With the rise in popularity of Cryptocurrencies, choosing an exchange to trust with your investment can be overwhelming. As Binance has grown, people have been questioning whether this is a safe exchange to choose from and if it offers the variety of coins and flexibility that users are looking for. We’ve created this review on Binance to address those exact concerns!
Binance currently has 6 million users and growing (crazy, I know). This massive success has been mainly due to Binance’s referral program and many coin offerings. The variety of coins, low fees, and optional verification has made Binance a popular choice among beginner and expert investors worldwide. This review will cover everything from the history of the platform, safety and security, how to sign up, how to trade, and our final verdict!
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Disclosure: No content in this article should be taken as financial advice. Investing can be risky, so it is recommended that you consult with your accounting, legal, and tax advisors before engaging in any kind of transaction.
The History of Binance
Binance has a very interesting history. The exchange was launched in mid-July 2017 and has exploded in growth since. Within three months of launch, Binance was listed as one of the Top 10 Exchanges based on 24-hour trading volume. The exchange is now valued at over 2 billion dollars. Oh – by the way, they did that in 6 months.
So what led to this massive success? Cryptocurrencies, in general, have been in hyper-growth mode. That is one simple external factor that laid a nice platform for the success of Binance. Success is all about supply and demand, and in 2017, the demand was high, and this platform offered a solution to meet the market’s hunger. The team behind Binance isn’t anything to gloss over, either. Binance’s development was led by a man named Changpeng Zhao, whose history on wall-street, developing software trading systems, and growing successful startups helped catapult the exchange’s success. Binance has also held many glamorous community competitions to rally interest and trading of new coins. Many of these competitions have included the opportunity to win high-end cars.
Binance Security and Safety
Binance provides basic security measures and tips on how to keep your funds safe, yet they don’t detail the back-end technical security measures of the exchange. The only technical specifications that they mention is that the exchange is built on a multi-tier and multi-cluster system architecture. In regards to account security, they do offer 2 Factor Authentication and Google Authentication. Even with the lack of security documentation (which could be a good thing), the community consensus is that the exchange is safe and it’s trusted by over 6 million users. But that doesn’t mean you should blindly run in and start using the platform. As with any exchange, it’s important to ensure that your computer is secure. Make sure your anti-virus is up-to-date, and take advantage of the Google Authentication these exchanges offer and recommend.
Binance Features
As one of the top exchanges, Binance offers a variety of features to keep the platform accessible and flexible for multiple types of users. Here are a few features of this powerful platform:
The Binance exchange supports any device and multiple platforms, such as the web, android, HTML5, Wechat, and PC. Binance also offers a phone app that makes it simple (too simple) to check your funds and trade at any time of the day.
The platform can process up to 1,400,000 per second (that’s fast). This processing speed makes Binance one of the fastest exchanges on the market. It can also support 20 million simultaneous users on the platform. Currently, at 6 million users, this scale-ability allows Binance to continue its growth safely.
Binance supports various languages, including English, French, Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, Spanish, and Korean, with plans to add more in the future. In addition to catering to these languages, the exchange also supports 180 countries worldwide, making it accessible to users in many different locations.
The underlying technology for Binance has been adopted on over 30 other exchange platforms. This technology has been built to support any device and multiple languages.
Binance has an experienced and interesting team behind it. As mentioned earlier, the founder, Changpeng Zhao, has previous Wall Street, software development, and startup experience. Other team members come from world-renowned companies such as Bloomberg, Blockchain.info, Morgan Stanley, Accenture, IBM, Nomura Securities, and others. In addition to this, Binance has an Angel Investor program with Angels in 30 countries around the world.
Signing Up for Binance
Signing up for Binance is really easy. In the past, Binance has limited the number of users who could sign up per day due to their quick growth and system updates. Unless further system updates occur, you shouldn’t have an issue registering. Remember, ALWAYS check the root domain of the URL before logging in or signing up for any exchange. There have been fake websites created that can steal your information that look exactly like the real website. Don’t fall into one of these traps!
Once you get to the home page of the site, you’ll go ahead and click on either “Register” or “Create Account.” You’ll then enter your email and choose a password – and you’re done!
The home page is pretty clean, with the new competitions being highlighted on the header of the page and the current market prices underneath. We’re pretty happy with the simplicity of Binance’s design and simple registration process.
Binance Trading Fees
Most users are happy with the low fees that Binance offers. If you review the exchange fees, you’ll see that Binance charges a .1% trading fee. Depositing currencies into Binance is free. Withdrawals are a bit different. The fees for withdrawals depend on the coin you’re withdrawing, and all coins have minimum withdrawals (this is the lowest amount of the coin you’ll be allowed to withdraw).
Note that withdrawal fees on Binance are what many users report as very high. This can surprise new users who deposit their coins for free and then are slapped with withdrawal fees when taking their cryptos off the exchange. A sample of these fees can be reviewed below, and the full list can be found here.
The image above is a sample of a few coins that Binance offers, along with their minimum withdrawal amounts and transaction fees. This can be annoying if you have small amounts of certain currencies stuck in the exchange. A good excuse to HODL, I guess?
How to Trade on Binance
It’s time to trade! To begin trading, you’ll simply want to be logged in to your account and go to the “Exchange” tab. Choose “Basic” or “Advanced.” Personally, we like “Advanced.”
Once you’ve clicked on either Basic or Advanced, you’ll be taken to a new screen (the advanced is shown below). Near the top right of the screen, choose the coin you want to trade and the trading pair you’d like to use. In this view, you can play with various indicators and candle settings. See our guides on crypto-trading for more on indicators. The bottom right of the screen is where you can trade. Choose the price you’d like to buy or sell a cryptocurrency for and the amount of your desired cryptocurrency you’d like to buy or sell for that price. Overall, it’s pretty straightforward and easy to do.
The interface of the exchange is beautiful and easy to navigate. The advanced option gives traders a nice view of the current buy and sell orders, as well as a clear view to set up trading indicators. We like how this setup makes it easy to trade for experienced investors and beginners!
Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed this ultimate Binance review. Binance has harbored a ton of trust from its users since its inception. We believe Binance is a solid platform due to the team behind it, the user base, and the sheer number of coins offered. The simple registration process, community competitions, and incentives make this exchange an attractive choice for new users. Our only complaint is the lack of security documentation around the platform. Use this exchange, and others, at your own risk.
In conclusion, Binance is currently one of the top exchanges, and we believe it’s well-positioned to stay that way for years. What has been your experience with Binance? Let us know in the comments below!