Binance: A Full Guide & Overview

Binance is one of the top cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. After more than five years Binance has grown into a bigger system. Besides offering Binance Exchange, they also offer things like Binance Labs. It’s quite popular, with over 213 million users.

What is Binance?

Company Overview

Established: 2017

Founders: Changpeng Zhao and Yi He

Crypto available: 500+

Users: 213 million+

Trading volume:$76 billion daily trading volume

Binances lets you trade over 500 cryptos, and supports over 100 regular currencies. The trading fees are low. There are cool features like copy trading, social trading, bot trading, and P2P trading. 

Binance has faced several challenges. In 2023, the SEC filed a lawsuit against the exchange charging it with different securities law violations. At the end of the year, its CEO Changpeng Zhao was found guilty of money laundering. The exchange had to pay $4.3 billion to settle charges and Changpeng Zhao agreed to pay $50 million toward the settlement. 

Binance Pros & Cons

Is Binance Safe?

Binance is regulated in several jurisdictions with licenses as a Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP) by the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) in France, the OAM in Italy, DCE in Australia, and JFSA in Japan, among other countries. 

Binance has also placed several security measures to protect its user funds. These

include 

• Know Your Customer (KYC) & Anti-Money Laundering (AML) protocols.
• Multi-factor authentication (MFA): This requires you to provide two or more verification factors to gain access to your account. 
• Continuous surveillance to prevent potential threats. It also 
• Performing regular security audits
• Monitoring third-party data breaches and darknet markets for threat indicators.
• Use of AI to detect abnormal activity on the platform like unusual login patterns
• Penetration testing, vulnerability scanning, and code review to test for weaknesses. 
• Anti-phishing code features a four-digit code only you and Binance know. 
• Binance Verify feature to confirm if you’re interacting with a real Binance source.
• Withdrawal whitelist feature where you list your trusted wallet addresses. 

Unfortunately, Binance faced a large security breach in 2019 where hackers stole 7000 Bitcoins (worth, US $40.6 million) from Binance’s hot wallet. Again, in 2022, its blockchain Binance and its cross-chain bridge BSC Token Hub were hacked and $570 million was stolen.  

Top Cryptocurrencies Available on Binance

Binance offers access to over 500 cryptocurrencies. They include:

• BNB (BNB)
• Bitcoin (BTC)
• Ethereum (ETH)
• Ripple
• Cardano (ADA)
• Solana (SOL)
• TRON (TRX)
• Litecoin (LTC)
• Dogecoin(DOGE)
• TetherUS
• XRP
• USDC
• SHIBA INU(SHIB)
• Bitcoin Cash (BCH)

Key Features of Binance

Binance provides various features that enhance efficiency:

• Several payment methods including credit and debit cards, bank transfers, and e-wallet options like Advcash.
• Advanced trading tools like advanced charting features, different drawing tools, and multiple order types (e.g. limit, market, stop-limit orders).
• Trading bots that allow you to automate trading strategies.
• Access to the NFT marketplace
• Competitive trading fees from as low as 0.1% for spot trades. You can reduce your fees by staking or increasing their trading volume.
• Ability to earn passive income through ETH staking (bETH) and participating in the Simple Earn program where you can earn interest on your crypto assets. 
• The BNB Vault, a yield aggregator for BNB with automatic allocation of tokens across various earning opportunities.
• Auto-Invest Plan for where you can customize investment plans and preset an amount you can invest for an asset.
• Binance Square, the platform’s social hub

Binance Fee Structure

Binance uses a maker/taker fee structure where the fees vary based on trading volume and Binance Coin (BNB) balance. Higher-volume trades attract lower fees and vice versa. Fees are also discounted when you use BNB in trades, refer friends and family, or become a VIP by trading a certain amount of assets. Other fees include a 2% fee on debit cards and a 0.00% to 0.60% on trades.

Compatible Wallets

You can use the following wallets on Binance.

• Binance Web3 wallet
• MetaMask
• MathWallet
• Binance Chain Wallet
• Trust Wallet
• SafePal for iOS and Android.

These wallets allow users to access Binance directly from their browsers or mobile devices, making trading easy and secure.

Register a Binance Account

Opening a Binance account is a straightforward process.

• Click on the “Sign-Up” button on the website and fill in the details (email address or phone number, and password).
• Enter your name, date of birth, and address
• Verify your identity by uploading a government-issued ID and proof of address. 
• Set up 2FA using an authenticator app or SMS.
• Fund your account using the “Deposit” section and choose your preferred payment method. 

Your Binance account will be ready for trading. 

Customer Service 

You can access the customer support team from Binance via live chat, by submitting a ticket, or by reaching the team on social media (@BinanceHelpDesk on X). Binance doesn’t offer a phone number one can call. 

Binance Ratings

Binance has very low reviews on TrustPilot with a score of 1.4 out of  4.5K reviews. 

6% of reviewers have given it 5 stars citing great customer service while 80% have given it 1 star because of platform issues, trading issues, and failed transactions.

Final Word

As one of the largest crypto trading platforms, Binance offers access to hundreds of crypto and fiat currencies as well as great features and trading tools like market charts. You can also trade in different markets including futures and options. Its mobile app is intuitive and provides access to all the markets and trading options on the web. 

Binance also offers extensive educational resources in its social hub, blog, and Binance research platform. The NFT marketplace is a rich feature that includes top NFTs in the market. 

Though the platform has these features, trading here has a learning curve and beginners may struggle to use it. Experienced traders will have an easier time. Another downside to the platform is its limitations in jurisdictions like the UK and some states in the US.