My honest Binance Review after using them for about 3 years
Table of Contents
I thought it might be a good time for a Binance Review since the field of cryptocurrency exchange offers a wide array of choices. Thus, whether one is a novice or veteran cryptocurrency user, it can be a challenge to choose the best trading platform or right exchange.
People repeatedly ask me “How to invest or how to buy a cryptocurrency?”. So let’s talk about Binance which started to get lots of attention in 2017. Since then, it has been the biggest name in the cryptocurrency exchange in the world, so why not doing a full Binance review?
It was founded in China and later established their headquarters on the Island of Malta. Because Malta is known to be crypto-friendly and Binance is also well-known in cryptocurrency and crypto exchange services, this is the best place for them to move.
But how does Binance function? how does their crypto exchange and what about the trading fees and limits, how safe is it, and how reliable customer support is.
Registering and Logging In
To get started using Binance, new users have to register an account. The steps in creating an account are manageable and are laid out clearly. There is no account verification for level 1 users that has a 2 BTC withdrawal limit daily.
For level 2 users that have a daily withdrawal limit of 100 BTC, verification is needed. You need to send an ID with your photo and wait until they approve your application. You can opt for higher trading limits. However, directly contacting them needs to be done to avail of that.
There is no definite waiting time for the verification. It depends on the volume of applications the site’s support staff are taking. Thus, it will be better to plan early if you need to withdraw a large amount of money. Make sure that the verification is completed before you trade on the exchange and deposit large sums.
After getting approved, new users can now put money using their new account. There are a lot of cryptocurrencies to choose from. Nevertheless, you better opt for the basics: ETH (Ethereum) or BTC (Bitcoin).
To get started funding your Binance account, click “Funds” and choose “Deposits/Withdrawals.” Then, you look for your preferred currency and click “Deposit.” After clicking this, it will provide the address of your wallet.
You can start trading once you can access your funds. Depending on the blockchain of currencies and the currency you chose, the length of time you have to wait for it to reflect on the site varies. For instance, currencies such as Bitcoin show slower than Ethereum.
Now, your Binance account has funds. You can invest, trade, and exchange in different digital cryptocurrency pairs. Because Binance offers all the major digital cryptocurrencies and many ICO listings with their tokens, there are plenty of currency options to choose from.
However, it has a drawback. The website can only generate market orders and limits. It may not be a big deal for some users, but others consider it a disadvantage. They expect it to be more advanced since a lot of trading options are offered.
Once you finalised your order, you just need to wait for it to be completed. Again, it depends on the terms set by Binance.
How Does the Binance Crypto Exchanges Work?
When one visits the Binance website, they will quickly see that the site provides two view options they can use to start trading. One is essential, and the other one is advanced.
However, both options are not user friendly for first-time cryptocurrency users. Navigating the site and the services it offers won’t be difficult for someone who has a basic knowledge of the processes of crypto exchanges and digital currency.
A detailed technical analysis of the value of digital currency is the feature that the advanced has. Apart from this, there are no other significant differences between the primary and advanced options. In the basic version, a couple of charts and graphs can be seen. These graphs and tables show the crypto pairs for trading, trading history, and ordering books.
Moreover, the layout of the basic version is well-designed. The prices and all information can be seen on the left part. The right side shows the graphs, which include the trend in buying and selling currencies and trading history. Therefore, you can easily see the latest changes and updates on trade prices.
The advanced version has a dark motif and a slightly different layout. The trade prices are placed on the right side while the buy and sell boxes are beneath it.
There is no better option. It depends on one’s preference. Nevertheless, I opt to use the basic version. I find it easier to navigate on a white interface. The design is also less complicated for me.
Binance Review & Cryptocurrency Trading
As stated before, using Binance is somehow easy for people who have background knowledge or have tried using crypto exchange in the past.
You need to ensure that you have money deposited in your account. You have many options such as ETH, BTC, USDT, and BNB for trading pairs.
When you see your funds reflect on your account, at the topmost menu, click “Exchange.” Then, choose between “Basic” or“Advanced” to load the webpage.
