Fees

Why the battle for low or no transaction fees really matters

High transaction fees stand in the way of crypto achieving its full potential and being embraced by the masses — but it is possible to make transfers for free.

During the frenzied bull run, transaction fees were running rampant. Over on the Ethereum blockchain, they hit eye-watering highs of $196.638 back in May — rendering the network unusable for most everyday consumers.

The Bitcoin blockchain suffered from a similar issue the year before, accelerating to a record-breaking $300.331. When demand is high, it’s easy for Proof-of-Work networks to get congested — prompting miners to prioritize the transactions with the highest fees.

Here’s the problem: high fees undercut one of crypto’s most potent use cases — a decentralized way of offering peer-to-peer transfers. If sending funds from A to B is impractically expensive, millions of would-be users aren’t going to leverage this technology.

Heavyweights in the crypto sector know this. Over the summer, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin warned that the cost of single transactions “potentially takes up people’s entire daily income” — especially in developing economies.

Prior to The Merge, Ethereum transactions typically cost between $1 and $20 — and he argued that this simply isn’t good enough for billions of people around the world. Typical daily take home pay stands at $16 in Mongolia, and $4 in Zambia.

Bear markets switch focus from growth to operational improvements — and now, blockchain developers are making a concerted effort to bring costs down. This can help crypto achieve its full potential — especially in vital use cases such as remittances.

Some of the solutions that have been put forward recently include rollups, which bundle transactions together and settle them outside of a Layer 1 network. Not only is this less expensive, but it can also be faster — with data sent back to the mainnet later on.

And just like trying to shove even more clothes into a suitcase, much more emphasis is now being placed on data compression too — ensuring that each transaction takes up a lot less space. This, when coupled with concepts such as sharding, are incredibly encouraging.

But trading platforms — which play a crucial role in interacting with crypto enthusiasts directly — also have a role to play here. Facilitating zero-fee transfers can help deliver an experience all consumers deserve, one where they can move their digital assets without giving a single thought as to how much it will cost.

Making things intuitive

HitBTC is one of the exchanges that is driving forward transactions that incur zero fees. The trading platform offers an intuitive, user-friendly wallet that’s available for Android and iOS devices — providing a simple and powerful on-ramp for those making the switch from fiat.

A particularly new development allows HitBTC users to send crypto to their friends, family and business associates for free — provided they also have an account on this platform.

This could be a game changer. Data from the World Bank shows that the average cost of sending $200 across borders stood at 6% in the fourth quarter of 2021. And in countries that really rely on foreign workers sending money home to their loved ones, $12 is a lot to lose.

Zero-fee transfers really have the potential to change the game — opening up financial services to all while saving consumers billions of dollars in the process. Plus, when crypto is being bought or sold, HitBTC claims to offer some of the lowest fees in the market today.

But this is just one piece of the puzzle, and this exchange says even more needs to be done.

Demystifying crypto

Many crypto enthusiasts remember the first time they tried to send Bitcoin from one address to another. Confronted with a wallet represented by a long string of letters and numbers, there’s so much pressure to avoid typos — amid fears the crypto could be lost forever.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. With Web3, we’re already seeing human-readable addresses gain popularity, with snappy domains such as .eth and .crypto. And while this is an encouraging development, HitBTC believes there should be other options too.

To help reduce the inconvenience associated with sending funds, HitBTC offers its customers an opportunity to transfer digital assets to each other by email, a user ID, or using anonymous links. Irrespective of whether someone prioritizes privacy or simplicity, there’s an option to suit everybody.

HitBTC’s straightforward approach has also been reinforced by an elegant interface for send and receive screens that enables the process to be completed in a couple of taps.

Crypto can often be incredibly daunting for people who aren’t technically savvy, but HitBTC proves that it doesn’t have to be like this. And when coupled with the advent of zero-fee transfers, it’s tackling the pain points that stand in the way of mass adoption.

Overall, HitBTC’s crypto wallet aims to be a one-stop shop for beginners and experts alike. Assets can be secured with two-factor authentication, biometrics or Face ID, and managed across more than one device. Innovative measures are also used to shield funds from fraudsters, and a dedicated customer support team is always on hand to offer help if access to an account is lost in an emergency.

