When we talk about Binance vs FTX, we are talking about two of the largest and most popular cryptocurrency exchanges in the cryptocurrency market. This is something very important to understand, as both of these platforms are offering unique and great services to their clients.
But there are some slight differences between these two platforms that we try to show in this Binance vs FTX guide. In the next sections, we will focus on describing each of these cryptocurrency exchanges and what makes each of them special. Moreover, we will get into some other details such as fees, cryptocurrencies supported and their security measures in place.
What is Binance?
Binance is currently one of the largest cryptocurrencies in the market. It is basically the first or second option available for a large number of cryptocurrency investors around the world. This was possible thanks to the fact that Binance is present in different countries and it supports hundreds of different trading pairs.
The platform was created in 2017 and it was launched as an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), where users purchased BNB tokens. Nowadays, Binance Coin (BNB) is the fourth-largest cryptocurrency in the market after Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Tether (USDT).
After being released, Binance became known for being one of the exchanges with the largest number of trading pairs. In 2017 and early 2018, there were hundreds of new projects being released every single month. Many of the tokens of these projects were then added to Binance.
However, this was just the beginning and things changed. Binance moved towards releasing new services and products. Nowadays, Binance is offering staking, lending, borrowing, derivatives and many other solutions for all types of cryptocurrency investors. Additionally, Binance supports fiat currencies, which makes it possible for users to get access to a wide range of digital assets in seconds.
Thanks to its involvement in the market, Binance is clearly now a leader in the cryptocurrency industry. The company has also developed a blockchain network called Binance Smart Chain (BSC) that competes with Ethereum.
In this way, the BNB token became a very demanded digital currency. Not only do users have access to discounts on fees and privileged access to other services on the Binance exchange, but they can also interact with different protocols running on top of the Binance Smart Chain blockchain network. Nowadays, most of the projects launched on top of the BSC blockchain network are closely related to decentralized finance (DeFi).
What is FTX?
Let’s now focus on FTX and how this cryptocurrency exchange became the large platform that it is today. Compared to Binance, FTX was founded in 2018 (just a year after Binance and during a bear market in the crypto industry) with the goal of offering crypto-related services to clients all over the world.
However, there has been a lack of derivative solutions in the cryptocurrency industry, especially to investors that require professional platforms to operate. This is why FTX has been working over the past years to offer cryptocurrency professional investors the possibility to handle derivatives in the crypto industry with a professional platform.
Nonetheless, the team behind FTX has also created an intuitive and easy-to-use cryptocurrency derivatives exchange that makes it easy for newcomers to handle their virtual currencies.
It is worth taking into consideration that professional traders will be able to get the most out of FTX thanks to its unique data analytics tools. There are different tools that are currently being offered by this platform that would let investors maximize their profits in the crypto industry.
In order to be able to offer better solutions, FTX released its own cryptocurrency called FTT token. This token has been growing over the past years and it is now among the top 30 largest in the world. This is because it was able to attract a large number of users from different jurisdictions that needed to get access to some of the most advanced derivatives tools in the crypto industry.
Binance vs FTX are nowadays among the largest platforms in terms of the trading volume. This is why we have decided to compare both crypto exchanges and find some of the main differences between them.
Binance vs FTX Fees
Fees are one of the most important things to take into consideration when trading. They could account for a large part of the funds of the investors. Especially, those users that trade large quantities of money will find that the nominal value of the fees that they may end up being very high.
This is why exchanges are also competing against each other trying to offer the most convenient fee schemes for investors in the crypto industry. For small purchases, the fee level might not be important. Moreover, if a trader executes a few trades per month, then they should not be worried about trading fees.
But in this case, we see that there are professional traders that process several transactions a day and that use different trading tools to make these decisions. In some cases, a small fee percentage could make a large difference at the end of the day and could mark a clear line between being profitable and not.
The fee scheme on the Binance exchange fluctuates between 0.01% and 0.5% for investors. It highly depends on the type of traders they are and the volume they handle. Moreover, it is also very important to note that the larger the trading volume of an account, the lower the fee will be. There are also some important differences between market and limit orders. Users that hold BNB coins will also be entitled to receive a discount on the fees that they pay.
Nowadays, the fee scheme for FTX investors ranges between 0% and 0.40% depending on the type of instrument they use and whether users are holding FTT tokens on their accounts. As we can see, both of these platforms are incentivizing users to hold their native digital currency.
Binance vs FTX Cryptocurrencies Supported
When it comes to cryptocurrencies supported, we can say that Binance is currently taking the lead. This is due to the past that this platform had as a hub for tokens from different projects being released all over the world. Additionally, Binance has also pushed for different BNB trading pairs, which means that a large number of tokens are now paired to BNB, creating a demand for BNB tokens that before did not exist.
