Binance vs Coinbase: 29 Factors, Complete Comparison

Alexander Movchan
19 min readDec 16, 2021

Relevance of cryptocurrency exchanges

If you have cryptocurrencies or you’re going to buy them, you’ve probably heard about two major cryptocurrency firms in this space: Coinbase and Binance. The global cryptocurrency market is currently estimated at more than $132 billion. and a large part of the market is in these two exchanges, which indicates their importance in the crypto space.

A comparative assessment of Coinbase and Binance will especially help newcomers who want to start their first steps in the cryptocurrency market. Both exchanges are popular in the cryptocurrency community, but considering the many aspects of these platforms will help to select the most appropriate one for your needs.

Few cryptocurrency exchanges in 2021 have a user-friendly interface, a competent Russian translation, and a demo account. For example, the top 3 ranking leader, Binance, is hard to perceive vinaigrette from different types of accounts (futures, margin, p2p), sub-instruments (spot, derivatives), and other subtleties for professional traders, Therefore, this site cannot be considered the best cryptocurrency exchange for beginners.

The beginner is primarily interested in minimum deposit, shoulder, commission, and availability of demo account. StormGain and BitMEX are in their way good for starting.

A demo account and a large credit shoulder are on both platforms. The advantage of BM is the availability of a calculator to open a position, but in SG twice the size of the trading tools are crypto-indexes. BM is trading with input and output of Bitcoin; in SG trading takes place in Tether (1:1 to USD), and the platform can be used as an exchanger and purse for the 8 best cryptocurrencies. Also on SG, there is no KYC — this means that to trade you do not need to send passport scans and take selfies with documents.

Types of exchanges

Binance: Top 1 in the World

Daily turnover: ₿1.6 million

Monthly Unique Users: 13 million

Number of trading instruments> 500

Binance is the largest and most popular of all cryptographic sites. The company originally started in Hong Kong but is now based in Malta. A separate Binance US division has been established for American clients, which operates under local laws.

The aggregator is distinguished by a wide range of trade and investment instruments. Traders can trade on the spot, futures, or derivative market and conduct over-the-counter transactions (OTC, p2p), while miners can lease power.

Huobi: Top 1 in China

Daily turnover: ₿868 thous.

Monthly Unique Users: 665k

Number of trading instruments> 500

The company was founded in China but is now based in Seychelles. The Huobi functionality is similar to Binance: many instruments, the possibility of a steak (passive income), and its own Huobi Token coin. The main drawback is limited Russian-language support, as the Russian branch closed in 2020.

Coinbase: Top 1 in the US

Daily turnover: ₿79 thous.

Monthly Unique Users: 11.7 million

Number of trading instruments: 125

Coinbase is the best crypto platform for Americans, headquartered in California. As American regulation is considered the most stringent, several regulatory requirements apply to both customers and functions. Coinbase has never been hacked and it is considered one of the most reliable sites, but users are required to undergo verification and document verification takes weeks. Among the advantages can be the output in a fiat, including the output on a purse PayPal. However, the latter option is only available to US citizens and several European countries.

The only exchanges you have heard about Coinbase and Binance if you are new to cryptocurrency.

Coinbase is a convenient platform for beginners, while Binance quickly became the largest cryptocurrency exchange, and has recently even outperformed Deutsche Bank in terms of profitability.

The two exchanges are suitable for different purposes and should be seen as complementary services rather than competitors.

In this comparison Coinbase and Binance we will provide all the necessary information so that you can understand which exchange is best for you.

Coinbase Exchange Review

Coinbase was founded in 2012 in San Francisco, California. Since its launch, the service has served over 8 million customers. The company helped users exchange digital currency for more than $20 billion.

The platform is currently used by clients from 32 countries, including the United States.

Coinbase works differently than traditional cryptocurrency exchanges. Instead of offering users trade on the market, the service directly sells coins to users at a fixed price (based on the current market value).

