Binance vs Coinbase: Which Crypto Exchange Is Better?

In this article, CoinStats delves into the world of two exchanges to know which one is better in the always-heated Binance vs Coinbase competition.

The first step for any average Joe who has just decided to venture into the world of cryptocurrency trading is to find that one crypto exchange that brings a decent debut experience. Unfortunately, not many offer that.

There are now a total of 504 big and small firms that offer people to buy, sell, and store cryptocurrencies. But more than 90 percent of them are found to be engaged in shady practices. In some cases, users find themselves unable to withdraw their funds. In a dozen other examples, the exchange puts users’ money at risk by ensuring poor security practices.

Hacks, frauds, vaporware, wash trading, poor liquidity, fake volumes, exuberant trading fees, etc. have become a part of most of those 504 exchanges. But thankfully, not all of them are culprits.

Binance and Coinbase are two names that rule the crypto exchange sector. Yes, they have had their share of setbacks in the past, but that did not deter them from building a reliable trading ecosystem for new and professional traders alike.

Choosing which one among them is better than the other is like comparing Matrix with Inception. Both exchanges lag and lead each other on certain levels. But on a whole, they deliver almost the same good experience to traders.

In this review, we attempt to judge Binance and Coinbase from the newbies’ point of view. Some of us may want to face fewer regulatory hurdles while trading cryptocurrencies. While others among us may need Uncle Sam’s shadow to protect ourselves from any potential mishappening.

The perceptions are different. And that is how one can choose which exchange – Coinbase or Binance – is better for him/her. Let’s start with some crucial H2s.

Regulation

The world of cryptocurrency exchanges appears divided based on two parameters: US and non-US.

It would be safe to say that the US has one of the strictest law enforcement bodies when it comes to handling bitcoin-enabled firms. One cannot offer Americans crypto trading services without obtaining a regulatory license. And those who try either end up getting fined/sued or outright shut down.

Coinbase works under the US regulatory climate since inception. On the other hand, Binance has just entered the country through a regional vertical of the same name. Otherwise, the exchange is based out of safe-haven Malta, from where it caters to users all across the world.

The regulation differs likewise. Coinbase will offer its services in only those nations which have granted it a license. Meanwhile, it will list only those tokens that fit the description of tradable assets under the local laws.

Tokens available on Binance US

On the other hand, Binance lists more crypto tokens – a better selection of trading. It offers services in almost every corner of the world – if local laws are stiff, then users cannot trade cryptos with fiat; otherwise, they can.

Conclusion: Binance is ideal for traders who are looking for more regulatory flexibility. Meanwhile, Coinbase serves as a better alternative for traders based out of countries with stricter crypto regulations. It is always advised to check-in with their local legal status before signing up.

Services

Both Coinbase and Binance – as stated above – offers a wide range of cryptocurrencies to trade. Like any other exchange, they both have an interactive trading platform that lets you work practically from the same page.

Coinsbase Pro, the exchange’s advanced trading version, boasts of real-time order books, trade histories, and charting tools. Binance offers almost the same thing. But where they both differ from each other is services.

Binance, for instance, offers a range of additional trading features on its platform, which include high leveraged (but risky) futures trading. Meanwhile, holding the platform’s native asset BNB could have traders accessed a bunch of other services, which include early investment opportunities Initial Exchange Offerings (IEOs), the Lottery System, and Staking.

Binance Insights

Coinbase also offers staking services. But its more highlighting features cater to institutional investors. The exchange offers custodial solutions to hedge funds, family offices, and other big financial institutions.

Coming to Coinbase vs Binance in terms of trading fees, the former is more expensive. While Coinbase Fees is anywhere between 1.49 percent and 3.49 percent depending on the trade, Binance Fees is a mere 0.1 percent.

It also offers Bundle, a service that allows traders to buy five cryptocurrencies at once (75.2% BTC, 15.58% ETH, 2.33% LTC, 6.11% BCH, and 0.78% ETC).

Coinbase also features an OTC desk for offline traders.

Conclusion: There is no Binance vs Coinbase here. The latter is always a better platform for institutional traders looking for a regulatory safety net while injecting large capitals into the crypto market. Binance, on the other hand, is more focused on meeting the demands of retail clients.

