Trading cryptocurrencies is a business worth well over two trillion US dollars, with more than 10,000 coins on the market, and over 400 crypto exchanges. However, a large portion of those crypto projects are unsuccessful, with no real future and some of them are even scams designed by malicious individuals to lure people to invest money and then steal their funds. The situation is pretty similar with cryptocurrency exchange platforms – the majority of those 400 platforms have very poor security and low service quality.
Only a few dozen exchange platforms are really worth your while as a crypto trader and one of the top picks right next to Coinbase, Gemini, and Kraken is Binance.com, which is the market leader with the highest crypto trading volumes and market capitalization according to Coinmarketcap. Even though Binance isn’t a very old crypto exchange, it managed to take the crypto market by surprise and outperform all of its competition by offering a huge portfolio of crypto services at low prices, without sacrificing any quality or user security.
Let’s take a detailed look at the Binance exchange and learn about its background, the numerous services platform users have available on it, and how to deposit cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) into your Binance account.
Binance: The Leading Global Crypto Exchange
Binance isn’t a crypto veteran platform from the early days of cryptocurrency like Coinbase which was launched in 2012. Instead, Binance was launched in 2017 in Hong Kong by a group of experienced financial experts and crypto enthusiasts headed by Changpeng Zhao, an experienced software developer who has been the CEO of Binance since its launch.
The fact that the platform was launched much later than some of its top competitors gave the team behind it an opportunity to study its competition, how they evolved, which problems they encountered over the years, and how to create a platform that could become the number one among crypto exchanges.
This is exactly what Binance did. After its launch in 2017, the platform rapidly started expanding thanks to its cheap, reliable, and high-quality services. In just one year, Binance became so popular that the company had to temporarily suspend the option for signing up new user accounts at the beginning of 2018. The sign-up suspension was in place for a few months until the company developers managed to upgrade the whole platform in order to accommodate the huge influx of new users.
Some of the key features that made Binance the main crypto exchange on the market are various services that complement crypto trading, such as the Binance Earn platform for staking crypto assets, numerous popular payment methods, a wide range of trading features suitable for all experience levels, and great platform security. Also, knowing how important mobile access is to crypto traders, Binance has developed a highly functional mobile app with two modes, Binance Lite and Binance Pro.
Binance is available today in more than 180 countries and global regions, which makes it accessible to most of the world’s population, with a daily trading volume that’s far higher compared to its competitors. It’s also worth noting that there is a separate Binance.us platform for US traders.
Trading Features
Binance acknowledges the existence of different types of crypto investors and traders. Traders of different experience levels and trading habits have different needs and this is exactly what Binance developers had in mind when they decided to create three types of trading platform interfaces.
For users who are totally new to crypto trading and want to invest in digital currency, the Basic interface provides all the necessary tools. This interface is very intuitive since you have all the basic features at your disposal, just a few clicks away. You can place buy or sell orders, select trading pairs, and monitor their price change history on the market charts. When you select a trading pair, you need to choose whether you want to buy or sell a certain crypto, fill in the amount field, make sure you have enough funds in your Binance account, and initiate the trade.
Now, if you’re an intermediate trader who’s acquainted with detailed market charts and used to the complexity of standard trading interfaces, you should choose the Classic interface. The platform dashboard of this interface includes much more information and allows traders to analyze the price charts with more details that can allow them to decide whether it’s the right time to buy or sell a certain crypto. This interface is really meant for traders, while the basic interface is more suitable for crypto beginners who just want to buy some cryptos and keep them as a store of value. If you’re an active trader, the Classic interface provides the features you need.
In case you’re a pro trader who deals with cryptos professionally, then the Advanced interface is what you’re looking for. You’ll get access to the most advanced trading orders and market information that will help you implement pro trading strategies. The advanced interface is great for active traders that deal with high trading volumes on a daily basis.
Platform Fees
When choosing a crypto exchange platform, the fee policy is definitely something you should pay attention to, along with the crypto selection and platform security. The popularity of Binance is largely a result of some of the lowest exchange platform fees on the market. Low fees were the characteristic that lured users to Binance in the first place, but the exceptional services users get for those fees are what made them stay and attracted millions of new users. This makes Binance a great platform for both beginners who want to buy low or moderate amounts of cryptos, as well as experienced traders who don’t want to pay large chunks of their profits to exchange platforms.
Binance won’t charge you any fees if you want to deposit some crypto coins or tokens to your platform account. In this case, you’ll only pay a standard blockchain transaction fee which has nothing to do with Binance. If you’re depositing fiat money or purchasing cryptos directly with fiat cash, you’ll incur a deposit fee. This fee depends on the payment method you’re using. For example, there are no deposit fees if you directly send money through a bank transfer, but if you wish to pay for cryptos with a credit card or debit card, you’ll incur a 3.50% deposit fee.
Withdrawal fees for cryptos and fiat money, in case you want to cash out your coins, can vary depending on the crypto or fiat currency in question. You should check the Binance withdrawal fees section to find the currency you wish to withdraw and find out the exact fee.
