Updated Rules checked 2026-10-13
Of the proofs of reserves compiled on this site, Binance’s shows the most user BTC: in the 2026-10-01 snapshot, users held 688,572.68 BTC on Binance, with a BTC reserve ratio of 100.35%. On the security side, 7,000 BTC was stolen from Binance on 2019-05-07 and fully covered by its SAFU fund, and on 2023-11-21 Binance pleaded guilty in the US, with settlements totaling about USD 4.3 billion. After that, up to 2026-10-12, I found no record of any other theft from platform wallets.
On fees, regular users (VIP 0) pay 0.1% for both spot Maker and Taker, and 0.02% Maker / 0.05% Taker on USDⓈ-M futures; paying fees with BNB takes 25% off spot and 10% off futures. What users in Taiwan should know: Binance is not on the anti-money laundering (AML) registration list of Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), and this site found no New Taiwan dollar (TWD) bank deposit channel.
This review gives no star rating. It puts the data on fees, rebates, reserves, security and regulatory records, restricted regions and products in one place, each with its source and date. The referral code and sign-up steps are in Binance referral code.
Key points: Binance’s VIP 0 spot fee is 0.1% for Maker and Taker, and USDⓈ-M futures are 0.02% Maker and 0.05% Taker; with the BNB discount on, spot drops to 0.075% and futures Taker to 0.045%. The 2026-10-01 proof-of-reserves snapshot shows reserve ratios of 100.35% for BTC, 100.0001% for ETH and 103.88% for USDT, with ETH exceeding user assets by only about 3.32 coins. 7,000 BTC was stolen from Binance on 2019-05-07 and fully covered by SAFU; SAFU now holds 15,000 BTC, about 2.18% of user BTC assets. Binance’s list of prohibited countries (2026-01-05 version) names the US, Canada, the Netherlands and 6 sanctioned regions, and doesn’t list Taiwan; but Binance is not on the FSC’s AML registration list (the Securities and Futures Bureau’s 2026-09-29 list).
The data below was checked against official pages on 2026-10-13 (data check date) and is provided for reference.
What are Binance’s fees?
| Market (VIP 0) | Maker | Taker | With BNB discount (Maker / Taker) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spot | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.075% / 0.075% | Fee is deducted from the coin you receive |
| USDC spot pairs | Officially shown only as “Standard” | 0.095% | Taker 0.07125% | Listed separately on the fee page |
| USDⓈ-M futures | 0.02% | 0.05% | 0.018% / 0.045% | BNB must be held in the USDⓈ-M futures account |
| COIN-M futures | 0.02% | 0.05% | Not stated officially | Fees are denominated in that coin |
Sources: Binance spot fee page, Binance futures fee explainer (updated 2026-05-01), Binance BNB fee discount explainer (updated 2026-02-06), checked on 2026-10-11 and consistent with the rates recorded by this site’s plugin. Futures fees are charged on position value, not margin: with 1,000 USDT of margin at 10x, the position is 10,000 USDT, so a market order to open and another to close each cost 10,000 × 0.05% = 5 USDT, or 10 USDT for the round trip. With Maker orders on both sides it’s 4 USDT, and with the BNB discount on and Taker on both sides it’s 9 USDT. The higher the leverage, the more you pay in fees on the same margin, and if the price moves against you, the position may also be liquidated.
Since 2026-07-21, VIP tiers first require holding BNB: VIP 1 needs 5 BNB plus one of the following: USD 1 million in 30-day spot volume, USD 5 million in futures volume, or USD 100,000 in assets. At VIP 1, spot Maker drops to 0.09% while Taker stays at 0.1% (Binance VIP program update announcement). For most people, the VIP 0 rates are the ones they’ll actually pay.
