Binance Cryptocurrency Exchange Review

Binance Review

In 2019 Binance Jersey was opened offering full fiat currency support for British Pounds and Euros.

What is Binance?

Binance is the largest crypto currency exchange in the world, having overtaken Coinbase. It started in 2017, founded by Changpeng Zhao.

Can Binance be trusted?

As the largest cryptocurrency exchange it can be trusted and has a track record of dealing with hack attempts well. In March 2018, a Binance hacking attempt was caught by their automated systems – the attempt was foiled and the hackers’ crypto funds were donated to charity.

Where is Binance based?

Binance is the biggest crypto exchange in the world with offices globally and a head office in Hong Kong. Binance Jersey is the newest office and aims to serve the UK market by providing the ability to deposit and withdraw in British Pounds.

How does Binance make money?

Binance makes money by charging tiny 0.1% fees on each transaction, ie each time you buy and sell.

Support Email

Binance Jersey doesn’t have a support email, but does offer 24/7 full crypto support via its support forms as well as being able to be contacted on Telegram and Twitter.

Taxes

For British residents, you must report to HMRC the value of your gains in cryptocurrency and pay capital gains tax on this amount. We are not tax advisors however and instead you should consult a crypto tax advisor.

Spreads

Binance doesn’t have spreads as such. The spread between the buy price and the sell price is set by the market. If you acted fast enough during certain market conditions you could pay zero spreads. Spreads are always low at Binance due to the size of the exchange – many buyers and sellers mean that spreads are competed away by ‘market makers’ to almost zero. Binance instead makes money with a flat fee of x% applied to each transaction.

Apps

Binance has crypto trading apps for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS. At the moment Binance Jersey (which we recommend) doesn’t have these apps available and trading is done within the web browser.

Shorting

If you want to go short one crypto currency then by buying another, waiting for the price to drop, then buying back, you have essentially shorted. However Binance does not allow margin shorting, ie they will not allow you to borrow cryptocurrency that you don’t own in order to short. For this use a broker like Etoro.

What is Binance coin?

BNB or Binance coin is a coin used to pay Binance’s fees. If you use this coin to pay their fees with, you get a nice x% fee reduction.

When will BNB next be burned?

Binance have not announced their next BNB coin burn. Their last binance coin burn was announced in October.

What is USDT or Tether?

USDT is Tether coin. Tether tracks the value of the US dollar, these kinds of coins are called “stablecoins”. It’s quite a controversial coin though with Tether being accused of manipulating the crypto market.. We wish there was a GBPT so that people could have a stablecoin that was based on British Pounds.

Will Binance support the next Ethereum fork?

Binance did support the last ethereum fork so there is every reason to think they will support future forks.

How to use Binance

Setup an account

ID Verification

Then choose what type of ID you will be using to verify your account, either your passport or driving license:

When you get to this screen, choose the “upload file” option if you’re using a laptop. We’ve found that the take photo option (which uses your laptop’s camera) is very difficult to get a clear photo from, and most of the time photos are rejected.

Instead take a photo from your mobile phone and email it to yourself. Then download it to your laptop and click the upload file option. If you’re using a mobile its ok to use the “take photo” option because it will use the phones cameras anyway which will be easier to get a clear shot which will be accepted by the ID moderators.

How to deposit money

To deposit British Pounds, click Funds, then Deposits. Make sure you’ve completed account verficiation

How to withdraw money

To withdraw your money back to your bank account click Funds then Withdrawals.