Binance Savings

[uneng]

Does anyone use Binance saving account? They pay interest over bitcoin and altcoins held on your account there, although the rates for bitcoin are insanely low in flexible savings category, while in activities category the rates are decent. Unfortunatelly as I see the second category is unavailable.

Do you have experience with this kind of investment there? Were you able to join the activities category investment? What is your review about it? Or are there another solid platform offering better options?

[mk4]

I haven't tried using Binance's or any other platform that provides yield. Why? I'm not a fan of handing over full custody of my coins to an exchange or any other platform. Due to the simple fact that exchanges get hacked, and while them locking up user's accounts aren't that common, it's still a lot more common than most people think and I definitely wouldn't want to be a victim of that.

I'm not totally against these kinds of services though. Just remember to not allocate 100% of your holdings, keep the risks in mind, and don't be surprised if something bad happens to your account and your funds.

[janggernaut]

Nope i haven't tried it either. I don't too like to "lock" my money on their savings because how if bitcoin or other currency price skyrocketed suddenly? I can't sell my money because it still locked on there and i will miss the big chance to sell on the peak.

Better safe than sorry, don't easily believe with other kind of investment which telling you they will give you bigger return than binance. IMO i don't think the %return from binance is small tbh.

[suchmoon]

Too much risk for a measly 5%. Centralized, glitchy, KYC-prone exchange pawning off your bitcoins to some nebulous "activities", what could possibly go wrong.

[TryNinja]

These APYs are terrible. If you're going to handle your coins to a third party, at least do to one that pays better (and are way safer) like Celsius or Blockfi.

If you want to risk more but also earn a lot more, take a look at some of the big ETH or BSC yield farms (eth: Compound, Aave; bsc: AutoFarm, ACryptoS, etc...). Always DYOR and please be aware of the risks.

[o_e_l_e_o]

As always with these kinds of services, I encourage users to take a look at the Terms of Service to see what they are actually signing up for. It is never just as simple as "Deposit your coins and earn interest". There is always a catch. Let's take a look:

When using Binance Savings service, you should note that:

a. Binance Savings assets will be used in cryptocurrency leveraged borrowing and other businesses.

So, the funds you deposit are given out to other users and third parties as loans. Lots of risk there from failed repayments, loan defaults, bankruptcies, scams, etc. "Other businesses" handily incorporates literally everything else in the entire world. They want to use your deposit to buy shares? They can. To buy property? They can. To YOLO in to some penny stock or shitcoin? They can.

And a little bit further down:

e. You agree that all investment operations conducted on Binance represent your true investment intentions and that unconditionally accept the potential risks and benefits of your investment decisions.

You unconditionally accept the risks. If anything goes wrong, Binance hold absolutely zero responsibility for it going wrong. All the risk is on you. If an investment goes bad, Binance take zero hit but you lose your money. If a borrower doesn't repay the loan, Binance take zero hit but you lose your money. If the platform is hacked, Binance take zero hit but you lose your money.

There's an awful lot of risk there for very little benefit.

[hugeblack]

Despite the good reputation of Binance, they rarely assume the risks. Before you do anything, they tell you that you bear full responsibility if you lose your coins. So I don't think I'm going to keep the money there.

In addition, if your account is not verified or you do not intend to provide your personal files, it is better not to use them because at some point they will request your personal data.

[slaman29]

I admit I do keep some balances there. But that's only because cumulatively, if I was to withdraw them I would lose quite a lot in fees and dust inputs.

The flex yields are not bad if you want to move them again immediately but try to wait for them to release long term ones so you can lock it in for higher profits.

I have over $50 from maybe 2/3 years now in interest and that's because crypto went up again:)

[The Cryptovator]

Although my choice is Binance as a centralized trading exchange for trade, I wasn't familiar with any kind of investments nor I am interested. I am not a big trader, even I am always worried about my funds there. So I can't invest there for interests. Never-ending the return is big or small. However, I didn't notice it before you wrote here. Because I simply enter there and just open spot trade. Other features aren't for me (for a simple trader) and I don't involve with them.

[sunsilk]

I like Binance as an exchange but being a savings place for my coins, I wouldn't take the risk for that low interest rates. I won't hand over any amount of bitcoin there for that savings option. But probably if I've got some of those altcoins on that list that I don't much worry about, maybe it's worth to try.

I'll keep my bitcoin on my hardware wallet than to put it there. There's no interest rate that I'll get per year but I'm leaning to the rise that it gets from time to time and probably another breakout for a new ATH coming soon. That's easier and convenient.

[PrimeNumber7]

As always with these kinds of services, I encourage users to take a look at the Terms of Service to see what they are actually signing up for. It is never just as simple as "Deposit your coins and earn interest". There is always a catch. Let's take a look:

When using Binance Savings service, you should note that:

a. Binance Savings assets will be used in cryptocurrency leveraged borrowing and other businesses.

So, the funds you deposit are given out to other users and third parties as loans. Lots of risk there from failed repayments, loan defaults, bankruptcies, scams, etc. "Other businesses" handily incorporates literally everything else in the entire world. They want to use your deposit to buy shares? They can. To buy property? They can. To YOLO in to some penny stock or shitcoin? They can.

Binance offers crypto secured loans that are structured similarly to how loans in the lending subforum work, the borrower puts up 1xx% collateral of one coin, and receives a loan of another type of coin.

You are right though, this language is very broad, and Binance could expand into other, more risky businesses while your coin is tied up in "activity".

And a little bit further down:

e. You agree that all investment operations conducted on Binance represent your true investment intentions and that unconditionally accept the potential risks and benefits of your investment decisions.

You unconditionally accept the risks. If anything goes wrong, Binance hold absolutely zero responsibility for it going wrong. All the risk is on you. If an investment goes bad, Binance take zero hit but you lose your money. If a borrower doesn't repay the loan, Binance take zero hit but you lose your money. If the platform is hacked, Binance take zero hit but you lose your money.

There's an awful lot of risk there for very little benefit.

It would be unusual for an exchange to give lenders a 'haircut' when a borrower is unable to fully repay their loans. The last time I remember this happening was poloniex I believe in 2019, and this was because the losses exceeded their reserves. I believe it is most common for exchanges to have reserves to be able to temporarily take over margin positions until market conditions improve, and/or to cover losses up to a limit.

If lenders had to take a haircut every time a borrower is unable to repay a margin loan, the rates lenders would demand would be too high for borrowers to want to use the platform.

[Mahanton]

Nope i haven't tried it either. I don't too like to "lock" my money on their savings because how if bitcoin or other currency price skyrocketed suddenly? I can't sell my money because it still locked on there and i will miss the big chance to sell on the peak.

Better safe than sorry, don't easily believe with other kind of investment which telling you they will give you bigger return than binance. IMO i don't think the %return from binance is small tbh.

They are the only ones who would really be benefiting out of those savings feature that they do had because it is really an advantage for them to make more money than on paying out those interest
to those users who had been using that savings feature this is why i dont really care on how high or decent their returns been offering because nothing beats out when you do just simply holding
off your coins in your own wallet without worrying yourself about exchange hacks or exit scams and that will really be giving you some nice sleep every night rather than on thinking
that you do have some bitcoins into other thirdparty.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Binance offers crypto secured loans that are structured similarly to how loans in the lending subforum work, the borrower puts up 1xx% collateral of one coin, and receives a loan of another type of coin.

For average users like you or me, then sure, we are required to put up collateral, but I would be surprised if Binance didn't offer preferential packages or rates, with reduced or absent collateral, for large business or institutional customers.

It would be unusual for an exchange to give lenders a 'haircut' when a borrower is unable to fully repay their loans.

