The American cryptocurrency exchange BinanceUS is no longer charging fees for buying or selling Bitcoin with U.S. dollars.
That includes eliminating fees on BitcoinBitcoin trades for the three top stablecoins: USDT, USDC, and BUSD. Such stablecoins are pegged to the U.S. dollar using USD reserves, or other highly liquid financial instruments.
The change, effective immediately, is “an opportunity to revolutionize the way fees are approached in our industry, increase accessibility to crypto, and help our market and customers in a time of need,” BinanceUS CEO Brian Shroder said in a company statement.
This makes BinanceUS the first American crypto exchange to scrap trading fees on multiple Bitcoin trading pairs. It’s an impactful but arguably counterintuitive decision for a company whose primary business model is dependent on such charges, especially when considering the high volumes of Bitcoin and USDT traded on most days.
‘Like Coming Off Heroin’: How Bad Will This Bitcoin Bear Market Get?
Crypto Winter is no longer coming—it’s here. A bear market. But just how bad will it get, and for how long? Well, according to analysts who spoke to Decrypt, the worst is yet to come. The real issue now is inflation, which is soaring in the U.S. (and everywhere else), and which the Federal Reserve wants to get under control by raising interest rates. Last week, the central bank increased rates by 0.75%, the single largest raise since 1994. Fed officials added that more raises likely would come...
This isn’t the exchange’s first unorthodox move of late. Despite the current crypto bear market, Binance has announced over 2,000 job openings, possibly in an effort to scoop up top industry talent that’s recently exited (or not quite joined) competitors such as Coinbase.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao claims to have built up a “war chest” after choosing to end U.S. ad spots during the bull market. Indeed, while Binance is the largest crypto exchange worldwide, Coinbase has it beat for popularity in the U.S. That said, a bold move like eliminating Bitcoin trading fees could attract more investors.
“We see this as the first fee change of many for Binance.US. Bitcoin will serve as a test for the model, which could potentially be rolled out across other tokens and pairs down the line,” company spokesman Sam Fisher told Decrypt in an email.
Binance US Sued Over Promoting, Selling UST and LUNA
A class-action lawsuit was filed today against Binance.US, alleging that the cryptocurrency exchange misled consumers about the safety of Terra’s stablecoin UST, and native token LUNA. The suit also claims Binance violated federal law both by selling UST and LUNA, cryptocurrencies that the plaintiffs claim are securities that should have been registered with the SEC, and by operating as an unregistered securities exchange. Filed this morning in the U.S. District Court for the District of Northe...
Strike, a Bitcoin payments app, took a similar approach to Binance last year, by reducing commissions on Bitcoin buys to 0.3%. CEO Jack Mallers explained in a 2021 interview why he believed this was his company’s best long-term approach.
“It’s a race to the bottom,” said Mallers, arguing that future competitors will simply charge lower and lower fees. “You saw this in the equities market. Now, executing an equities trade is free. That’s called Robinhood.”
