Binance Review - Is It Still The Best Altcoin Exchange In 2023?

Binance is one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world whether you look at number of users, trading volume or just about any other metric.

Binance's lead over the competition is so great that at times they have more trading volume than all of the other big exchanges combined.

Since it's launch in 2017 and meteoric rise, it has been widely recognized as the best altcoin exchange in the world. Binance has more listed altcoins with real trading volume than any other crypto exchange.

In this Binance review we'll cover a few of the features that have led to this exchange becoming so popular. Notably,

1. Massive selection of cryptocurrencies, several hundred trading pairs and counting
2. Until recently no KYC worldwide. Even now, no KYC for users in many countries
3. Industry low trading fees
4. Great new innovations like Binance's own BNB token and the Binance DEX
5. Solid leadership under Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ)

All of these factors and more have led to Binance's explosive growth, and will likely contribute to Binance's continued popularity in the future.

While there is a lot to cover in this review we'll begin with one of the most important topics, is Binance legit?

Pros

1. Massive liquidity, Binance is the world's largest spot exchange by trading volume
2. Hundreds of trading pairs, more cryptocurrencies listed than any other reliable crypto exchange
3. Numerous innovative products like the Binance coin, futures contracts, margin trading, mobile app, etc.
4. Instead of buying stocks like Google, Amazon, Tesla, Facebook, Netflix etc. the traditional way with fiat dollars via an online broker, crypto investors can trade their cryptos directly for tokenized versions of popular stocks.

Cons

1. Binance does not support Fiat deposits via bank transfer. Binance US, which does, is not available in all states
2. Americans cannot access Binance and Binance US lacks many features
3. Binance has been quasi-hacked in the past and as a huge honeypot it is the likely target for future hacking attempts

Is Binance Trustworthy?

The short answer to this question is yes, Binance is definitely trustworthy. You don't become the world's largest crypto exchange, and _stay there, _by defrauding traders and engaging in other shady business practices.

That being said, before opening a Binance account there are a few things that you should keep in mind.

Is Binance Safe for Americans?

It used to be that anyone in the world could sign up for Binance. There was essentially no restriction on who could create an account and certainly no KYC.

That's changed, however, and Americans are no longer allowed to access Binance. If Binance detects (based on IP address) that you're an American using their service they are likely to cancel all your trades and lock your account.

Binance blocking Americans was a proactive move, not a reactive one. For many years cryptocurrency flew under the radar and crypto exchanges could get away with just about anything save for outright fraud. However, after the 2017 bull market, regulatory pressure increased significantly.

Binance must have felt that under this new regime it was likely they would be fined millions of dollars for whatever American laws they'd "broken." Instead of dealing with that headache they simply decided to ban Americans from their platform.

Some American traders get around this geo-block using a VPN in order to obfuscate their IP address. This can work, however, it can also be dangerous. If the VPN cuts out or you forget to turn it on just once and you do a Binance login you may find your account locked. That's not good and it's something you should seriously consider before trying to trade on Binance if you're an American.

As of 2019 there is a United States subsidiary of Binance, however it lacks many of the great features that make Binance so popular. It has low trading volume, is not available in every state and there are only about one-tenth of the trading pairs available as compared to the "normal" Binance. We'll review more of these features in a later section dedicated exclusively to Binance USA.

Is Binance Safe to Store Coins On?

Not compared to holding your own keys, but then again almost no cryptocurrency exchange is 100% safe to store coins on.

Even with a heavily regulated exchange like Coinbase that's never been hacked, there's no way of guaranteeing that it won't get hacked in the future. And Binance, unfortunately, does not have a perfect record.

In May of 2019 hackers were able to steal Bitcoin worth about $40 million from Binance.

The hack sent reverberations throughout the Bitcoin community and even led some to question whether there should be a block re-org in order to return the stolen funds. Thankfully this idea was shot down and Binance ended up making account holders whole again by using its insurance fund.

While this hack was undoubtedly bad for the community it's important to point out one fact: the Binance platform itself wasn't actually hacked. Instead, the hackers were able to steal login information and email addresses for hundreds of traders. The hackers took that information, logged into all of those accounts at the same time and withdraw funds to Bitcoin addresses that they controlled.

