Binance is an excellent exchange for seasoned crypto traders looking to move cryptocurrencies at a low cost. It has some of the lowest fees in the industry, while its platform is capable of handling a large volume of trades without suffering a significant slowdown in transaction times. It doesn’t offer fiat currency trades, but it does list over 100 cryptocurrencies, giving customers plenty of choices.
- Web address: Binance
- Main location: Malta
- Daily volume: 293700 BTC
- Mobile app available: Yes
- Is decentralized: No
- Parent Company: Binance Holding
- Transfer types: Credit Card, Debit Card, Crypto Transfer
- Supported pairs: 434
- Has token: BNB
- Fees: Very Low
Binance Fees
Depositing funds is entirely free with Binance. It is, however, a slightly different story with trades and withdrawals, although these remain among the cheapest in the crypto industry.
Binance takes a 0.1% cut of every trade that takes place on its platform, making it one of the cheaper crypto exchanges on the web. For example, Coinbase Pro charges 0.25% for any trade less than 6,792.37 BTC in value, while Bitstamp charge 0.1% only if your trade exceeds USD 20,000,000 in value.
Background
Binance is one of the newest major crypto exchanges around, having been launched in China as recently as July 2017. Despite being the new kid on the block, it has a fine crypto pedigree behind it: founders Changpeng Zhao and Yi He had worked previously at OKCoin exchange, while Changpeng had also been a member of the Blockchain.info wallet team since 2013.
And even though it was launched only in July 2017, it became the largest in the world in terms of trading volume within six months. It remains near the top today, something which can be put down to its ease of use, its responsive ability to handle a large number of transactions, and its availability in English, French, German, (simplified and traditional) Chinese, Spanish, Russian, and Korean.
In 2019, the exchange has once again proven its leadership in the space, leading such trends as Initial Exchange Offerings (IEOs), delisting Bitcoin SV (BSV), launching its own chain and decentralized exchange Binance DEX.
Security
Security at Binance is generally sound, although the exchange has experienced a major hack in May 2019.
Binance encourages users to enable two-factor authentication (2FA) using either Google Authenticator or SMS authentication. Besides, users have an option to whitelist addresses and set up an anti-phishing code. It also has a fairly extensive security FAQ in its support section, where it advises its users on how to guard against phishing attempts and personal security lapses. Every withdrawal from Binance must be confirmed by email.
As such, Binance boasts of employing state-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI) risk control solutions that use identity and facial recognition, big data analytics, and cyber forensic investigations to monitor each movement that takes place on the exchange scanning for suspicious activities.
That said, recent events have shown that Binance can respond quickly to significant threats, and protect customers funds. For example, in March 2018, criminals managed to use phishing to hack into the accounts of numerous users, whose funds were inexplicably sold off in order to purchase the Viacoin (VIA) cryptocurrency. However, despite this, Binance was able to systematically identify and reverse all irregular trades, meaning that the only people to lose money were the hackers.
Besides, in July 2018 Binance started a Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) and allocates 10% of all trading fee revenue there. In case of a successful attack, it is used to cover user loses.
Binance had experienced its first major hack in May 2019 when hackers managed to obtain a large number of user API keys, 2FA codes, and other potentially harmful info. Around 7000 BTC worth $40 million at the time were stolen. However, the lost funds will be reimbursed using the SAFU fund.