Select a tab that you can see on the right from ETH, BTC, USDT, or BNB. These are the standard options you’ll use to trade-in. After that, you can pick out your preferred currency from the list. Searching and creating your favorites list by clicking as many currencies as you want.
When you’ve chosen the currency you want to load, you can check out the left side of the page. You’ll see prices for currencies that other users are willing to sell in red. The costs people want to purchase are in green. The amount for the last sale price can be seen in the center.
If you want to order, you access the box in the middle located under the charts. It is on the right part of the page in green.
The price you want to buy can be manually typed in, but it would be better to type in a figure on the column you see on the left.
After that, you can type how much for your chosen currency you want to purchase. Another is to choose among the 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% buttons. These will be filled based on the supported amount and the proportion of the current you’ve got.
When you are done placing your order, it will reflect underneath “Open Orders.” You have to wait until it’s filled.
By this time, your currency is going to be accessible in the “Deposits / Withdrawals” tab. It is also where you’ll withdraw it to your registered wallet.
Financed Crypto Currencies
Binance has been highly regarded many times because of the vast number of coins supported. Users can utilize the site to access numerous digital currencies, such as Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, B EOS GAS, Zcash, NEO, Dash, among many others.
Stated earlier, Binance has numerous tokens, which are part of the listings in Initial Coin Offering or ICrO. As a result, users can benefit from earning a profit from trading these tokens.
Binance is at its feet with the current cryptocurrency trends. After being listed in ICO, they’ve featured a new set of tokens and coins. This means you’ll be able to purchase them at a low price. Of course, it means a more significant profit. Trading pairs that are currently offered are BNB, USDT, BTC, and ETH.
Binance ICO and Coins
The Binance coins were introduced at the time of their ICO. These coins can be paid for commodities just like any other currency. Decentralized Exchange is also included in Binance’s plans. This aims to form one among the current basic currencies available.
Buying the Binance coins seems like a smart investment in the long run. It’s because there are plans to use what they’ve earned to shop back some of the funds quarterly and destroy them; hence, lessening the availability. Users will also be more profitable.
Binance uses 20% of its profits to shop for its currency and eliminate them until they acquire half of all its currency back in each quarter. The transactions made are going to be published in their list of records called the blockchain. They will eventually remove 100MM BNB and leave 100MM BNB.
Binance Limits and Fees
At the time of writing, Binance charges a mean fee of 0.1% on each trade that a user makes. For users who prefer to pay using Binance tokens, they can get to pay half the price for the trading fee, which is utterly great news. At this point, this is the lowest trading fee available.
Withdrawal fees differ across all digital currencies. One example is 0.0005 is charged for Bitcoin withdrawals, and 0.005 is charged for ETH withdrawals. There are prices found on the site for the withdrawal fees.
With regards to the transfer limits, you can quickly deposit because you can put any number of coins you want. However, if there’s no verification, there is a specific limit on withdrawable money. The verification process categorizes into level 2. Thus, restrictions are lifted, and more freedom is provided.
To pass the verification process, users are required to furnish their complete name, nationality, gender, a copy of passport or any ID given by the government, and even a photo of the user holding their passport.
Is Binance Safe?
This cryptocurrency exchange company is one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the industry, and has quickly achieved much trust. This trust is not only from its clients but also from the community of digital cryptocurrency users and business partners around the world.
Binance allows user to protect their coins with the use of Two Factor Authentication (2fa). However, they experienced a major hack which resulted in 7000 Bitcoins stolen from the platform covered by its emergency insurance fund (aka SAFU).
Yet, it falls back in providing users with ample details on the methods they secure the funds. Of course, we wish to believe that security is given the highest priority. Hopefully, their authentication process is adequate. It is a pleasant sight, but many are aware that the site provides a multi-level system design.
So is Binance safe? I personally consider Binance as a safe exchange platform but keep in mind “Not your key, not your crypto!”.
The Start of a Decentralized Crypto Exchange and Stock Exchange
Binance announced that they want to launch a Decentralized Exchange or DEX, which seemed to be good news for the users. They saw the need for critical enhancements that can benefit the users after studying decentralized trade systems. They also said that unified and decentralized trades would exist together sooner and help out one another to establish a relationship. ERC-20 token, which is the digital asset of Binance will be moved as the token to be used for that network. It can also be used to finance trading fees on this new exchange system.