Even more useful features are on the horizon, and it’s all part of an ambitious quest to make crypto far less scary for newcomers… and much more practical for the veterans.

Material is provided in partnership with HitBTC

Disclaimer. Cointelegraph does not endorse any content or product on this page. While we aim at providing you with all important information that we could obtain, readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to the company and carry full responsibility for their decisions, nor can this article be considered as investment advice.

How not to Bitcoin: User pays 1,000x fee to send 4 BTC

What could have inspired a Bitcoin user to overpay by 1,000 times the asking price to move roughly $63,000 in Bitcoin?

Fat fingers? A Bitcoin (BTC) user spent over $200 to make a transaction, paying astronomically above the average fee.

In a transaction that entered Bitcoin block 760,077, a user paid 1,136,000 satoshis, (0.0136 BTC or $220.52) to move 3.8 BTC ($63,000). This extraordinarily high fee is a whopping 1,000 times the usual Bitcoin transaction fee, as at block height 760,077, the average transaction fee was roughly $0.20.

Twitter user Bitcoin QnA first spotted the out-of-the-ordinary transaction, asking, “Y tho?” The Bitcoin educator told Cointelegraph that “Ultimately, we’ll never know [why they paid high], but there are a few possible answers.” QnA listed the following:

“1. Using a wallet with terrible fee estimations 2. A user making a typo when manually entering their fee rate 3. An exchange processing an urgent payout. They often overpay but never normally by this much!”

Finally, QnA told Cointelegraph that it could be that the user hasn’t done their homework, and the error could be explained by “a user not understanding how miner fees work (unlikely given the amounts seen in the tx in question).”

*Visual of block 760,077. Source: Mempool.space*

Transaction fees on the Bitcoin base chain vary from pennies to hundreds of dollars, depending on congestion levels in the Bitcoin memory pool, or “mem pool,” as well as transaction sizes. Transaction fees are priced in satoshis per unit of data, abbreviated to sats/vByte.

The sats/vByte rate is multiplied by the size of the transaction made to get the total fee you’ll pay. Generally speaking, the more money (or data) sent, the higher the transaction fee — although several other factors are at play.

If a user is in a hurry, they can choose to pay a higher sats/vByte fee to almost guarantee that miners will include their transaction in the next confirmed block. The cost of this luxury is a higher fee rate. The lowest fee is 1 sats/vByte; higher fees are generally considered as anything over 7 sats/vByte. For this fat-fingered Bitcoiner in question, they paid a whopping 8,042 sat/Byte, or 1,136,000 sats.

That’s more than 1,000 times the typical fee. The median transaction fee for block 760,077 was ~8 sat/vB or $0.22.

Upon further investigation, the same wallet was involved in another Bitcoin transaction 40 minutes prior that also paid an exorbitant fee. The wallet transferred 4.28 BTC ($83,000) for 564,096 sats or (0.056 BTC or $109). Miners received a rate of 4,022 sat/vB for the pleasure, adding the payment into block 760,073.

Due to the Bitcoin blockchain’s pseudonymity, it is unclear why the user paid such a high transaction fee. Nor is it clear why they repeated the same action four blocks later. As a final suggestion, QnA joked that it could be “a rich Bitcoiner doing it to flex (unlikely).”

USDC adoption is lagging outside of the United States: Coinbase

The exchange stated the stablecoin is purchased at three times the rate with U.S. dollars compared with other fiat currencies.

United States-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase says the adoption of USD Coin (USDC) has been “more conservative” outside of the U.S., which it believes is a result of international currency conversion fees.

In an Oct. 20 statement, the exchange said there is currently three times more USDC bought with U.S. dollars as compared to other currencies.

“Currently, 3x more USDC is bought with USD versus non-USD currencies. In part this is because, outside of the US, users usually have to pay fees in the process of converting their local currency into USDC, and this is a barrier to broader international adoption.”

The U.S. dollar-pegged cryptocurrency is currently the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization under Tether (USDT).

Coinbase said it sees the utility of stablecoins such as USDC benefitting residents in countries requiring a coin that doesn’t fluctuate in value, is highly accessible and gives access to decentralized finance (DeFi).

The exchange said it is aiming to “build more on-ramps for users to access USDC,” and will be waiving fees for all customers who buy or sell USDC using any fiat currency.

