We have tested over 100 cryptocurrency exchanges. To cut the noise, we are comparing some of the best crypto platforms in the world. If you are looking for a reliable exchange and you came across Huobi and Binance, you might wonder: Which crypto exchange is better? Binance or Huobi?
In this side-by-side comparison between Huobi and Binance, we will uncover all key differences between the two leading crypto trading platforms. Let’s figure out which exchange is best for you!
As always, we will start this Huobi vs Binance comparison off with a table comparing all key measures of the two Tier 1 platforms.
Quick Overview
Huobi was launched in 2013, making it one of the oldest and most reputable crypto exchanges. With its headquarters in Seychelles and over 1300 employees, Huobi serves over 30 million users in over 130 countries.
The wide variety of available cryptos, high trading volume, and low fees, make Huobi a great choice for many traders. Huobi stands out with the number of cryptos offered on the platform with over 600 available digital assets.
Aside from trading services, Huboi offers earn and finance products such as dual investments, staking, mining, loans, and more as well as copy trading to make even more passive income on the side. Furthermore, Huobi offers a comprehensive mobile app for traders looking to make transactions from the get-go.
Binance was launched in 2017 and quickly became the largest crypto exchange in the world based on volume and active users. With now more than 100 million registered users, over $20 billion in daily trading volume, low fees, and high liquidity, millions of active traders trust the service of Binance.
As of 2023, Binance has over 6300 employees to serve over 120 countries from all around the world. Binance stands out with its dedicated FIAT support, allowing deposits and withdrawals for over 40 different FIAT currencies.
With a comprehensive spot and futures trading market, earn and finance products, an NFT market place and a mobile application, Binance has a lot to offer for crypto enthusiasts.
Trading on Huobi and Binance
Huobi reaches a daily trading volume of over $3 billion, ranking it among the top 15 exchanges sorted by 24h volume according to coinmarketcap.
On the Huobi spot market, you can choose from over 600 different cryptos to buy and sell (mostly settled in USDT) while paying fees of 0.2% for makers and takers, making it a rather expensive spot market.
The futures market on Huobi features 100 cryptos, settled in USDT. While the spot fees are relatively high on Huobi, the futures fees are actually some of the lowest with 0.02% maker and 0.05% taker fees. You can even reduce your fees further, which we will cover in the next section. Additionally, Huobi offers leverage of up to 200x.
While the interface on Huobis futures market is well designed, it is not as smooth as other exchanges, making the trading experience hard. Especially day traders and high-frequency traders require a fast and reliable interface.
Binance constantly reaches over $30 billion in daily trading volume, making it the number 1 exchange sorted by 24h volume.
On the spot market, Binance supports over 350 cryptos and over 1600 trading pairs. Where Binance stands out from most exchanges is the number of trading pairs. You can not only trade spot cryptos against USDT but also against BUSD, TUSD, and even FIAT currencies such as EUR, GBP, USD, and more. The spot trading fees on Binance are 0.1% which is the industry standard.
When trading on the Binance futures market you can trade over 280 different cryptos, mostly against USDT and BUSD. With low fees of 0.02% maker and 0.04% taker, high liquidity, advanced order types, and a fast user interface, Binance offers crypto enthusiasts the perfect place to trade. While the Binance interface is fast and responsive, it is rather complicated to navigate due to the sheer amount of features, products, and services on Binance. But once figured out, it will be absolutely worth it.
For trading, Binance has the upper hand. With lower fees, higher volume, better liquidity, more advanced order types (including TWAP, Iceberg, and Trailing Stops), and a faster interface, Binance is a great choice for trading cryptos.
However, if you are looking for an exchange with more supported cryptocurrencies, Huobi has more to offer you.
Trading Fees on Huobi vs Binance
Huobi starts the spot fees at 0.2% for makers and takers. When holding the HT token, you can reduce your spot trading fees by 25%, leaving you with 0.15% maker and taker fees which is still a fairly high rate. Based on your 30-day trading volume, you can reduce your spot fees on Huobi to 0.0126% maker and 0.0218% taker.
Binance charges 0.1% fees on the spot market (maker and taker). When holding the BNB token, you can activate the “BNB Fee deduction” feature to lower your spot trading fees by 25%. After activating the fee discount, you will enjoy 0.075% maker and taker fees. Based on your 30-day trading volume, you can reduce spot fees on Binance to 0.015% maker and 0.03% taker.
The futures fees on Huobi start at 0.02% maker and 0.05% taker fees which is a great rate. When holding the HT token, you can again reduce your fees. On the futures market, you can reduce your fees by 5%. When reaching a certain monthly trading volume, you can climb the VIP ladder and lower your futures fees to -0.01% maker and 0.025% taker.
Futures traders on Binance are charged 0.02% maker and 0.04% maker at the lowest VIP level. Yet again, you can activate the BNB fee deduction which will reduce your futures fees by 10% to 0.018% maker and 0.036% taker. And for high-volume traders, the highest VIP level will reduce your trading fees to -0.01% maker and 0.0207% taker.
Huobi has more expensive fees at VIP level 0, making Binance the better option for regular traders. So for regular retail traders, Binance is the best option in terms of trading fees.
However, the more you trade, the higher you will climb on the VIP ladder. The highest VIP rank on Huobi enjoys lower fees compared to the highest VIP rank on Binance. Keep in mind that these fees are only achieved when trading billions of dollars per month.
Signup and KYC Process
The signup and KYC process on Huobi and Binance is very simple. All you need is an email or a phone number and a strong password. After that, verify your email or phone number with the 6-digit code that you received in your inbox and you are all set. The KYC process is where the two crypto exchanges differ.
For trading, Huobi does not require KYC while Binance does require KYC.
