Binance is one of the newest, yet best-known major crypto exchanges around. It’s been started with a simple idea in mind - provide a simple, intuitive, fast, and robust cryptocurrency trading interface.

Binance cryptocurrency exchange has proven to be one of the most successful ICO (initial coin offering) projects out there. Between July 1-20, 2017, the exchange raised USD 15,000,000 equivalent of crypto from eager investors. In turn, the investors received 100,000,000 of Binance Coin (BNB) tokens issued on Ethereum blockchain (now migrated onto Binance’s native Binance Chain). The initial ICO price for one BNB was USD 0.115 per coin.

Ever since its launch, Binance has become the largest exchange in terms of the global trading volume. More surprisingly, it achieved this in just six months. It remains near the top today, something which can be attributed to its ease of use, its responsive ability to handle a large number of transactions, global approach to its business and platform accessibility in multiple languages (English, French, German, (simplified and traditional) Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Korean, Vietnamese, Italian, Turkish, Portuguese, Japanese, Dutch, Polish, Malay, and Ukrainian).

Although the company was founded in China, it moved its headquarters to Japan in advance of the Chinese government ban on cryptocurrency trading in 2017. In 2018, Binance established offices in Taiwan and announced its move to Malta. However, in 2020, Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) clarified that Binance is neither officially registered nor regulated in the country.

Today, the exchange has over 15 million users and settles more than USD 2 billion on an average trading day. Besides, it has evolved a suite of related products, including:

Binance Fees. Source. Binance.com

Low trading fees also apply to Binance Futures. At the most basic level (VIP 0), you will pay 0.02% maker fee and 0.04% taker fee.

Binance's margin interest borrow rates. Source: Binance.com

To put these fees in some perspective, Kraken and Bittrex both charge a 0.0005 BTC withdrawal fee, while Bitfinex and HitBTC charge 0.0004 BTC and 0.001 BTC respectively.

Although Binance does not have any fiat-to-crypto trading pairs, it does facilitate fiat-to-crypto purchases using third-party service providers and integrations. Using Binance Fiat Gateway, you can buy and sell crypto with over 40 fiat currencies. The fees vary based on the payment method and floating exchange rates determined by Simplex, Koinal, TrustToken, BANXA, iDEAL, SEPA, Paxos, and other payment processors.

Binance exchange fiat gateway. Source: Binance.com

Overall, Binance charges some of the lowest fees in the industry, which is a major plus. Its extensive and ever-growing suite of services is available at reasonable prices, making it one of the most accessible, innovative, and convenient trading options out there.Open A Free Account

Security at Binance is generally sound, although the exchange has experienced a significant hack in May of 2019. The exchange lost over 7000 BTC due to a number of compromised user accounts and used its #SAFU fund (Secure Asset Fund for Users) for user compensations. Since then, the exchange has strengthened its security by introducing the Universal 2nd Factor (U2F) authentication method and enhancing its exchange monitoring capabilities.

Besides, Binance encourages users to enable two-factor authentication (2FA) using either Google Authenticator or SMS authentication. Also, traders 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.

Binance account security. Source: Binance.com

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.

In July 2018, Binance has started a Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) and allocates 10% of all trading fee revenue there. In the case of a successful hack, it is used to cover user losses like it was done in the May 2019 security breach. Later in 2019, the exchange also had a KYC data leak, which hackers have allegedly obtained from a 3rd party vendor.

According to CryptoCompare Exchange Benchmark Q4 2019 report, Binance is a solid A grade exchange. It makes it in the top 20 exchanges in terms of security grade, too, scoring an above-average 11.5 out of 20 possible points.

All in all, Binance is a secure exchange, but security is not its hallmark, and there is some room for improvements.Start Trading

Usability is one of Binance’s key strengths. Its website and trading pages were revamped in 2019, and now are easy to understand and navigate for both beginners and experienced users.

It even provides the possibility of moving between Basic, Classic, and Advanced trading screens, so that more experienced traders can benefit from having more information (such as user funds) contained on a single page. In contrast, less experienced traders can make token swaps without an overwhelming array of windows and graphs.

Binance cryptocurrency trading interfaces. Source: Binance.com

The classic mode is more advanced and brings back the “classic” look and feel of Binance exchange. It includes advanced order types, price and market depth charts, bid and ask order books, as well as trade history and open orders overview window. Besides, it allows you to trade with margin and options, and thus is suitable for more advanced retail investors.

Binance advanced trading. Source: Binance.com

Binance OTC Trading Portal. Source: Binance.com

The Binance Fiat Gateway is a result of a growing number of third-party partnerships with some of the top crypto companies in the industry. The current list of Binance fiat partners includes Simplex, Koinal, TrustToken, Paxos, Banxa, SEPA and iDEAL, but more companies are likely to join in the future. Also, payment methods differ based on your geographic location.

In addition, you can deposit fiat currencies into the platform using a Visa or Mastercard bank card, Advcash Wallet, Epay Wallet, Payeer Wallet, and more.

The current gateway infrastructure also allows you to convert cryptocurrencies. For instance, you can exchange your dollar-denominated stablecoins (like PAX or TUSD) into actual US dollars.

Binance has developed several different options for trading with leverage. Its spot trading exchange has a separate feature for margin trading certain cryptocurrencies with up to 3x leverage. At the same time, it has launched an integrated Binance Futures platform, which allows you to trade options with up to 125x leverage.

Binance options contract information. Source: Binance.com

Cryptocurrency loans via Binance. Source: Binance.com

Binance users can also access the first and one of the best IEO (initial exchange offering) launchpads out there - Binance Launchpad. Since late 2017, Binance started to mediate between IEO buyers and sellers and has launched 14 successful IEO projects.

IEO participants have to hold at least some BNB (Binance Coin) but also have some luck in the lottery, which determines in what order the participants get the opportunity to buy the new coins.

Binance Launchpad’s average ROI (return on investment) is the highest out of all other exchanges, so it might be worthy of checking out.

Customer Support

As for customer support, Binance has a comprehensive support center with an extensive FAQ base. Apart from that, you can also submit a request for the Binance support team or ask the community’s help in official Telegram, Facebook, or Twitter groups.

Binance trading is accessible via multiple devices. The most common option is Binance’s web platform, where you can enjoy all of the benefits and services listed above.

Binance mobile app for Android.

As such, Binance remains one of the most accessible and easy to use exchanges in the industry.

Given that Binance offers only crypto-to-crypto markets, all deposits and withdrawals involve moving funds to and from external crypto wallets.

This doesn’t apply for fiat-to-crypto purchases and deposits via third-party service providers, though, as they come with their own service fees that range from 1% to up to 7%. For example, you can make EUR deposits using: