Which crypto exchange is right for you?

by Arthur · March 14, 2023

An image of the Binance and Coinbase apps on a phone — image alliance/Getty Images

Binance.US and Coinbase are two of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges out there, so which one should you choose? The answer depends on exactly what you need, which cryptocurrencies you want to trade, how much you are willing to pay for commissions and other key factors.

Coinbase and Binance.US are both major players among established cryptocurrency exchanges. In this article, we will refer to Binance.US – the American arm of the larger Binance organization – as Binance. We will compare it to Coinbase Advanced Trade, which offers much lower costs than the basic Coinbase service, although we will refer to it as Coinbase.

Here’s how Binance and Coinbase compare on some of the most important factors for traders.

Table of Contents

Binance vs. Coinbase: Cost

The most important cost you’re likely to pay is your trading fees, and if you do a lot of that, they can certainly add up. Fortunately, it is the norm for most exchanges to offer discounts based on your 30-day trading volume. However, Binance even goes one better than that.

Both Coinbase and Binance use a maker-taker pricing structure, charging based on whether you add liquidity to the market (makers) or remove liquidity from the market (takers). So trading fees generally vary not only on your volume but also the type of trading you do. However, Binance allows you to avoid the commissions on Bitcoin and Ethereum trades entirely.

Here’s how each exchange breaks down its fees. Binance’s commission depends on the coin you trade: Bitcoin and Ethereum (Tier 0) or less popular coins (Tier 1).

Binance trading fees

The pricing structure below is for coins other than Bitcoin and Ethereum.

30-day volume	Maker	Taking
Less than $10,000	0.40 percent	0.60 percent
$10,000 – $50,000	0.25 percent	0.40 percent
$50,000 – $100,000	0.15 percent	0.25 percent
$100,000 – $1 million	0.10 percent	0.20 percent
$1 million – $20 million	0.08 percent	0.18 percent
$20 million – $100 million	0.05 percent	0.15 percent
$100 million – $300 million	0.02 percent	0.10 percent
$300 million – $500 million	0 percent	0.08 percent
500 million dollars and above	0 percent	0.05 percent

Coinbase Advanced Trade trading fees

30-day volume	Maker	Taking
Less than $10,000	0.40 percent	0.60 percent
$10,000 – $50,000	0.25 percent	0.40 percent
$50,000 – $100,000	0.15 percent	0.25 percent
$100,000 – $1 million	0.10 percent	0.20 percent
$1 million – $15 million	0.08 percent	0.18 percent
$15 million – $75 million	0.06 percent	0.16 percent
$75 million – $250 million	0.03 percent	0.12 percent
$250 million – $400 million	0 percent	0.08 percent
400 million dollars and above	0 percent	0.05 percent

The results are neck and neck: For coins that are not Bitcoin or Ethereum, Binance and Coinbase have headline commissions that are almost the same amount, with the exception of a few “pockets” in the pricing structure. For 30-day volume up to $15 million, you pay the same headline rate. But there’s a wrinkle: Binance will cut your fees by an additional 25 percent if you use BNB, its own internal coin, to pay for trading fees.

For example, suppose you have placed $25,000 in trades in the last 30 days and you want to place another $10,000 trade. At Coinbase, you pay 0.25 or 0.40 percent respectively as a producer or receiver for a total cost of $25 or $40. In comparison, you pay the same amount at Binance for that trade, unless you paid with BNB, cutting the fees to $18.75 and $30 respectively.

Advantage: Binance offers a clear advantage on what is likely to be the largest set of ongoing fees you will pay. In addition to this small additional discount, Binance allows you to trade the two coins with the highest volume for free: Bitcoin and Ethereum. Given their predominance for traders, it seems that Binance would be the clear choice.

Binance vs. Coinbase: Supported cryptocurrencies

The straight numbers seem to be in Coinbase’s favor when it comes to how many total types of coins are offered by each exchange. At our last count, Coinbase gives traders access to 253 coins, while Binance offers access to 153, or about 60 percent as many as its competitor.

But all that choice is like a buffet: if you don’t want to trade a particular coin, it doesn’t matter if it’s there or not. So how do these exchanges compare on the top 12 coins by market cap? A comparison there might tease out some differences. On that basis, Binance is slightly better, offering all 12 top coins, compared to Coinbase’s 10. Both offer Bitcoin, of course, with the difference being that Binance offers BNB, the coin that powers Binance’s own ecosystem, and XRP.

Advantage: Coinbase gets the advantage here.

Binance vs. Coinbase: Wagering of Rewards

Over the past year, Binance has made real improvements to the number of coins available in its stake reward programs, and has really outpaced rival Coinbase.

Stake rewards give crypto owners a chance to receive revenue to support the token as part of the verification process. Typically, an exchange simply deposits your earnings, minus any fees, into your account. Coinbase and Binance take a commission on your rewards.

Coinbase allows staking on six coins, including Ethereum, one of the largest coins, as well as Solana and Cardano. It also allows other rewards, via DeFi (not available in the US), on a handful of other coins, as well as what it calls “cloud staking” on more than 15 coins. However, cloud staking is a somewhat different and more advanced process.

Binance supports staking on 27 coins, including Ethereum, Cardano and Solana.

As for how big the stake rewards are? A sampling shows that Binance offers consistently higher rewards on a handful of coins that they have in common.

Advantage: Binance beats out Coinbase on the number of coins supported in the core stake rewards program, offering higher rewards on those they have in common. Naturally, for those who have coins supported on one platform but not the other, a specific exchange may end up being better for them.

Binance vs. Coinbase: Deposit and Withdrawal Fees

Neither Coinbase nor Binance charge deposit or withdrawal fees for ACH deposits in US dollars. On wire transfers, Binance does a little better, with no bank deposit fees and a $15 withdrawal fee for domestic wires. For its part, Coinbase charges $10 for bank deposits to its accounts and $25 for bank withdrawals.

Advantage: Binance offers a better fee structure here, both for ACH fees and even wire fees. However, if you plan to use wires often, Binance would be the clear better suit.

Binance vs. Coinbase: Customer Support

Customer support on crypto exchanges seems to be mostly an afterthought, although it has improved over the past year. Coinbase has upped its efforts here recently, adding 24/7 phone and chat support, much-needed features to previous options that only included email and a support ticket. Additionally, if you see suspicious activity, you can call customer support to lock your account (although it begs the question why this feature is necessary, when traditional stock brokers don’t seem to have such problems.)

Binance offers support tickets and recently added 24/7 online chat, which may be part of the price you pay for the very low trading costs.

Advantage: With a variety of support options, Coinbase looks like the clear winner here.

The bottom line

On what is probably the single most important feature of an exchange – cost – Binance wins. Low trading costs played a role in Binance being named the best crypto exchange by Bankrate.

But on the finer details, such as available coins, Coinbase wins outright or has a slight edge. In a comparison between Coinbase and Binance, the true winner may be the exchange that best suits your needs – whether it’s low trading fees, widest selection, or better support.