Another positive news is the partnership with Neufund. The goal is to establish a decentralized stock exchange. Their goal is to make a controlled and decentralized stock exchange worldwide for cryptocurrency exchanges and trades. This will solidify their best crypto exchange in the world title more.
Binance Customer Support Staff
An excellent customer support staff can address and take action to all user queries and requests in an effective manner is one of the keys to achieving a successful business. Like any other business with customer support, Binance still has a little room for improvement. In general, their team can respond quickly. They have the capability of offering assistance to users who need it.
Customer support tickets can be sent by filling out a web form found on the web site. Responses to the concerns are answered through email. One drawback is that there’s no contact number or active online messaging that customers can directly call or send a message to any customer support staff.
Aside from the customer support staff, the Binance website offers a list of FAQs and relevant articles. These are a great help in lessening the volume of concerns from users. Besides, it assists users and familiarizes them with the exchange and the way the platform works.
Its customer support has also been notorious for being slow in responding to customer demands. Keep in mind that this is often a common issue with large cryptocurrency exchanges. It is merely due to a large number of users against the number of staff available.
The industry of cryptocurrency has grown at a rapid rate in the past year. Therefore, most of the businesses haven’t been able to catch up with the growing demands. Binance developed rapidly. This was most noticeable from their launch until the most critical crypto exchange worldwide.
Customer support staff chosen for exchanges need to be thoroughly examined and trained because of the advanced security requirements and complex technicalities Binance has. The staff is often trained easier and quicker in other businesses.
To avoid security issues, here are some helpful reminders. Double-check wallet addresses made. Confirm that the right currency is deposited in the right location on the website. Among the most common issues users have is a mixup with their wallets when they do exchanges. You can test first by making an initial smaller payment before funding a large amount of money. You need to spend more, but you have the feeling of comfort that there will be no problems with your funds.
Prepare all the needed information so that a customer support staff can assist you if the inevitable happens. The time you made your transaction and the wallet addresses you have are vital in speeding up the customer assistance process.
Transition to Malta
In their official announcement, the organization chose to invest their resources into the European Union country after checking various countries. Because of its current blockchain enactment and the solidness of the monetary innovation organization thanks to its administrative system, this location was considered perfect for Binance’s headquarters. Known for being crypto-friendly, this cryptocurrency exchange company was warmly welcomed by the Prime Minister of Malta through Twitter.
Nikkei, which is a newspaper in Japan, announced in March 2018 that Binance had been engaging in crypto exchanging in Japan and violating their country’s ordinances. It resulted in some uproar in Japans’ business sectors. When Binance made it official that they would be moving their primary business to Malta.
There is also a discussion about Fiat exchanges between Binance and business managers from Malta. If this is made possible, Malta can offer an entrance for Fiat in cryptocurrency exchanges and trade in the future.
The Launch of Binance Jersey: Fiat to Crypto Currency Now Supported
As of January 2019, Binance has announced its new cryptocurrency exchange from Fiat to Crypto named “Binance Jersey. “ The trading platform is live and active. It also allows you to trade fiat currencies like Euros and British pound. Europe is considered to be the target market.
Being a Binance user, you won’t have difficulty if you wish to try Binance Jersey. This platform has the same screen setup and engine. There are also two versions, which are Basic and Advanced.
Users who wish to exchange their current currency to Fiat must follow KYC or Know Your Customer process. They do this by uploading a copy of valid identification credentials such as a driver’s license and passport.
According to Binance’s CFO, Wei Zhuo, the expansion of the cryptocurrency exchange by making Fiat currency possible can open new doors to the European economy. It is also a solution to the uncertainty in Brexit wherein Euro and Pound are a concern. Wei Zhuo believes that Binance Jersey will assist in connecting the Fiat cryptocurrency to Europe and the United Kingdom. As a result, cryptocurrency will be adopted by more people globally.
