Wealthsimple vs Binance | Best Venue To Trade & Invest?
Jack Moreau
Feb 2024
9 min read
Fact checked
Are you trying to choose between Wealthsimple vs Binance? Our expert team has done an extensive analysis of both exchanges, comparing their features, trading fees and overall user experience. With our help, you'll be able to make an informed decision and choose the best exchange!
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.
Wealthsimple is a Canadian-based financial services company that offers a variety of investment services to customers solely in Canada. Founded in 2014, Wealthsimple aims to make investing accessible for everyday Canadians.
The platform offers a range of investment products such as robo-advisory, stocks and shares ISAs, savings accounts and cryptocurrency trading.
While Wealthsimple's cryptocurrency offerings are limited to just 50 coins, they include popular choices like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana.
With over 3 million users in Canada, Wealthsimple is a trusted choice for Canadian investors looking to explore the world of cryptocurrency.
Wealthfront crypto platform
In contrast, Binance is one of the largest and most popular cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. Founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao and registered in the Cayman Islands, Binance has an astonishing 150 million users worldwide and is available in 186 countries.
Binance exchange
The platform supports over 350 cryptocurrencies which includes large caps like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana and plenty of lesser known altcoins. These services are however not available to users in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
Binance also offers a comprehensive suite of services which includes spot trading, futures & margin trading, options, staking and plenty more trading and financial products.
With an Android app that's been downloaded over 50 million times and a rating of 4.4 based on over 1 million reviews, Binance is a top choice for many cryptocurrency enthusiasts.
Binance app
Wealthsimple vs Binance Signup & KYC
When it comes to signing up for a cryptocurrency exchange, it's important to know whether you can trade with or without KYC.
Let's take a look at the signup process and KYC requirements of Wealthsimple and Binance.
Wealthsimple requires KYC verification for all users who want to access their services. The signup process takes a few minutes and requires uploading all the necessary documents for KYC.
However, the verification process can take a couple of days to complete. Note that only Canadian citizens can use Wealthfront as their services are not available in any other country.
Wealthsimple account setup
Binance also requires all it's users to verify their identity through a KYC process before they can trade. Creating an account is easy and takes only 30 seconds while unlocking full account privileges requires completing the KYC process.
Binance KYC verification levels
This involves submitting all the required documents and information which can take a maximum of 5-10 minutes.
As you can see, both exchanges have similar KYC requirements with the sole difference being that Wealthfront is limited to Canadians only while Binance is a global exchange.
For those that wish to trade without going through a KYC process, we recommend alternative exchanges such as OKX and Phemex.
Wealthsimple vs Binance Products & Services
When it comes to products and services offered, Wealthsimple differs quite a bit from Binance.
Wealthsimple is a Canadian platform that offers commission-free fractional shares of thousands of stocks and ETFs, staking on cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Solana, managed investing with a 0.5% management fee, and even savings accounts with free simple tax filing.
Staking on Wealthsimple
Their website is easy to navigate and friendly for beginners which makes it makes it a good option for Canadians who want to dip their toes into the world of investing.
Having said this, we would not recommend Wealthsimple when it comes to buying and selling cryptocurrencies due to the limited number of available coins and the high transaction fees involved.
Binance is the world’s largest exchange with over 150 million users. The exchange offers a wide range of products and services to satisfy the needs of beginners, traders and institutional clients.
Binance’s user interface is geared towards making navigation as intuitive as possible. The exchange’s website and mobile applications are designed to ensure that those new to crypto can easily find their way around.
One of the foundational offerings of Binance is its spot trading platform that allows for the buying and selling of over 350 cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH, SOL, ATOM, ARB, OSMO, USDT, USDC and many others.
Binance Spot Trading
For those who wish to trade on margin, Binance offers up to 3-10X leverage depending on the cryptocurrency. For beginners who are interested in using trade bots to facilitate their trading, Binance offers 1,000s of active strategies via trading bots such as spot, DCA, auto-invest, rebalancing and much more.
Binance Trading Bots
Binance also offers more sophisticated futures trading products like perpetual contracts and options with up to 125X in leverage.
Binance offers 100s of USD-Margined futures contracts which are tailored for traders that seek to mitigate the volatility of crypto by allowing trade settlements in stablecoins like USDT or BUSD.
On the flip side, users on Binance can also access 100s of coin-margined futures contracts that come in perpetual and delivery forms and are settled directly in cryptocurrencies.
Binance Perpetual Contracts
Binance also offers options trading which lets traders hedge their portfolios. Binance offers options for 5 underlying assets including BTC, ETH, BNB, XRP and DOGE and over 700 contracts in total.
Binance Option Contracts
Binance’s trading platform provides a feature-rich trading system with advanced charting tools for technical analysis, and various order types to help manage risk.