In 2018, Coinbase along with payments technology company Circle partnered to create the Centre Consortium to develop USDC, which currently is the second-largest stablecoin behind Tether and the fourth-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization.

Stablecoins such as USDC are seen as a cheaper and faster alternative compared to traditional remittance systems for sending value between parties. A recent report by Chainalysis shows the use of stablecoins for remittances as a key factor driving crypto adoption in Latin America.

The move by Coinbase is the latest in efforts to increase the adoption of USDC, in September, Circle announced it would roll out the stablecoin across five additional blockchains including Polkadot, Optimism, Near, Arbitrum and Cosmos.

3 major mistakes to avoid when trading cryptocurrency futures markets

Crypto traders love to “ape” and make “degen” investments using high leverage in futures markets, but most traders fall victim to these three key mistakes.

Many traders frequently express some relatively large misconceptions about trading cryptocurrency futures, especially on derivatives exchanges outside the realm of traditional finance. The most common mistakes involve futures markets’ price decoupling, fees and the impact of liquidations on the derivatives instrument.

Let’s explore three simple mistakes and misconceptions that traders should avoid when trading crypto futures.

Derivatives contracts differ from spot trading in pricing and trading

Currently, the aggregate futures open interest in the crypto market surpasses $25 billion and retail traders and experienced fund managers use these instruments to leverage their crypto positons.

Futures contracts and other derivatives are often used to reduce risk or increase exposure and are not really meant to be used for degenerate gambling, despite this common interpretation.

Some differences in pricing and trading are usually missed in crypto derivatives contracts. For this reason, traders should at least consider these differences when venturing into futures markets. Even well-versed derivatives investors from traditional assets are prone to making mistakes, so it’s important to understand the existing peculiarities before using leverage.

Most crypto trading services do not use United States dollars, even if they display USD quotes. This is a big untold secret and one of the pitfalls that derivatives traders face that causes additional risks and distortions when trading and analyzing futures markets.

The pressing issue is the lack of transparency, so clients don’t really know if the contracts are priced in stablecoin. However, this should not be a major concern, considering there is always the intermediary risk when using centralized exchanges.

Discounted futures sometimes come with surprises

On Sept. 9, Ether (ETH) futures that mature on Dec. 30 are trading for $22 or 1.3% below the current price at spot exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken. The difference emerges from the expectation of Merge fork coins that could arise during the Ethereum Merge. Buyers of the derivatives contract will not be awarded any of the potentially free coins that Ether holders may receive.

Airdrops can also cause discounted futures prices since the holders of a derivatives contract will not receive the award, but that’s not the only case behind a decoupling since each exchange has its own pricing mechanism and risks. For example, Polkadot quarterly futures on Binance and OKX have been trading at a discount versus Polkadot (DOT) price on spot exchanges.

*Binance Polkadot (DOT) quarterly futures premium. Source: TradingView*

Notice how the futures contract traded at a 1.5% to 4% discount between May and August. This backwardation demonstrates a lack of demand from leverage buyers. However, considering the long-lasting trend and the fact that Polkadot rallied 40% from July 26 to Aug. 12, external factors are likely in play.

The futures contract price has decoupled from spot exchanges, so traders must adjust their targets and entry levels whenever using quarterly markets.

Higher fees and price decoupling should be considered

The core benefit of futures contracts is leverage, or the ability to trade amounts that are larger than the initial deposit (collateral or margin).

Let’s consider a scenario where an investor deposited $100 and buys (long) $2,000 worth of Bitcoin (BTC) futures using 20x leverage.

Even though the trading fees on derivatives contracts are usually smaller than spot markers, a hypothetical 0.05% fee applies to the $2,000 trade. Therefore, entering and exiting the position a single time will cost $4.00, which is equivalent to 4% of the initial deposit. That might not sound much, but such a toll weighs as the turnover increases.

Even if traders understand the additional costs and benefits of using a futures instrument, an unknown element tends to present itself only in volatile market conditions. Decoupling between the derivatives contract and the regular spot exchanges is usually caused by liquidations.

When a trader’s collateral becomes insufficient to cover the risk, the derivatives exchange has a built-in mechanism that closes the position. This liquidation mechanism might cause drastic price action and consequent decoupling from the index price.

