A cryptocurrency exchange is an online platform where you could exchange cryptocurrencies or buy cryptocurrencies using fiat currency. The exchange could either be called a currency exchange or a platform where transactions get carried out like on a stock exchange. It’s important you do not get confused between cryptocurrency exchanges and cryptocurrency wallets. Cryptocurrency exchanges charge a certain fee for every transaction made. In this comparison article, we’ll put Binance and Paxful through their paces and find out what unique things they bring to the table.
Binance vs Paxful
Binance
A Brief Intro
Binance is among the leading cryptocurrency exchanges, supporting more than 100 coins for withdrawals and deposits. The rates offered are among the most competitive in the business. Moreover, it works with users from across the globe.
Features
• Single service trading
Binance offers a single service trading platform between various cryptocurrencies. There are two interfaces: basic and advanced. The basic interface lets you view the trading pairs and market, which make switching pairs easy. The advanced view, on the other hand, lets you access the advanced charting tool.
• Supports a wide range of coins
Besides Ether, Bitcoin, Tether and BNB trading pairs, Binance offers you solid choices of cryptocurrency. All major altcoins, such as Ripple, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash, make the listing. Binance also supports several tokens. These tokens could be traded to make a profit too.
• Free trading
Binance offers you a crypto-to-crypto exchange, which means it does not support fiat currencies. This lets you function freely, without having to deal with any regulation or red tape.
• Free deposits
Deposits are free. Generally, the sending wallet would pay blockchain fees. Withdrawal fees do exist; however, they usually correlate with the transaction fees. The fee is updated regularly to maintain fair pricing.
• Multilingual
Binance’s website is multilingual. English, Spanish, French, Korean, Japanese, German, and Mandarin are the language options available.
Pros
• Extremely low fees
• An array of coins available for exchange
• Offers multiple interfaces
• Solid web-based customer support
• Multi-lingual website
Cons
• Withdrawal limits
• No telephone support
• The website could be hard to navigate, particularly for beginners
• Faulty SMS/2FA confirmation
Why Buy Cryptocurrency Using Binance?
Binance offers multiple reasons to love its offerings. A responsive exchange, low fees, and solid developers are some of the reasons why you should consider associating with the exchange. No fiat support could be a tad frustrating, but you should eventually realize why it is so. Moreover, Binance is already working on adding GBP and EUR trading pairs. Binance charges, on an average, a 0.1 percent fee on every trade you make. If you opt to pay through a Binance token, you may fetch a 50 percent discount on the fee.
Ways to Buy Cryptocurrency Using Binance
To buy cryptocurrency using Binance, you should be registered with the platform. Once you have signed up, deposit Bitcoin so that you could buy other cryptocurrencies. You may type in the four predefined amounts or the exact amount to buy cryptocurrency. If you choose ‘market’, Binance would make a purchase at the best possible price. But if you are keen on a ‘limit’ order, you may ascertain the price you want to purchase at.
Paxful
A Brief Intro
Having opened shop in 2015, Paxful is relatively new to the bitcoin exchange industry. This means it doesn’t have much to show in terms of a “track record”. Paxful is an honest, peer-to-peer, legitimate bitcoin exchange and not a broker. It offers you more than 300 options to fund your Paxful bitcoin buys.
Features
• Multiple payment options
Paxful’s payment options can be primarily categorized as gift cards, cash deposits, debit/credit cards, and online transfers. Upon choosing any of the four options, you would have a list of sellers who accept that payment form. For instance, if you choose “gift cards”, you would see multiple sellers accepting Amazon gift cards, iTunes gift cards, Walmart gift cards, etc. If you choose “cash deposits”, you would see offers from sellers who accept MoneyGram, Western Union, and Bitcoin ATM.
• No buyer fees
Paxful does not impose any fee on buyers directly. The fee burden is shouldered only by sellers. This doesn’t mean the service is for free. You would get charged by sellers specific percentage of the transaction as fee.
• Wallet service
Paxful assigns you a wallet immediately after you register with the exchange. The wallet is secure and can be used for swift in and out dealings. You may even use this wallet for storing your Bitcoins, receiving or sending them.
Pros
• Easy to join
• Available virtually everywhere
• No fees imposed on buyers
• A range of currencies and payment methods accepted
• Secure wallet
• Comprehensive FAQ section
• Intuitive interface
Cons
• Sellers charge a fee
• More than a handful of active dubious sellers
• Not the most responsive customer support
• Not a lot of receptive sellers outside of America
Why Buy Cryptocurrency Using Paxful?
Paxful offers multiple methods to buy bitcoins, such as bank transfers, online wallets, gift cards, cash deposits, credit/debit cards, and digital currencies. Paxful serves people living in the States, India, UK, Japan, South America, or any other part of the world. Its interface is intuitive, and all the important features are labelled clearly. This means you’ll have zero confusion when getting started, whether you are buying or selling bitcoins.
Ways to Buy Cryptocurrency Using Paxful
You can buy Bitcoin on Paxful in multiple ways, which are also called ‘payment methods’. A payment method is basically anything anyone would accept in exchange for cryptocurrency. Paxful permits members from different parts of the world to make their unique payment routes and optionally seek further payment information in a streamlined way. There is no limit to the combinations you can make. Gift cards, T-Mobile refills, Visa/MasterCard, Amazon Cash, American Express, ApplePay, cash deposits, etc. are some of the ways to buy cryptocurrency on Paxful.
Conclusion
As someone who wants to buy cryptocurrency, you would have to deal with a cryptocurrency exchange at some stage or the other. An exchange isn’t the only option available, but it certainly would be much more regulated and organized. In other words, keeping a track of your sells and buys would be easier. In a sentence, Binance and Paxful are the two cryptocurrency exchanges you should certainly give a try if you are considering cryptocurrency trading.
Arnold Webb received a Masters Degree in Computer Science from Harvard University. Arnold currently is a full-time researcher and trader in the cryptocurrency industry. Arnold contributes content to CryptoCelebrities.co, The Bitcoin Magazine and several other publications.
