If you’re new to the Crypto-world, or even are a veteran and looking for an alternative to your favorite trading exchange, this Binance Review should help with that.
Binance was one of the first exchanges I ever used. A lot has changed since then, is it still as impressive, trustworthy and easy to use as it once was? That’s what we’ll explore throughout this Binance review.
We’ll discuss the reputation, KYC policies, security features, fee, limits, trading pairs and everything else that an exchange is made up of in detail!
Binance Overview
Before diving deeper into this Binance review, let’s glance over some of the key features the exchange offers?
- Primary URL: https://www.binance.com
- KYC: Not Mandatory but some feature only can access after KYC.
- Centralized: Yes, But P2P Trade also support.
- Supported trading pairs: 350+ Crypto Coins
- Payment Methods: Fiats + Cryptocurrencies + NFT
- Fee: 0.1% Trading fee, but Bitcoin Trading with zero Fee
- Security: 2FA, Anti-Phishing Code, Withdrawal Whitelist, Security Key, SMS
- Margin/Leverage Trading/P2P: Yes
Optional KYC
This is the most important aspect I pay attention to before accepting/rejecting a trading exchange. I’m strongly against KYC-requiring exchanges, as they take our anonymity and privacy to the graves.
KYC-requiring exchanges basically need you to scan and upload your identity proofs (Licenses, Credit Cards, Photos, Address-Proofs etc). This gives the exchanges direct access to your real identity and location.
Fortunately, KYC on Binance is optional. Meaning users can trade, deposit as well as Withdraw funds without submitting any KYC details. Non-KYC users can withdraw upto 2BTC/day while the limit is higher for verified users.
Although note KYC is mandatory if you wish to dabble in Margin Trading.
Security
After KYC, Security is the most important aspect I personally dig for in a trading exchange and would like to discuss in this Binance review. Apparently, Binance is pretty big on security.
Let’s start with the 2-FA. Binance offers 2-factor authentication, but not via OTP and doesn’t need you to disclose your cell phone numbers.
Rather, the OTP is offered via Google Authenticator, Authy (For Secure OTP, Offers Backup Service). There is a bit of privacy-breach here, considering how we can’t exactly trust any of Google products to be “anonymous”. But it does provide the added security.
With 2-FA enabled, users need to enter an additional code (OTP) along with their passwords on their login pages.
Then it has its “Anti Phishing Code” feature. Users are asked to set the code which can be anything random, a string of numbers, a word, a sentence. Basically something which is unique to you as a person.
This code is displayed in all E-mails and links sent from Binance. Any E-mail not containing the code indicates the E-mail being fraud.
Withdrawal Whitelist is another one of its Security features. It lets users add addresses to a list. Once done funds can only be withdrawn to the listed addresses.
This makes sure that in case your password is compromised, the hacker can’t withdraw funds to any of his/her personal addresses.
Binance also supports the physical, hardware Security-keys. These look and feel like USB-sticks but can be used to protect accounts. On Binance, a user can use said keys to protect withdrawals, APIs, Logins and also to reset password.
This is the hardware protection, hence even in case your Password, 2-FA, and Withdrawal list is hacked into, without the security key no fatally damaging action can be performed.
Lastly, less privacy-conscious users can also enable SMS authentications. These work in addition to the Google authenticator OTP, and need an extra code which is sent to the user’s phone number.
Bottomline, Binance is quite literally one of the most secure trading exchanges out there.
Supports Both Fiat and Cryptocurrencies Deposits
Payment Methods mean the ways/currencies which can be used to deposit funds to a trading exchange.
Binance earlier was a Cryptocurrency-only exchange. It had both its pros and cons. It provided for a lot more anonymity, but less options for users. So only those users who already owned Cryptocurrencies, or purchased it from a third-party could trade on the marketplace.
Although fortunately the exchange recently started allowing users to purchase Cryptocurrencies directly on the exchange using Simplex.
But obviously if you’re someone like me you’d be miles away from the direct Credit card purchases. In that case the exchange allows us to deposit funds using any of the 350+ Cryptocurrencies that it supports.
Limits and Fee, But Zero Fee on Bitcoin Trading
The Limits of an exchange are important because at times exchanges have an unaffordable minimum deposit limit, or an unacceptable minimum withdrawal requirement.
That isn’t the case with Binance. There’s no minimum deposit limit on Binance as long as the amount covers the transaction fee. Deposits are completely free as well and Binance doesn’t charge anything for the deposits.
There however is a minimum Withdrawal limit, it varies for each currency however it’s 0.002 BTC for Bitcoin, 0.02ETH for Ethereum, 1 NEO for NEO, 0.004 DASH, 0.2 for EOS and so on.