Although these distortions will not trigger further liquidations, uninformed investors might react to price fluctuations that only happened in the derivatives contract. To be clear, the derivatives exchanges rely on external pricing sources, usually from regular spot markets, to calculate the reference index price.

There is nothing wrong with these unique processes, but all traders should consider their impact before using leverage. Price decoupling, higher fees and liquidation impact should be analyzed when trading in futures markets.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Average Bitcoin transaction fee drops under $1 as network difficulty recovers

In addition to timely upgrades, the drop in transaction fees can be attributed to multiple factors, including falling market prices and lower mining difficulty.

The average transaction fees on the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain fell below $1.00 for the first time in over two years, further strengthening its use case as a viable mainstream financial system.

High transaction fees over blockchain networks work against the users, especially when making low-value transactions. For example, transaction fees over the Ethereum blockchain skyrocketed several times during the nonfungible token (NFT) hype, inducing stress on general users.

While the Bitcoin ecosystem has also endured its fair share of high transaction fees in the past, timely upgrades — including the Lightning Network and Taproot — guarantee faster and cheaper transactions over time. As of Monday, the average Bitcoin transaction fees fell down to $0.825, a number last seen on June 13, 2020.

*Average Bitcoin transaction fees over the past 3 years. Source: Blockchain.com*

In addition to timely upgrades, the drop in transaction fees can be attributed to multiple factors, including falling market prices and lower mining difficulty. However, the difficulty of mining a new BTC block sees a steady recovery as miners gain access to cheaper hardware while recovering from the prolonged chip shortage.

*Bitcoin network difficulty chart. Source: Blockchain.com*

As seen above, August also marked the end of the three-month-long downfall of network difficulty — recovering back to 28.351 trillion from its freefall. Thanks to consistent community efforts, the Bitcoin network continues to display telltale signs of a healthy financial system.

Although users expect every network upgrade to reduce gas fees and transaction speeds, not all upgrades are built to serve the same purpose. For example, the most anticipated Ethereum upgrade, The Merge, will not reduce gas fees.

As explained by the Ethereum Foundation:

“The Merge deprecates the use of proof-of-work, transitioning to proof-of-stake for consensus, but does not significantly change any parameters that directly influence network capacity or throughput.”

The Merge upgrade involves joining the existing execution layer of the Ethereum mainnet with the Beacon Chain, effectively eliminating the need for energy-intensive mining.

Polygon zero-knowledge EVM Rollup aims at cheaper Web3 transactions

Polygon uses zero-knowledge proof to club multiple transactions into groups before relaying them over to the Ethereum blockchain as a single transaction.

Polygon, a Web3 infrastructure on the Ethereum blockchain, announced the launch of Polygon zkEVM or zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine, a ayer-2 scaling solution aimed at reducing transaction costs and improving scalability.

The new zero-knowledge (ZK) scaling solution, Polygon zkEVM, operates in full compatibility with existing Ethereum (ETH)-based smart contracts, developer tools and wallets using zero-knowledge cryptography protocol, a.k.a., zk proof. Polygon uses zk proof to club multiple transactions into groups before relaying them over to the Ethereum blockchain as a single transaction.

This ability to transmit multiple transactions as a single transaction results in lower gas fees, which can be split between the various senders involved in the transaction — thus bringing down the gas fees when compared to sending them separately over the Ethereum blockchain.

While investors were subject to exorbitant gas owing to the rise in on-chain transactions, Ethereum’s average gas fee fell down to $1.57 — a number last seen in December 2020.

*Ethereum average transaction fee YTD. Source: BitInfoCharts*

As a result, Polygon zkEVM is well-positioned to bring down the infamous gas prices further. Polygon promises faster settlement and far better capital efficiency through the newly-launched solution, adding to its capability in easy migration of EVM-compatible decentralized applications (DApps) over to zkEVM.

Moreover, the company revealed that the solution also caters to the seamless creation of nonfungible tokens (NFT) and other blockchain-based applications. When compared to layer-1 solutions, Polygon estimates a 90% reduction in costs by using the zk-Rollup approach.

While sub-ecosystems continue to launch solutions hoping to improve major blockchains like Bitcoin (ETH) and Ethereum, in-house developers support the drive by implementing consensus-based upgrades.