Here is the same trader at three large exchanges: 200,000 USDT a month in USDⓈ-M futures and 20,000 USDT in spot, all at VIP 0 rates:
| Monthly fees (USDT) | Binance | Binance (BNB discount) | OKX | Bybit | Bybit (MNT discount) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Futures 200,000, all Taker | 100 | 90 | 100 | 110 | 99 |
| Spot 20,000, all Taker | 20 | 15 | 20 | 20 | 15 |
| Total (all Taker) | 120 | 105 | 120 | 130 | 114 |
| Total (all switched to Maker) | 60 | 51 | 56 | 60 | 51 |
Each figure is trading volume times the VIP 0 rate, for example 200,000 × 0.05% = 100 USDT and 200,000 × 0.055% = 110 USDT. Rate sources: Binance spot fee page, Binance futures fee explainer, OKX fee page, Bybit trading fee structure (checked on 2026-10-11). Platform-token discounts require holding BNB or MNT, and their price swings are your own risk; on Bybit, if your MNT isn’t enough to cover a whole fee, the entire fee is charged at the regular rate.
If you only place market orders and hold no platform token, Binance and OKX both come to 120 USDT and Bybit costs 10 USDT more; with the BNB discount on, Binance’s 105 USDT is the lowest of the three. Full rates are in Binance fees, you can run your own volume through the futures cost calculator, and the math behind futures fees is in how futures fees are calculated.
How much is the Binance referral rebate, and has it changed?
Binance pays the referral rebate directly into your account. Binance states that invitees can receive up to 20% on spot and margin, and, since 2025-10-25, up to 20% on futures as well. The rebate is calculated on net fees (after market maker rebates), converted to USDC every hour and paid to your spot account within 6 hours (Binance Referral Pro FAQ, Binance Referral Pro update announcement).
For accounts registered with this site’s referral code, the exchange’s current automatic fee rebate is 20%, on both spot (including margin) and USDⓈ-M futures. Below is the history of this site’s referral rebate rate, which updates automatically whenever the rate changes:
- 20% (tracking started)
Rates sync with the exchange daily; every change is recorded automatically.
There are three limits to know first. Futures rebates count for 12 months from when you open a futures account (this limit doesn’t apply if the referrer’s futures commission rate is 30% or higher). Rebates stop once you reach VIP 3 or above and resume only when you drop back to VIP 2 or below. And zero-fee trading pairs charge no fees, so they earn no rebate. A referral can’t be changed once it’s established; only accounts registered within the last 30 days that haven’t deposited or traded can add a code themselves. Sign-up steps are in Binance referral code, the conditions for adding or switching a code are in switching your Binance referral code, and the trade-off between VIP tiers and rebates is in how VIP tiers affect referral rebates.
Does Binance have proof of reserves?
Yes, monthly. Binance takes a snapshot at 00:00 (UTC) on the 1st of each month, publishes it by the 7th, and uses a Merkle tree plus zk-SNARKs so users can verify it themselves (Binance account balance verification guide). The figures for the 2026-10-01 snapshot:
| Item | 2026-10-01 snapshot | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| BTC reserve ratio | 100.35% | Users 688,572.68 BTC, platform 691,003.59 BTC, a surplus of about 2,430.91 BTC |
| ETH reserve ratio | 100.0001% | Users 3,799,136.43 ETH, platform 3,799,139.75 ETH, a surplus of about 3.32 ETH |
| USDT reserve ratio | 103.88% | — |
| USDC reserve ratio | 108.26% | — |
| BTC held with third-party custodians | 11,453.47 BTC | About 1.66% of the platform’s BTC; can’t be checked on-chain by yourself |
| Coverage | 55 coins | User file includes equity, liabilities and collateral |
| Third-party verification | None at present | The audit field in the data API says zk-SNARKs |
Source: Binance PoR page (the ratio field returned by its data API), read on 2026-10-12. The ETH row deserves a second look: a reserve ratio above 100% can mean a surplus of just 3 coins. That doesn’t signal a problem. It shows that PoR only answers one question: at the moment of the snapshot, were the user assets included in the calculation matched by the same amount of coins? It leaves out the company’s own borrowing, and it can’t show whether the coins in its wallets have been pledged. Each exchange’s figures and verification steps are in exchange proof of reserves compared.
What security or withdrawal incidents has Binance had?
In chronological order, including only records from official announcements, major media and regulators:
- 2018-03-23 and 2021-06-25: Japan’s Financial Services Agency twice issued Binance warnings for operating without registration (Japan FSA).