Liquidity and Volume

A report published by the Blockchain Transparency Institute in 2019 put Binance and Coinbase for having adequate liquidity and real trade volume. Even Bitwise’s popular Real 10 noted that there is no Coinbase vs Binance in real trade volumes. Both are genuine.

Coinbase Pro regularly handles $100-200 million of volume per day, mettle for a nascent industry. Binance US, on the other hand, process trades worth $5-10 million per day.

And then, there is liquidity. Crypto Watch reports that Binance US has $4 million of liquidity. Meanwhile, Coinbase Pro boasts of $15 million on the same scale. In reality, the liquidity of Binance should be higher given its partnerships with local exchanges all across the world. But the latest data is not available to measure that.

The liquidity limitations are reflected in the trading limits. Binance with its lower liquidity has imposed limits on trades. Traders, for instance, cannot place BTC/USD orders larger than $20 million. That is actually sufficient but a limit is, after all, a limit.

Coinbase offers unlimited trading.

On the other hand, Binance is better when it comes to withdrawing your money. The exchange allows investors to take out $1 million via wire and deposit up to $30,000 via ACH bank transfers. Coinbase has a daily withdrawal limit of $10,000 against unlimited deposits.

Conclusion: The winner of Binance vs Coinbase competition in terms of liquidity and volume is clearly the latter. Nevertheless, both the exchanges have seldom run into delayed market orders or poor depth.

Security

As a crypto user, when you sign up with Coinbase or Binance, you put your funds into their custody. If they lose them, you lose them. But none of the exchanges have actually caused losses to their users.

Binance got hacked for $40 million last year, but it compensated all the affected users. Coinbase, on the other hand, accidentally leaked users’ data but never fell victim to a fund-related hack.

Conclusion: Keep playing Binance vs Coinbase! But in reality, exchanges are not 100 percent secure. So it is better to keep a limited capital with them all the time.

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2020 Bitcoin Price Prediction – How High Can Bitcoin Go?

• Bitcoin price prediction for 2020 is a mix-bag of bearish and bullish cases.
• Skeptics like Nouriel Roubini and Warren Buffett thinks that the bitcoin price is going to go to zero in the near future.
• Nevertheless, many believe that bitcoin could attain a six-figure valuation.

Last week, Renaissance Technologies’ Medallion announced that it would allocate a specific portion of its portfolio to Bitcoin. The $75 billion hedge fund made no fuss about the amount of its exposure but merely indicated that it is interested in exploring the nascent cryptocurrency.

The announcement marks yet another event that validated bitcoin’s growing presence on Wall Street. It proved that more institutional investors are willing to put their money into an ill-perceived cryptocurrency sector.

That pretty much put the bitcoin price prediction for 2020 and beyond higher. It is despite the fact that the asset receives flacks for being phenomenally volatile and prone to price manipulation. Its prices soared from $1,000 in January 2017 to $20,000 at the end of the same year. But then it collapsed heading into the new year, falling to as low as $3,200.

Bitcoin’s jittery price movements prove that it is a highly risky asset. Even the US Securities and Exchange Commission has refused to approve exchange-traded funds that feature Bitcoin. Meanwhile, legendary investor Warren Buffett, prominent economist Nouriel Roubini, and popular Gold bull Peter Schiff consider it a scam.

Bitcoin’s all-time chart shows it sitting atop 6,400 percent profits | Source: CoinStats

But despite its shortcomings, Bitcoin is emerging to become one of the most profitable assets of the last decade. The cryptocurrency’s price has swelled by more than 6,400 percent in its lifetime. And a string of top cryptocurrency analysts believes that it has room to grow further.

Here are some of the most popular bitcoin price predictions of 2020 and beyond, alongside the catalysts that could conspire them. 

PlanB: A $100,000 Bitcoin by 2021

PlanB is a pseudonymous analyst who created Bitcoin’s most popular and widely-accepted price prediction model: the Stock-to-Flow (S2F). The strategist pits the cryptocurrency’s issuance against its existing supply to churn out a price trajectory, as shown in the chart below.

