Binance review | Zignaly

Binance is one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges, but it can be daunting for beginners. Our in-depth Binance review covers everything you need to know.

Binance is one of the foremost cryptocurrency exchanges. In this comprehensive Binance review, we cover all the key details to help you understand this platform when you try it for the first time.

The Binance exchange team is based in Malta (though it originally operated out of Honk Kong), and the platform has become a market leader in only a short period of time since it launched in summer 2017. Binance’s team is incredibly strong, with its CEO being one of the crypto industry’s biggest figures.

It’s unsurprising that the Binance team chose to switch to Malta instead of Hong Kong: Malta is one of a small number of European countries implementing licensing requirements for crypto exchanges (along with Gibraltar and Estonia).

It’s common for Binance to be ranked as the number-one exchange, or at least within the top three, on the basis of trading volume per day. As a result, Binance is one of the most well-respected, trusted crypto exchanges available.

For example, as the COVID-19 pandemic was bringing chaos to the world in April 2020, Binance actually reported a 24 hour trading volume of $4bn, which was the global highest.

Even more impressive, though, was that Binance’s 30 day trading volume reached almost $140bn. Again, this was the world’s highest — an incredible achievement.

Binance and Futures Trading

The Binance brand launched its futures trading in an official capacity in September 2019.

As you may know, futures are also referred to as “option contracts”: these are designed to provide option holders with a right to purchase or sell specific assets at specific rates. Remember: this is a choice, not an obligation.

There are two option variations available. American Options offer holders the right to take advantage of this option at any time (provided it’s before the contract expires), while European Options can only be exercised across certain dates.

Binance exchange charges competitive fees for futures trading, usually below the industry’s average. The standard taker fee is 0.075 percent, while the standard maker fee is 0.025 percent.

Basic and Advanced Trading Alternatives

Anyone who decides to use Binance after reading our Binance review will be able to pick one of two trading alternatives: basic or advanced.

Basic doesn’t cater to those looking for detailed technical analysis as well as the advanced version, though neither can be called “easy to use”. The trading view in the basic version is fairly streamlined and user friendly. A lot of the essential information appears in a single page for your convenience, while prices are displayed on the page’s left.

Graphs appear in the centre, along with sell and buy options, with the history displayed on the right.

How about the advanced version? Well, the charts are bigger and take up extra space. The trade history is still displayed to the right, as with the basic version, but the buy & sell boxes are in the lower-right area.

Still, there’s no right or wrong here: it’s up to you to discover which of the views works for you best.

Which Cryptocurrencies Does Binance Support?

Hundreds of cryptocurrencies are supported by Binance, and the exchange implements a dedicated quality assurance system. This is designed to make sure that projects can be delisted if they’re discovered to have failed the qualification requirements after being listed.

For example, Binance removed listings for the following cryptocurrencies in February 2019:

SALT
CloakCoin
Substratum
Wings
Modum

What is the Binance OTC Trading Portal?

Binance confirmed its OTC (Over The Counter) desk in April 2020, via an email distributed to its users.

This enables users to execute trades on a larger scale without danger of “slippage”, the term applied to price fluctuations caused by such sizable transactions.

The OTC Trading portal incurs no fees for trading and fast settlement. The minimum trade size is equivalent to USDT 10,000, while 25 different tokens and coins will be available to be traded initially. Users will be required to hold a Binance.com account com which has been KYC verified at level two.

For Investors Based in the United States

For a long while, the Binance exchange has accepted investors from the US looking to trade at its exchange. But in June 2019, the brand revealed that it was launching an American version of the platform, which will be a fiat-to-crypto centralized exchange.

This was followed a few months later by the revelation that investors based in the US were unable to use the main version of Binance. The announcement said users who were considered to not be in accordance with the brand’s Terms of Use will be able to access their funds and wallets, yet unable to execute trades or make deposits.

According to the company’s CEO, such short-term frustrations would prove worth the trouble in the long run.

What is the Binance Lending Product?

Binance Lending Products can be used to lock specific assets in for a particular time frame, which will generate interest.

