Both Binance vs Coinbase are two of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. Binance was created in 2017 while Coinbase has operated since 2013, offering solutions to crypto and Bitcoin (BTC) lovers from different regions and jurisdictions.
These two exchanges are among the best choices for investors. They do not only offer trading solutions but many other services for crypto enthusiasts and investors. Therefore, there are many users that would like to know how Binance vs Coinbase compare. There are many differences between them, but also many common points.
In the next few sections of this blog post, we will share with you all the details you should have about Binance vs Coinbase. We will tell you how these two cryptocurrency exchanges can be compared to each other and why they became some of the largest in the market in recent years, among other things. This will help you understand which of these platforms would be a better fit for your needs.
What is a Cryptocurrency Exchange?
Now, what is a cryptocurrency exchange and how does it work? A cryptocurrency exchange is a trading platform that offers users the possibility to buy and sell virtual currencies. Most cryptocurrency exchanges let investors buy and sell Bitcoin and other digital assets using different payment methods.
Most crypto trading platforms will let you deposit digital currencies but also fiat currencies. You can deposit funds using debit and credit cards and even bank transfers. Everything depends on the type of platform that you are using.
Due to the large expansion of the cryptocurrency market in recent years, we have seen cryptocurrency exchanges offering many other services besides trading solutions. You would not only be able to buy and sell Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but you will also have the possibility to get access to many different crypto-related solutions.
For example, some exchanges are currently letting users receive rewards just by lending their funds to investors that want to trade with leverage or borrow funds for other things. Furthermore, some platforms have also activated staking rewards for some digital currencies that let users stake their funds and earn rewards.
Therefore, crypto trading platforms have now become solutions that are offering investors many different services in the crypto industry. The larger the platform, the larger the number of solutions available for traders and users. Therefore, there is a large interest from investors to use these trading platforms not only to gain exposure to virtual currencies but also to engage in different economic activities in the crypto industry. Binance vs Coinbase are two of the largest exchanges and are now among the first options for investors to create an account and start trading digital assets.
Coinbase and Binance are the largest exchanges in the market. While Coinbase went public in 2021, Binance continues to work and develop new solutions for investors all around the world. Despite that, there are other ways in which people can buy digital assets. Some of these ways include Bitcoin ATMs and P2P platforms. However, due to different reasons, exchanges became the easiest way to get access to digital currencies.
What is Binance?
Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world when it comes to trading volume. If we compare Binance with Coinbase in terms of the user base, we can consider that these two platforms have millions of users from all over the world. However, there is no clear user base number that we could use right now.
Binance was created as a cryptocurrency exchange for traders to buy and sell altcoins besides Bitcoin. That means that users could purchase many of the newly created Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) that were released to the market between 2016 and 2018. At that time, everyone wanted to get access to some of the most “prosperous” virtual currencies, as they promised to become the next Bitcoin or solve problems that have been affecting society for many decades.
As soon as Binance reached a large user base, it was able to expand and offer even better services to clients. Nowadays, Binance is not only offering trading solutions but it also became a very popular fiat on-ramp for newcomers to the cryptocurrency market. Therefore, you can deposit funds using Bitcoin and digital currencies and also debit and credit cards or bank transfers.
Besides that, Binance also became a very popular launchpad platform. That means that new projects can release their tokens using Binance as a way to reach a larger audience. This is something relatively new but that has been working since 2018. In this way, projects can release their tokens and sell them to early buyers that make a profit after the token is officially released to the market.
In addition, Binance has also been adding many other services and solutions. These solutions include the possibility to stake digital currencies, lending services and many other things. Therefore, Binance became a large platform where users would not only be able to trade digital currencies but also enjoy many of the opportunities offered by crypto projects.
One of the most interesting things is related to the fact that Binance has also launched its own blockchain network called Binance Smart Chain (BSC). There are hundreds of projects that have been released on this blockchain network and that are now letting investors get access to some of the most reliable blockchain projects in the industry, including Decentralized Finance (DeFi) solutions.
What is Coinbase?
Coinbase is one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges all over the world. This trading platform became popular thanks to the fact that it offered very user-friendly solutions for retail investors to get access to virtual currencies.
Despite the fact that in the early days Coinbase was offering support to Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC), then it moved forward and started supporting other digital currencies such as Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and many other altcoins.
Nowadays, there are different trading pairs supported on Coinbase and many of them have been paired with fiat currencies. Indeed, Coinbase was one of the best platforms to buy digital currencies using fiat currencies. Thanks to this expansion, many users were using Coinbase as a fiat gateway and sending the funds to Binance (when it still did not support fiat currencies).
With time, Coinbase started offering other solutions to larger investors (Coinbase Custody) and it is also allowing users to earn rewards through different services such as staking. Therefore, Coinbase expanded from being a cryptocurrency exchange to becoming a clear leader in the cryptocurrency industry with several millions of users from all over the world.
Despite that, Coinbase is also known for being a cryptocurrency exchange that likes to cooperate with regulatory agencies. If you care about privacy, then you should definitely search for another crypto exchange with fewer KYC and AML controls.