Bitcoin Stock to Flow Price Trajectory | Source: PlanB

S2F sees bitcoin hitting a $100,000 valuation by the end of 2021. Its reason is simple: since a pre-programmed algorithm cuts bitcoin’s supply rate by half every four years – and because the demand for the cryptocurrency goes up within the same timeframe, the cost of each bitcoin should rise based on the textbook supply-demand model.

“Stock-to-flow is an attempt to quantify the digital scarcity invention that Satoshi made…Why does stock-to-flow work? Because it measures scarcity directly, like Gold […] The scarcer something is, the more valuable it should be,”

PlanB said in a podcast earlier this year.

Tim Draper: $250,000 by 2022

American Venture capitalist Tim Draper has built his bitcoin price prediction based on the same scarcity factor. He says the cryptocurrency could hit $250,000 by late 2022 or early 2023.

Nevertheless, Mr. Draper tends to explain what would attract investors to bitcoin in the first place. The investor told CNBC Squawk Alley that bitcoin is a currency of choice. More people would use it for remittance and payments because it is cheaper than an average bank.

CNBC Squawk Alley that bitcoin is a currency of choice. More people would use it for remittance and payments because it is cheaper than an average bank.

“Bitcoin is not as easy to move around, but eventually, it will be,” he said. “Then you will have a choice, and you will say: Hey, do I want to pay the banks 2.5% to 4% every time I swipe my credit card or do I want a currency that’s frictionless, open, transparent, global, and not tied to any political force.”

Todd Butterfield: Dump before Pump

Wyckoff Stock Market Institute founder Todd Butterfield correctly predicted that bitcoin would slip below $7,600 in 2020 at the time when the cryptocurrency was flirting with $10,000. He also noted that bitcoin would find support below $6,400 before heading toward its all-time high.

“We are still expecting a move to all-time highs, but if [the] $7,600 level is breached on the downside, then I think we see a swift move below $6,400 to make our final low,” the veteran trader told CCN. “From there, we would then have the rally to new all-time highs we have been looking for.”

Nouriel Roubini: Zero

Prominent economist Nouriel Roubini, known for predicting the 2008 financial crisis, continues to stress that bitcoin as an asset has no fundamental value. He called the cryptocurrency a product of “degenerate gamblers,” who would one day crash its prices to zero.

Donald Trump is right about bitcoin https://t.co/YbBJsxTsRa

— Nouriel Roubini (@Nouriel) July 13, 2019

Cameron Winklevoss: Bitcoin to Hit $320,000 in 10-20 Years

Gemini crypto exchange co-founder Cameron Winklevoss sees bitcoin as a store-of-value alternative to Gold. He commented earlier this year that more gold investors would choose bitcoin for its better transferability and lack of storage issues. 

Investors typically choose Gold as their safe-haven asset against potential market shocks. Bitcoin, with its commodity-like scarce features, could, therefore, serve as an alternative – especially for Millenials that prefer digital assets over hard ones.

Mr. Winklevoss thinks the demand alone could push bitcoin’s rate up towards $320,000 in the next 10-20 years.

Conclusion

A general perception of bitcoin portrays it as a better version of fiat currency. Many believe that their US dollar savings are losing value because of the central banks’ endless printing of the greenback. The latest Coronavirus pandemic has also seen trillions of dollars of bailout money entering the system.

Bulls believe that sane investors would not hold cash for the long-term. They would instead put them into assets that protect them from inflation. Bitcoin, with its humongous gains over the last decade, presents itself as one of the contenders, competing directly with equities, bonds, and Gold.

That explains why Medallion is exploring the cryptocurrency. That also shows why big trading firms like DRW are making bitcoin markets, and Fidelity is launching digital asset services.

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Bitcoin Halving 2020 Countdown – What the Experts Predict?

When Bitcoin was in freefall under the stress of Coronavirus last month, Anthony Pompliano was quick to fall back on a decade-old narrative for the cryptocurrency that has ensured investors of guaranteed profits.

“Bitcoin halving,” muttered the co-founder & partner at North Carolina-based Morgan Creek Capital Management as he pitted the supply-slashing event against the global central banks’ money printing hysteria.

