Binance Review | Is It Still The Best Exchange In The World?
Jack Moreau
Feb 2024
8 min to read
Fact checked
Introduction: Binance is the worlds biggest cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao. The exchange offers 350 cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH, SOL, USDT, USDC and a wide range of trading products such as spot, futures, perps and more. In this review of Binance, we take a look at what sets the exchange apart from its competitors and outline it's pros and cons. We also review it's signup process, products, features and trading fees!
Binance which is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world was founded in China in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao. Binance has since moved it’s headquarters to the Cayman Islands and offers trading for over 600 cryptocurrencies.
Binance Exchange Review
Binance has over 120 million registered users world wide and at the time of writing had $2B in 24 hour trading volume. Binance is available in most countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia. For news about Binance you can follow Changpeng who is very active on Twitter.
Binance offers a lot of products and services and as such, their interface can feel a bit cluttered.
The interface is not easy to navigate for beginners who haven't traded before. A few minutes of exploring will be needed for the novice to get familiar will all the available options.
Binance user interface
Does Binance require KYC?
The Binance signup process entails providing a valid email address, creating a strong password, and verifying your email.
Initially, you can start trading with a basic account without completing the KYC (Know Your Customer) verification, but this comes with limitations on withdrawal amounts.
Binance KYC requirements
For full access to Binance's features and higher withdrawal limits, completing the KYC verification is necessary.
This typically involves submitting proof of identity, such as a government-issued ID and a selfie. The verification process can range from a few minutes to a couple of days, depending on the volume of requests and the clarity of the submitted documents.
1. Visit the Binance website 2. Click on the “Register” button in the top right-hand corner and enter your personal information. 3. Enable 2FA for added security 4. Add your preferred payment method 5. Deposit funds and start trading
To unlock all features on Binance you will need to go through the Binance KYC process which means providing identify information using your passport, driving license or national id. The verification processes normally takes 10-15 minutes but can take up to a few days in some cases.
Binance Crypto Products
Binance offers over 600 coins and over 1400 trading pairs combined with one of the widest range of products and services in the market. Binance accommodates the needs of beginners and professional traders alike. Below we have outlined all the products and services available on Binance.
1. Binance Spot Trading
A spot trade happens when a user places an order to trade at the current spot price and the order is immediately fulfilled.
Binance spot trading UX
Spot trades thus do not wait for the price to change before they are executed. Binance offers access to spot trading for over 350 cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL) and many others.
2. Binance Futures Trading
In spot markets, traders can only profit when the value of an asset goes up. Futures contracts give traders the opportunity to earn a profit both if the value of an asset rise or falls.
Going long means that a trader buys a futures contract with the hope that it will grow in value in the future. Going short is the expectation that the price of the futures contract will decline in the future.
Binance Future Contracts
Binance offers quarterly and perpetual futures contracts settled in either USDT/BUSD or cryptocurrencies, automatic futures trading and crypto options trading. Binance offers up to 125X Leverage which decreases as the amounts increase.
3. Binance Margin Trading
Margin trading lets traders borrow funds to leverage their trading positions to hopefully amplify their trading results. Margin traders have access up to 10X leverage depending if they use isolated margin or cross margin mode.
4. Binance Earn
Binance Earn is a program that allows users to earn interest on their digital assets via staking, vaults, liqudity mining and other DeFi opportunities.
Binance earn product
To begin, users must first deposit their digital assets into their Binance account and then click on the "Binance Earn" tab on the website. Offers vary in terms of interest rate, duration, and minimum deposit amount. Users can choose the offer that best suits their needs.
5. Binance Staking
Binance offers users the ability to stake their cryptocurrencies and earn rewards. Binance staking is available for a variety of coins and tokens, including but not limited to: Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), Cosmos (ATOM) and many more.
Binance Staking Rewards
Depending on the staking duration, you can earn higher or lower rates on your cryptocurrencies. Binance offers staking rewards for over 300 cryptocurrencies.
6. Binance Liquidity Farming
The Binance liquidity farming program is a great way for traders to earn rewards while providing liquidity.
The amount of rewards earned will depend on the volume traded and the size of the liquidity pool. Binance liquidity farming is available for a number of cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH, BNB, XRP, and LTC.
Binance offers liquidity farming where users can provide one or both assets in the liquidity pool. Take into account that liquidity mining comes with the risk of impermanent loss if the value of the assets in the pool diverge.
7. Binance Credit Card
Users to spend their cryptocurrencies with Binance card any every location that accepts Visa. The Binance card is available in most countries and card holders can use their card to withdraw cash from ATMs free of charge. Binance offers up to 8% cashback in BNB rewards depending on how many BNB tokens the card user holds.
8. Binance Loans
Binance offers a wide range of crypto loans for users who wish to trade, stake or even withdraw the assets. These loans come with different types of collateral inluding BNB, USDT, BTC, and ETH and loan terms differ from 7-180 days.
Binance Crypto Loans
9. Binance P2P Marketplace
P2P (Peer-to-Peer) trading allows users to buy or sell cryptocurrencies directly from each other on a P2P platform, exchange, or marketplace. Binance P2P charges a 0-0.35% transaction fees from makers for every completed order.
10. Binance NFT Marketplace
Binance NFT marketplace is powered by the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and allows artists, creators, and crypto degenerates to launch, buy, sell and trade digital artworks and other collectibles.
