Are you looking to dip your toes into crypto for the first time? Or have you found that legendary altcoin and need to branch out from the likes of Coinbase to get it?
If you’re nodding along to any of that, then you’re probably going to want an exchange that gives you access to hundreds of altcoins and trading pairs_ Binance.
One that gives you multiple options to deposit dollars, pounds, euros, heck. Maybe you’re even interested in having the option to trade futures, earn interest on your crypto, get a crypto visa card, or take part in one of those mysterious ICOs like the one your mate made a pretty penny on.
Well, the good news is that there is an exchange that offers all that and more. That would be the number one crypto exchange in the world, Binance.
Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Binance
This blog post is an ultimate beginner’s guide to Binance.
In it,
- I’ll show you exactly how to buy bitcoin with that regular fiat currency
- I’ll walk you through how to trade on the exchange and
- I’ll provide you with a complete overview of Binance’s other major features
- I’ll even show you how you can get a whopping 40 off trading fees so that you can keep as much of those crypto gains as possible.
If that sounds enticing to you, be sure to stick around.
Before we get into all that good stuff, I need to remind you that I did not go to the Hogwarts school of financial wizardry, which means that I am no financial advisor. Being a muggle implies that everything in this article is only educational and entertainment.
Now, with that disappointment out of the way, I want to welcome anyone new to the Shavuna. This website is a one-stop shop for all things crypto. That includes the most important news, analysis, and reviews to hit the crypto sphere.
If that sounds like something that’s up your street, then direct your cursor to that email newsletter below and give it a click.
And one final thing, you’ll notice that I’ve placed this handy table of content below. It’s there for you to jump to the sections that you’re most interested in reading about.
Okay, ready to learn all about Binance?
Groovy
Who Is Binance?
To kick things off, I will have to start with a bit of an overview of Binance as a company. After all, it’s probably a good idea to know who you’re dealing with before depositing any money on a platform.
Now I’m not going to sugarcoat this, but no one really knows where Binance is headquartered. You’ll have many people saying Malta. However, about a year ago, the Maltese regulator came out to say that Binance isn’t under Maltese jurisdiction.
Yes, some people like to make a big deal of that. However, do you really need to ask yourself where bitcoin is headquartered?
I guess that’s the problem with businesses in crypto like Binance, and it’s maybe best not to judge them like you would a traditional company. After all, Binance is global and has lots of offices worldwide. With staff in around 50 countries.
The guys at Binance are also not exactly hiding; the opposite is true. You have finance’s legendary founder Changpeng Zhao or CZ making waves and taking names in interviews, Twitter, and even appearing on the front cover of Forbes magazine.
Now speaking of Forbes, according to the bean counters over there, CZ turns out to be the fifth wealthiest person in crypto with a net worth estimated at a staggering 1.9 billion dollars.
Binance exchange launched back in 2017 after a successful ICO that raised 15 million dollars. Those investors got BNB coins in return for an initial value of around 10 cents.
Flash forward today, and BNB is worth over 400 dollars. Not a bad return for those who had faith in CZ from the get-go.
In 2019 you had Binance reporting profits of around 570 million dollars, with CZ announcing at the end of 2020 that the exchange expected to record about 1 billion dollars in profits for the year.
Those crazy profits are thanks to Binance processing around 2 billion in trades a day on average, but Binance doesn’t stop there. The exchange has a much more significant stake in the crypto ecosystem than Binance alone.
Last year it acquired the crypto card provider Swipe, a project valued at around 200 million dollars at the time of writing this post.
Binance also acquired Coinmarketcap.com for a reported 400 million dollars and the popular crypto storage solution trust wallet back in 2018.
Other strategic investments include the likes of FTX exchange, whose token is a top 40 crypto on its own and is valued at around a 2 billion market cap.
Now, this is by no means an extensive list of everything that Binance has strategically invested in or inquired about, but I think you get the point. The Binance exchange isn’t exactly a backstreet exchange run out of some basement.
Instead, you have the most successful crypto exchange on the planet led by a founder who’s achieved in three and a half years what would take most billionaires a lifetime.
And to top that all off, Binance has invested a pretty penny in further widening its footprint on the broader ecosystem.
Put very simply, if there were any shenanigans going on at Binance, they have a heck of a lot to lose. Also, Binance has a track record of doing the right thing too.
Yes, they got hacked in 2019, where around two percent of the bitcoin holdings on the exchange were lost.
However, Binance fully reimbursed everyone impacted by that hack by tapping funds from the SAFU fund, which is a pot of crypto put aside to cover things like exchange hacks. Anyhow, I think you get the picture.