So even though Binance should have had stricter security regarding withdrawals, the platform itself wasn't actually vulnerable. That being said, traders should do everything in their power to keep their account information safe.

1. Create a strong password that is unique to Binance
2. Change your password on a regular basis
3. Consider using a separate email address for all cryptocurrency transactions so that hackers who gain access to your normal address won't have control over your crypto information
4. Use two-factor authentication

Besides that, the best piece of advice is to simply store your cryptocurrency somewhere safe like a Ledger or a Trezor. If you assume that no crypto exchange is ever safe, you can't go wrong.

Where is Binance Located?

As an international exchange Binance has locations all over the world. For instance, they just announced the opening of a new Shanghai branch. That being said, their headquarters are located in Malta.

Malta is currently home to many cryptocurrency and blockchain firms due to their friendly regulations regarding this new technology. This has led to Malta being referred to as "Blockchain Island."

Changpeng Zhao

To draw a rough comparison, CZ is like the Warren Buffet of the crypto world.

It's not that CZ is a long term value investor (far from it), rather he's one of the most recognized names in the crypto space and is at the head of a multi-billion dollar operation.

Although he's not immune to controversy the general sentiment toward CZ is good. Many crypto builders, traders and investors recognize that CZ is always pushing for growth and adoption in crypto.

What benefits Binance, new users and new money, benefits crypto as a whole and CZ continues to stand out as an innovative thinker even in an ecosystem where the bar for innovation is quite high.

Binance Deposits and Payments

Unfortunately, unlike many other cryptocurrency exchange platforms Binance does not allow its traders and investors to deposit money into their account using a bank transfer. There are only two options for funding your Binance account: you can deposit cryptocurrency or you can buy cryptocurrency with a credit card.

Since you cannot deposit cash into Binance buying with a credit card or debit card is the second best option.

Here's how to do that.

Buying Bitcoin with a Credit Card On Binance

Buying Bitcoin with a credit card on Binance is fairly simple.

Simply navigate to this page, select which cryptocurrency you'd like to purchase and how much you want to buy. From there you'll be asked to fill in standard details like your address, phone number and date of birth.

The platform that processes the payment, Simplex, will also ask for a few other things like a copy of your driver's license or passport. This is standard for any exchange which lets traders use a credit card as they're trying to prevent fraudulent purchases.

The Binance fee for buying crypto with a credit card is 3.5%, slightly below the industry average. For example, Coinmama is another popular exchange for buying crypto with a credit card and their average fee is about 5%.

For a full step by step guide, including pictures, which explains how to buy on the Binance exchange please click here.

How to Transfer From Coinbase to Binance

Coinbase is the premier onboarding platform in the world. That is, it's arguably the best cryptocurrency platform to buy Bitcoin and other crypto coins on.

Once you've bought on Coinbase you can send the crypto to Binance where you can use their basic or advanced trading features. In the next section we'll explain how to deposit funds into Binance.

Trading on Binance

This is where we get to the good stuff, actually trading on Binance.

While Coinbase might be the best cryptocurrency exchange for people who need to acquire Bitcoin or any other crypto, Binance trading is a great service that's only getting better over time, and it has the widest selection of altcoins out of any cryptocurrency exchange.

How to Deposit Funds into Binance

For this review we'll assume that you've already created a Binance account and are now eligible to start trading.

We'll explain how to buy on Binance in another section although generally many people feel that the easiest thing to do is buy crypto on another exchange and then send it to Binance.

To deposit cryptocurrencies into the Binance trading platform:

1. In the upper right hand corner hover over "Wallet" and then click on "Spot Wallet"
2. Under "Coin" you can type in the name for the coin you want to deposit. I.e. ETH or NANO
3. Once you see your coin, look over to the right hand side and click deposit
4. You can now copy the deposit address and send crypto to it from any other crypto exchange or wallet
5. *IMPORTANT! *We cannot stress this enough. Certain coins like XRP and others have a "Tag" that goes along with the deposit address. Binance will clearly indicate when a cryptocurrency uses a tag. If you fail to include the tag when you send crypto to Binance the funds will end up in a general slush fund and will not be credited to your account. While it is possible to recover the funds this can take several days and you'll need to contact Binance customer support. All of this hassle is best avoided at all costs so please, always be sure to include the tag whenever Binance indicates that it's necessary.