Binance released 14-day fixed term lending products in September 2019, which can bring in interest when users lock the assets in for two weeks only.

What are Binance’s Fees?

When you decide to start using any crypto exchange, it’s vital that you pay attention to the fees. Every trade is conducted between two entities: the maker and the taker.

The maker’s order appears on the order book ahead of the trade, while the taker places an order that aligns with the maker’s order. They’re referred to as “makers” as their orders “make” the market’s liquidity, and the others are known as “takers” because they take the liquidity by matching the makers’ orders to their own.

This model cultivates liquidity in the market, as the makers providing the liquidity tend to get a discount on fees, compared to takers. Numerous leading crypto exchanges, though, don’t impose a fee between makers and takers. These fees are considered “flat”.

Exploring Binance Trading Fees

Binance provides a flat 0.10 percent trading fee, and doesn’t seem to care if you’re a maker or a taker. Investors that like to pick up orders out of the order book may find this fee model appealing. This exchange’s trading fees are well below the industry’s average, which is typically approximately 0.25 percent.

Binance’s trading fees tend to be reduced based on the native token’s (BNB) trading volume and holdings.

The Withdrawal Fees of Binance

Typically, withdrawal fees vary from one crypto exchange to another and are fixed. If you choose to withdraw Bitcoin, for example, you pay a modest BTC fee to process this withdrawal. Research shows the Bitcoin withdrawal fees are approximately 0.006 BTC per withdrawal on average.

However, Binance only charges 0.0004 BTC, which means their fees are highly competitive.

What Deposit Methods are Available on Binance?

Binance previously accepted deposits in cryptocurrencies and not in fiat currencies, which meant investors new to the crypto scene were unable to conduct trades at Binance. This changed in January 2019, when the exchange started accepting deposits via credit card in specific situations.

The Binance exchange started working with Simplex, a payment service brand based in Israel. This is why users could buy Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ripple, and Ethereum with MasterCard or Visa. This isn’t possible in countries on Sanctions lists, e.g. North Korea, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria.

Also, users based in particular areas of the United States are unable to take advantage of this: Georgia, Hawaii, Washington, Connecticut, New Mexico, and New York.

Simplex imposes a 3.5 percent charge on each trade, and if you want to purchase BTC for $10,000, Simplex would charge $350 along with a minimum fee of $10 for facilitating the purchase. On top of this, in December 2019, Binance revealed they would enable users to connect Visa cards to their accounts and buy coins this way.

As a result, users would presumably be able to avoid Simplex and its fees. At the time of writing, though, this applies to Visa cards issued across the EEA only, as well as for those in following nations:

Germany
France
UK
Netherlands
Sweden
Poland
Belgium
Austra
Croatia
Bulgaria
Czech Republic
Republic of Cyprus
Estonia
Denmark
Greece
Finland
Ireland
Italy
Hungary
Latvia
Lithuania
Malta
Portugal
Luxembourg
Slovakia
Romania
Spain
Iceland
Slovenia
Norway
Liechtenstein

However, in July 2020, Binance revealed that it was also permitting wire transfers, thanks to their partnership with Clear Junction. This means the Binance exchange can now accept bank transfers in EUR through SEPA, and transfers in GBP through Faster Payments.

What Security is Available at Binance?

Security is critical at all cryptocurrency exchanges, and that’s why we’re discussing it in our review. There are two primary reasons why security is so important.

First and foremost, exchanges store a huge amount of sensitive data pertaining to users. This includes names, addresses, taxpayer identification number, government identification details, and more. This information must be protected, and the best exchanges implement cutting-edge security technologies to maximize data defence.

Secondly, a lot of deposits and withdrawals in cash or coins pass through exchanges. There’s a lot at stake, and these funds must be safeguarded.

Various hacks launched at crypto exchanges have taken place. Perhaps the most well known is the Mt. Gox hack, which caused thousands of its users to lose a lot of money. However, a lot of other exchanges have experienced problems.

Binance, though, is known to implement high-quality security to protect its users details and money. You can enjoy good peace of mind that your funds are in good hands when you choose to use Binance.