Binance is the default answer to “where do people trade crypto?” for most of the world, and the numbers explain why. The company says it crossed 300 million registered users in 2025, handled about $34 trillion in volume across all products that year (spot alone topped $7.1 trillion), and now lists 490 coins across 1,889 spot pairs. Its standard spot fee is 0.1%, and 0.075% if you pay in BNB.
It also carries more baggage than any other major exchange. In 2023 Binance pleaded guilty to US anti-money-laundering, unlicensed money transmitting and sanctions violations and agreed to pay more than $4.3 billion. Binance.com is not available to US residents at all.
We think Binance is still the strongest all-round exchange for eligible traders outside the US, mostly because of its liquidity. This review lays out where that edge is real, what the legal history means for you today, and when a smaller or more tightly regulated exchange is the better call.
Risk note: crypto is volatile and you can lose everything you put in. Futures and margin products can lose more. This is information, not financial advice, and you should check what Binance offers in your country before signing up.
Binance fees compared with MEXC, Kraken and Coinbase
The fee table is short because Binance keeps it simple at the entry level. Fees checked October 24, 2026.
| Exchange | Spot maker | Spot taker | How to pay less |
|---|---|---|---|
| Binance | 0.10% | 0.10% | Pay in BNB for 25% off (0.075%); VIP tiers by volume |
| MEXC | 0% | 0.05% | MX deduction cuts taker to 0.04% |
| Kraken Pro (Tier 1) | 0.40% | 0.80% | Volume or assets held on Kraken |
| Coinbase (under $10K/month) | 0.40% | 0.60% | Volume tiers |
So Binance isn’t the cheapest headline rate. Our MEXC review covers the one that is. Binance’s advantage shows up in the price you actually get. On deep order books a market order moves the price less, and on a large trade that slippage can be worth more than the fee gap. For a $500 trade it barely matters. For a $50,000 trade it can.
Crypto deposits are generally free. Withdrawal fees depend on the coin and the network you pick, and card or bank deposit costs vary by country and payment method. Check those before you fund the account, because they’re often bigger than the trading fee.
Liquidity is the whole pitch
You hear “deepest order books in crypto” so often it sounds like marketing, but it’s the most useful thing Binance sells. Tight spreads and deep books mean your order fills near the quoted price, stop orders behave more predictably in fast markets, and you can move in and out of large positions without telegraphing them.
Around that core sits a lot of product:
- Spot and Convert screens for simple buys, plus a full TradingView-style interface
- Futures on 584 coins, margin trading, trading bots and copy trading
- Demo Trading with virtual funds, which more than 300,000 people used in 2025
- Binance Earn, which says it paid out $1.2 billion in rewards in 2025 (rates are variable and not guaranteed)
- Binance Pay and P2P, with Pay accepted at more than 20 million merchants
- Binance Wallet and Alpha, a discovery feed for early-stage tokens that onboarded 17 million users last year
The figures come from Binance’s own 2025 end-of-year report, so read them as company claims. Even discounted, the scale is hard to match.
The 2023 guilty plea, in plain terms
This is the part most Binance reviews hurry past. We won’t.
According to the US Justice Department, Binance admitted it put growth ahead of compliance: for years it let users trade with nothing more than an email address, never filed a suspicious activity report with FinCEN, and kept courting US “VIP” customers after it said it had blocked Americans in 2019. The DOJ said Binance caused more than $898 million in trades between US users and users in Iran. Binance agreed to forfeit about $2.51 billion and pay a criminal fine of about $1.81 billion, a total of $4.316 billion, and to keep an independent compliance monitor for three years.
Founder Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an effective AML program and resigned as CEO. Richard Teng runs the company now. Zhao received a presidential pardon in October 2025. That pardon covers Zhao personally; Binance’s corporate plea and its compliance obligations are a separate matter, and 2026 press reports say US authorities are still reviewing how well it’s meeting them.
What has changed since: Binance now requires identity verification, says it has cut direct exposure to major illicit-fund categories by 96% since 2023, and in late 2025 became the first global exchange to get full authorization from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Abu Dhabi Global Market. Whether that’s enough is a judgment call. We think the reforms are real, and we also think the history is a good reason not to park your savings there.
Security: what protects your balance
Binance runs the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), an emergency fund for losses from incidents, and publishes Proof of Reserves so you can check your balance is backed. On the account side you get two-factor authentication, passkeys, anti-phishing codes and withdrawal address whitelists. Binance says its controls stopped about $6.69 billion in potential fraud and scam losses for 5.4 million users in 2025.
Turn on every one of those tools on day one. Then treat the exchange as a place to trade, not a vault. Proof of Reserves shows assets against liabilities at a moment in time; it isn’t a guarantee you’ll get your coins back if a company fails. Long-term holdings belong in a wallet you control.
Can you use it in the US? Binance vs Binance.US
No. Binance.com doesn’t serve US residents. Binance.US is a separate company that operates under state money transmitter licenses, offers fewer coins and publishes its own fee schedule. It isn’t available in every state, so check yours first. Plenty of Americans choose Coinbase or Kraken instead, both of which serve most of the country.
Outside the US, availability still varies. Some products, especially futures and certain Earn features, are switched off in specific countries. The sign-up flow will tell you what’s open to you, but it’s worth reading before you assume a feature exists.
What owners complain about
The complaints that pile up on Trustpilot and the r/binance subreddit in 2026 aren’t about fees or outages. They’re about account reviews. Fully verified users describe withdrawals paused for weeks under a compliance review, repeated requests for documents, and estimated end dates that slip. In one September 2026 thread, Binance’s official support account replied that “the review period may occasionally be extended” and that its timelines are estimates rather than deadlines. Binance’s published guidance says reviews can be triggered by unusual activity or by transactions with addresses it considers high-risk.
That’s the price of the compliance overhaul, and it lands hardest on people who move money between many wallets or receive crypto from strangers. Binance says it simplified its enhanced due diligence steps in 2025, but plan for some friction anyway: verify fully before you deposit, and keep proof of where larger deposits came from.
Our own gripe is complexity. The app tries to be an exchange, a bank, a launchpad and a wallet at once, and new users can end up in futures or Earn products they didn’t fully understand. If you only want to buy and hold Bitcoin, a simpler app costs you a little more and saves you a lot of tapping.
Who should skip Binance
Skip it if you’re in the US, if you want an exchange with a clean regulatory record, or if you’re buying a small amount once and plan to hold it. In those cases, a US-licensed exchange or a simple broker app is the better fit. And if you’re mainly looking for a hedge rather than a trade, our precious metals reviews, starting with BullionVault, cover a very different kind of asset.
The full pros and cons list is just below. In short, the pros are liquidity, choice and scale; the cons are history, complexity and availability.
Our verdict on Binance
For an active trader outside the US, Binance is still the most complete exchange we’ve looked at: deep liquidity, 490 coins, a fee that drops to 0.075% with BNB, and tools for almost every strategy. Its legal history is serious and documented, and we’d want you to read it before you deposit, not after. Use the security features, keep only trading balances on the platform, and Binance does the job better than almost anyone.
For more options, browse our crypto exchange reviews or the wider money and investing section. Our review method explains how we rate platforms from public filings, fee schedules and owner reports.