There also is a withdrawal fee associated with the withdrawals. It too is currency-specific. The fee is 0.0005BTC for Bitcoin, 0.1EOS for EOS, 0.01ETH for Ethereum 17.4 for WINGS.
The full list can be obtained from its Fee-Schedule.
As for Fiat purchases, they’re charged at an extra 3.5%/transaction. Although the fee must be a minimum of USD $10.00.
The trading fee is a fixed 0.1%/trade. The exchange offers a 25% discount on the trading fee if and when BNB Coin (Binance Coin) is used to pay for it.
Another way to get a lower fee is to trade in larger volumes. The fee can be reduced to as low as 0.01% for the makers and 0.03% for the takers with the right trade-volume.
Supported Countries
Another feather which can be added in the cap of this Binance review is its massive country support.
Despite most countries trying to regulate exchanges and Cryptocurrencies, Binance continues to offer its support Worldwide, with some of the exceptions being:
Sudan, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Korea, China, etc. It should be available in the U.S except New Mexico, New York, Georgia, New Mexico, Washington, Connecticut and Hawaii.
*Note: For some reason, Binance removed all public mentions of “restricted countries”, and their support staff too isn’t allowed to share the list as such.
The countries above have been listed here from an earlier article we did not more than a week ago. It may or may not be accurate for when you read this.
350+ Trading Pairs
One of Binance’s primary strengths since its early days has been its support for a plethora of coins.
Binance officially supports over 350+ trading pairs. All the major coins, minor ones and even the newly released coins do get listed at a decent pace on the exchange.
Reputation
Why should you care? Regardless of an exchange’s features, if you can’t “trust” it, none of those features will matter and you won’t ever trade on it anyway.
How do we calculate or gauge the reputation of a trading exchange? The best place to start is the exchange’s volume. The amount of funds/currencies it trades per hour, day, month or year does get us a good idea of how popular/trusted it is.
Then there are reviews from other users on Reddit, Bitcoin Talk and other similar forums.
Its age, the people behind it, the funding it had received, its policies with or against govt. surveillance or control etc. too get us an idea of how trustworthy the platform is.
As for Binance, it was 2018’s largest cryptocurrency exchange and held a capitalization of USD $1.3 Billion! (Source: Wikipedia).
Binance was hacked in May 2019 and had nearly USD $40 Million worth of Bitcoins stolen from it. The exchange reimbursed 100% of the losses from its “Safe Assets Fund” garnering praise and respect in the industry.
And finally, the exchange has a DAILY trade volume of nearly USD $1.2 BILLION with nearly 1,400,000+ transactions/second.
So, do people trust Binance? It seems they do. Do I trust Binance? Yes, to quite an extent but not blindly. This is my personal portfolio on Binance which wouldn’t exist if the exchange wasn’t trustworthy:
Should you trust Binance? Well that’s a personal choice. But I can say there are but few exchanges as liberal, feature-rich, secure and financially strong as Binance.
Mobile App
Binance also is one of the very few exchanges to offer a Mobile trading-app. The app by itself is pretty easy to use and self-explanatory. Here’s what it looks like:
Even if you’re a first-timer on the whole Cryptocurrency trading thing, it’s pretty easy to understand. As shown in the above screenshot, users can simply click on “Deposit”, “Withdrawal”, “Credit Card” etc. to perform the respective action.
- Markets: Shows a list of all the trading pairs, their prices and 24Hr. Change.
- Trades: Lets you buy and sell Cryptocurrencies.
- Funds: Access your funds.
- Account: Access account settings.
The “Accounts” tab also shows details about fees, lets you reach support, customize the app and so on. Hence, a complete environment without you needing to ever have a “computer account”.
The app too doesn’t compromise on security and the same security protocols apply on it as your non-app accounts (if any).
Conclusion:
This is me signing off this Binance review folks. If you ask me for a personal opinion, I’d say it’s for those who need extreme anonymity, and are okay with its lower non-KYC limits.
The security features, coin-pairs, low fee, and (almost) global support don’t leave a lot to complain about. Their live chat-support really is live, fast and cooperative. Not many Bitcoin exchanges offer the live-chat feature regardless of their popularity!
It also supports Margin Trading and is one of the few trustworthy and established marketplaces to do so.
Although yes, it has been hacked multiple times by now and hence you may only want to use it as an “exchange” and not as a wallet for your funds.
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Do you think there’s something that deserves a mention on this Binance review? Both positive and/or negative? Make use of the comment section, it’s all yours.
