Binance.US Overview
Features and some statistics of America’s cryptocurrency exchange
Launched in September 2019, Binance.US is a digital asset marketplace, powered by matching engine and wallet technologies licensed from the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance. Operated by BAM Trading Services based in San Francisco, California, Binance.US provides a fast, secure and reliable platform to buy and sell cryptocurrencies in the United States.
Binance banned United States citizens from trading on its main exchange (i.e. binance.com) and announced the launch of a new exclusive exchange for U.S. citizens on June 14, 2019. Binance.US is run by Catherine Coley, former executive Ripple and Silicon Valley Bank. The trading commenced on September 24, 2019 9:00 am EST on BTC, ETH, XRP, BCH, LTC, BNB and USDT across 13 fiat-to-crypto and crypto-to-crypto trading pairs
Why new exchange?… To offer U.S. citizens complete benefit of the state policies and to avoid legal and licence problems in multiple states, Binance partnered with BAM Technologies to launch Binance.us. We will not go into legal details, that’ll be a lot of ground to cover in this story.
Restrictions
The exchange is restricted from the following states of America because of their respective state laws:
- Alabama
- Connecticut
- Florida
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Louisiana
- New York
- North Carolina
- Texas
- Georgia
- Vermont
- Washington
Trading functionalities and Statistics
Assets
As of writing this, Binance offers 50+ asset pairs and 29 coins to trade across 4 quote currencies.
- USD (27 pairs)
- USDT (17 pairs)
- BTC (5 pairs)
- BUSD (1 pair)
Few of the popular asset pairs to trade on Binance.US are
BTC Pairs: ETH/BTC, XRP/BTC, BNB/BTC, LTC/BTC, BCH/BTC
USD Pairs: BTC/USD, ETH/USD, XRP/USD, BCH/USD, LTC/USD, BNB/USD, USDT/USD, ADA/USD, BAT/USD, ETC/USD, XLM/USD, ZRX/USD
USDT Pairs: BTC/USDT, ETH/USDT, XRP/USDT, BCH/USDT, LTC/USDT, BNB/USDT, ADA/USDT, BAT/USDT, ETC/USDT, XLM/USDT, ZRX/USDT
- 24h Trading volume on the exchange is $7,228,710.
- Most traded asset pair is BTC/USD with 24hr trading volume of $3,036,068
Orders
Binance (main exchange) offers a huge portfolio of trading options including spot, margin, futures, leveraged trades. Binance.US, is certainly limited to less functionalities as of now and supports spot trades for limit, market and stop-limit orders.
Fees
At the launch, Binance.US has a flat fee structure of 0.1% taker and maker fee. 4 months back it launched 9-level tiered fee structure where maximum fee goes up to 0.1% and minimum up to 0.02%
Interface
Binance offers two interfaces, basic and advanced. For those who are new in trading, basic interface is the optimum choice. It offers standard candlestick charts, order book, easy navigation.
For pro traders, advanced screen is a better option. It gives you a holistic view of the market with hundreds of indicators to display with chart manipulation techniques from trading-view.
Security
Technical Security
Binance suffered a security breach of 7000 BTC and since then it has taken special measures to ensure security on the platform. Binance.US offers tools like 2FA verification and anti-phishing code to its customers and is one the most heavily secured exchanges.
Financial Security
As of October 18, 2019, USD deposits in Binance.US are eligible for FDIC insurance coverage. All USD deposits are held in pooled custodial accounts at multiple banks that are insured by the FDIC. The pooled custodial accounts are maintained in a manner that provides access to pass-through FDIC insurance coverage up to the depositor coverage limit, which is currently $250,000. FDIC insurance coverage protects depositors against the risk of loss in the event that an FDIC-insured bank fails.
Deposit-Withdrawal Limits
- Bank Wire transfer : $1,000,000
- ACH Withdrawal : $1,000
- ACH Deposit : $50,000 increased from $5, 000 after certain time
Deposits and Withdrawals are extremely simple on Binance.US
Utilities
Binance.US recently launched its official android and iOS application on Google Play Store and Apple store for seamless trading experience on-the-go.
The exchange also provides REST-APIs for market data, account management, trading (placing, querying orders) to facilitate trading bots. (I’ll be writing an article on building up a trading bot from scratch and integrate exchanges like Binance.US. Interested folks stay tuned!)
Conclusion
Binance.US is a great exchange for U.S. citizens. It has great User Experience and strong foundation. Having backed by one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, it has a huge potential to grow in the future and might add advanced trading options.
Some informative links, if you want to dig a little more deeper:
https://support.binance.us/hc/en-us/categories/360002072892-Announcements
https://support.binance.us/hc/en-us/categories/360002072912-FAQs
I am also working on series of blog for cryptocurrency geeks covering trading methods, mechanisms, indicator theory among others on thebitcoingeek.com. Be sure to check it out in a couple of weeks:).
Appreciate any constructive criticism. Happy Trading! :)