How to Trade on Binance

Now that you've got some crypto in your account you can start to trade on Binance.

1. In the left hand corner hover over "Trade" and click "Basic." While Binance does offer advanced trading tools most traders and investors who are new to crypto should not need to use them
2. On the right hand side select the trading pair that you want to use. For example, BTC, BNB or one of the alt coins like XRP or ETH
3. Once you've found your trading pair you can execute the trade using either a limit order or market order

With a limit order you can choose the exact price that the trade will clear at, however the trade probably won't execute immediately and you'll need to wait. Also, if the price moves against your limit order you may need to readjust the trade if you want it to clear sooner.

With a market order the trade will execute immediately, however it will clear at whatever the market price is. This means that you might not get the price you were hoping for. It can sometimes be dangerous to execute a market order during times of high volatility as it may be especially likely that you won't get the price you were expecting.

Binance Withdrawals

Withdrawals from Binance are very simple.

1. In the upper right hand side of Binance hover over "Wallet" and click "Spot Wallet"
2. Use the search bar to find the cryptocurrency you want to withdraw
3. On the right hand side click withdraw. Enter the cryptocurrency address that you want to withdraw to and enter how much crypto you want to withdraw. Remember, you may need to use a tag for certain cryptocurrencies, especially if you're withdrawing to another exchange
4. At this point Binance will ask you for 2FA authorization and they will also send an email containing a link that you'll need to click in order to confirm the transaction
5. Once you click the link the transaction will move to the processing stage and the withdrawal should be initiated within a minute. Generally withdrawals from Binance happen very quickly, however the time needed also depends on the coin. XRP or XLM withdrawals can happen in seconds while other cryptocurrencies like BTC or XMR may take longer.

Withdrawal Fees

The withdrawal fee used to be relatively high and many Binance exchange traders complained about it.

However, as of 2023 the fees have been lowered to what is now a very fair price point. For example, the BTC withdrawal fee is currently 0.0004 while the ETH withdrawal fee is 0.003. Those fees equate to $2.50 and $0.40 respectively.

Binance regularly adjusts the withdrawal fees based on network usage and current price trends. To find a list of withdrawal fees for all of the cryptocurrencies that trade on Binance please check here.

Trading Fees

As mentioned earlier Binance has some of the lowest trading fees out of all of the major crypto exchanges. Both their maker and taker fee is only 0.1% whereas the industry standard is usually closer to 0.15% maker and 0.25% taker. Some exchanges have an even higher trading fee. For example Coinbase charges a 0.5% maker and taker fee.

Even though though their fees are already low they can go lower. Binance offers discounts to traders with higher monthly volumes. For example, anyone who trades more than 50 BTC per month can have their maker fee lowered to 0.9%. There is also a Binance coin BNB discount that can be fairly substantial (more on this in a later section).

To see the various trading fee discounts available please check Binance's website.

Altcoin Liquidity

Liquidity for coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum probably won't be a problem for traders no matter which exchange they use. Unless you're submitting million dollar orders to a trading platform, you probably won't have to worry about moving the market.

However, what's great about Binance is the depth of their liquidity. They're often one of the only cryptocurrency exchanges with decent liquidity for some of the more speculative altcoins. If you'd like to start trading altcoins Binance is definitely the best altcoin exchange out there.

Margin Trading

With the launch of "Binance 2.0" it's now possible to use Binance margin trade features. Binance allows its trader to take out an astounding 125x leverage on futures contracts on their exchange platform.

Before this Bitmex set the industry standard with 100x leverage which many people already felt was too much. There are a few things to keep in mind when using leverage.

