Binance.US split from its parent company Binance in 2019.
One of the reasons for the split had to do with the parent company facing an investigation by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for a host of potential violations.
By 2021, Binance completed its rerouting of U.S.-based users to Binance.US
Fees
Binance.US offers a tiered trading system to their customers.
Tier 0 trades have zero fees. But this is limited to just four types of Bitcoin pairs: BTC/USD, BTC/USDC, BTC/USDT and BTC/BUSD. All other trades fall under Tier I or Tier II.
Tier I trades start with a 0.2% taker and 0.1% maker fee for trades less than $10,000 on certain asset pairs within a 30-day period. A few examples of asset pairs under Tier I include ETH/USD and SOL/USD, to name a couple.
Tier II trades are a bit steeper and start at a 0.6% taker and 0.4% maker fee for trading less than $10,000 in a 30-day period on select Tier II asset pairs. ADA/USD and DOT/USD are a few Tier II pair examples.
Customers will want to check Binance.US’s fee structure to see the exact fees for the crypto pairs they want to trade.
Keep in mind that those using Binance Coin (BNB) receive a 25% reduction in trading fees. VIPs receive discounts on maker/taker fees.
Another thing to keep in mind is that although Binance.US doesn’t charge deposit fees, there are variable withdrawal fees for each coin. These withdrawal fees can range from a fraction of a cent for cryptos like BTC or around $27 for AUDIO.
Security
While Binance.US hasn’t engendered much controversy, the same can’t be said of its parent company Binance Holdings, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Binance has come into the crosshairs of a number of U.S. regulatory commissions, not the least of which is the CFTC.
Most worrying, however, to crypto traders might be a 2019 hack that saw criminals steal more than $40 million in BTC off Binance. Binance.US wasn’t even in existence at the time. It should also be stressed that the hack occurred to the parent company, not Binance.US.
Also, in October 2022, parent company Binance suffered another major hack that cost the platform more than $570 million in BNB. Binance and Binance.US were separate entities by this point, and the Binance.US site wasn’t affected.
Binance.US rates highly on the security of its exchange. For instance, crypto exchange security review site CER ranked Binance.US as one of the most secure exchanges as of October 2022, ahead of big names like Coinbase and Gemini.
Opening a Binance.US Account
Like other popular exchanges, Binance.US makes it easy to buy and sell cryptocurrency. There are two main ways to do this: basic verification and advanced verification.
For basic verification, Binance.US allows traders to make U.S. dollar deposits and withdrawals via bank transfers and debit cards. Traders can also deposit and withdraw cryptocurrency, buy, sell and convert cryptocurrencies, and become eligible for Advanced Trading Feature.
To sign up for Basic Verification, traders need to provide:
- Full legal name and date of birth
- Social security number
- Current address (not a P.O. Box)
More experienced investors, though, will gravitate toward Binance.US’s Advanced Verification. Advanced users can do everything Basic users can. However, they can also make wire deposits and withdrawals, and they have increased limits for bank transfers and credit cards. They can also do staking, OTC trading and API trading.
Traders seeking advanced verification will also need to provide:
- State-issued ID
- Facial verification using Binance.US’s own automated selfie photo process