- 2019-05-07: 7,000 BTC was taken from the BTC hot wallet. Binance announced that the SAFU fund would cover the loss in full; deposits and withdrawals were suspended during a security review, officially estimated at about one week (Binance announcement).
- 2023-11-21: Binance pleaded guilty in the US, with settlements with the Department of Justice, the Treasury and the CFTC totaling about USD 4.3 billion; founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) admitted violating the Bank Secrecy Act, was fined USD 50 million and stepped down as CEO (US Department of Justice case page).
- 2023-12-28: India’s Financial Intelligence Unit issued non-registration notices to 9 offshore platforms including Binance and asked for their URLs to be blocked (The Statesman).
- 2024: the Philippines blocked Binance (Decrypt).
- 2025-05-29: the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Binance and Changpeng Zhao jointly moved to dismiss the 2023 civil lawsuit, and it was dismissed with prejudice (SEC release).
- 2025-10-23: Changpeng Zhao received a pardon from the US president (PBS / AP).
- 2026-02-12: SAFU finished converting from stablecoins to BTC and now holds 15,000 BTC; Binance said it will top the fund back up to USD 1 billion if its market value falls below USD 800 million (The Block).
- 2026-03-27: Australia’s Federal Court ordered Oztures Trading, the company that runs Binance Australia’s derivatives business, to pay a penalty of AUD 10 million for misclassifying 524 retail clients as wholesale clients (The Block).
Measured in BTC, SAFU’s 15,000 BTC is about 2.18% of users’ BTC assets on 2026-10-01 (688,572.68 BTC). The protection fund has to cover losses in every coin, so this ratio only helps convey scale; it is not a payout cap. For comparison, the largest theft on record, at Bybit, was about USD 1.5 billion, more than SAFU’s roughly USD 1 billion. Full records for 13 exchanges are in exchange safety records.
Which countries can’t use Binance?
Section 2.1 of Binance’s Terms of Use (ADGM version, effective 2026-07-21) makes “not being on the list of prohibited countries” a condition for registration. The list of prohibited countries (updated 2026-01-05) has three groups:
- United States: anyone located, incorporated, resident, holding citizenship or operating in the US is barred, including US citizens living abroad.
- Canada and the Netherlands: anyone located, incorporated or resident there.
- Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Crimea, and the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic.
Taiwan isn’t on the list. However, section 25.5 of the Binance Terms of Use also states that services may be fully or partly restricted in some countries and that the list may not be complete, and the terms prohibit using a VPN or other means to change your IP and get around restrictions. Outside the terms, the Philippines blocked Binance in 2024 and India issued a non-registration notice in 2023, yet neither country is on the list. Restricted regions for 13 exchanges are compared in exchange restricted countries.
What products does Binance offer?
| Product | Binance data | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Spot | 507 spot coins trading (2026-10-12) | Binance spot API |
| Perpetual futures | 568 USDⓈ-M perpetuals (USDT and USDC, 2026-10-12); funding settles every 8 hours by default, and on 2026-10-12, 80% of USDT perpetuals settled every 4 hours | Binance futures API, fundingInfo |
| Funding rate cap | ±0.75 × maintenance margin rate for major contracts (±0.3% for BTCUSDT), ±2% for others; settlement switches to every 1 hour once the cap or floor is hit | Funding rate explainer |
| Copy trading | Futures and spot copy trading; futures copy trading profit share up to 30%, with a snapshot every Monday at 08:00; lead traders also get 10% of copiers’ fees; minimum 10 USDT | Lead trader benefits, copy trading page |
| Trading bots | Spot grid, futures grid, DCA, rebalancing, TWAP, arbitrage | Trading bots page |
| Earn | Simple Earn USDT flexible real-time APR 2.40% (2026-10-13), no tiers, interest accrues every minute, daily redemption limit | Simple Earn |
| New tokens and on-chain | Launchpool, Launchpad; Binance Wallet | Launchpool, Binance Wallet |
A few cost-related details. Binance states that copy trading fees count toward referral commission (Binance futures copy trading FAQ), the only one of the 6 copy trading platforms to say so in writing. Copy trading slippage protection defaults to 0.5% for BTCUSDT and ETHUSDT and 1.5% for other pairs, and it only protects the opening price (how to use Binance futures copy trading). Funding is paid between longs and shorts; Binance takes no cut, and there’s no rebate on it. The 2.40% USDT flexible rate has no tiers, so 1,000 or 50,000 USDT both earn 2.40%, while tiered products often pay less than that once you go above a few thousand USDT. Details are in copy trading costs, what is the funding rate and USDT flexible savings rates compared.
