CEO Brian Shroder stated that the move is part of an effort “to help our market and customers during a time of crisis”. BinanceUS, an American cryptocurrency exchange, has stopped charging fees to buy or sell Bitcoin using U.S. Dollars.
This includes eliminating fees from Bitcoin trades to the top stablecoins, USDT, USDC and BUSD. These stablecoins can be pegged to USD dollars using USD reserves or other highly liquid financial instruments.
In a statement, Brian Shroder, BinanceUS CEO, stated that the change is immediate and “a chance to revolutionize how fees are approached in this industry, increase accessibility and crypto, and help market and customers during a time of crisis.”
BinanceUS is the first American cryptocurrency exchange to eliminate trading fees for multiple Bitcoin trading pairs. This is a significant, but perhaps counterintuitive move for a company whose main business model is dependent upon such fees, especially considering the large volumes of Bitcoin and USDT that are traded each day.
This isn’t the first unusual move by Binance in recent months. Binance announced more than 2,000 job openings despite the crypto bear market. This may be to attract top industry talent who’s recently left (or not yet joined) competitors like Coinbase.
Changpeng Zhao, Binance CEO, claims that he has built a “war chest” since ending U.S. ads during the bull market. Binance is indeed the biggest crypto exchange in the world, but Coinbase is more popular in the U.S.
Strike, a Bitcoin payments platform, adopted a similar approach last year to Binance by reducing the commissions on Bitcoin purchases to 0.3%. In a 2021 interview, Jack Mallers explained why this was the best long-term strategy for his company.
Mallers stated that it’s a race for the bottom and that future competitors will charge lower fees. This was evident in the equities markets. Executing an equities trading is now free. This is called Robinhood.