This allows clients to buy currencies faster than on the exchange. This makes it possible to use credit cards (in addition to bank transfers), which is rare for exchanges. Once users verify Coinbase accounts, they will be able to purchase cryptocurrencies immediately.

The commission ranges from 1.49% to 3.99% depending on the mode of payment. Credit cards are charged higher fees because part of the amount is paid to companies servicing cards. It also helps fight frauds.

With the help of bank transfers, you can save up to 2.5%. This commission is lower than that of competitors selling cryptocurrencies directly to their users (Coinmama, CEX.IO).

Coinbase allows customers to buy and sell the three most popular coins: Bitcoin, Etherium, and Litecoin. In the future, it is planned to add more currencies, and in the meantime, you will have to find another exchanger to work with altcoins.

Coinbase is a great place for beginners to buy cryptocurrencies. Coinbase is easier to use than most exchangers and supports a large number of payment methods.

It is recommended to keep your money in a controlled purse, especially if you are talking about large sums.

Restrictions on buying and selling vary depending on the location of the user, the payment method, and the level of verification. You can view your limits at any time by accessing the account’s homepage. As a certified US user, you will have the following limits:

$5,000 on purchase through a bank account.

$50 on credit card/debit.

$50,000 on sale.

You can apply for higher limits if the existing restrictions do not meet your requirements. But you probably won’t be able to lift the deposit restrictions on your cards.

Coinbase offers its users many features to protect personal accounts. You will also need a strong and unique password.

Several two-factor authentication (2FA) methods are available to protect the account. The simplest option is SMS, but we recommend configuring a third-party 2FA application such as Google Authenticator and Authy.

You can also track activity in your profile and receive notifications if a new device or IP address attempts to access the account.

Company Legitimacy: As an organization operating in the United States, Coinbase must abide by US laws and regulations, both locally and nationally. Some of the laws, regulations, and regulatory bodies that operate on Coinbase are:

  • It is registered as a Money Services Business in FinCEN.
  • Complies with the Bank Secrecy Act.
  • Consistent with the United States Patriot Act.
  • Complies with State laws and regulations on the transfer of money.
  • These rules require Coinbase to collect user accounts, making offshore competitors more attractive to some customers.

Apart from the United States, none of the other 31 countries in which Coinbase operates require cryptocurrency licenses.

It is also worth noting that the service has many reliable investors who support the company. Among them: Alexis Ohanyan (co-founder of Reddit), Bank of Tokyo, Blockchain Capital, and Digital Currency Group.

Pros:

  • Easy to use.
  • Buying cryptocurrency is faster than most exchangers.
  • You can purchase coins using credit and debit cards (in addition to bank transfers).
  • Lower commissions than “easy buy” competitors.
  • Reliable and regulated company.
  • Safe storage of customer funds.

Minuses:

  • Control your cryptocurrency transactions.
  • The service’s wallets are less secure than a wallet that you control.
  • Fees are higher than most common Coinbase exchangers.

Binance Exchange Review

Binance is one of the best exchanges with an emphasis on the exchange of cryptocurrencies. The platform became popular in the blockchain community due to an impressive list of traded coins and insanely low commissions.

The company was launched through ICO in 2017. The company was originally considered an alternative to Bittrex. However, Binance has now become an industry leader and set an example for other cryptovirus.

There are two variants of trading platforms on Binance: Basic and Advanced. In this article, we will first tell you about the «Basic» option, and what the «Advanced» option looks like, which you will see below. There are not many differences between these variants, except the possibility to do a more detailed technical analysis in the «Advanced» version.

The interface of the main platform will seem inexperienced to the investor rather complicated and not perfect. Binance was not created for a random investor.

The growth of Binance is remarkable. From a small cryptocurrency exchange, Binance grew into a leader in the industry. Binance’s ever-emerging new projects give no chance to its closest competitors. Here are some of Binance’s recent projects:

If you are willing to take the risk, you will see a huge amount of coins on Binance. The low trading fees that Binance offers are unmatched. And new projects of crypto exchanges make it possible to earn cryptocurrency not only through trading.