What should users in Taiwan know about Binance?
- Registration status: the list in the Securities and Futures Bureau’s section on businesses and persons providing virtual asset services, updated 2026-09-29, shows 11 businesses that have completed AML registration, and Binance is not on the FSC’s AML registration list. Explaining the FTX collapse on 2022-11-23, the FSC noted that offshore trading platforms are not covered by the dispute-handling mechanisms of the Securities and Futures Investors Protection Center or the Financial Ombudsman Institution (FSC statement); if your account is frozen or withdrawals are restricted, you can only follow the platform’s terms.
- TWD deposits and withdrawals: this site found no TWD bank deposit channel. The P2P currency menu includes TWD, but when I checked the Binance P2P TWD market on 2026-10-12, there were 0 USDT buy offers and 0 sell offers. The usual route is to buy USDT with TWD on a domestic platform (such as MAX or BitoPro) and transfer it to Binance, then do the reverse to cash out.
- USDT transfer networks: withdrawing from Binance over BEP20 costs only 0.01 USDT, versus 1.5 USDT over TRC20 (2026-10-12, Binance deposit and withdrawal fee page). MAX and BitoPro both accept BEP20. Moving 1,000 USDT from MAX to Binance and back costs 4.5 USDT in total if both legs use TRC20, and only 0.03 USDT if both use BEP20. Full fees by network are in USDT withdrawal fees compared.
- Identity verification: new users must complete “Verified” verification before they can deposit and trade; older accounts that haven’t been verified are switched to withdrawal-only mode and can only withdraw, cancel orders, close positions and redeem (Binance identity verification guide).
- Official channels: the official domain is binance.com. When I checked on 2026-10-12, the Binance app was available on Taiwan’s App Store, with Binance Switzerland AG as the developer and a Traditional Chinese interface; on Google Play the developer is Binance Inc. If you receive a suspicious URL, email, phone number or Telegram account, you can use Binance Verify to check whether it is an official source. Impersonation tactics are covered in crypto exchange scam types.
- Possible changes ahead: the FSC’s plan of 2026-08-04 says the Travel Rule is expected to extend to transfers between domestic and offshore providers by the end of 2027 (FSC press release), so the process for moving coins from a domestic platform to an offshore exchange may change.
Who is Binance a good fit for?
- People who mainly trade spot and want small-cap or newly listed coins: 507 spot coins, more than OKX (421) and Bybit (391).
- People who already plan to hold BNB: the BNB discount brings spot to 0.075% and futures Taker to 0.045%, the lowest of the three at VIP 0. If you’d be buying BNB just for the discount, count its price swings as part of your cost.
- People who want rebates paid by the exchange itself: rebates are converted to USDC every hour and paid to your spot account, with no separate rebate site to sign up for. Heavy futures traders should keep in mind the 12-month futures rebate period and the VIP 3 cap.
- People who want to copy spot trades: Binance offers both futures and spot copy trading.
- Less suitable for: people who’ve already signed up and may want to change referrer later (a referral can’t be changed once established), and people who need direct TWD deposits and withdrawals.
Frequently asked questions
Is Binance safe?
No exchange can be called completely safe. Here is Binance’s record: 7,000 BTC was stolen on 2019-05-07 and fully covered by SAFU, and from then up to 2026-10-12 I found no record of any other theft from platform wallets. On 2023-11-21 Binance pleaded guilty in the US, with settlements totaling about USD 4.3 billion; that was a compliance case, not a loss of user assets. The 2026-10-01 proof of reserves shows a BTC reserve ratio of 100.35%, and SAFU holds 15,000 BTC.
Is Binance a scam?