Verification
I think it is a good idea to also include the verification process as part of this Binance review since customer data is a pretty important good. For first-time users, they have to pass the KYC verification. This is only done once. You ought to read the prompts given after the order page loads and complete the verification.
Some of the documents you need to present to go through this process are at least 1 ID that has been issued by the government, such as your driver’s license, passport, or Medicare ID. This is on top of a document that shows your home address. For those who have completed the KYC process and made another new order, they will be redirected to the page where they can see the summary of their order.
In each account, an active mobile number is needed to be registered. New users have to make sure that they use the number they provided so that they can go through the verification. In case the user changes their mobile number, they will have to go back and do the authentication of documents all over again.
Making Payments through Debit and Credit Card
Binance has partnered with Simplex to make payments of cryptocurrencies possible through the use of a debit or credit card. Ethereum (ETH), XRP, Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin (BTC) can be purchased by using Visa or MasterCard. There are also benefits in using this method on Binance like fast transfers, low transaction fees, and convenience.
What Is the Binance Launchpad?
The Binance Launchpad is the company’s cryptocurrency exchange token platform. The goal is to link the cryptocurrency community to the blockchain projects. At the same time, it also aims to facilitate projects that can raise money and connect with the user base of Binance. Users can also use their Binance tokens, get rewarded for keeping the tokens, and use there to join token sales.
Token offerings are also offered on Binance Launchpad. The ability to take part in. Because users can join in token offerings, this platform continuously draws in a significant amount of attention from users to this platform. However, they have to go through a variety of steps so that they get familiar with it.
For users who are curious about taking a project, they should launch the platform’s web page and select the page where they can see projects currently offered.
Because sales from tokens are distributed conforming to the regulations required by the user jurisdiction, finishing account verification on Binance is a must.
Suffering a Hacking Attack
In March 2018, hackers attempted to lead a bold move by hacking Binance. Fortunately, it was detected by the site’s computer systems. The hackers had been accumulating people’s login details through phishing for a couple of months. They also secretly installed access to API on the hacked accounts. After that, they attacked by converting some of the users’ altcoins to Bitcoins and buying Viacoin.
This caused the coin value to elevate at a skyrocketing price. It gave them the advantage to sell their coins before attempting to cash in the Bitcoins to their wallets. Fortunately, users didn’t lose their funds because the attack was caught quickly. The hackers were the only losers, and their stolen funds are going to be given to the less fortunate.
Understanding that the hack was done by hackers logging in their site and other details in a phishing website, you ought always to confirm that you access the correct link before typing your login details. It is recommended to bookmark the legitimate link so that you can quickly and safely load the accurate site. You should not access links sent from emails or other platforms.
This unfortunate happening was a blessing in disguise for Binance. It instilled confidence in their users because their advanced security processes caught this before any user lost their hard-earned funds. There is a $250,000 reward to be given if information can be provided about the identity of the hackers. Their actions were genuinely laudable because of their quick response.
Binance experienced getting hacked again at the beginning of May in 2019. This time, however, the hackers were able to infiltrate the site’s tight web security successfully. Over $40 million worth of cryptocurrency was taken. Binance took responsibility and covered the amount lost by utilizing its security fund called “SAFU” and compensate the fund lost from its users.
We can realize that Binance upholds honesty and integrity to their clients. This is also a reminder to strictly follow security rules and not to store a large amount of cryptocurrency in your wallets. Hardware wallets may help in securing your funds. As you can see, digital cryptocurrency companies, big or small, can fall victim to this kind of attack.
Finance Review And My Final Conclusion
Binance has the fastest exchange, with a rate of around 1.4 million transactions per second. You now have read all the basics you need to know about this great cryptocurrency exchange platform. It is safe to say that it is undisputedly the most dominant in the cryptocurrency exchange. The fees that don’t break the bank and incredible support in digital currency can be credited for this. To me it always was a pleasure to deal with their support and the user experience is just great. There’s no stopping this company from offering excellent digital currency exchange services to the users.
I hope you enjoyed this Binance Review! Leave a comment below and tell us about your experience with Binance or open an account right now and start trading.