Binance is one of the newest exchanges in the industry. The company raised about $15 million during its ICO in July 2017 and immediately received 20,000 registered users.

U Changpeng Zhao (Changpeng Zhao) or CZ, Binance’s CEO, has an impressive CV and years of experience in cryptocurrency. Before he started working on Binance, he was head of development at Blockchain, co-founder and technical director of OKCoin, and founder and CEO of BijieTech.

Safety of funds

Binance is constantly working on exchange security. This is evidenced by Bug-Bounty programs and notes in Binance Blog.

For your account security, Binance allows you to enable two-factor SMS authentication or connect Google Authenticator. Additionally, in your personal office, you can enter «Security Key», configure «Device and Address Management», include anti-phishing code, enter a white list to withdraw funds, and track account activity. That is, Binance does everything to keep your account safe.

Support service

It can be said that, compared to other exchanges, customer support on the Binance site is absent. There is a shortlist of frequently asked questions which, however, do not answer many of the questions that arise when using the platform.

Because the website was written in Chinese and then translated into English, there are sections (including the support section) that have many confusing grammar errors.

But here we can side with Binance, if only because the company is young, and it is impressive that they support several languages at the same early stage.

You can create a tick with a question to the support team via the online form and get an answer by e-mail. The official Binance page on the Reddit social network indicates that your tick will not be answered by a random support agent, but by someone who knows the system you use.

Trade commissions

Binance currently charges a fixed fee of 0.1% for each transaction. It’s one of the lowest commissions we’ve seen on the stock markets that don’t use flexible commissions.

If you pay using their token (BNB), you get a 50% discount on the commission and bring it up to 0.05%. With this discount, Binance has the lowest commission in the industry.

It is also worth considering that the more trading volume you have, the fewer trading commissions will be.

You can see the commissions here: https://www.binance.com/ru/fee/schedule.

Binance vs Coinbase: Comparison

If you’re looking to make your first venture in the cryptocurrency world, chances are you would be targeting either Coinbase or Binance.

While these two exchanges are currently the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges, there are very clear differences between them.

An experienced trader should take a closer look at the leaders in the ranking of cryptocurrency exchanges: Binance will provide the maximum possible functionality, and Coinbase will provide protection.

Priority of professionals in the cryptocurrency environment

Jack Schwager published his conversations with top traders in the book «Exchange Mages», which to this day is a bestseller. It needs to be read to everyone who plans to be part of the stock market. Even though the book does not refer to any specific scheme of action. The most famous traders simply share their experiences and thoughts in it.

Reading the book, we find that there is no single approach to trade in financial markets. You can be a short-term trader who prefers automatic trading, you can speculate in the medium term or invest for years. You can make decisions based only on these graphs, or never take advantage of technical analysis, basing your decisions on fundamental analysis.

After all, you can trade in currency markets or futures and binary options. The possibilities of the market are so great that everyone can find the right way to trade. That’s what this book says. All the traders in the book have different approaches to trade, but they share values — capital and risk management, discipline, commitment, and hard work.

Although the book was written more than a quarter of a century ago, it has not lost its relevance. Markets are changing, now run by automatic trading programs, but some laws are the same. Different markets have different cycles. There are also times when markets are moving in the same direction. This has been, and will probably be, for a long time.

The book describes a fantastic boom in the commodity market in the 1970s. The 1980s are already a period of prosperity in the stock market. The book also explores many economic problems. One interlocutor, Jim Rogers, had already warned the United States against too much debt. Today, the US public debt accounts for more than 100% of GDP. In the late 1980s, when the book was written, US public debt was 50%.

So, let’s take a closer look at the stories of these famous characters in the stock market world.