Binance is a huge deal in the crypto world, and they have a track record for ensuring that their users are taken care of.
All major reasons why I am personally happy to use Binance as my primary crypto exchange.
So now that you have that overview, I want to move on and show you how to find out if that hot altcoin you want is actually listed on the exchange.
After all, there’s not much point in getting an account good to go if it isn’t there.
Does Binance Have That Altcoin?
This little trick will show you every exchange on which a specific cryptocurrency can be traded.
To do that, you can hop on over to coinmarketcap.com, click the search function, and type in the crypto you’re looking for.
In this case, I’ve used avalanche. Once you’ve clicked on avalanche, you will see a stats page with many different metrics and a price chart. If you look above the price chart, you’ll see a bunch of different options, and one of those will be a market button.
Click that little guy, and hey presto, you’ll see all the different exchanges that avalanche is listed on along with the different trading pairs available.
So here, you can see that AVAX can be bought on Binance with USDC, BTC, BUD, BNB, etc.
Also, another thing to know is that Binance typically has the highest trading volume for pretty much every cryptocurrency that it supports.
So most people trading the coin in question are doing so on Binance. Anyhow you can replicate that method for any cryptocurrency to find out where you can get it.
Now, it’s a common question I’m asked. I thought it would be a good idea to address that. The truth is that signing up to Binance is really simple, so I’m not going to bore you with a step-by-step guide on how to do that.
I trust you’ll use a solid password, though, for your account. Once you’ve set up your Binance account, make sure you set up two-factor authentication using google authenticator. That is super important for security.
However, I do want to move on and show you how to deposit fiat currency dollars and euros on Binance.
How To Deposit Fiat on Binance?
Once you’ve created your Binance account, secure it with a strong password and two-factor authentication. You are ready to get down to business and make a deposit.
What makes Binance a great exchange for getting into crypto is that there are just so many options.
If you click the buy crypto button at the top of the home page, you’ll see a currency symbol. Once you’ve clicked on that, it will show you a drop-down of all the different fiat currencies you can deposit.
There are literally dozens of different currencies to choose from. Some of them are pretty exotic, like VND, which I only recently found out stood for the Vietnamese dong. Get your heads out of the gutter. I’m talking about the currency.
Anywho, the payment options will change according to which currency you select.
You’ve already seen the payment methods for euros, and here’s how those with dongs can deposit said dongs onto Binance.
Yes, Binance offers the most outstanding selection of currencies with which you can buy crypto. As far as I know, what’s really cool with Binance is that some of these deposit methods are zero fees. You’ll basically be getting the most bang for your buck.
If you’re living in the UK, chances are you’re going to want to use that zero fee bank deposit to get those pounds onto Binance.
Based in Europe, well SEPA deposits are free.
If you’re one of my friends down under, then you can get the Australian deposits fee-free by using pay id or Osko.
I do need to say that not every country will have fee-free deposit options. So just be aware of that. Also, those tempted just to use their bank card to make that deposit on Binance should maybe think again.
Yes, it’s convenient; however, those visa or MasterCard deposits will be charged at 1.8 percent for euros or GBP and at 3.1 for rubles.
I’m sure that most people are like me and like to avoid these fees as much as they do pandemics. So watch out for those.
And here’s a pro tip if you’re in one of those countries where the only option is high card fees on Binance, you may want to use a local exchange with lower fiat on-ramp fees. You can then send bitcoins from this exchange to Binance in order to buy that hot altcoin you crave.
Another important thing to note is that although Binance supports a ton of different currencies, it certainly doesn’t support every currency in the world.
So if your native currency isn’t supported, you’re probably going to want to deposit US dollars. Once you click “select a deposit method,” you’ll be taken to the deposit page.
I’ve selected a bank deposit in this example. That’s what I use. You’ll then see two options; you can deposit by bank card and pay that 1.8 fee.
It’s literally as simple as keying in the amount you want to deposit, clicking continue, whacking in your card details, and smashing that pay button.
Or you can use the free bank deposit option. Those in the UK can use something known as faster payments.
The slight annoyance with this option is that you’ll have to enter some additional id information. It is, however, as simple as digging out your passport, entering that passport id, and selecting your country.
Once done, you’ll then see some bank details to use to make your deposit. You can just hop on into your online banking and make that transfer.
What’s really important to note is that you must use the same payment reference for that transaction that you see in Binance. That way, Binance knows that it’s your deposit and that it should be assigned to your account.
Once your deposit has gone through, and you have those pounds, euros, or even Vietnamese dongs in your Binance account, you want to go to the buy crypto tab again and select cash balance from the drop-down.
