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Binance is one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges around the world, and it offers a large number of crypto pairs for users to trade between. It focuses on trading between cryptocurrencies, and its low trading fees and extensive number of pairs have attracted lots of users.
Currently, the available cryptocurrencies that work with Binance are Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash.
Despite its popularity and having Coinbase as competition, Binance is still relatively new, only having been launched in 2017. This company has great community trust, good customer support and the features most users want.
Where Is Binance Based?
Binance was originally based in Hong Kong and was launched by Changpeng Zhao, a developer, in July of 2017. Since then, it has moved to an offshore location due to regulations put in place by China.
The team has also taken steps to register in several locations, with people in each, since that limits the impact of a single regulatory body.
Zhao and his company, Beijie Technology, created Binance following an extremely successful ICO that made headlines by raising $15 million USD. It raised 15 million dollars in a July 2017 ICO for its ERC20 BNB token. Considering the track record of Zhao and Beijie Technology, Binance was set up for success.
To make exchanging cryptocurrencies simple, Binance includes the current rates on its homepage. It shows five popular pairings near the top of the page, so you can see those at just a glance.
There are then five tabs divided into BNB Market, BTC Market, ETH Markets, USDT Markets and Favorites. As expected, each of these tabs shows the relevant trading pairs that Binance offers for the cryptocurrency listed on the tab.
The BTC Market tab, for example, displays all the trading pairs for Bitcoin. With each pair, you will see the last price, the 24-hour change, the 24-hour high, the 24-hour low and the 24-hour volume, so you can make an educated decision.
Binance has several functions that make it easier to find the pair you are most interested in on the homepage. Once you click on a Market tab, you can use the convenient search bar to find the crypto pair with the other currency of your choice.
You can also click on the star to the left of a crypto pair and add it to your favorites. These then appear in your Favorites tab, so you can find them quickly in the future.
Keep in mind that Binance offers both a Basic and an Advanced trading platform. Most users will want to begin with the Basic version, which is appropriate for beginners. However, it still contains information that those new to trading might not care about.
Most likely, beginners will find themselves ignoring nearly all the information displayed on the crypto pair page apart from the Buy/Sell area. The Advanced option is very similar but has additional detailed technical analyses to help you decide before completing a trade.
To make the homepage and rest of the website easier to navigate, Binance offers seven different languages that you can choose to view the website in. This means that speakers of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, Spanish, English and French can use the platform with ease.
What Information Does Binance Display About Pairings and Currencies?
If you click on any cryptocurrency pair on the Binance homepage, you will find all the information you could possibly need. In addition to the information found to the right of the listing on the homepage, you will see the trade history, graphs representing the pair and more. This is also where you will find the option to complete an exchange with the chosen pair.
In addition to the pairing information, Binance also has a specific page dedicated to cryptocurrency information. To get there, click on the main “Info” tab at the top of the page. You can choose to view the relevant information about cryptocurrencies in terms of USD or CNY.
The page displays the currency’s price, market cap, 24-hour volume, circulating supply, 24-hour change and max supply, with the relevant information in USD or CNY. You can sort the list by any of these categories, either decreasing or increasing, or use the search bar to find the crypto you want to find information about.
How Many Cryptocurrencies Does Binance Support?
Reviewers and users agree that Binance supports an extensive list of crypto pairs. To be specific, Binance’s “Info” tab lists data on 242 different cryptocurrencies.
The BTC, ETH and BNB markets all have dozens and dozens of cryptocurrency pairs for trading, while the USDT market lists six pairs. Overall, there are hundreds of pairs that you can exchange via this platform.
How Do You Fund Your Binance Account?
Before you can complete any transactions on Binance, you must fund your account. Go to the “Funds” tab, then click on “Deposits Withdrawals.” Select the type of cryptocurrency you want to use to fund your account, then select “Deposit.”
Binance will give you a public wallet address that you send your funds to. Since Bitcoin, Ethereum and the Binance Coin (BNB) have the most trading pairs, funding your account with one of these cryptocurrencies will give you the greatest trading flexibility.
Because Binance deals solely with cryptocurrencies, you cannot use a fiat currency to fund your account or conduct trades with fiat. The only method of funding your account is via cryptocurrency, and there is no option of a fiat bank transfer or credit card.
There is no limit for deposits, and since you do not pay fees for deposits, this is truly flexible. Just be mindful of the withdrawal fees.
How Do You Withdraw Coins?
To withdraw cryptocurrency from Binance, go to the same “Deposits Withdrawals” page. Select the token you want to withdraw and select “Withdrawal.” You will be prompted to enter the address and amount of the withdrawal before selecting “Submit.”
You will receive a confirmation message in the email address you registered with Binance. Open the email, verify the information is correct and then select “Confirm Withdraw” to proceed. You can confirm the withdrawal by going to “Funds” then “History” followed by “Deposits History.”