11. Binance OTC Exchange
Binance OTC platform was implemented to allow private and institutional clients to trade their assets over the counter.
Binance spot trading fees for regular users are 0.1% for makers and 0.1% for takers. A user is considered a Taker when the order executes immediately and a Maker when the order is not immediately matched. For example, if you place a $100 purchase order that executes immediately, your fee will be $100 * (0.1/100) = $0.1.
Binance spot fees
If you hold an adequate amount of BNB tokens for each level, you receive an additional 25% discount on the maker and taker fees.
For example, if you hold 25 BNB Tokens your Maker and Taker fees would both be 0.075%. At the current price of $266 per BNB Token, you would need to hold almost $7000 worth of BNB to receive this reduction. You would need to trade over $1M for months to breakeven assuming the price of BNB does not go down.
2. Binance Futures Trading Fees
Binance charges a future trading fee of 0.02% for makers and 0.04% for takers.
Like all exchanges, Binance offerse deposits in the form of cryptocurrencies like BTC/ETH and fiat currencies like USD/EUR. Deposits with cryptocurrencies is free of charge for assets available on Binance.
Binance EUR Deposit
Binance offers fiat deposits via Bank Transfer and Debit/Credit Cards for over 30 fiat currencies. The available deposit methods varies between fiat currencies. Below is a sample size of the available deposit methods for the most popular fiat currencies.
USD: Bank Transfer (Swift/Signet)
EUR: Visa/MC/SEPA/Etana/Advacash
GBP: Visa/MC/FasterPayments/Etana
CHF: Sell to card
RUB: Payeer/Advacash
SEK: Sell to card
TRY: Advacash/Bank Transfer
AUD: PayID/Osko/Bank Transfer
RON: Sell to card
Deposit fees for Debit/Credit card deposits are 1.9% and most Bank Transfers are free of charge. Fiat deposits with cards are in most cases processed within 5 minutes and bank transfers can be up to 1-2 business day depending on the country.
How to withdraw from Binance?
Crypto withdrawal fees depend on the transaction fees of the underlying blockchain that each token lives on. Below you find the withdrawal fees that Binance charges for some well known cryptocurrencies:
Bitcoin (BTC): 0.0002 BTC
Ethereum (ETH): 0.000768 ETH
Solana (SOL): 0.008 SOL
Cosmos (ATOM): 0.004 ATOM
Polkadot (DOT): 0.08 DOT
Tether USD (USDT ERC-20): $3.2 USDT
When it comes to withdrawal methods for fiat currencies, they come with the same costs as when depositing. Below you find withdrawal options and fees for the most popular fiat currencies:
USD: Bank transfer (SWIFT) (15 USD Fee & 1-4 business day to arrive)
EUR: SEPA (1 EUR Fee) / Bank Card (1.8% Fee)
GBP: Bank Card (1.8% Fee)
BRL: Bank transfer PIX (3.5 BRL Fee) / Sell to card (1.9% Fee)
AUD: Bank transfer (Free) / Sell to card (Free)
SEK: Sell to card (1.9% Fee)
CHF: Sell to card (1.9% Fee)
Binance: Apps & Wallet
The Binance exchange can be used with any browser or by downloading their mobile apps on Android or IOS. Binance has over 50 million downloads on the Google & Apple app stores.
They have a 4.7 star rating with over 125K reviews on the App Store and 4.6 star rating with almost 1M reviews on the Play Store.
Binance Apps
Binance also owns the self-custodial cryptocurrency wallet, Trust Wallet. The Trust Wallet platform recently integrated Binance Connect to enable users to buy more than 200 crypto assets directly from credit or debit cards.
Binance Trust Wallet
Is Binance Safe?
Binance keeps the vast majority of its user funds and assets offline in cold storage facilities not connected to the internet.
In the unlikely event that a hack occurs, this limits the amount of funds that are exposed and makes it less likely that Binance becomes insolvent.
Further, in 2018 Binance launched an insurance fund called the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) to safeguard user funds. The value of the fund today is almost at $600 million and the wallet addresses can be found here and here.
1. Has Binance ever been hacked?
Binance suffered a hack in 2019 where hackers stole around $40 million as well as security information for user accounts. Binance covered this amount out of pocket to make the effected users whole. There have not been any hacks since then.
2. Is Binance licensed or regulated?
Cryptocurrency regulation is evolving and Binance is continuously expanding licenses and regulatory approvals in countries that it operates in. Binance is however well known for their do first and ask for forgiveness later approach. Or rather, do first and comply later.
3. Binance Security Features
Binance offers must have security features such as two-factor authentication and withdrawal address management to make it harder for attackers to both access accounts and transfer funds to unverified addresses.
Security notifications are used if the system detects suspicious activity and sensitive personal data is encrypted. Binance also has a 9/10 Trust Score on Coingecko
While Binance provides world class security, to be one the safe side, we always advice to safeguard your crypto assets by storing them in non custodial wallets that nobody else can access.
The Binance customer service comprises of an extensive help center with plenty of well crafted FAQ articles. Should you need further assistance, you can also directly chat with their support team 24/7 via the chatbot or by sending an email to their customer support.
eToro USA LLC: Investments are subject to market risk. Including the possible loss of principal.
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.
