For traders who were around in the cryptoverse in 2017, it was clear that cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex was dominant in the first half of the year while competitor exchange Binance seemed to surge to the front of the pack in the latter half of the year.
Now it’s looking to be anyone’s ball game as far as who can capture the biggest slice of the impending herd of mainstream adopters that are already flooding into the crypto space. But both Bittrex and Binance certainly have their nuances, and you might find you like one much more than the other.
Today, we’ll give you quick comparison of the two exchanges so you can get a better feel for what they’re all about.
Exchange Overviews
The two exchanges come from different sides of the world. Binance is currently based out of Japan, while Bittrex is headquartered out of Las Vegas in the United States. Moreover, neither exchange offers fiat-to-crypto buying or selling possibilities. The exchanges are strictly for crypto-to-crypto trading, at least at present.
Read our Full Binance Review Here.
And neither of the trading platforms are necessarily for beginners, as popular American exchange Coinbase is, for example. So you’ll need to have a bit of experience in using wallets and facilitating crypto transactions to say the least when it comes to safely and effectively using either Binance or Bittrex.
Read our Full Bittrex Review Here.
Supported Cryptocurrencies
The amount and breadth of cryptocurrencies that the exchanges in question support is among their main selling points. Bittrex, for one, supports nearly 200 different crypto projects for trading at press time, making it a one-stop platform when it comes to most cryptocurrency traders’ needs.
Binance also supports a wide variety of projects for trading, though not quite as many as Bittrex. What Binance really has going for it in this arena, though, is that it lists certain tokens and cryptocurrencies long before other exchanges, like Bittrex, do. In fact, Binance is typically among the first of the major cryptocurrency exchanges to add any given hot project these days.
Call it the “Binance Bump,” if you’d like. Traders flock to the exchange to buy up coins that are being newly listed post-ICO.
Binance Has it’s own Token, Bittrex Doesn’t
One major perk that Binance has over Bittrex? Its own native cryptocurrency that has its own perks.
Binance Coin (BNB) is a token developed by Binance that is offered as a trading pair against other major cryptos, like bitcoin (BTC) and (ETH), on the exchange. The advantage of using BNB for this purpose is that traders save a considerable chunk in fees as opposed to if they had used ETH or BTC as a trading base.
Also, as BNB itself appreciates in value, hodlers of the token can accrue value that way too. Nothing’s stopping Bittrex from launching its own token through an ICO, but there’s nothing going on that front for now for the Las Vegas exchange.
Binance Apparently Has Stronger Leadership
While the more or less faceless Bittrex is currently mired in an avalanche of unanswered customer support problems, the leadership of Binance has conversely been coming off impressive in recent weeks.
For example, Binance CEO Zhao Changpeng has been appearing on CNBC and Bloomberg as of late, bringing a confident and articulate face of leadership for the community. The transparency is refreshening and is certainly attractive to trading floaters who are wanting to find a reliable platform to set up shop in the ecosystem.
Zhao Changpen, Image from Bloomberg.
Sign Up
So signing up for Binance and Bittrex is about as basic and as familiar as it gets. Now, whether or not registrations are open on these exchanges at any given time is another question entirely.
That’s because both exchanges have been temporarily suspending new sign ups as of late in order to handle the hyper-growth of their user bases.
Beyond this dynamic, though, for both Binance and Bittrex the process is virtually the same: you put in your email and other profile details, send that it, and wait for a registration confirmation email. Then you’ll be in.
Interfaces
You’ll get mixed answers on this front depending on who you ask and which exchange you prefer. But, overall, there seems to be consensus that while Bittrex’s and Binance’s trading interfaces get the job done, they are a bit clunky and graceless – two characteristics that are certainly off-putting for trading newcomers.
The Bittrex Trading Interface
In this category, Bittrex is clearly the winner though, as it offers more complex chart capabilities for traders to use and analyze than Binance does.
At the end of the day, both the Binance and Bittrex UIs have got the essentials for novice to advanced crypto traders. There are order books, chart candles, bid prices and ask prices, volume statistics, and 24 hour price data.
The Binance Trading Interface
Deposits and Withdrawals
As we mentioned previously neither Bittrex or Binance support fiat deposits or fiat wallets for withdrawals, so that’s not a factor for consideration here.
Alternatively, though, both exchanges work identically when it comes to depositing and withdrawing cryptocurrencies. That is to say that both exchanges offer a slew of cryptocurrency wallets that you can deposit your funds to in order to trade with. Later, you can withdraw whatever cryptocurrencies you want to whatever addresses you want using the same wallets.
In this sense, Binance and Bittrex are definitely tied in this arena. There’s no clear winner here, the experiences are nigh.
Growing Pains
Like Coinbase and other top exchanges that are seeing an explosion of new users in recent months, Bittrex and Binance haven’t been immune to the growing pains that result accordingly.
Binance has crashed numerous times in recent weeks during periods of high trade volume, e.g. when popular new crypto projects get listed on the exchange. This has frustrated traders, but for the most part users have generally been patient with the Japan-based exchange.
Bittrex, on the other hand, is facing a bit of a revolt in the community right now. Reports of users’ accounts being shuttered in droves with little explanation or help seemingly abound right now. Bittrex will need to get its act together in the coming weeks and months if it’s to remain as one of the powerhouse cryptocurrency exchanges.
Fees
Bittrex’s’s trading fee is pretty high to the chagrin of many users, coming in at 0.25 percent. Not the greatest, right. Binance fares slightly better, as its trading fees come in between 0.05 and 0.1 percent.
Security and Customer Support
Neither exchange offers vault wallet services like Coinbase right now, which is a premier security option for exchange users.
But both Binance and Bittrex facilitate email confirmations, two-factor authentication, and other basic security measures that should do fine by most users.
On the point of customer support, it’s fairly scant for now for both exchanges. Bittrex handles support through email, while Binance does through email and social media.
Conclusion
Both Bittrex and Binance do major daily volume in the global crypto markets for good reason: they’ve got platforms that are pushing the crypto economy forward.
You might find you like the experience of Bittrex more, or maybe Binance is for you. Both are nuanced in their pros and cons, but there’s no question that Binance appears to be the hotter of the two exchanges right now. Bittrex has a bit of catching up to do if it wants to take back the lead from Binance.
1 Comment
For convert my coins and trading.