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Binance is the largest crypto exchange in the world by trading volume, and its fee schedule is genuinely hard to beat — but this is also the exchange that pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges in the U.S. and paid a roughly $4.3 billion settlement in 2023. Both of those facts are true at the same time, and any honest review has to sit with that tension instead of picking one side. This is for readers who want to know exactly what they're trading off if they sign up.
What Binance actually offers
Binance runs the widest asset selection of any major exchange — well over 350 tradable coins, plus spot trading, futures/margin (largely unavailable to U.S. users), a “Simple Earn” staking and savings product, an NFT marketplace, and its own Layer 1 chain (BNB Chain) with a native token (BNB) that also functions as a fee discount. The mobile app and desktop platform are fast and well-built; TradingView charting is built in, and order types go well beyond the basic market/limit options most beginners will ever touch.
Fees: the actual number
Binance's base spot trading fee is 0.100% maker / 0.100% taker — already cheaper than Coinbase's simple app and competitive with Kraken‘s standard tier. Pay fees in BNB and you get a further 25% discount, dropping the effective rate to roughly 0.075%/0.075%. High-volume traders can work down through nine VIP tiers based on 30-day volume and BNB holdings, bottoming out around 0.011%/0.023% at the top tier — rates that retail-focused exchanges simply don't offer. For anyone trading more than the occasional small buy, this fee structure alone is a real reason Binance stays the volume leader.
The regulatory history you shouldn't skip
In November 2023, Binance and founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao pleaded guilty to federal charges tied to violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and U.S. sanctions law. The company paid roughly $4.3 billion to resolve the case, and CZ personally paid a roughly $50 million fine, stepped down as CEO, and pleaded guilty in a Seattle federal court. Richard Teng, a former Abu Dhabi financial regulator who had led Binance's regional markets division, took over as CEO. In October 2025, President Trump issued CZ a pardon — a development that closes one chapter of the story but doesn't erase the underlying facts of what the exchange admitted to doing: it let U.S. users trade on the platform for years while deliberately avoiding the compliance controls U.S. law requires.
What this means practically: Binance's global platform (Binance.com) is not licensed to serve U.S. retail customers directly, and Binance.US operates as a separate, more limited entity with a narrower coin list than the global site. If you're a U.S. reader, don't assume “Binance” and “Binance.US” are interchangeable — they're different products with different asset lists and different terms.
Safety and custody
Binance says it keeps the large majority of user funds in cold storage and maintains a Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), an emergency insurance fund it built from a slice of trading fees, intended to cover losses in extreme events like a hack. That's a real, if self-funded, backstop — it isn't the same as a third-party commercial crime insurance policy or FDIC-style deposit protection. Binance has not suffered a catastrophic user-fund-loss event on the scale of the 2022 FTX collapse, but its regulatory record means the “trust” question here is really two separate questions: is your money technically safe from hackers (reasonably yes, based on its track record), and do you trust the company's compliance culture (a fair question to ask given its recent history).
Deposits, withdrawals, and support
Binance supports bank transfer, card purchases, and dozens of local payment rails depending on region — its payment method list is broader than Coinbase's or Kraken's simply because it operates in more countries. Card purchases carry a fee around 2%, in line with the rest of the industry; bank transfers (ACH-equivalent, SEPA, wire) are cheaper but slower, typically 1-3 business days depending on the rail. Crypto withdrawal fees are set per-asset and adjust with network congestion, not a flat platform fee — worth checking before moving a large balance off-exchange.
Customer support is 24/7 live chat plus a large self-serve help center, but response quality on complex account issues has drawn recurring complaints in review aggregates — a common pattern across large-volume exchanges where support scales less easily than trading infrastructure. If white-glove support matters to you more than fees, that's a mark in Kraken's or Coinbase's favor, both of which score better on support responsiveness in independent user reviews.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Lowest headline trading fees among major exchanges, especially with the BNB discount
- By far the widest coin selection and product range (spot, earn, NFTs, its own chain)
- Deep liquidity means minimal slippage even on large orders
- SAFU emergency fund and a strong on-chain security track record post-2023
Cons:
- 2023 guilty plea and roughly $4.3B settlement are a real compliance red flag, not ancient history
- Global Binance.com isn't available to U.S. retail users; Binance.US is a separate, more limited product
- No FDIC-style or third-party insurance — SAFU is self-funded and discretionary
- Interface complexity can overwhelm true beginners more than Coinbase's simple app
Who should actually use Binance
Active traders who care about fee costs and want access to altcoins that don't list on Coinbase or Kraken get the most value here — the fee savings compound fast once you're trading regularly. Complete beginners, or anyone in the U.S. who wants the most straightforward regulatory footing, are usually better served starting on a U.S.-licensed exchange like Coinbase and only moving to Binance (or Binance.US) once they understand what they're trading and why the fee difference matters to them.
Comparison at a glance
| Binance | Coinbase (Advanced) | Kraken | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base taker fee | 0.100% (0.075% w/ BNB) | 0.60% (under roughly $10K vol.) | 0.26% (under roughly $50K vol.) |
| Coins listed | 350+ | ~250 | ~260 |
| U.S. availability | No (use Binance.US) | Yes | Yes |
| 2023+ regulatory action | roughly $4.3B DOJ settlement | SEC suit largely resolved | No major settlement |
| Insurance/fund protection | SAFU (self-funded) | roughly $320M crime policy (hot), roughly $100M custody | No public equivalent disclosed |
FAQ
Is Binance legal to use in the United States?
Binance.com's global platform restricts U.S. accounts. U.S. residents use Binance.US instead, which has a smaller coin list and operates under separate U.S. compliance terms.
Did the 2023 settlement mean user funds were stolen or lost?
No — the criminal case centered on anti-money-laundering and sanctions-compliance failures, not theft of customer assets. No mass loss of user funds was part of the case.
Is Binance cheaper than Coinbase?
Yes, substantially, on the base trading fee — 0.10%/0.10% (or 0.075% with BNB) versus Coinbase Advanced Trade's 0.40%/0.60% at low volume. Coinbase's simple app is even more expensive than its Advanced Trade tier.
Should a beginner start on Binance?
Most reviewers, including this one, recommend beginners start with a simpler, fully U.S.-regulated platform like Coinbase or Kraken, then consider Binance/Binance.US once they're comfortable with self-custody, order types, and the coins they actually want to trade.
Editor's pick: Coinbase — the more straightforward starting point for U.S. readers who want the simplest regulatory footing; active traders comfortable weighing Binance's compliance history can consider Binance.US instead. (Our affiliate program for these exchanges is still being set up — check each platform's own site directly to sign up.)