You’ll then see the page right here👇:
Here, you can enter how much and which crypto you want to buy and click that buy button. Before you make that purchase, you can also see how much cryptocurrency you’ll be getting too.
So that is basically all there is to it if you want to deposit on Binance.
But what if you have some crypto already and want to partake in that altcoin buffet on the exchange?
Well, let’s get into that right now.
Depositing Crypto on Binance
To deposit crypto on Binance, you’ll want to log into your account and click the wallet button at the top left of the screen. This will expand a drop-down, and you’ll see something called fiat and spot. Click that bad boy.
You’ll then be taken to the screen right here👇:
Next, you want to click that deposit button. You’ll then see a deposit page for bitcoin with a BTC address.
If you want to deposit BTC, then just use that address to send your Bitcoin to Binance. However, if you have an altcoin you want to deposit instead, you can just click that bitcoin button to expand a drop-down and search for the crypto you want to deposit on Binance.
Here I’ve just searched for Avalanche and click that coin. Then I generated an AVAX coin deposit address to ship that avalanche over to Binance to trade.
Okay, so now you have the overview of how to deposit funds on Binance. I now want to move on and tell you how you can optimize those trading fees.
I also have a few tips on where you can find Binance promotions to take advantage of.
How To Save On Fees
Yes, fees might sound boring, but trust me, they add up and can cost you a pretty penny over the long term. So you’re going to want to listen up.
Firstly, you need to know that there are two types of trading fees in crypto:
- The first is the Takers fee, which is when you execute an order at the current market price.
- Secondly, you have what is known as a Maker fee, which you pay when you provide liquidity by placing things like a limit order.
More on that later.
I would bet that the vast majority of people new to crypto will be paying takers fees. So let’s focus on that for now.
Taker and Maker fees start at just 0.1 percent.
To put that into context, Coinbase pro charges a five times higher default taker fee at 0.5 percent. Now there are several ways to reduce those Binance fees further:
- The first is by trading more than 50 bitcoin in 30 days. Not going to lie; that’s a heck of a lot of trading volume.
- Alternatively, you can hold more than 50 BnB in your account to get that slightly reduced maker fee.
50bnb is worth over 28,000 at the time of writing this article, by the way, so still quite the princely sum.
If you want to discount on those taker fees, well, you’ll have to trade a mere 4500 BTC in 30 days or hold 1000 BnB yep, that’s over 500k in Bnb coin. Who’s got that money lying around?
So trying to reduce those trading fees by trading volumes or holding BNB alone is sub-optimal. Instead, I like to always hold a bit of BnB in my account and use that to pay for my trading fees.
Do that, and you’ll automatically get 25 off those fees and will be paying just 0.075 percent.
But wait, you can save even more than that if you use my link 👉to sign up to Binance. You can get another 20% off those trading fees.
That means that anyone with a new Binance account can do two very simple things, buy some BNB to pay for trading fees. Sign up using my link. Do that, and you’ll be able to start trading, all the while reducing those fees from 0.1 to just 0.06. That’s a 40% saving right off the bat.
Now, another thing that I see many of my friends ignoring is the fantastic promotions on Binance. You can check them out on the home page right here👇
Yes, most of these promotions are geared towards crypto trading junkies, but it is still worth your while to scroll through and see if you can get value from any of them.
For example, if you were looking to trade reef a bunch, well, there was a 50,000 trading competition on.
Even though the lion’s share goes to those hardcore traders, there is often a lottery element to the promotion. In this reef trading competition, 20 lucky people who had traded reef were chosen randomly to get 500 in reef tokens each (at the time of writing this post). Not too shabby.
Okay, so now you know how to reduce those trading fees and use those promotions. But I’m sure that you’re itching to start trading altcoins on Binance. So let’s see how it’s done.
How To Trade On Binance?
Okay, so there are several ways to trade on Binance. Let’s start by looking at the easiest way.
Firstly, you’ll want to make sure you’re logged into your Binance account, then click trade from the top menu bar and select convert from the drop-down.
You’ll then be taken to this screen here:
You can select the cryptos you want to convert and choose the amount you want to swap. So here, I might want to swap 100 BnB to BUSD. You just enter that in and bash preview conversion.
You’ll see a quoted price, and you have a few seconds to accept that price. Once done, your trade is complete. It’s literally as easy as that.
Now, the downside to this method is that there are only a limited number of trading pairs, and it only supports market orders, which means you have to take the current market price.
I prefer more flexibility, which you can get in the classic trading panel.
You can hop on over there by selecting trade from the top navigation bar and choosing classic from the drop-down.
