Binance Review: Fastest Growing Crypto Exchange (Pros and Cons)

Key takeaways from our review:

• Binance is the #1 crypto exchange in daily trading volume, with more than $3 Billion in daily volume.
• Binance has over 2 million users at the time of this writing from all around the world.
• Binance trading fees are very competitive with other exchanges at 0.1% trading fees (most exchanges charge 2 - 5 times this amount)
• Binance claims their trading software can handle over 1 million orders per second (not too shabby).
• Approximately 40% of Binance users are from the United States, followed by countries like Japan, England, China, etc. 

If you're considering joining Binance.com then this review will help you make an informed decision before you sign up. 

I’ve been using Binance now for several weeks, and in this post I detail the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. Hopefully I’ll be able to save you from making the same mistakes I made when I signed up.

Being nervous about joining an exchange and sending them your crypto’s is normal, I was too when I signed up. Your putting your fate and the fate of your investments into an unknown company’s hands. 

I’m the type of person who does a TON of research into everything I sign up for, so I’ve written this review keeping in mind all of the things I wanted to know a few weeks ago when I signed up.

Like me, you’ve probably been asking yourself questions about Binance like:

• Is Binance legit and safe to deposit and withdrawal crypto?
• Has Binance ever been hacked?
  
• What kind of security does Binance have in place to safeguard my Bitcoin and altcoins?
• What kind of good and bad experiences have people had with Binance?
• Is Binance for me or should I choose a different exchange?
• What exactly is Binance and how does it compare to other popular exchanges like BitTrex, Coinbase and Kraken?

I try to answer all these questions and more below. If I miss anything, please hit me in the comments and I'll do my best to answer any question you have. I’ve done a lot of research and put a lot of personal time into this exchange, so let’s dive in.

Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange and ICO incubator headquartered in China that’s grown rapidly since 2017 due to the popular coins and ICO token listings on the site. The site features a robust (and easy to use) feature set for buying/selling digital assets, charting and technical analysis, and a lot more. The charting is powered by TradingView, a well known set of trading tools for crypto and ForEx traders.

You can trade popular coins like Bitcoin or Ethereum for altcoins and small cap coins. At the time of this writing there are at least 380 assets being actively traded on the site.

The Binance tagline is “Exchange The World”. I assume the reference is to Binance breaking down barriers for exchanging assets across international borders and companies.

CZ (as he’s affectionately known on Crypto Twitter) has a successful business track record in the blockchain space, with past positions like Director at Blockchain.info, co-founder of OKCoin and more.

In crypto we’re often faced with a lot of anonymous teams or obvious scams, so I’ve given these guys points for transparency. It means a lot!

When you first visit Binance you’ll see a list of their markets and can toggle between Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance (BNB is the native Binance token) and USDT (Tether) markets. This shows you all the trading pairs that will be available to you upon sign-up.

In the upper right, you’ll notice a link to the “Exchange”, hovering over that you’ll see two options, Basic, or Advanced.

Once you sign up, the Binance Basic option gives you everything you need to get started placing buy and sell orders on the exchange without all the distractions of the pro trading tools the advanced option has.

It’s a advanced trading interface, giving you access to trading history, basic charting, the order book, trading volume, buy/sell orders, and more. It’s more suited for casual buyers who can do quick buys and sells and for the people who are getting familiar with trading for the first time. 

The advanced trading platform gives you all the charting functionality you need if you’re a pro trader including access to charting tools and indicators. Binance is also now available in beta version via Coinigy, an awesome plus for traders that are trading on multiple exchanges. 