I don't disagree, and I also expect that if Binance suffered a loss they could absorb then they would do so, like they did with the $40 million hack back in 2019. However, the fact remains that there is absolutely zero requirement for them to do this, and the customer is accepting the full risk of loss. Any support Binance gives in such a situation would be entirely to protect their own reputation and profits, not because they are bound to assist their users.

[uneng]

These APYs are terrible. If you're going to handle your coins to a third party, at least do to one that pays better (and are way safer) like Celsius or Blockfi.

If you want to risk more but also earn a lot more, take a look at some of the big ETH or BSC yield farms (eth: Compound, Aave; bsc: AutoFarm, ACryptoS, etc...). Always DYOR and please be aware of the risks.

Thanks, that is what I was also looking for. I knew only Nexo platform, but it's good to see similar sites to have the option of splitting the funds. Celsius pays 4,06% yearly over bitcoin (base rate) and Blockfi I'm not able to register yet because sign ups are blocked today for maintenance it seems. Let's see on the next days.

e. You agree that all investment operations conducted on Binance represent your true investment intentions and that unconditionally accept the potential risks and benefits of your investment decisions.

You unconditionally accept the risks. If anything goes wrong, Binance hold absolutely zero responsibility for it going wrong. All the risk is on you. If an investment goes bad, Binance take zero hit but you lose your money. If a borrower doesn't repay the loan, Binance take zero hit but you lose your money. If the platform is hacked, Binance take zero hit but you lose your money.

There's an awful lot of risk there for very little benefit.

These terms are indeed very shady. But as they are a centralized business running in different countries, could they present such terms without any guarantees for customers? If they hypothetically scam investors' funds wouldn't they be sued by local authorities from the countries where they operate? I see similar situation with CRED investment site which scammed everyone claiming bankruptcy, but the case isn't finished yet and there are investigations and law suits running.

It's a pitty to see a platform like Binance which is ready to replace banks in general, as it offers all the same services, not presenting decent terms to give total security to its customers. However I think a scam is very unlikely, even because they offer too low interest ratings (1%). That is total advantage for themselves.

[PrimeNumber7]

Binance offers crypto secured loans that are structured similarly to how loans in the lending subforum work, the borrower puts up 1xx% collateral of one coin, and receives a loan of another type of coin.

For average users like you or me, then sure, we are required to put up collateral, but I would be surprised if Binance didn't offer preferential packages or rates, with reduced or absent collateral, for large business or institutional customers.

I'm sure larger customers can have access to reduced interest rates, but have doubts as to if they would be able to get unsecured loans absent some strong alternate form of guarantee such as a letter of credit, or loan covenants that can be enforced easily by binance.

It would be unusual for an exchange to give lenders a 'haircut' when a borrower is unable to fully repay their loans.

I don't disagree, and I also expect that if Binance suffered a loss they could absorb then they would do so, like they did with the $40 million hack back in 2019. However, the fact remains that there is absolutely zero requirement for them to do this, and the customer is accepting the full risk of loss. Any support Binance gives in such a situation would be entirely to protect their own reputation and profits, not because they are bound to assist their users.

I think this is usually the case with most exchanges and has been since bitcoin's early days. Even if an exchange has clauses saying that the exchange is guaranteeing against default risk in their TOS, most exchanges have been located in locations in which customers will have difficulty enforcing these clauses in court. Take MtGox for example, they filed for bankruptcy in 2014, and here we are in 2021, and their customers have still not recovered all available assets of Gox.

It is the Wild West in crypto land, and customers of an exchange should weigh the risks the exchange will be unable or unwilling to honor deposits with the potential for possible profit resulting from depositing coin on an exchange.

[o_e_l_e_o]

If they hypothetically scam investors' funds wouldn't they be sued by local authorities from the countries where they operate?