Famous traders — Jim Rogers

Jim Rogers is one of those investors who prefer to hold their position for several years. It focuses on stocks that have the chance to become more valuable with the development of the market. As an example, he bought German shares in 1982 and sold them in 1985 and 1986.

Rogers was able to foresee that the 1980s would be a period of growth in equity markets. The choice fell on the German market because the economy was booming and the stock market was still struggling to grow after the crash in 1962.

Jim Rogers believes that the most important thing to invest properly is to do nothing (nothing at all!) unless there is a reliable way to get the right position. You always have to wait for the market to show you where it’s going. All the deals made by this great investor are based on fundamental analysis.

He sometimes uses graphics as additional evidence. He says that the charts sometimes show some hysteria, and prices rise sharply or fall. Often in these situations, Jim Rogers prefers to do the opposite. As an example, soybeans were ranked briefly at a time when their prices were at their highest.

Jim Rogers believes that the right investment should be based on common sense, but few people are guided by it. Rogers’ strategies may be difficult to follow, but you can save yourself a few tips you’ll surely need:

Look for undervalued companies you can make money from, even if you haven’t opened your position at the perfect time.

Trade on hysteria. This method is certainly not easy to apply. The market tends to be hysterical when they go too far. After verifying that the movement has no fundamental basis, the opposite position should be taken. But not everyone has the analytical skills of Jim Rogers, who is considered one of the smartest investors of our time.

Be picky. That means you have to be able to wait for the right moment to open the right position.

Don’t follow the same belief. Statistics about people who earn money in markets are not encouraging. The majority, unfortunately, lose, their number is about 80%. This means that most traders are usually wrong. When everyone decides to buy, sell! And vice versa.

Famous traders — Paul Tudor Jones

Paul Tudor Jones is well known in the world of stock market speculation. Its assets are currently estimated at $4.6 billion according to Forbes magazine. In addition, Jones became famous for achieving profitability of 62% in October 1987, when American indices grew rapidly. Moreover, for five consecutive years, the returns reached three-digit levels.

Jones is an aggressive speculator on the futures market. On the other hand, Jones’s trade strategy has a very high degree of flexibility that underlies his great success. Although, as he admitted, he had not escaped error. In 1979, he had taken a high position in the cotton exchange. After falling to new minimums, the market recovered several dozen points. Jones then decided that the market had a chance to bounce, and previous declines were the result of activating the freeze-loss orders. He closed positions a few days later, and the losses on this deal amounted to about 60–70 percent of the capital.

This experience practically forced Paul out of the trade. However, he learned from this lesson that capital and risk management is the key to trading.

Famous Traders — Ed Seykota

I would like to meet trader Ed Seykota, whose approach to trading is radically different from that of other traders. In the early 1970s, he took a job at a brokerage company, where he created the first automatic trading program. The program was very effective, but the management of the company was not very impressed. For the 1970s, this was too radical an innovation.

This prompted Ed to start trading in his account. In 1972, he started trading automatically. He made an incredible profit on one account, namely 250,000% between 1972 and 1988. The start-up capital was 5,000, and if we took into account all the payments that were made at that time, the profits would reach several million percent.

Here are some tips from Ed Seykota:

  • Reduce losses.
  • Let your profits grow.
  • Trade small positions (don’t go too far).
  • Follow your rules.
  • Be flexible. This means that sometimes you have to admit that the market has changed and your system is no longer working.

There is another interesting opinion expressed by Ed Seykota. «Everyone gets from the market what he wants». That means that anyone who fails in the market wants to lose their money. He fears success, and his subconscious tells him that nothing will work.

Some people make money by speculating in markets, but they do not achieve spectacular success, which may mean that they underestimate themselves and their abilities. Although it sounds a little weird, there’s a psychological background to the trade.

Collaboration with institutional players in the financial sector provides confidence to cryptocurrency exchanges. Both Coinbase and Binance have collaborated with Visa — exchanges have created digital asset-based co-branding cards with the payment system. According to Binance, cryptocurrency can be paid in 60 million stores worldwide.

