About Binance
Binance was founded in 2017 and has since grown into the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world by daily trading volume. The company is registered in the Cayman Islands and operates in more than 180 countries, serving a user base of over 25 million people. The platform lists more than 500 cryptocurrencies, giving traders access to one of the widest selections of assets in the industry.
Binance's own reporting cites a much larger combined spot-and-derivatives volume figure, but that number isn't directly comparable to the spot-only volumes typically reported for other exchanges. Looking at spot trading alone, Binance handles roughly $6.1 billion in daily volume — still comfortably the largest of any exchange on a like-for-like basis.
Fees
Binance charges a flat 0.10% maker and 0.10% taker fee on standard spot trades, among the lower baseline rates in the industry. Fees can be reduced further by paying with Binance Coin (BNB), Binance's own token, which unlocks a discount on trading costs. New customers can also take advantage of a limited-time offer to deposit up to 200 USDT with 0% fees.
Binance Coin (BNB)
BNB is Binance's own cryptocurrency and is exclusive to the platform. It regularly ranks among the top five cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Beyond its use as a general-purpose crypto asset, BNB's most practical function on Binance is fee payment — traders who opt to pay trading fees in BNB receive a discount compared to paying in other currencies.
Transaction Types
Binance supports an extensive range of transaction types: buying, selling, and trading crypto, deposits and withdrawals, stop orders and limit orders, margin trading, options, and futures trading. For more technical users, Binance also provides a developer API, making it possible to build custom trading bots and automated strategies on top of the exchange.
Binance Academy
Given the sheer number of transaction types and features available, new users often find Binance's interface complicated at first. To ease onboarding, Binance runs its own Binance Academy, alongside a large library of educational articles covering crypto basics and more advanced trading concepts — resources aimed at getting new users up to speed faster.
P2P Trading
Binance offers peer-to-peer (P2P) trading, allowing users to trade directly with one another on terms they set themselves, in almost any country. Because there's no intermediary handling the trade, P2P transactions typically come with lower fees than standard exchange trading.
Binance Card
The Binance Card lets users spend their crypto holdings at more than 60 million merchants worldwide. The card itself is free to obtain and offers up to 8% cashback on qualifying purchases, making it one of the more generous crypto debit card programs available.
User Rewards
Binance regularly runs giveaways and engagement challenges for its user base, and also distributes crypto airdrops from time to time, giving active users additional ways to earn beyond standard trading.
Security Incident: May 2019 Hot Wallet Hack
On May 7, 2019, Binance suffered a major security breach in which hackers stole 7,000 BTC, worth approximately $40 million at the time, through a large-scale attack on the exchange's systems. In response, Binance suspended withdrawals for about a week while it investigated the incident. All affected users were fully reimbursed using Binance's SAFU (Secure Asset Fund for Users) emergency fund, which had been built up specifically to cover this kind of event. No user ultimately lost funds as a result of the breach.
Binance Details
- Maker/taker fees: 0.10% / 0.10%
- Coins supported: 500+
- Countries supported: 180+
- Founded: 2017, Cayman Islands
- Daily trading volume: ~$6.1B (spot)
- Security incident history: Yes — 2019 hack, funds fully reimbursed; 2023 U.S. regulatory settlement