In a recent conference call, core Ethereum developer Tim Beiko propose September 19 as the tentative target date for the crucial transition from proof-of-work (PoW) mining consensus to proof-of-stake (PoS).

This merge timeline isn't final, but it's extremely exciting to see it coming together. Please regard this as a planning timeline and look out for official announcements!https://t.co/ttutBceZ21 pic.twitter.com/MY8VFOv0SI

— superphiz.eth (@superphiz) July 14, 2022

Following up on the discussion, Ethereum developer superphiz.eth shared the roadmap and clarified that the proposed target date should be seen as a roadmap rather than a hard deadline.

Bitcoin per transaction cost goes down every four years, coincidence?

The cost per Bitcoin transaction is calculated by dividing miners’ revenue by the number of transactions, thus implying an unpredictive trend.

Diving deep into the thirteen-year-old Bitcoin (BTC) ecosystem makes one come across interesting patterns powered organically by investor sentiment and market conditions. With BTC’s per transaction cost coming down to $56.846 on July 14, the ecosystem unveiled a cycle wherein the per transaction costs invariably fall every four years.

The cost per Bitcoin transaction is calculated by dividing miners’ revenue by the number of transactions, thus implying an unpredictive trend — however, data from Blockchain.com reveals a pattern many would find satisfying.

*Bitcoin cost per transaction YTD. Source: blockchain.com*

The cost per transaction dropped over 81% in July 2022 from its all-time high of $300.331 in May 2021, factored by a combination of a prolonged bear market and fewer on-chain transactions due to regulatory hurdles imposed on the general investors.

However, the rise and fall of the cost per transaction is a pattern seen every four years. Ever since its launch in 2009, Bitcoin’s cost per transaction went through its rollercoaster cycle three times — in 2014, 2018 and 2022.

If history were to repeat itself regardless of market conditions, the cost per transaction would overshadow the current all-time high by 2026, which would be accompanied by an eventual downfall around the $50 range.

Overall, miners’ revenue has also seen a significant reduction throughout the year 2022, with July marking the month of lowest income from Bitcoin mining in over two years.

Impacted by the falling market prices, Bitcoin miners found themselves barely making profits owing to the high operating costs associated with BTC mining. However, falling graphic cards or GPU prices are set to offset the losses as miners get access to affordable mining hardware.

*GPU price trend over the past one year. Source: TechSpot*

With card manufacturers resuming operations following the end of the global chip shortage, GPU prices declined massively, with some cards selling for below MSRPs. In May 2022, mining hardware prices dropped over 15% on average as supply exceeded the market demand.

Bitcoin per transaction cost goes down every four years — Coincidence?

The cost per Bitcoin transaction is calculated by dividing miners’ revenue by the number of transactions, thus implying an unpredictive trend.

Diving deep into the thirteen-year-old Bitcoin (BTC) ecosystem makes one come across interesting patterns powered organically by investor sentiment and market conditions. With BTC’s per transaction cost coming down to $56.846 on Thursday, the ecosystem unveiled a cycle wherein the per transaction costs invariably fall every four years.

Overall, miners’ revenue has also seen a significant reduction throughout the year 2022, with July marking the month of lowest income from Bitcoin mining in over two years.

DeFi’s downturn deepens, but protocols with revenue and fee sharing could thrive

It’s too early to know if DeFi is “dead,” but platforms that share revenue with liquidity providers and token holders could be the ones that survive the bear market.

At the moment, liquidity is hard to come by, but crypto traders and protocols still need inflow and revenue to remain functional.

As the crypto winter drags on, savvy crypto investors have realized that one of the reliable sources of passive income that still exists can be found on protocols that generate revenue and share some of it with their respective communities.

Platforms that earn real yield through useage fees are the obvious winner in the bear market, That mean perpetuals and options as they are profitable bear or bull. Thats why #GMX is hot, #snx fees up massively and #eth is just a no brainer.

— Collingwood.lens (@Fraxima1ist) July 13, 2022

Let’s take a look at some of the protocols that continue to thrive in the current down market.

DeFi might be dead, but platforms with revenue will thrive

Data from Token Terminal shows revenue positive platforms are primarily the nonfungible token (NFT) marketplaces like LooksRare and OpenSea.