This does not mean however that FTX has no trading pairs or that the variety of tokens is just small. At the time of writing, FTX has more than 200 different trading pairs available only for spot traders (without counting the pairs that they offer for their derivatives solutions). They have added support not only to the largest cryptocurrencies in the market but they have also listed tokens with a smaller market capitalization.
When comparing the number of markets that these cryptocurrency exchanges have, Binance is currently taking the lead. They have more than 1630 trading pairs available. Let’s not forget that many of these trading pairs have been added thanks to BNB. Meanwhile, they have 403 different digital currencies supported.
These numbers are much larger than on the FTX platform. FT has 446 markets (that means, the number of trading pairs available), and more than 310 coins (312 to be precise). We can say that Binance takes the lead in this category, but we should also be fair and claim that users would not focus on all these tokens and they might just search for the coins that they want to trade. The wide array of trading tools is an asset for FTX that makes it possible for it to attract a large number of professional traders from all over the world.
Binance vs FTX Security
Security has been a very important topic in the cryptocurrency market since they were released. The crypto market has been hit by a large number of high-profile attacks with millions of dollars in losses for investors in different countries. This is why security becomes a really important topic for investors in the cryptocurrency market.
Cryptocurrency exchanges know that there are different requirements on them to offer the highest standards of security, but we continuously see crypto exchanges being affected by attacks and hacks that result in millions of dollars in losses from cryptocurrency investors.
This is the reason why cryptocurrency exchanges are now streaming their security measures to make sure that users’ funds are under control and protected from attacks and hackers. It is worth pointing out that Binance has been affected by a hack a few years ago where attackers were able to steal close to $40 million worth of virtual currencies.
Due to this situation, Binance decided to create a fund called SAFU that works as insurance against possible losses or hacks and that could be used by the exchange in the future. This gives extra security to users that want to be sure that their funds are protected at all times.
Both exchanges are currently considered to be very secure for investors and users. This does not mean, however, that you should fully rely on them. It is usually recommended to withdraw cryptocurrency funds from exchanges if you are a long term investor or if you hold large amounts of digital assets.
Pros and Cons of Binance
These are some of the pros and cons of the Binance cryptocurrency exchange. Of course, these are just some of the main pros and cons that we find about this exchange. Everything will also depend on the users’ needs and what they consider to be more valuable.
Pros of Binance
- Binance has a large number of cryptocurrencies supported and a large option of trading pairs
- The exchange offers trading fees that are among the lowest in the market
- The platform has also offered a wide range of other services to cryptocurrency investors
- Binance created the so-called Binance Smart Chain
- BNB token holders have access to a wide range of features
- There are unique educational materials being created by Binance on a regular basis
- The platform is always at the forefront of the market in terms of new products and services
- It has great options for beginners and expert traders alike
- Binance offers support to different fiat currencies and payment methods
Cons of Binance
- Withdrawal fees are quite high compared to other platforms
- It has been hacked in the past
- In the past, it experienced problems with the customer support
Pros and Cons of FTX
These are some of the pros and cons of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange. As mentioned before for the Binance exchange, these are some of the pros and cons that we believe are worth taking into consideration about FTX. Nevertheless, you might consider other things and value some services better than others. This would highly depend on your own experience with the platform and the services they offer.
Pros of FTX
- FTX users can rely on a wide range of trading tools to execute very advanced and professional trading strategies
- It supports a wide range of digital currencies to cover the needs of most traders in the market
- FTX has also added a recent section linked to Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)
- It is one of the most advanced derivatives exchanges in the cryptocurrency market
- The platform gained a lot of attention from institutional and expert investors in the crypto industry
- This is one of the best options for cryptocurrency derivatives traders
Cons of FTX
- It does not support fiat trading for users
- The platform is available only outside the United States
- FTX might be not ideal for newcomers
Binance vs FTX: Which One is More Beginner Friendly?
Binance is definitely a more beginner-friendly platform than FTX. This is not due to the fact of the interface, considering FTX has a great user interface. Binance has a much easier onboarding process than FTX, which makes it ideal for newcomers and retail users to get access to virtual currencies, independently of their knowledge in financial solutions and cryptocurrency assets.
FTX became a great trading platform for derivative traders rather than newcomers to the crypto space. Due to this reason, there is a clear advantage for Binance in this regard.
Final Words about Binance vs FTX – Which one is better?
Which is our conclusion on Binance vs FTX? There is no final decision on which of these platforms is better than the other. Indeed, they are both excellent platforms that offer solutions to millions of users from different jurisdictions. Both of them have different targets and these exchanges might be better suited for some users rather than others.
Therefore, it is up to you to decide which of these platforms makes more sense to you. If you are a professional trader, then FTX could be a great option to execute advanced trading strategies. Instead, if you are a newcomer to the industry or you just want to trade some crypto, Binance could be a great option. Both of them have similar trading fees, which makes the whole experience quite similar on both platforms.