Coinbase, however, has stronger ties to institutions. At various stages, the Stock Exchange received investments from such venture funds as Union Square Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Institutional Venture Partners. The New York Stock Exchange and the United Services Automobile Association were also listed as Fortune 500.

Coinbase has also entered into contracts with Stripe, Braintree (owned by PayPal), and PayPal. The company blog says that the collaboration with the latter will make it easier to buy cryptocurrency. The user will be able to add their PayPal account and perform transactions on Coinbase without directly disclosing bank card data.

A successful trader never sets aside for tomorrow what can be done today. Traders who succeed never leave for tomorrow what they can do today, and when it comes to trade, they always take priority. When we invest in Forex, we must use every available opportunity to achieve our goals.

Conclusion

Both Binance and Coinbase are excellent platforms that have their strengths and weaknesses. Using these two platforms can be a good choice if you are a beginner looking for access to cryptocurrencies. You can use Coinbase to buy ETH or BTC and then transfer your coins to Binance to buy a quality altcoin. This strategy has been tried and tested many times and you won’t regret applying it.

Trade

Coinbase offers a fairly smooth, beginner-friendly interface. The control panel with the overview of your portfolio, your transactions, and the desired price of the coin and graphics welcome you at the first login. Tabs in the top left corner to offer you the opportunity to buy/sell coins. Here you can place only market purchase orders/sales, but limit orders or something more complicated are not available. This is not suitable for any experienced user who wants to install a stop-loss or margin trade.

You can contribute to Coinbase through a bank account (usually 4–5 business days), while deposits from the card are instantaneous. Withdrawals could take two to four working days. On Coinbase, different things will determine your maximum amount of money: purchase history, age of your account, and verification level. You can easily see your current level and how to raise it by going to this page. Depending on your current level (level 0 to level 3), you can take the following quick steps to upgrade your account:

  • Confirm your phone number
  • Check your personal information
  • Verify Photo ID

Interface

The Binance interface, although it contains more features, is not that hard to master. The platform itself has two interfaces, base and advanced, which can be switched at the top left of the main Binance screen (on the Exchange tab). The extended view is shown in a dark topic and offers analytic tools that can be used to execute some basic TA. For some more advanced users, these tools will still not be very attractive. Nor will they be satisfied with the fact that the exchange offers only market and limit orders, again without margin trading and stop-loss functions.

An individual trader can contribute any amount because there is no deposit limit. The output limit depends on the verification level. Users with level 1 check can only withdraw a currency of 2 BTC per day. However, users with a level 2 confirmation can withdraw currency up to 50 BTC per day.

Available cryptocurrencies

Coinbase is extremely limited in terms of supported coins, as they have only recently begun to place more coins. It has been criticized for a long time, so they added several ERC20 tokens to their platform since late 2018, and during 2019 they added support for many other coins, mostly ERC-20 tokens such as 0x, BAT, ZIL, etc.

Binance — an exchange that currently offers for a trade more than 300 different tokens and coins including, among others, Ethereum, Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum Classic, Dash, EOS, NEO, GAS, Zcash, LiteCoin. Dash, Ripple, and others. They even have their coin, the BNB, that can be used to reduce your trading commissions on the platform.

As mentioned earlier, Binance also supports many ICO projects and assists them by placing their tokens on the platform. This willingness to add new coins has given rise to some criticism of the platform, as many feel that they do not exercise due diligence when it comes to investigating whether the coin is fraudulent or not. Some fraudulent coins were indeed sold on the platform, giving weight to these charges. Binance does not offer any money for cryptocurrency trading.

Commission

Coinbase is notorious for its rather high commissions, which range from 1.49% to 3.99% per transaction. Sometimes these fees can be even higher. The commission structure is somewhat complicated and you can check the official Binance support page on commissions to get a full overview.