Binance vs Coinbase
Binance vs Coinbase have many differences that we should take into consideration. Let’s get into the details of these differences and see what each of these exchanges can offer to the crypto community. Binance seems to be an exchange with a more complete set of features compared to Coinbase.
Nevertheless, there are some things that are worth pointing out about Coinbase and Binance, including their stability and reliability. Some of the things we will consider in the next sections include fees, trading pairs, trading fees, withdrawal fees and additional services offered by these platforms.
Fees
Binance is currently applying a maximum fee of 0.10% per trace when buying and selling virtual currencies. Meanwhile, Coinbase applies a much larger 0.50% per trade. It is worth taking into consideration that Binance is also offering discounts for traders that hold Binance Coin (BNB) tokens in their wallets. This would make trading on top of Binance easier, faster and more convenient for investors.
There are also additional fees that are currently being added by Coinbase and Binance for specific deposit methods. Bank account deposits have a 2.49% commission using Coinbase and have a 2% commission if they use a debit or credit card. Instead, Binance has a 3% fee for credit card purchases. Other deposit methods are free of charge.
Fees are especially important for cryptocurrency traders. Why? Because a small change in the fee structure would have a large impact, in the long term, on investors’ results. Therefore, using an exchange with low fees is even better. Moreover, users that live in countries with low incomes will search for an exchange that could offer the lowest fees possible.
Customer Support
Customer support is also very important for investors. This is why Binance has decided to upgrade its solutions over time. Nowadays, Binance has very good customer support, despite the fact that there have been many different issues reported by Binance users. Most requests are usually answered in 24 hours and they have a team of customer support agents ready to answer your questions as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, Coinbase has decided to go with a more stable solution that still requires customer support assistance. It seems Coinbase has decided to approach this issue with more professional agents. However, both cryptocurrency exchanges have many issues that they have to solve, including accounts being blocked or exchanges requiring more private information from investors before they can withdraw their funds. This is one of the reasons why users should use a hardware wallet rather than holding their funds in exchanges.
Trading Pairs
Both Coinbase and Binance have a large number of trading pairs. However, Binance is clearly the leader. According to data shared by CoinMarketCap, Binance has 1669 markets with 396 coins. At the same time, they are also offering support to many different fiat currencies for their P2P solutions.
Meanwhile, Coinbase has 462 trading pairs with 324 coins supported. As you can see, there is a similar number of virtual currencies supported (even when in the beginning Binance more than tripled Coinbase’s offering). Nonetheless, Binance has a larger number of trading pairs.
The number of trading pairs would also depend on the liquidity that each exchange considers enough. Some trading pairs might not have enough liquidity, which could affect the trading experience and harm investors (as a relatively large trade could move the market price of a coin).
Trading Volume
When it comes to trading volume, both platforms definitely have a large number. However, Binance is the clear leader. It had more than $11 billion in trading volume over the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, Coinbase registered a trading volume of $1.43 billion in trading volume during the same period.
That means that Binance is a clear leader in terms of the trading volume. Binance’s trading volume is 8 times larger than the trading volume registered by Coinbase. Therefore, if you are searching for liquidity in some of the largest trading pairs, Binance would be the right choice.
In the future, we could see new trading pairs being added to both trading platforms. Exchanges continuously analyse new tokens and coins in order to add them to their platforms. However, it is very important for the company to make sure that they do not add scams or pumps and dumps. This could harm their reputation and could also create legal problems, especially for exchanges that try to become more and more regulated.
Some cryptocurrency exchanges have also been accused of wash trading. This seems not to be the case of Binance vs Coinbase. However, other relatively large exchanges have been conducting wash trading in order to increase their trading volumes and attract a larger number of investors.
Payment Methods
Both Binance vs Coinbase have different payment methods accepted. While Binance was only accepting virtual currencies many years ago, it now supports payments with credit and debit cards and even bank transfers.
The same applies to Coinbase, which is now accepting a wide range of payment methods. In some jurisdictions, users would be able to buy Bitcoin with PayPal using Coinbase. Therefore, both exchanges are offering a great onboarding experience for investors.
Over time, new payment methods have been added in order for people and investors to be able to deposit funds from anywhere around the world. Thanks to the addition of new payment methods, several individuals entered the market for the first time in history.
Withdrawal Fees Binance vs Coinbase
Withdrawal fees apply to both cryptocurrency exchanges. This is one of the reasons why users should withdraw their funds from exchanges and store their coins in cold storage wallets or wallets to which they hold their private keys.
At the moment Binance is charging 0.0006 BTC per withdrawal. This is close to $25 at the time of writing this post. Meanwhile, Coinbase is charging a whopping 0.0015 BTC per BTC withdrawal ($60) at the time of writing. The cheapest exchanges to withdraw funds from are Kraken, CoinEx and Crypto.com Exchange (withdrawal fees are below $5).
It is worth taking into consideration that high withdrawal fees are negative for investors in countries with low incomes. This happens as a withdrawal fee can be as large as one or two days of work. Therefore, it only affects investors that are more vulnerable to governments’ inflationary policies.