The famously low Binance trading fees are really affordable and make Binance the first choice for traders who are looking for low fees. Both market makers and market takers start with a trading fee of 0.075%, which is extremely low compared to industry standards. Depending on your monthly trading volume, you can lower the fee to as low as 0.015% if you’re a market maker who trades large volumes of cryptos on the platform. Keep in mind that when you’re paying fees with the native crypto, Binance Coin (BNB), your fees are always lower.
Supported Cryptocurrencies
The selection of cryptocurrencies available for trading is probably one of the most important factors when choosing a crypto exchange platform. While the first exchanges started out as Bitcoin exchanges in 2010 when Binance was launched in 2017, there were already thousands of crypto projects on the market and that’s why the platform included all of the most popular digital currencies from the start. You can buy, sell, or exchange more than 300 cryptos on Binance, which is far more compared to the 50-60 available coins and tokens on popular competitor platforms like Kraken or Coinbase.
While you can find all of the top trending cryptos on Binance, you can also choose from a wide variety of crypto projects with lower market caps that aren’t yet so popular but show promise of future development. This is why it’s great to have a Binance account since you don’t need to create numerous exchange platform accounts to get to the cryptos you want because if they are popular or show some promise, they’re probably already available on the platform.
The available cryptos include BTC, Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Cardano (ADA), Cosmos (ATOM), Algorand (ALGO), Aave (AAVE), Avalanche (AVAX), Bitcoin Diamond (BCD), Tether (USDT), Binance Coin (BNB), Ripple (XRP), Monero (XMR), Stellar Lumens (XLM), Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC), BUSD (BUSD), Eos (EOS), Polkadot (DOT), Solana (SOL), and numerous other altcoins.
It’s also important to note that Binance operates two blockchains, the BEP2 (Binance Chain) and the BEP20 (Binance Smart Chain), which are massive blockchain networks suitable for developers to launch their own crypto tokens thanks to Binance’s resources. The Binance Chain and Binance Smart Chain are some of the most popular blockchains right next to the Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tron (TRX) blockchains.
Supported Fiat Currencies
Binance is a very fiat-friendly crypto exchange. Unlike many popular exchanges that are only compatible with a few select fiat currencies such as USD, GBP, EUR, CAD, and AUD, Binance supports more than 30 different global currencies for fiat deposits.
Available Payment Methods
As far as payment methods supported by the platform go, you can deposit money using all of the most popular methods such as debit cards, credit cards, wire transfers, bank account transfers, ACH, SWIFT, and SEPA transactions. There are even some additional payment services such as PayID, Western Union, and PayPal. A lot of the less popular platforms can only be funded through cryptocurrency transfers.
Binance Earn
Users can earn additional funds while holding their cryptos on Binance. The platform enables you to stake various cryptos in Binance-approved staking pools for a yearly interest that is paid out on a regular basis. You don’t need to manually search the internet and cruise through forums or social media groups to find reliable staking pools, because Binance does that for you.
Binance and Visa Partnership
Using cryptocurrency for everyday payments in retail shops is something all crypto enthusiasts would love to become a global reality. Binance brings this one step closer to realization thanks to their partnership with Visa, which gives you the opportunity to order a Binance Visa card that enables you to pay for products and services with cryptocurrency.
Around 60 million retailers around the world accept the Binance Visa card as a legit payment method and you can get up to 8% cashback on a wide selection of product purchases with this card.
Binance VISA card
This Is How to Deposit Bitcoin Into Your Binance Account
In case you happen to have some cryptos in a third-party crypto wallet and want to send those assets to your Binance account to make a trade, here’s a quick tutorial on how to deposit cryptos into Binance. We’ll take Bitcoin depositing as an example, but the steps are similar with any other crypto, just don’t forget to check if the asset you wish to send to Binance is supported by the platform and take into account blockchain transaction fees.
- Log into your Binance account and navigate to the account Wallet. You’ll see a variety of options, choose Fiat and Spot.
- Choose Deposit, then Crypto, and finally find Bitcoin or type in Bitcoin.
If you want to send some other cryptos, be sure to type in the name of the crypto or the associated token standard such as ERC20 or BEP2.
Once you proceed, Binance will show your Bitcoin address in text and QR code form, which you need to copy into the external wallet you’re sending BTC from, or if a third party is sending you coins, you should send that deposit address to them in order to receive your bitcoins. In case you’re looking for a wallet that works great with Binance, Trust Wallet is officially supported as the designated Binance wallet.
When the transaction has been processed through the blockchain, Binance will notify you of an incoming transaction. The incoming transfer will be visible in your Binance wallet account transaction history.
Binance Mobile Apps: Binance Lite and Binance Pro
Binance has developed a very popular and highly functional mobile app with two working modes.
The Binance Lite mode has all the basic platform features for buying, selling, and exchanging cryptos, along with basic market chart overviews. It’s ideal for beginners.
The Binance Pro mode is more suitable for advanced traders and investors that want to have quick mobile access to professional trading tools and charts. The app is available for both Android and iOS smartphones.
A Few Final Words…
On the crypto market, Binance is definitely a key entity, not only because of its exchange platform services but also because it holds Binance Coin, one of the top cryptocurrencies by market cap, along with the BEP2 and BEP20 blockchains. The low fees, high security, and various interface types for different trading experience levels are all factors that make Binance the largest crypto exchange in the world.