Binance itself is not a scam; it is an exchange in actual operation: the official site is binance.com, the app is available on Taiwan’s App Store with Binance Switzerland AG as the developer, and it publishes proof of reserves every month. What people online call a “Binance scam” is usually a fake website, fake app, fake customer support or fake investment group using Binance’s name. The usual demands are to add someone on LINE, to transfer USDT to a “platform” outside the exchange, or to pay an “unfreezing fee” or “security deposit” before you can withdraw. If you receive a suspicious URL, email, phone number or Telegram account, you can check it with Binance Verify. Not being a scam doesn’t mean there’s no risk: Binance is not on the FSC’s AML registration list, and any dispute can only be handled under the platform’s terms. Impersonation tactics are covered in crypto exchange scam types, and rebate-related scams in rebate scam warning signs.
Has Binance been hacked? Were users compensated?
Once. On 2019-05-07, 7,000 BTC was taken from the BTC hot wallet. Binance announced that the SAFU fund would cover the loss in full, and user balances were not touched; deposits and withdrawals were suspended during the security review, officially estimated at about one week.
Could Binance collapse?
No data can predict whether an exchange will go under; all you can look at are the public figures. Binance publishes proof of reserves every month, and on 2026-10-01 its BTC, ETH and USDT reserve ratios were all above 100%. But PoR reflects only the moment of the snapshot and doesn’t include the company’s own liabilities. If something like FTX happened, Taiwan’s Securities and Futures Investors Protection Center and Financial Ombudsman Institution couldn’t help, and you would have to go through proceedings where the platform is based, so it isn’t advisable to keep all the assets you aren’t actively trading on a single exchange.
Can I use Binance in Taiwan?
Binance’s list of prohibited countries (2026-01-05 version) doesn’t include Taiwan, and the app is available on Taiwan’s App Store. But Binance is not on the FSC’s AML registration list (the Securities and Futures Bureau’s 2026-09-29 list), so in a dispute, Taiwan’s Securities and Futures Investors Protection Center and Financial Ombudsman Institution don’t apply. New users must complete identity verification before they can deposit and trade.
Can I withdraw from Binance to a bank account in Taiwan?
This site found no channel for withdrawing from Binance directly to a bank in Taiwan. P2P does have a TWD option, but when I checked on 2026-10-12 there were 0 USDT buy and sell offers. The usual route is to transfer USDT to a domestic platform (such as MAX or BitoPro), sell it for TWD and withdraw; sending from Binance over BEP20 costs only 0.01 USDT.
Can Binance’s proof of reserves be trusted?
It shows that at the moment of the snapshot, the user assets included in the calculation were matched by at least as many coins, and you can use the Merkle tree to confirm that your own balance was counted. It can’t prove the company has no other liabilities, and Binance currently has no third-party verification. About 1.66% of the platform’s BTC is also held with third-party custodians and can’t be checked on-chain by yourself.
Why was Binance fined in the US?
On 2023-11-21 Binance pleaded guilty in the US to violating the Bank Secrecy Act, operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and violating sanctions law, with settlements with the Department of Justice, the Treasury and the CFTC totaling about USD 4.3 billion; Changpeng Zhao was fined USD 50 million and stepped down as CEO. This was a compliance case, not a loss of user assets. On 2025-10-23 Changpeng Zhao received a pardon from the US president.
Which has lower fees: Binance, OKX or Bybit?
With market orders only, Binance and OKX are the same (spot 0.1%, futures Taker 0.05%), while Bybit’s futures Taker of 0.055% is slightly higher. Binance with the BNB discount is the lowest: for 200,000 USDT in futures plus 20,000 USDT in spot a month, all Taker, Binance comes to 105 USDT, OKX to 120 USDT, and Bybit with the MNT discount to 114 USDT.
The referral code and sign-up steps are in Binance referral code, fee details in Binance fees, and the rules for adding or switching a code in switching your Binance referral code. For comparisons with other exchanges, see Binance vs OKX and Binance vs Bybit; other reviews in this series include the OKX review and the Bybit review. Each exchange’s actual fees after rebates are in actual fees after referral rebates, and every exchange’s referral code is in the exchange referral code overview.