What Should You Know About Withdrawal Limits and Verification?
Binance offers several levels of verification, each with its own withdrawal limit. Without verification details, you can withdraw anything up to the equivalent of two Bitcoin daily.
Level 2 verification requires Google Authenticator or two-factor authentication. This verification level currently requires Chinese numbers. You will also need to submit your first and last name, gender, country, passport photo and a photo of you with your passport.
Once verified at Level 2, your withdrawal limit becomes 100 Bitcoin. You can also contact Binance customer support if you need to increase your limit beyond this.
How Do You Trade on Binance?
Trading is very straightforward on Binance. Begin by logging into your account and visiting the tab on the homepage for the cryptocurrency you want to trade. For example, if you wanted to buy BNB using Bitcoin, you would go to the BTC Market, then type “BNB” into the search box. Click on your chosen trading pair to enter the transaction page.
Immediately below the graph, you will notice the Buy and Sell section for your chosen currency. Following the above example of buying BNB with BTC, you will see a price on the left listed in BTC. Use this information to choose the amount of the currency, BNB, you wish to buy and hit “Buy BNB.”
There is the option to buy one currency, such as BNB, using a percent of your other cryptocurrency, Bitcoin in this case. Options include 25, 50, 75, or 100 percent.
The default order price will be set to the most recent transaction price, or you can opt for the market price. Alternatively, you can go to the “Limit” tab and choose your Limit Price for the transaction.
Some consider the lack of trading methods to be a disadvantage. Currently, Binance only supports market or limit orders. Considering the advanced interface, many users expect to have more trading options available.
However, there is hope that Binance will add additional trading options in the future as the platform grows.
What Fees Does Binance Charge?
One of the features that help Binance stand out from the other cryptocurrency exchanges is its very low fees. There is no fee for making a deposit, but has a trading fee of 0.1%.
By default, Binance uses BNB to pay for your transaction fees if you have any, and this temporarily results in a 50 percent discount, bringing the transaction fee down to just 0.05 percent.
The fees for withdrawal vary depending on the cryptocurrency in question and based on blockchain conditions. Binance keeps a running list of the minimum withdrawal amount and fees for each cryptocurrency, so you can get a reasonably accurate idea of the fees before completing a transaction.
What Devices Does Binance Support?
Binance prides itself on supporting all devices. You can use it on PC, Android, WeChat or HTML5. Among the various options, most users will have at least one way to exchange on Binance.
Is Binance Secure?
Unfortunately, Binance does not deliver sufficient information regarding how it secures funds and what other security measures are in place. It does offer and encourage two-factor authentication and have overall good ratings.
Recently, Binance made headlines for a failed hacking attempt that took place on March 7. This was a large-scale phishing scam where the hackers almost took millions of dollars’ worth of crypto.
Almost immediately after this, Binance proved it takes security seriously by offering a bounty equivalent to $250,000 USD to whoever can provide info that leads to the hackers’ arrests. It also set aside $10 million USD in crypto as bounty reserves for catching hackers in the future.
How Is the Customer Support?
As a young company, Binance.com is still working out some kinks in its customer support. Binance’s official Reddit page says that all support tickets are answered by someone who actually understands your system, rather than a random support agent.
There is a reasonably extensive FAQ section, but there are some grammatical errors and odd phrasing since it was first written in Chinese before being translated into English. Nevertheless, you should find understandable answers to your most common questions there.
If you do need to contact Binance support, there is a WeChat function with reasonably quick response rates, as well as a contact form.
What Is the Binance Referral Program?
Since Binance is still relatively new, it offers a referral program to encourage new users to join the platform and spread the word. To participate, just register to be part of the program, and you will receive QR codes and links for referrals.
Use these codes and links to invite friends. Once they make a trade, you will get a 20 percent commission in real-time. To show users the vast amounts they can earn via the referral program, Binance includes a list of the top three referrers along with how much they have earned so far in a commission.
The top commission is 173.29197367 Bitcoin at the time of writing, with the second and third top commissions just above 127 and 115 BTC, respectively.
What Are Binance Competitions?
Every once in a while, Binance offers competitions. An example is the competition in celebration of ONT being listed on Binance. It committed 6.25 million ONT to be awarded to users around the world.
At the end of the competition (March 17, 2018), it ranked users based on their final ONT balance from 1 to 5,050. The top prize was 200,000 ONT and the lowest prize was at least 1,000 ONT.
Past competitions have been of a similar nature, awarding those with the highest trading volume of a particular cryptocurrency. These competitions are simply another incentive for users to trade with Binance instead of another platform.
Conclusion
Binance.com is a relatively new addition to the world of cryptocurrency exchanges. However, it has already made a name for itself and proven popular as well as useful.
Binance offers hundreds of crypto pairings, increasing the chances that you will be able to trade the pair you want, and its low fees set it apart.