⚠️ Disclaimer: 🇳🇱 Dutch users are not able to access the spot and derivatives markets on Binance. It is important to understand the legal and regulatory framework in your country before using cryptocurrency exchanges. ⚠️
This review of cryptocurrency exchange Binance was created for informational purposes. Going through this review will help you decide if Binance is an exchange that fits your needs.
Table of Contents
What is the history of Binance?
Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange founded by Changpeng Zhao -CZ on July 1, 2017. Before the founding of Binance, Changpeng Zhao founded another company called Fusion Systems. Fusion Systems specialized in developing trading systems for brokers. Later on, Changpeng Zhao worked for blockchain.info as well as OkCoin where he was CTO for a moment.
Changpeng Zhao began his Binance adventure with a great deal of experience in digital currencies and the development of trading systems. Because of his background Binance most likely has grown at incredible speed into the largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. Where it took one year for Binance to become one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges.
What cryptocurrencies are available on Binance?
Binance offers over 100 cryptocurrencies that can be traded on the exchange. Binance gives its customers the ability to trade on both a basic and an advanced exchange. The difference between the two is that the advanced exchange offers more options for doing technical analysis. This makes the advanced exchange version very suitable for day traders.
What is Binance Coin – BNB?
When the company was founded, Binance held an Initial Coin Offering – ICO. The token offered by Binance at the time is called Binance Coin (BNB). BNB has several functionalities which are still growing. By now, BNB can be used for the following purposes:
- BNB is a trading pair on the Binance exchange just like Bitcoin – BTC. This means that BNB can be traded on the Binance exchange for other digital currencies;
- BNB can be used to pay lower buying and selling fees while trading digital currency on Binance exchange;
- BNB can be used to buy into projects launched on the Binance Launchpad. In addition, by holding BNB, you can also qualify for lottery tickets required to participate in these projects on Binance Launchpad
- Binance has a ‘Convert‘ feature where you can convert small amounts a.k.a. ‘Dust‘ of different coins you traded or withdrew on Binance. Normally these remainders are worthless, but Binance makes it possible to convert this for Binance Coin – BNB.
- Quarterly Burn events which results in token scarcity (which should help in increasing the value of the coin)
- Community participation such as voting right
What are the fees and other charges on Binance?
The revenue model behind every exchange is basically to charge the customer a percentage of the deposit, purchase and sale and withdrawal fees. This is no different at Binance, however, Binance has low costs compared to other exchanges. For example, depositing digital currency is free.
For buying and selling digital currency through Binance you’ll pay 0,10% in costs. If you make use of the option to reduce your buying and selling costs by paying these with Binance Coin (BNB), then the buying and selling costs will even be a bit less. Binance buying and selling prices are very competitive compared to the 0.25% fees that many other exchanges charge. If you want to withdraw coins from Binance you will have to pay a withdrawal fee. The withdrawal fees can differ largely per coin. For example, with the current congestion of the Ethereum Network it is very expensive to withdraw ERC-20 tokens such as USDT or USDC. However, this is the case for every exchange so Binance is no exception here. If you want to see how much you have to pay in costs when you withdraw your coins from Binance you can recommend the following link: Binance Fees
Where do I find Binance support?
The support sections of many cryptocurrency exchanges, unfortunately, leaves a lot of room for improvement. This is also the case with Binance. Binance has an option on the website to submit a questionnaire, however, in most cases, it will take a while before you receive an answer. In addition to the option to submit this questionnaire, Binance has a FAQ. This FAQ is fairly minimal but does contain the answers (not the solutions) to the most common problems you might encounter as an investor.
So, in terms of support there are still large improvements to be made. In comparison to Binance, KuCoin for example has made great steps in the right direction with their live chat support, which always responds in a very timely manner (minutes).
What are pros and cons of Binance?
Like any other exchange, Binance has advantages and disadvantages. See the table below for their strengths and weaknesses:
Pros
- Large selection of well-known cryptocurrencies
- Cheap trading fees
- Fast transactions
- Easy and user-friendly for beginners
- Staking features
Cons
- High withdrawal fee
- Can sometimes be a bit slow at high volumes
- Your cryptocurrencies on the platform are not insured
Conclusion
We believe that Binance is a very good exchange to trade on and a personal favorite of most of us. The exchange is very user-friendly for both novice traders and experienced day traders. Binance has very competitive buying and selling fees which makes Binance very suitable for investors who buy and sell on a regular basis. In addition, Binance is known as one of the most secure cryptocurrency exchanges at the moment. Therefore, as a Binance user, you don’t have to worry much about possibly losing your digital currency.