Binance US – the US-based division of the world’s largest crypto exchange – announced a new pricing model that offers zero fees for four bitcoin trading pairs, including BTC/USD, BTC/USDT, BTC/USDC, and BTC/BUSD. The crypto giant becomes the first American exchange that makes such a service available to its users.
- The elimination of such trading fees, according to Binance US’s CEO Brian Shroder, is to revolutionize how the industry approaches trading costs and increase accessibility to cryptocurrencies.
- Following the news, the shares of Coinbase and Robinhood dropped nearly 10% and 1%. Their stock prices have been down, respectively, over 85% and 90% from ATHs.
- As Binance US’s prominent competitors, both exchanges have announced headcount cuts recently, with Coinbase laying off 18% of their staff and Robinhood trimming their workforce by 9%.
- Binance US’s announcement comes at a time when the trading volume on exchanges has slid immensely amid a broader market slowdown. The company reportedly said “no better time to introduce zero fees than now” as the industry struggles to find its way out of the overall bearishness.
- Cutting fees for trading Bitcoin against USD-pegged stablecoins means deducting a part of the company’s major revenue stream.
- The US-based giant outlined the new measure as a test for such a zero-fee model, commenting that, if received positively by users, the company would roll out similar policies for other assets and pairs in the future. The lost revenue – relatively slim – would not greatly impact the company as it has over 100 other listed tokens that require trading fees, Binance US added.
- After raising $200 million from a mix of VCs and crypto-native firms in April, the exchange reached a valuation of $4.5 billion.