Credits to a pre-programmed algorithm, bitcoin is set to cut its block reward from 1,800 BTC per day to 900 BTC per day this May. It is a mechanism that gets activated every four years that decreases the rate at which new Bitcoin gets mined.

A $70,000 Price Projection Post Bitcoin Halving

Ideally, BTC halving events should be bullish for the cryptocurrency as it flows into the market at a lesser rate. Atop that, bitcoin’s 21 million supply cap ensures that it remains scarcer than any other traditional asset.

The theory is simple: If the supply is down and the demand is up, then the price of the underlying asset should rise.

The last two bitcoin halving dates have followed a price surge of about 100 and 2,938 percent, respectively. That makes many leading experts and analysts optimistic about the next bitcoin halving that would take place on May 5, 2020.

Bitcoin Halving through the History

PlanB, a prominent quant analyst, sees the price reaching $70,000 after the next bitcoin halvening. His logic: a Stock-to-Flow model that says scarcity is proportional to an asset’s value (if not price).

The model, so far, has been accurate in predicting bitcoin’s upside price trajectory. It predicts a $1 trillion market cap for the cryptocurrency. 

Bitcoin Price Trajectory based on Stock-to-Flow

That brings one’s attention back to Mr. Pompliano’s statement, wherein he pits bitcoin against the macroeconomic catalysts. The Coronavirus-induced sell-off has pushed global markets into a recession – an event some say could be worse than the Great Depression.

Central banks have resorted to money printing, lower interest rates, bond-buying, and similar measures to safeguard the economy. All and all, it is leaving cash in a stressful position, which means people’s savings are going to lose value in the long-term thanks to inflation.

US National Debt Levels Projected to Hit WW2 Levels

“We see the reasons and conditions for Bitcoin’s existence repeated in the news headlines every day,” Mathew Graham, the CEO of Beijing-based investment firm Sino Global Capital told Decrypt.

“Thus, despite the recent tumult, it’s hard to think of conditions that could be more fortuitously timed for Bitcoin’s third halving, and we expect not just extreme volatility but also a bullish crypto climate.”

Dissenting Views

Bitcoin’s fall from $9,000 to as low as $3,800 in March has discouraged many analysts from relying on the halving narrative. The economic fallout caused by the Coronavirus pandemic changed the dynamic dramatically.

Tone Vays, a prominent market analyst and commentator, called it a Zombie Apocalyptic situation, noting that the virus would hurt the very sector that produces bitcoin: the miners.

Most of the mining rigs are already minting bitcoin at a loss. If the price does not maintain above the post-halving breakeven cost of $6,000-15,000, then inefficient miners could end up capitulating. 

Actually the having being so close is a bad thing, if this Zombie Apocalypse continues into the summer $BTC might still be crashing as the halving just crushes the Miners

— Tone Vays – TheFinancialSummit.com (@ToneVays) March 16, 2020

The Bitcoin Halving 2020 narrative could also fail to owe to market volatility. Part of bitcoin’s recovery has followed a similar setup in traditional markets. More so, stocks are rebounding because of the Federal Reserve’s stimulus packages.

COVID-19 is now one of the most important factors affecting financial markets. Over the past two months, we have seen an increase in the correlation between Bitcoin and the S&P 500 due to the lack of liquidity in the private sector. pic.twitter.com/5mVSM7yNJu

— Cointelegraph Markets (@CointelegraphMT) April 13, 2020

But as long as the Coronavirus pandemic spreads, bitcoin and equities would continue to face the risks of extended declines. Recent data has shown that investors tend to choose cash as their safe-haven, not even Gold. That points to lesser demand for the cryptocurrency even as its supply gets slashed by half.

“Bitcoin is not a hedge to pandemics, it is a hedge to fiat regimes. A sudden, negative demand shock in the global economy’ will affect every asset, including gold, in the short term,” wrote Tyler Winklevoss, co-founder of Gemini crypto exchange, after the price crash in March.

But according to Harry Halpin, co-founder & CEO of Nym Technologies, one cannot predict how the halving would turn up, especially amidst a never-seen-before situation like the Coronavirus.

“The halving in May,” he said, “will tell us more about whether Bitcoin truly is a safe haven following the corona-driven collapse of fiat banks.”

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