You can trade, deposit, and withdraw on Huobi without having to verify your identity. That means you can enjoy a comprehensive crypto service while staying anonymous. However, not verifying your identity on Huobi will limit your accounts and you will not have access to all features on Huobi. If you want to unlock all features on Huobi, you must complete the KYC verification.
Level 1 KYC on Huobi only requires your nationality, last and first name, and date of birth and you will get access to a 5 BTC withdrawal limit per day.
If you want to increase your Huobi withdrawal limits, you must complete the Level 2 verification which requires an ID or Passport and the process takes 5 minutes up to 6 hours. After Level 2 KYC your withdrawal limit will be 200 BTC per day.
On Binance you must verify your identity before you can start trading. Head over to the identification section and start the KYC process. For Level 1 KYC, you will need a legal document such as your ID or Passport, as well as a facial recognition device to verify that you are a real person.
For Level 2 KYC, you will have to submit your proof of residence. The KYC process on Binance usually just takes 15 minutes.
Deposit and Withdrawal Methods
Both exchanges offer deposits and withdrawals for cryptos and FIAT. Also, none of the exchanges charges a fee on crypto deposits. The crypto withdrawals depend on the crypto and network you choose. Based on network capacity, the fees of each cryptocurrency can vary. Both exchanges offer withdrawals for USDT with the TRC20 network which costs $0.5-$1.
Huobi and Binance are some of the few crypto exchanges that support FIAT on and off ramps as well as trading.
Huobi supports FIAT deposits and withdrawals (with bank transfer) for 13 currencies. You can deposit your FIAT currency such as EUR, GBP, BRL, and more to your Huobi account. Huobi even supports USDT and BTC pairs against some FIAT currencies on the spot market.
Binance supports FIAT deposits and withdrawals (with card or bank transfer) for over 40 currencies, meaning that you can send your local currency to your Binance account. You can then “Quick Convert” your FIAT to cryptos, or you can access the spot market where Binance even offers crypto trading, settled in FIAT currencies. You can trade BTC against EUR, GBP, RUB, TRY, and more.
For crypto direct purchases, Huobi offers crypto purchases via credit card or third-party providers such as Mercuryo, Banxa, and Simplex. The fees differ based on your FIAT currency and payment method and range between 0%-3%.
Binance also offers crypto-direct purchases with credit cards, google pay, and apple pay. The fees are different for each FIAT currency and payment method and range between 1%-4%.
For deposits and withdrawals, both exchanges are at the top of the game. However, due to the number of supported currencies to deposit and withdraw, Binance seems to be the superior choice.
Products and Services
Being some of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Binance and Huobi both offer a wide variety of crypto-related products other than just trading.
Huobi stands out with its integrated copy trading features where you can analyze the performance of other traders and follow them with just a few clicks.
Furthermore, Huobi has a comprehensive ear and finance section where you can participate in dual investments, staking, mining, and crypto loans. You can also participate in P2P trading on Huobi.
For beginners, Huobi has a learn, trade, earn section called “Huobi Learn” where you can expand your crypto knowledge.
Lastly, Huobi has a great mobile app. With over 10m million downloads and a 4/5-star rating, the Huobi app is a great choice if you want to trade from anywhere in the world.
While Huobi has a lot to offer, Binance‘s repertoire of features, products, and services can not be beaten.
Binance users can enjoy a big range of earn and finance products, including liquidity farming, automated range trading, mining, staking, dual investments, crypto loans, and more. With a P2P market, you can also make onchain OTC crypto purchases .
For NFT enthusiasts, Binance has a fully integrated NFT marketplace, allowing you to trade non-fungible tokens.
You can even apply for the Binance debit card where you can receive up to 8% cashback. The card is not only virtual but can be shipped to your home so you can use it in local stores.
You can not only use Binance on your web browser, but you can also download the standalone desktop version which is even more stable than the website and ensures you a great trading experience. Furthermore, Binance has a comprehensive mobile application for iOS and Android with over 50 million downloads and a 4.4/5-star rating, making it the number 1 app in the crypto space.
Unfortunately, Binance does not have a directly integrated copy trading feature.
Customer Support
The customer on Binance is top-notch, with an average response time in the 24/7 live chat of 3-5 minutes. But what is even more important than the response time, is that the Binance support staff is very knowledgeable and can solve queries to your satisfaction. Alternatively, you can head over to the help center where thousands of questions are covered in depth.
Huobi also offers a live chat. The response time has been a little slower than on Binance, but the support team was also helpful. You can also reach out to Huobi’s email and phone support.
Security
Binance and Huobi appear to be secure crypto platforms. Both exchanges provide proof of reserves and store customer assets in multisig cold wallets. Huobi is one of the oldest crypto exchanges and has never experienced any hacks or data breaches. In terms of proof of reserves, the last time Huobi made an update was in December. While the reserve data looked good back then, we would like to see an update.
Binance provides proof of reserves which are updated automatically every month. Furthermore, Binance has a security fund worth over $1 billion. The SAFU fund (Secure Asset Fund of Users) is meant to protect customers in black swan events. As of 2023, Binance luckily never had to make use of it.
Conclusion
While Huobi and Binance are both great platforms for crypto enthusiasts, it is very clear that Binance has the upper hand in most categories.
If you are looking for a reliable crypto exchange with high liquidity, low fees, a smooth user interface, and a wide variety of products, then Binance is perfect for you. Binance also supports more FIAT currencies for deposits and withdrawals compared to Huobi, which makes using the platform easier for many regions.
Lastly, Binance takes regulations and jurisdictions very seriously and therefore requires all customers to verify their identity with the KYC process.
Huobi on the other hand is great for traders that wish to stay anonymous as KYC verification is not mandatory for trading.