It's not Binance scamming that I would be worried about, which I agree is incredibly unlikely. Rather, it is the loss of your funds through the very methods being used to generate profits. If someone they have lent your coins to doesn't repay, goes bankrupt, scams, is hacked or robbed, etc., then you assume the full risk of loss. If they invest your funds in stocks, shares, ETFs, a start up, an altcoin, etc. and that investment loses money, then you assume the full risk of loss. Maybe Binance will cover it on your behalf, but there is no requirement for them to do so, and you simply have to hope for the best.

Even if an exchange has clauses saying that the exchange is guaranteeing against default risk in their TOS, most exchanges have been located in locations in which customers will have difficulty enforcing these clauses in court.

I don't keep up with Binance, but haven't they split their business in to multiple entities? US, global, Malta, Bermuda, Jersey. Does anyone actually know which one is handling their savings accounts? I suspect they have been deliberately vague about the whole set up.

[bakasabo]

I have used Binance both flexible and locked savings. If you have and have use same option in fiat bank accounts, then you wont see anything new here.

I had NEO and EOS in locked savings and received my interest daily. Had USDT in flexible and locked savings plan. It is good that you can close your flexible plan in just few clicks and get your assets back in seconds. As to locked savings - like people said, the % is extremely low. I was able to put 100 USDT for a 30day lock period and got around 50 cents. Even 90day lock wont give much.

I dont know this USDT locked savings even exist. You can only lock 100 USDT (but you may lock as many as you want of these "100 USDT package") and get 2 dollars in a quarter. Of course, "the money must work", but trading with 100 USDT during a month might bring you more than 50 cents profit.

[uneng]

If they hypothetically scam investors' funds wouldn't they be sued by local authorities from the countries where they operate?

It's not Binance scamming that I would be worried about, which I agree is incredibly unlikely. Rather, it is the loss of your funds through the very methods being used to generate profits. If someone they have lent your coins to doesn't repay, goes bankrupt, scams, is hacked or robbed, etc., then you assume the full risk of loss. If they invest your funds in stocks, shares, ETFs, a start up, an altcoin, etc. and that investment loses money, then you assume the full risk of loss. Maybe Binance will cover it on your behalf, but there is no requirement for them to do so, and you simply have to hope for the best.

Yes, there are some risks, like CRED loans and investments platform I said before. They declared bankruptcy, but investigation discovered it was due a non paid loan by the own associate of CRED's CEO which had exited the company to start a new one in China. So there is suspection CRED wasn't a victim, but a partner of the defaulter to harm the investors.
If a big business like Binance starts lending money without guarantees and investing in altcoins, stocks, etc in a risky way the first assumption would be that they are in collusion with the scammers or fake projects. It's a very unsual situation yet, not possible to have sure how the law would apply on these cases, but at least in CRED's case the justice took the suspection I mentioned above in consideration, what is good in my opinion and doesn't give many chances to scammers to avoid their responsabilities.

[magneto]

The 5% product is almost always oversubscribed, and the 1.2% one provides an absolute joke of a return.

I think that if you were to trust a centralised entity anyway, you might as well do margin lending on major exchanges as opposed to invest on Binance - you are likely to get at least 7-8% p.a. returns if not somewhere in the double digits.

Honestly, what seems more attractive to me than the BTC savings product is the USDT product - 6% p.a. is quite attractive by any means, actually higher than some of the p2p lending platforms even. Compared to only 1.2% on BTC savings, this product actually seems somewhat intriguing for the rewards that it offers, since you'd already be trusting a central institution in the first place by using USDT.

[Darker45]

Just my couple of Satoshis.

You want to do savings, it better be done in the safest ways possible. Definitely, that does not include handing it to someone else.

Forget about that very tiny yield. It cannot pay for the risks and the possible troubles along the way.

I once got involved in such stuff. There was a sort of a rebranding or a restructuring whatever and they're changing tokens. They give the clients a few months to do the swapping. I was not monitoring everything. I missed the deadline. Funds are gone. This is not your case. But, surely, there will be all kinds of troubles along the way.

You better keep your savings to you and you alone. Just stack Sats. It's probably more worthy.