1. Bitcoin is highly volatile and alt coins are incredibly volatile. Crypto is not like the stock market where a 2 or 3% move in one day is a big deal. It's not uncommon for Bitcoin to move 10% in an hour or two. Keep that in mind before taking out a highly leveraged position.
2. When using leverage it's essential to set a stop loss so that you don't get liquidated. It's always better to get stopped out of a trade than to hold and lose your principle.

If you'd like to learn more about trading futures on Binance you can check here. Or there is also a great step by step guide on how to use margin on Binance.

Core Features

While Binance has all sorts of exotic features like its own exchange token and a DEX (both of which we'll discuss in the following section), it's the core trading features that really make all the difference.

These are some of the things that are not so flashy but which make trading on Binance safe and secure.

Customer Service

One of Binance's most helpful features is their good customer service. This is the result of the 2017 bull run disaster when an influx of inexperienced traders caused the Binance customer support center (with its limited number of agents) to become completely overloaded. Inquiries were not being answered for days or more and the community outrage was prodigious.

In response Binance hired and trained a whole new generation of customer support representatives and since then Binance has had good to great customer support. You always know that if you email them with a problem an agent will get back to you.

Trading Pairs

Probably more than anything else the huge number of trading pairs available on Binance is what sets them apart from other crypto exchanges. Even if it weren't for their massive trading volume and low fees, traders and investors everywhere would still flock to Binance in order to take advantage of their massive altcoin portfolio. Binance is also a leader in the rising world of blockchain games.

Currently Binance has more than 600 tradings pairs listed on their exchange. That doesn't mean unique coins, but rather coins trading against others. For instance, NANO/BTC - NANO/ETH - NANO/BNB etc. Altogether Binance has about 200 unique coins listed on their platform which is incredible. Coinbase has less than 30 and not even all of those are available in every jurisdiction. Some of the more obscure coins that Binance lists include:

1. ENJ
2. WTC
3. DLT
4. ARN
5. VIB

2FA

As one would expect from the world's most popular cryptocurrency exchange, Binance security is quite good. They learned a lot from the $40 million hack.

Notably, Binance has mandatory 2FA (Two Factor Authentication). This is a feature which requires a user to enter a one time security code before they can withdraw their cryptocurrency from Binance.

Although some exchanges like Coinbase allow traders to set up 2FA with a mobile phone number this is not the most secure option. It's much better to set up 2FA with Google Authenticator. The benefit of GA is that it is tied to your phone so no matter how much personal information a hacker can steal from you they can't gain access to the GA password.

That's not true for a mobile phone number. A SIM swap happens when a hacker steals your personal information, calls your mobile phone provider and uses your stolen credentials to port your phone number to a new SIM card.

Once the hacker controls your phone number they can log in to any exchange and withdraw funds if you have 2FA set up using a text message.

That's why it's always more secure to use Google Authenticator. Just remember that when you set up GA you should write down the security code on a piece of paper and store it somewhere secure.

If you lose your phone you can use the security code to restore GA on your new phone.

Unique Features

These are the features which really set Binance apart from the crowd. While there are dozens of cryptocurrency exchanges in the ecosystem (careful, not all of them are reliable) it's the following features which really make Binance stand out from the crowd.

Lack of KYC

One of the reasons that Binance was able to grow so quickly is that they have traditionally not had any KYC requirements for their traders. There are other cryptocurrency exchanges which don't require KYC but they typically have extremely low limits, I.e. a lifetime withdrawal limit of 0.5 BTC. Binance, on the other hand, never had KYC and their limits were always high enough for almost any retail trader.

As of 2019 Binance began geo-blocking certain traders per their new policy that Americans cannot access their platform. However, within regions that can still use Binance (just about anywhere in Asia) there is no KYC. This has given Binance a big advantage over other trading platforms which have mandatory KYC.

The American ban is enforced by IP address and as mentioned, a VPN can be used to get around this ban. However, you risk having your account locked.

Integration with Brave

Brave is famous for creating the BAT token which they reward to their users for watching certain advertisements. Now they're going even a step further by integrating Binance into their browser.