At the time of writing, Binance also has the highest liquidity across both spot and futures trading with over $60 billion in 24-hour trading volume. This enables trades to be made with the lowest spreads possible which saves users money.
Binance Markets
For those looking to earn interest on their digital assets, Binance offers a suite of financial products.
The Binance earn platform is a comprehensive saving and staking hub where users can participate in staking, savings, and liquidity farming. Here users can earn interest on assets such as BTC, ETH, USDT, USDC and many others with flexible or fixed duration.
Binance Earn
Binance also caters to those interested in more risky forms of investment through the Binance launchpad which gives users early access to new tokens and projects.
Binance Launchpad
For retail users who wish to buy and sell NFTs on popular blockchains like Bitcoin, Ethereum and BNB, Binance also manages to satisfy these needs with its dedicated NFT section.
Binance NFTs
The exchange also offers OTC Trading for individuals and institutions interested in executing larger transactions in a private and secure manner without impacting the market.
Binance OTC
Binance has even developed its own blockchain named Binance Smart Chain where developers can build DeFi applications and where users can engage with their non-custodial wallets.
BNB Chain
For those that don’t yet have a Web 3 wallet, Binance acquired Trust Wallet a few years ago which today is a multifaceted wallet that millions of users use to access DeFi Dapps.
Binance Web # Wallet
Understanding the need for security, Binance provides a secure asset fund for users (SAFU) and has also implemented proof of reserves to ensure that its clients can easily verify that all assets are accounted for.
Few things are more important when it comes to improving the ROI of your investments than trading fees. Let's take a look at the trading fees offered by Wealthsimple and Binance.
Wealthsimple doesn't actually operate an exchange but instead sources liquidity from other exchanges and charges a 1.5-2% fee per transaction. This is a very high transaction fee which will eat a chunk of your investment returns.
Fees on Wealthsimple
On the other hand, Binance offers lower spot trading fees with a maker and taker fee of 0.10%. To put this in perspective, this is some of the lowest trading fees on the market. Binance also offers low futures trading fees with a maker fee of only 0.02% and a taker fee of 0.04%.
Binance fees
Simply put, Binance offers much more competitive trading fees when it comes to the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies. Sorry Wealthsimple, it looks like you're no match for Binance in terms of trading fees.
When it comes to depositing fiat currencies on cryptocurrency exchanges, Wealthsimple and Binance offer different deposit methods to their users.
If we begin with Wealthsimple, this exchange supports several fiat currencies including USD and CAD. Wealthsimple allows fiat deposits via bank transfers and credit/debit cards. In terms of deposit fees, Wealthsimple does not charge any fees for fiat deposits or withdrawals.
Moving on to Binance, the exchange supports a much broader range of fiat currencies which includes EUR, AUD, GBP and 20 other fiat currencies.
Binance also offers various deposit methods depending on which fiat currency you wish to deposit. This includes bank transfers via Swift, Signet, SEPA, and Faster Payments (FSP).
Depositing fiat currencies on Binance
Additionally, fiat deposits are possible with Visa, Mastercard, PayID, and Advacash. However, Binance does have some deposit fees to consider.
If you deposit fiat currencies with Visa and Mastercard, you should expect to incur a 1.8% fee. Bank transfers via SEPA come with a low 1 EUR deposit fee and those with an Advcash account can deposit with a 1.5% fee.
When it comes to withdrawing fiat currency from exchanges, Binance offer a multitude of ways for users 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. On the other hand, Binance offers free bank withdrawals for many other fiat currencies making it a cheaper option for those looking to save on fees.
Wealthsimple differs slightly in that their fiat withdrawals are only available via bank transfer to Canadian banks. While this limits their reach, they do offer free withdrawals.
In terms of cryptocurrency withdrawals, both exchanges have fees that vary based on the blockchain. Binance charges the following withdrawal fees for Bitcoin (0.0002 BTC), Ethereum (0.000768 ETH), Solana (0.008 SOL) and USDT on the Ethereum blockchain (2.5 USDT).
In conclusion, Wealthsimple and Binance are two very different companies which targets different users.
While Wealthsimple is a Canadian-based platform that offers a range of investment services to Canadians, Binance boasts over 120 million users worldwide and a variety of trading services for both beginners and professionals.
When it comes to KYC verification and sign up process, both exchanges require their users to complete KYC even though their verification process differs in terms of time to become approved.
In terms of trading fees, Binance offers much lower fees for both spot and futures trading giving it a big edge over Wealthsimple. Additionally, when it comes to deposit and withdrawal options for both fiat and cryptocurrencies, once again Binance provide many more options.
The main advantage that Wealthsimple has is that it is more user-friendly overall while offering more traditional products such as stocks and savings products. For those that wish to buy and sell cryptocurrencies however, Binance offers a much wider range of cryptocurrencies and products at much lower fees.
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.
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