You’ll then see a trading screen like this:
And will probably be thinking, holy moly, that looks complicated. So take a step back and don’t panic. I promise you it’s not as complex as it might first appear.
The value of this type of trading interface is that it can allow you to place more advanced order types, which can save you a lot more money and save you a load of time into the bargain.
To explain what’s going on with this trading interface, we should look at it in sections.
To the left, you have the order book. All those red numbers at the top are orders to sell a particular cryptocurrency, and all the green ones are orders to buy.
All those orders are made at different prices.
The left-hand column in the order book is the price that people have placed. Buy or sell orders. The amount of crypto available at specific price points is in the middle column.
Finally, we have the right-hand column in the order book, which displays the dollar value available at different price points.
In the center of the screen, you can see a price graph. You can filter that according to different time periods. Also, you can click the little yellow tab to bring up charting tools.
This is for all of you who would like to perform technical analysis. And speaking of technical analysis, I’ve actually done a three-part beginner series on that. Essential reading if you want to make the most of those charts.
Anyway, on the top right of the trading panel, you have all the different trading pairs available on Binance. You can see that zoomed-in right here:
So you can use that search function to find the cryptocurrency you’re looking to trade. I’ve searched for the avalanche ticker AVAX, and you can see all the different trading pairs come up.
Now, you probably have two questions;
the first is what on earth do those 5x and 3x symbols mean next to some of those AVAX trading pairs?
Well, these just mean that you can trade on five times or three times leverage via margin trading. That’s where you borrow funds to trade on leverage and amplify gains and losses.
Now, seriously folks, if you’re just starting off, I would seriously recommend ignoring leverage until you are an experienced trader and fully understand the risks.
The second thing you are probably wondering is why I searched AVAX when searching for Avalanche?
Well, if I type that in, nothing comes up. The reason is that trading pairs use abbreviated versions of the cryptocurrencies called tickers.
This is usually a combination of three or four letters. But how do you find the ticker for the crypto you want to get?
Well, you can hop on over to Coinmarketcap and search for the crypto that you’re interested in. The ticker will display to the right of the cryptocurrency’s name.
You can use that method to find the ticker for any crypto. So squirrel that top tip away in the memory bank.
Now let’s get back to that trading panel. At the bottom right corner, you have market trades. This just shows the most recent trades that have been executed.
Finally, you have the section of the trading panel where all the magic happens and where you place those all-important orders.
By default, this order menu will be set to limit orders. The best way of explaining what these are is to use an example.
So let’s say I don’t like the current bitcoin price, but I’m a happy buyer at forty thousand dollars. I can actually place that order on Binance by typing in that 40k price point and choosing the amount of bitcoin I want to buy.
If I do that and place that limit order by smashing the buy bitcoin button. That order will then be added to the order book.
If I’m asleep and the BTC price plunges to 40k on Binance, then this limit order should automatically trigger, and I’ll get my bitcoin at this lower price.
Yes, this is why you might want to use limit orders rather than those market orders.
What’s also important to note is that Limit orders attract maker and not taker fees which can sometimes be cheaper on Binance.
Limit orders work exactly the same on the sell-side. I might put a limit order in for one bitcoin if the price reaches 100k. That order will just sit there and do nothing until the price point is hit.
Of course, these orders are always cancelable. You can also set the order to be live for only a certain period of time, but that’s a topic for another post.
Market orders are the simplest types of orders. You’re simply entering an amount you want to buy and taking the current market price.
I’m going to breeze past the slightly more complicated stop-limit orders. I doubt most of you reading this will use this order type, and there is a lot more I want to share with you in this article.
By now, you should know the basics of how to buy and sell crypto using market and limit orders. One thing I did want to bring your attention to is the futures tab here:
Now you’re probably going to want to avoid that. It’s even riskier than mere margin trading, and I’m not here to see you good people get wrecked.
Yes, futures can be a useful tool if used responsibly by professional traders, but newbies trading volatile altcoins with 125 times leverage is not a responsible use of them.
If you insist on trading with leverage, then you could consider leveraged tokens. These give you moderate leverage but eliminate the risk of getting liquidated.
So a decent compromise I covered this in the third installment of my technical analysis series if you wanted a bit more info.
Okay, so that’s the basic trading functionality over on Binance. However, this is just one of the plethora of services offered on this smorgasbord of crypto.
So let’s take a look at what else is on the menu.
Other Services On Offer?
With all this global money printing going on, I’m sure most of you are getting pretty poultry rates of interest on your funds.
Well, Binance earn gives you the option to earn interest rates of around six percent APY on some cryptocurrencies. You can choose to opt for flexible savings, which means you can access your crypto at any time, or you can lock that crypto in for terms of up to 90 days for a slightly higher interest rate.