The integration will be based on a Binance API and it will allow people who have a Binance account to exchange cryptocurrencies right from their browser window. This is a great idea as it makes crypto that much more accessible and easy to use. For example, Brave users can now earn BAT and then instantly exchange it to a currency more universally accepted like Bitcoin or Ethereum.

While Binance is only integrating with Brave for right now it would be really interesting to see if they can have other partnerships, given that the company has repeatedly expressed a desire to partner with organizations that have strong infrastructure. Opera, for instance, is the first web browser to come standard with a built in cryptocurrency wallet and it would make a lot of sense for them to integrate with Binance as well.

Robust Architecture that Mostly Works During Peak Demand

An objective Binance review should point out that in the past the exchange has had problems during times of peak demand. Often that resulted in Binance going into "maintenance mode" at the worst possible time when volatility was high and prices were soaring or crashing. There is nothing worse than not being able to buy or sell cryptocurrencies when you want to.

Binance is far from the only exchange that has encountered volume related problems. Most recently Bitmex was closed for "maintenance" as the price of Bitcoin dipped below $4,000. In the crypto space it is an open secret that some exchange platforms can't handle peak volume and when that happens they stop trading under the auspice of "maintenance."

All of this is relevant to Binance because of how they were able to handle the volume demands that came with that same dip that caused Bitmex to shut down. Even though traffic on Binance was near all time high levels (traffic _was _at an all time high for Coinbase) they only experienced brief service disruptions, for Ethereum in particular.

For the last two years Binance has been upgrading their architecture in order to handle more traffic even as millions of people are trying to trade at the same time. That an exchange will probably work during peak demand is something that you take for granted until you're in a situation where you're desperate to trade crypto but can't because the exchange is down. Binance's robust architecture should definitely be a consideration when you're deciding where to trade.

Staking

Some Proof of Stake (POS) cryptocurrencies can be staked so that you can earn a return by helping to secure the network. While Coinbase is perhaps most famous for their Tezos staking program, Binance also has an awesome staking program.

On Binance not only can you stake Tezos, it's actually possible to stake more than a dozen other coins as well. The ROI on staking these coins varies, with rates anywhere from 2% to more than 10%. Tezos, which is by far the most popular coin to stake on Binance as well as other exchanges, currently has a ROI of 6 to 7%.

If you would like to learn more about Binance's staking program they have released a great guide and FAQ which explains how it works on Binance and everything you should do to get started.

Mobile App

As one would expect Binance has a mobile app that is available for both Apple and Android. The app is highly rated for both platforms with a 4.4 Android rating and a 4.8 Apple rating. The mobile app offers almost all of the same functionality as the traditional Binance platform. That includes,

1. Buying cryptocurrency with a credit card
2. Futures trading with leverage up to 125x
3. Spot trading for all of the cryptocurrencies that Binance supports
4. Directly contact customer service to get a fast reply in case something goes wrong
5. The app also supports cryptocurrency staking if you're holding any coins that can be staked

Although some users have complained about a buggy experience the Binance app is regularly updated and it is one of the highest rated apps for any major trading platform.

Binance Research Reports

One of Binance's greatest contributions to the community are their regular research reports which they release for free. These hefty documents review a wide range of topics, from market conditions to chain analysis metrics to the viability of individual cryptocurrency projects.

Their global market reports are released once a month and typically deal with major price action, both historical and expected. If you're interested in these reports, which are quite thorough and often worth the read, you can sign up with Binance to receive them via email.

BNB Coin

While a number of exchanges have since followed in their footsteps Binance was the originator of the exchange token model.

At the time that the Binance coin BNB was released there was no small controversy. Is BNB a security? What is it needed for? Is this just Binance's flashy version of a money grab? Community sentiment was divided and many investors had trouble deciding whether to buy or sell BNB.

Since that dramatic start though BNB has proven itself as a valuable project with a number of interesting use cases.

Reduce Trading Fees

Almost all crypto exchanges have some form of reduced trading fee program. Some Binance alternatives like Coinmama reduce their trading fees for traders who buy a certain amount of cryptocurrency in a given period. Other exchanges follow the Binance model and give discounts on trading fees to investors who hold their coin.