Features of Binance

Similar to other trading platforms like KuCoin or ByBit, Binance gives you advanced market tools:

• Trading: Limit Buy / Sell, Stop-Limit / Stop-Loss 
• Market Indicators: MACD, KDJ, RSI, DMI, OBV, MTM, EMA, VWAP, TRIX, StochRSI, EMV, WR, BOLL, SAR, CCI, MA
• Charting Tools: Trend Line, Regression Line, Percent Line, Parallel Rays, Down Arrow, Support/Pressure Line, Rectangle, Fibonnaci Line, Band Line, Up Arrow
• Charting View: Toggle between candlesticks and order depth on the main screen and toggle full screen view on or off. 
• Your Orders: Open Orders, Order history, Trade History, Funds
• Order Book: Sale Price, Buy Price, Spread, Latest Transaction Price, etc.
• API: Binance has API access and you can connect it to trading via 3rd party tools and sites like Coinigy.

With over 600 cryptocurrency and virtual tokens to trade, Binance is one of the top trading destinations for Altcoins. Most coins trade against Bitcoin, Ether, USDT, Litecoin, Ripple and more.

You can view each coin on the market here and easily toggle between BTC, ETH, USDT, and BNB markets. A quick glance reveals plenty of possibilities for most traders.

There are quite a few coins that trade against BNB, the Binance token, a favorite due to 50% cheaper transaction fees.

Binance doesn't charge any deposit fees. Binance has some of the lowest trading and withdrawal fees of any exchange, and really stepped up their game with a flat rate of 0.1% for trading fees. Many exchanges have sliding trading fees and that can make a huge difference when you’re trading large volumes.

Binance token Binance Coin (Ticker: BNB) offers 50% discounts against other pairs, so if you’re trading with BNB expect costs to be even lower. My guess is that introducing BNB with discounted fees was a play for retention. The more users stock up on BNB, and the more they save, the less likely traders are going to want to abandon the platform.

BNB is also traded on two other exchanges at time of this writing, giving the BNB token extended reach outside of the Binance ecosystem. To see the detailed fee structure for every cryptocurrency available on the platform, Click Here

Let’s break it down by the numbers and compare Binance fees with other popular exchanges: 

As you can see, Binance and Kucoin have the best costs and fee structure. Some exchanges are downright expensive compared to these two. If you're pushing big numbers, this can be a huge factor.

They say that the weakest link in security is usually the human operator. I couldn’t agree more and it applies to Binance, too.

If you use weak passwords, login on untrusted WiFi networks, don’t use two-factor authentication, and click on random links on the internet and in your spam folder, you’re probably going to get hacked eventually.

The strongest security in the world can’t save you from yourself. Make sure to take advantage of all of Binance's security options.

Binance comes equipped with the latest security tech and seems to genuinely care about the security of its users. I logged in the other day and saw the message below. I had to manually check mark every one of these boxes below to access the exchange. At first I was a little annoyed, then realized a little extra effort to stay safe is actually worth the inconvenience.

Let's break down the Binance security features:

Make sure to set an insanely difficult password when you sign up for Binance, never give it to anyone, never leave it on your computer, and never give any personal details to anyone claiming to be from Binance.

If you’re actively day trading (swing trader), then it’s not practical to move your cryptos to cold storage every day, you’re going to want to leave some on the exchange for your trades. Don’t leave all your funds on the exchange, however. Leave enough to comfortably trade and move profits into cold storage as you grow your account.

There’s always the chance Binance will get hacked, or your account will be compromised. 

If you’re not a day trader then the safest thing you can do is store your coins on a hardware wallet when you’re not actively trading.

Note: BitFinex and Mt. Gox both were hacked, there’s no guarantee Binance won’t be next, so stay safe!

One of my favorite things about Binance is how passionate the greater Binance community is. While every exchange gets its share of FUD, Binance really inspires love from its users.

From an exchange that scaled to millions of users in less than a year, it’s really admirable how much goodwill they’ve inspired. Of course they get their fair share of negative reviews too, so please do your own research before sending your crypto to any exchange.

One of my favorite places to engage with fellow Binancians is on their Reddit channel: /r/BinanceExchange

If you’re looking for an affordable cryptocurrency exchange with great security and all the features of a pro trading platform, Binance might be the perfect option for you.