*Top dapps based on cumulative protocol revenue in the past 180 days. Source: Token Terminal*

Aside from a few select protocols including MetaMask, Decentral Games, Axie Infinity and Ethereum Name Service, the majority of the remaining protocols with the highest revenue are decentralized finance platforms, showing that while DeFi is down, it’s not out of the game.

Fee sharing helps to lure liquidity

DeFi protocols and decentralized applications (DApps) that offer fee sharing to token holders and liquidity providers are also revenue positive.

Historical view of crypto/web3 projects that generate fee revenue to their token holders.

Protocol revenue market share leaders in ’21:
Q1: MakerDAO
Q2: PancakeSwap
Q3: Axie Infinity
Q4: Ethereum pic.twitter.com/zNRFnss7c4

— Token Terminal (@tokenterminal) January 29, 2022

As the bear market continues to batter prices and eliminate unprofitable and poorly managed platforms, protocols that offer token holders passive income streams have a higher chance of enduring until the next bull market begins.

Synthetix (SNX) makes a comeback

A good example of how fee sharing can help boost a token and DeFi protocol was recently seen with Synthetix (SNX), which made waves when it partnered with Curve Finance to create Curve pools for several of its Synths assets.

Since the cross-chain collaboration was established, the protocol revenue for Synthetix has seen a tremendous increase that coincided with a rise in the price of SNX from $1.56 to its current price at $2.59.

*SNX daily price vs. protocol revenue in the past 180 days. Source: Token Terminal*

The increase in revenue did not go unnoticed by crypto Twitter, which was quick to point out the rapid turnaround for the platform.

$SNX @synthetix_io bypassed @AaveAave in daily fees Also, @SushiSwap @CurveFinance @MakerDAO combined. pic.twitter.com/w1dBVHL2YD

— Wega (@William24931283) July 7, 2022

How it all plays out for Synthetix in the long run, is anyone’s guess. For now, the platform is demonstrating that generating revenue and sharing some of that revenue with token holders is one way to retain market share during a market downturn.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Binance users support 0-fee trading despite CZ’s wash trading concerns

CZ is open to implementing the changes regardless of the challenges that a new system would bring, as he said, “Let’s see what the poll say. We listen to our users.”

Both traditional and crypto investors consider trading fees as one of the most significant liabilities when it comes to investing over exchanges. So no wonder when Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the founder and CEO of Binance, asked investors about their interest in trading on the crypto exchange with no fees, the response was a resounding yes despite the inherent risks pointed out by the entrepreneur.

Binance stands as the biggest crypto exchange, outdoing its nearest competition FTX by 10x in terms of the trading volume. Zhao, known for implementing features based on community feedback, reached out over Twitter to gauge investor sentiment regarding the complete removal of trading fees.

0 fee trading @binance creates a few problems, wash trading, VIP tiers, etc. A thread

Do you still want it? 1/4.

— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) July 8, 2022

While 0-fee trading may seem ideal for investors, CZ pointed out some of the issues it may sprout in the process — one of them being wash trading. Wash trading, wherein a user makes a series of buys and sells to manipulate market activity, can be used to go up the VIP tiers on Binance.

Moreover, CZ stated that bringing 0-fee trading to the masses will require Binance to implement numerous safeguards, which include detection tools for identifying illegitimate trades. Each VIP tier is tied to certain trading benefits including lower trading fees. As a result, professional poker player Brian Rast asked “So if there are no fees, why do you need VIP tiers?”

Over 30,600 investors voted on CZ’s poll at the time of writing — with around 65.5% inclined to trade with no fee whatsoever. CZ is open to implementing the changes regardless of the challenges that a new system would bring:

“Let’s see what the poll say. We listen to our users.”

Binance continues to spread its roots across the world as it steadily acquires registrations and operational licenses from regulators.

Maintaining its expansion streak, Binance’s Spanish subsidiary, Moon Tech Spain, got registered as a VASP by Spain’s central bank on Thursday. CZ attributed the development to Binance’s intent to protect users:

“Effective regulation is essential for the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies. We have invested significantly in compliance and introduced AMLD 5 and 6 compliant tools and policies to ensure that our platform remains the safest and most trustworthy in the industry.”