Almost none of these exchanges though offer the same level of discounts as what Binance can offer. That's because Binance offers a double discount to BNB holders.

1. BNB holders who pay their trading fees with BNB can enjoy an automatic 25% reduction in trading fees across the board. Given that Binance already has the lowest trading fees of any major exchange this makes them an even more attractive platform to trade on.
2. By holding a certain amount of BNB you can get an even larger discount. For example, anyone who holds more than 50 BNB can get a discounted trading fee of 0.09% maker and 0.10% taker. If you combine that with the discount available for using BNB to pay trading fees the final rate is 0.0675% maker and 0.0750% taker.

Those trading fees start to look especially good, especially when compared to Coinbase's 0.5% maker and taker fee. As of publication it costs about $600 to purchase 50 BNB. Further information on BNB trading discounts is available here.

Participate in IEOs

Another of Binance's innovations is the IEO (Initial Exchange Offering).

In 2017 the crypto community saw a spate of ICOs which cumulatively raised billions of dollars with the promise of outsized returns. Unfortunately, a vast majority of these projects ended up being unsuccessful. Some were outright scams, some were technically unfeasible and others just had a poor team with a bad idea. The failure rate among ICO projects is tremendous.

The hope is that an IEO model can help to fix that. With an IEO an exchange (like Binance) must approve the project before it gets listed. That means way more scrutiny which hopefully weeds out the scams and unworkable projects.

Another advantage is that when a new project adopts the IEO model they are automatically listed on an exchange. In the past a lot of ICO projects actually had to pay millions of dollars to get listed on exchanges like Binance.

If they didn't pay to get listed they would always struggle for liquidity and investor access. The IEO removes that problem as projects are available to trade right from the beginning.

To participate in an IEO an investor will need to use BNB, the same way most ICOs were funded by ETH.

Trade on the Binance DEX

Before we begin a review of the Binance DEX it could be helpful to explain two terms.

1. CEX - Centralized exchange. This is a crypto exchange controlled by a single authority. Pretty much every major exchange is a CEX. Kraken, Coinbase, Binance, etc.
2. DEX - Decentralized exchange. A crypto exchange typically running on a blockchain platform and one that is not controlled by any centralized authority. The advantage of a DEX is that it cannot be shut down as trades are governed by code and are not being cleared by a centralized authority.

There has been a lot of talk lately in the cryptocurrency community about DEXes and their future potential, especially on the Ethereum platform. They could potentially solve a number of problems associated with CEXes, notably trader restrictions, frozen funds, stolen funds, etc.

That being said, Binance's DEX isn't really a true DEX it's more of a CEX/DEX hybrid. Although Binance likes to claim that their DEX is decentralized in truth it depends on Binance to keep it working smoothly and if Binance wanted to they could shut it down.

Nonetheless it's at least a step in the right direction and it's interesting to see the world's largest CEX creating a DEX which could potentially disrupt their business model. A few notes on the Binance DEX.

1. More than 100 trading pairs are currently listed.
2. The DEX is powered by BNB which is used to reduce trading fees, pay trading fees and also take equity in IEOs
3. As of publication Binance claims that there are about 400,000 active DEX wallets. A far cry from Binance's millions of users yet if the DEX continues to grow it's likely they will have a million users by 2023

BNB Payment Infrastructure

On top of all its other uses cases Binance is actively trying to promote BNB as a payment mechanism in competition with something like BTC. One way that they're pushing the payment use case is by using BNB to pay employee wages at Binance. In fact some reports have it that as many as 90% of all staffers at Binance are paid at least in part by BNB.

In other news, cryptocurrency payment platforms have also begun to accept BNB. When Coinpayments began accepting BNB it suddenly became possible to use the exchange token with more than 2,000,000 different vendors.

Expect to see increasing BNB integration with stores and merchants throughout the world, especially in Asia. Binance has the power and influence to push hard for adoption and as they hold BNB themselves, the more demand for their coin the better their financials look.