High-risk savings products are available for even higher rates. But just be aware that you’re taking on more risk to get that yield.
These interest-generating products are so popular because many people hodl crypto in a wallet, and it sits there doing nothing.
Some people take a portion of their holdings to earn interest while they’re waiting for those crypto prices to explode to levels that they’re happy with.
Another hot product Binance offers is their crypto visa card, but why on earth would you want one?
Well, let’s face it. Converting crypto and withdrawing that money to your bank can be a hassle also if you’ve ever experienced 20% gains in a day. I can tell you firsthand that you’re likely going to want to go out and treat yourself to a little something-something.
If that interests you and you want to be able to spend your crypto wherever a visa is accepted, then a crypto card is what you need.
The good news for anyone living in any of the countries right here:
is that you can get your hands on a sweet Binance card. That Binance black card is completely free, and Binance themselves doesn’t charge you any admin or processing fees.
That card also links with your Binance exchange account, which is pretty awesome too.
Even better, you can get up to eight percent cashback when you use that card. So yeah, if you’re lucky enough to be able to get a Binance card, then you might want to grab one now.
I don’t recommend people do this, but Binance also offers collateralized crypto loans too. The way to think about this is that it’s a bit like getting a loan at a pawnbroker where you supply collateral in the form of an item with value like, say, a watch, and you get cash lent against it.
On Binance, you can get an initial loan to value ratio of 55%, and you’ll be asked to add more crypto to secure your loan if the LTV rises to 75%.
If that LTV gets to 83, your crypto collateral will be sold by Binance to cover the loan, which is something you certainly don’t want to happen. What most people do with these loans is to buy more crypto, which is a form of leveraging.
But if you are into that, you can supply crypto collateral and even be lent euros, pounds, or u.s dollars if you want.
Then you have a feature known as the Binance liquid swap. That’s another way you can generate passive income with crypto and potentially earn a high yield.
But be warned, it comes with risks.
Next, you have something known as the launch pool. Basically, this product allows Binance users to acquire new token rewards in return for staking specific cryptocurrencies.
Some cryptos like Litentry didn’t have a public sale or initial exchange offering at all and instead distributed a portion of the initial token using the launch pool.
The final product I will cover today is the Binance launch pad. This is Binance’s exclusive launch platform for crypto projects. It’s also where guys like us can get token allocations at highly favorable prices for popular launchpad projects.
The token allocations are typically done via a lottery system. Put simply, the more BNB coins you hold in your Binance account, the more lottery tickets you get.
Win the lottery, and you get the right to buy a specific altcoin at a set price.
You can see here:
Each winning lottery ticket for the Injective public sale on Binance launchpad entitled the winner to buy two hundred dollars worth of INJ at 40 cents a token.
Those INJ tokens reached about $50 a token in around four months. A pretty uh incredible return for anyone who got involved in that one.
So provided you pick a solid project and are lucky enough to get an allocation, the chances are that you’ll do pretty well as soon as public trading goes live on Binance.
That’s the reason why pretty much every project that’s ever been launched on launchpad has been chronically oversubscribed and why that lottery system was implemented.
It was Binance’s attempt to make these allocations more equitable and fair. Also, it isn’t as if Binance shares these initial exchange offerings with other exchanges.
So if you see a project on the launch pad, that opportunity will be exclusive to Binance. It’s well worth hitting that launchpad out to see if anything tickles your pickle.
Educational Resources
Finally, I want to take a few moments to talk about some of the educational resources that Binance offers for free.
The first would be Binance academy, which provides excellent overviews on different cryptos and cryptocurrency-related topics.
If you get bored of our website, as if, then I would certainly, recommend checking that out.
Another thing that I think is really underappreciated is Binance research:
Here you can find project reports with all manner of stats and graphics. Covering things like a project’s token supply, token allocation, release schedule, and more.
All that is presented in a digestible form. I think many of you will find these research reports quite helpful when conducting your research.
Conclusion
I think this was the most comprehensive article I’ve ever done, but that wraps up my beginner’s guide to Binance.
The truth is that I’ve just scratched the surface and that Binance offers a whole lot more than I was able to cover today.
If you’re interested in getting started on Binance, then don’t forget that special 20% trading fee discount by signing up through this link.
Now I want to hear your thoughts, any other exchanges you guys prefer, and do you have any questions for me. Let me know in the comments.
And while you’re thinking about that insightful comment, and if you found this blog post helpful, then be a hero and slap the share button. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter below either.
Till next time folks.
