Binance zeros Bitcoin trading fees as it celebrates its 5th anniversary

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, said Wednesday it would remove Bitcoin trading fees for its 13 trading pairs: BTC/AUD, BTC/BIDR, BTC/BRL, BTC/BUSD, BTC/EUR, BTC/GBP, BTC/RUB, BTC/TRY, BTC/TUSD, BTC/UAH, BTC/USDC, BTC/USDP, and BTC/USDT.

Binance Founder and CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said in a statement:

“In line with our user-first philosophy, Binance has always strived to provide the most competitive fees in the industry. At its core, Binance is an inclusive platform with accessibility in mind. Eliminating the trading fees on selected BTC spot trading pairs is another move towards that direction.”

Customers can trade Bitcoin without fees since July 8 with stablecoins, including Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), and Binance’s stablecoin (BUSD), as well as the Euro (EUR) and Turkish Lira (TRY). Binance hasn’t extended the offer to trading between Bitcoin and the US dollar.

According to data compiled by The Block, Binance held 73% of the crypto-only spot market share as of last month. The new system will be in effect “for the foreseeable future,” a Binance spokesperson said

Attributed as celebrating Binance’s 5th year anniversary, the offering follows a similar announcement from the firm’s US subsidiary on June 22.

“Outside of its anniversary, the obvious answer for why Binance is offering lower Bitcoin trading fees is because [crypto trading] volumes have been going down,” Chris Brendler, senior research analyst at D.A. Davidson, told Yahoo Finance. “It’s more of a marketing initiative to generate trading activity alongside their anniversary.”

Zhao told Yahoo Finance on June 27 that the firm was seeing “a lot of opportunities in the market” given worsening conditions, citing increased hiring and “50 to 100” M&A deals it was considering in addition to exploring lowered trading fees.

The move makes Binance the first major centralized crypto exchange to completely eliminate fees for trading Bitcoin. Currently, the exchange charges 0.1% on all trades but offers a 25% discount on fees paid using Binance’s BNB token. Other leading exchanges, such as Gemini and Coinbase, charge between 0.5% and 1.49% per transaction.

In anticipation of the potential problems zero trading fees might cause, Binance has reserved the right to “disqualify trades that are deemed to be wash trades or [from] illegally bulk registered accounts, as well as trades that display attributes of self-dealing or market manipulation.”

Bitcoin’s price hovered around $20,100 per coin as of midday Wednesday. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Bitcoin has fallen more than 57 % since the beginning of the year.

The market capitalization for all cryptocurrencies sits at roughly $908 billion, down from more than $2.1 trillion in value at the beginning of the year.

Image Source: https://www.aol.com/finance/binance-eliminates-bitcoin-trading-fees-151827013.html