BNB Coin Burn

Simple supply and demand dictates that the less the supply, the higher the price. Binance is taking advantage of that as they have a quarterly burn baked into the token mechanics for the BNB coin.

Every quarter Binance buys back and burns a certain amount of BNB, based on trading volume for that quarter. BNB started off with 200,000,000 coins and Binance will continue the burn until only 100,000,000 remain. This should help to push BNB's price up, rewarding long term holders.

For a full guide and explanation of the BNB burn mechanism you can check Binance's website.

Binance US

Just because Binance started blocking American traders didn't mean that they were ready to give up on America. The USA is a huge crypto market and Binance would be sacrificing tens of millions of dollars' worth of profit by not operating there.

What Binance recognized though is that being a Malta based firm with heavy ties to China, they were unlikely to ever receive permission from American regulators to operate in all 50 states. So instead they spun up Binance US, a unique exchange that still has the Binance branding and feel but which is based entirely in the United States.

Binance US is led by Catherine Coley who has recorded a great podcast with Pomp, for those who are interested in learning more about her and the vision for Binance US.

While Binance US has the potential to become an American cryptocurrency powerhouse down the line, right now they're unfortunately suffering from a few problems which might make Binance US less attractive than other options like Coinbase or Kraken.

Liquidity Problems

Binance US's liquidity is only a fraction of Binance's. For example, as this article is being written Binance US has a 24 hour trading volume of just $11 million while Binance has a 24 hour trading volume of $1.5 billion.

One problem is that liquidity begets liquidity so to start an exchange from scratch can be difficult as there is no liquidity to "jump start" trading. The other problem is access. When the original Binance first opened they could be traded on by essentially anyone in the world. Binance US is a different story...

Lack of Access

Due to regulations which vary from state to state, tens of millions of Americans cannot use the platform. According to the Binance US terms of service, traders from the following states cannot use the service,

• Alabama
• Connecticut
• Florida
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Louisiana
• New York
• North Carolina
• Texas
• Vermont
• Washington

Undoubtedly Binance US has already begun the process of gaining regulatory approval to operate in these states. However, at least as of publication they cannot accept traders from these states which definitely decreases the amount of liquidity on their platform.

Lack of Coins

Again we see Binance US straying from what has made Binance so great. Binance boasts several hundred unique coins on their platform while Binance US traders only have access to several dozen coins, many of which already trade on other exchanges with more liquidity.

Binance trading fees are lower than other American based platforms but that still doesn't seem to be enough of an incentive to get people excited to sign up for this new platform. Once Binance US is available in all 50 states, and once it has more liquidity it might be worth signing up for (did we mention they have mandatory KYC?) but as of yet there's really only one advantage of the American version of Binance: bank transfers.

Binance Bank Transfers

Unlike the regular version of Binance, the American exchange supports Fiat USD deposits via a bank transfer. According to Binance new users are limited to a maximum $5,000 deposit. After an investor has had his or her account for some time that deposit limit will increase to $50,000 which should hopefully be enough for most people.

In the event that you need to deposit even more funds into Binance US it's also possible to use a wire transfer which has a maximum deposit limit of $1 million.

A Binance World

All things being equal, if you're only going to sign up for a single cryptocurrency exchange it makes sense to sign up for Binance.

As we've seen the Binance fees are well below the industry average which means that every time you trade you'll be saving crypto.

We discussed how to withdraw money from Binance and one of the great things about their platform is that the Binance withdrawal fee is very reasonable. Binance fees across the board are reasonable in fact so that you know you'll be getting a good deal when you trade there.

But it's not just fees that matter. Tons of cryptocurrency traders use Binance not just because of the low fees but because of their massive selection of cryptocurrencies for trade.

For popular coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum, Binance is usually the platform with the most liquidity.

For some micro-cap altcoins Binance is the _only _market where they trade with any liquidity.

Finally, as the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance has an expansive customer service department that you can always contact via email or by opening a support ticket. When you contact the customer support department they can help with everything from KYC problems to the retrieval of coins that have been sent without a tag.

So if you're looking for just one exchange to register on Binance is definitely a great choice.