiat withdrawal methods and lower fees.
In conclusion, Uphold and Binance are two very popular exchanges for different reasons. Uphold has created a really user friendly exchange that makes it easy to buy and sell over 300 cryptocurrencies.
The beauty of this exchange really is the simplicity and ease of use which makes it very practical for those that may not know how to buy and sell via spot trading.
Binance of course offers a much wider range of products and services as they are a full suite exchange that caters to the needs of beginners, traders, professional investors and institutions.
These services include spot tradibg, futures, margin, options trading along with trading bots, copy trading and much much more.
One similarity between Uphold and Binance is that both exchanges require their users to complete KYC before they can begin trading.
In terms of trading fees, its very tough to compete with Binance's 0.1% spot fees for makers and takers.
Those who use Uphold however will likely find that paying a bit more for buying and selling may be worth it considering the convenience and ease of use.
When in comes to depositing funds in and out of the exchange, both Binance and Uphold has done a great job of offering support for the biggest fiat and cryptocurrencies with low to no fees. \
We like and use both Binance and Uphold and recommend Binance for more advanced users and Uphold for beginners across North America and Europe.
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.