Binance, on the other hand, offers one of the lowest commissions in the industry and, frankly, knocks out Coinbase in this segment. It has a fixed fee of 0.1% for all the deals you make on the platform. It is also much simpler than on other exchanges that create complex board schemes based on the size of the bid and the status of the market maker/buyer.

Safety

Coinbase is located in the United States of America, San Francisco, and monitors compliance with US rules in all its activities. It was the third cryptocurrency exchange to receive a Bitlicense in New York City. In 2018, Coinbase acquired an electronic money license from the Financial Supervisory Authority (FCA), which allows it to provide payment services in the UK and to issue electronic money. By complying with FCA requirements, Coinbase will keep clients in segregated funds and will comply with operating standards on an equal basis with other regulated financial institutions. It has never been hacked before, which prevents some users from being subjected to phishing attacks (which are always caused by users crossing over the wrong link to the site). There was also a problem with some clients who inflated the price a few months ago, but the exchange still has a good reputation in security circles.

Binance is a company based in several locations (Hong Kong, British Virgin Islands, Singapore, Malta, Jersey) that has never been hacked, which is not surprising given its age. The biggest problem with the exchange was that its base of operations was in China, which demonstrated its intention to limit cryptocurrency activities in its territory. This could potentially lead to problems for Binance. In response, they moved some of their operations to Malta, stating:

«After studying several different places, the company decided to invest in a European country due to the existing legislation on blockchain and stability, which it offers to companies of financial technologies through its regulatory base».

Malta is considered a tax-free zone, so it also helps. The company is also registered in Hong Kong. Binance hides ways to store its funds but has shown in the past that it has ways of protecting them. Both Coinbase and Binance offer 2FA, which is always nice to see.

Support service

Both Coinbase and Binance received their share of poor customer feedback, but this is becoming increasingly painful for every major exchange. However, Binance may be somewhat better at handling requests to the User Support Service, as there are many messages from people whose customer support requests on Coinbase have been suspended for several months.

To sum up, Binance and Coinbase are reliable platforms for beginners and advanced crypto raiders. Coinbase is an excellent choice for newcomers looking for fast access to key crypto assets such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. Binance, in turn, provides a wide range of altcoins with low trading commissions. It is best suited to those who already have some knowledge of cryptography. After all, in our battle Binance vs Coinbase has no winner because everything depends on the user’s preferences.

FAQ

  • What do people say about the Binance and Coinbase exchanges?

Coinbase is considered one of the most secure and secure exchanges in the crypto industry. Coinbase usually appears in first or second search results. In addition, according to Google’s search requests. The platform is very safe, given that all funds are stored on cold wallets.

Binance enjoys positive reviews, and with improved security measures such as 2FA, it is considered safe to use.

  • Can all actions be performed in an app with a phone?

Binance offers a mobile app for IOS and Android users. These apps allow clients to trade safely and quickly from their mobile devices. The unified Binance trading platform allows users to trade futures, margins, or spots using mobile applications.

Coinbase does not lag behind. Apps are reliable, allowing users to easily trade from their gadgets.

  • Are all the leading cryptocurrency exchanges in the same country?

Coinbase is currently available in over 100 countries around the world, including North America and South America, Africa, Australia, and Europe. Some countries can only convert fictitious money into cryptocurrency, while others can convert, buy and sell anything. Opportunities vary from country to country.

Binance, by contrast, supports users from over 200 countries and regions. Some of the countries include Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Austria, Belgium, Lithuania, Luxembourg, and many others.

  • Are exchange interfaces difficult to manage?

Although the two platforms support cryptocurrency exchange services, they work differently. On Coinbase, users can trade bitcoins directly from the company for a physical currency such as the United States dollar. Binance, by contrast, offers more altcoins, making it the best exchange of cryptocurrency for trade in cryptocurrencies.

The material was prepared by the marketing agency: prodvizhenie.ua

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