Closing my Binance account

[DireWolfM14]

I really don't want to get into the politics of why in this section of the forum, but due to recent news I've decided to boycott Binance.  I generally don't use CEXs anyway, and rarely to do I keep any significant balances there.  I logged into Binance.US today for the first time in around two years and found I had about $90 worth of BTC.  So I went to withdraw it, and I noticed this:



$28 to withdraw my bitcoin!  WTF!?

Any advice?  Would it be worth converting it to DOGE or something?  Remember, this Binance.US not Binance.com, so withdrawal fees may be different.

[Zwei]

Would be better to use litecoin as it usually has low withdrawal fees, and you can swap it back to bitcoin on exch.cx without lossing much

[Darker45]

While I agree that people should consider leaving Binance for good, I guess it is misplaced for them to complain about Binance's freezing of certain accounts while citing Bitcoin's supposed decentralization. If it's decentralization they truly wanted, they shouldn't have considered Binance in the first place. The joke's on them for using Binance, expecting so much from it, and got disappointed in the end for its failure to deliver.

Anyway, in your case, I might consider trading it to USDT and then sell for fiat via P2P. You're already on Binance anyway. Trading it to another coin and withdrawing it to another platform only to be converted to Bitcoin once again might cost you as much. Or what's the intention? Withdraw the Bitcoin to a non-custodial wallet?

[PX-Z]

Any advice?  Would it be worth converting it to DOGE or something?  Remember, this Binance.US not Binance.com, so withdrawal fees may be different.

That's the worst thing to do with bitcoin in an exchange, it's to withdraw it, due to it's withdrawal fees. I knew the .com already have 0.0003 withdrawal fees years ago, so having that fees . US and .COM. If it's okay to you to receive alts like XRP, TRX (USDT too), TON (USDT too) and Doge i guess it's far better for smaller fees then exchange back to BTC (or anything) whatever platform you used to received it.

[Oshosondy]

Is Binance.US having lightning network? You can see some reputed lightning network wallets for bitcoin on this thread: Lists of open-source bitcoin lightning wallets. They are also noncustodial bitcoin lightning network wallet. The first four wallets there are newbie friendly.

If lightning network is not available, you can convert it to an altcoin and send it to an exchange which has low withdrawal fee for bitcoin.

[AB de Royse777]

In any centralized exchange the btc withdrawal fee is high and unrealistic. If I was you then I would create an order with the change to exchange USDT in polygon or sol  to get BTC. Then I would request a withdrawal of USDT in polygon or sol on Binance. The withdrawal address will be the address I received from The Change.

I picked the change because you will not spend any fees (as far as I know they have this 0 fees promotion now).

[hugeblack]

I stopped using Binance since the ID verification was imposed and it became clear that they are trying to please governments before they ask them to, and if the clients are from a country with a weak government, their funds will be easily frozen and stolen.
So it is better to use Bisq or a platform that respects their customers.
The average withdrawal fee for Bitcoin is $29 for most platforms and the lowest fee is $2 (at OKX)^[1] so you can exchange Bitcoin to LTC as the withdrawal fee is low.

[1] https://withdrawalfees.com/exchanges/binance

[shield132]

I really don't want to get into the politics of why in this section of the forum, but due to recent news I've decided to boycott Binance.

What happened? Can you share the URL of the news? Twitter asks me to log in and I don't remember my old account because I rarely used it.
Btw I am outside the USA which means that I use binance.com and Bitcoin withdrawal fee for me is six dollars. Are withdrawal fees still the same in your app? 28 dollars is crazy, are they robbing US people?

Any advice?  Would it be worth converting it to DOGE or something?  Remember, this Binance.US not Binance.com, so withdrawal fees may be different.

Litecoin, Matic, Dash, Bitcoin Cash (hated on this forum), Ripple (hated too), you have many options. I would go with Litecoin because Litecoin has high acceptance and big trading volume, so it will be easy for you to exchange Ltc to Btc anytime and anywhere.

[hopenotlate]

Welcome on the bandwagon Sir, very good choice imo.
I wish everyday more people join this trend of leaving CEXes so to deprivate them of the huge power they have and put at service of governments.

I usually go for Litecoin and Dogecoin when I need to move little sums quickly and and I've always felt good.

[ABCbits]

That withdraw fee is rip-off, when https://mempool.space/ currently suggest 5 sat/vB or $0.42 for high priority. Anyway. i tried exploring binance.us website, but unable to find list of withdraw fee. Anyway, you could just choose any popular coin or stablecoin which have lower withdraw and supported by wallet you already use. But IMO @Zwei suggestion sounds great.

[Mate2237]

Lightning Network is not recommendable because the process of using is complicated and the two parties must have the network to per. And not all Centralized Exchanges has Lightning Network. And I think recommendation made by the first use to use Litecoin is also good and also he can use BNB (Binance Smart Chain) BEP20 to execute the transaction to another exchange because that also has low transaction fee. And I will advise the Op that since the coins were abandoned there for 2 years ago, and now that he has discovered them, and the amount is not much and it is just $90 worth of BTC, he should just sell them off in the Binance.us. so that there will be no stress again. Since you are not going to use the exchange anymore, it is better to sell the coins. But if you still want to further keeping the coin in another wallet, the transaction fee for On-Chain might be the same unless you want to keep it in another exchange that you are using.

Keeping coins in centralized exchanges is not advisable because anything can happen. Like example. Now that the CEO of Telegram has been arrested in Frence and if anything happens to the telegram then those who are using the telegram wallet will be affected if they have coins inside so it is good to keep coins in non custodial wallets and if you want to use centralized exchange, it is for selling immediately and after the selling transaction, case close. And all the savings should be in self custodial wallets. Op sell your coins off and relax. Precaution is better than...

[bitmover]

Lightning Network is not recommendable because the process of using is complicated and the two parties must have the network to per. And not all Centralized Exchanges has Lightning Network. And I think recommendation made by the first use to use Litecoin is also good and also he can use BNB (Binance Smart Chain) BEP20 to execute the transaction to another exchange because that also has low transaction fee.

I think lightning network is a good option.

OP can use aqua wallet for example, which is easy to use. From inside aqua he can convert LN to main chain basically for free (I did it a few weeks ago).

Withdrawal ltc or xrp or doge is a good option as well, but remember to quick convert back to btc using godex or exch or any other exchange you like, because those coins may have a poor performance compared to bitcoin

[ABCbits]

Lightning Network is not recommendable because the process of using is complicated and the two parties must have the network to per.

Good LN wallet will take care of that.

And not all Centralized Exchanges has Lightning Network.

That's true. I didn't find any news which state binance.us support LN.

and also he can use BNB (Binance Smart Chain) BEP20 to execute the transaction to another exchange because that also has low transaction fee.

OP decided to boycott Binance, so your suggestion isn't useful to OP. Besides, people should know that they would got pegged version of the coin, rather than the coin itself where you need to trust Binance.

[Oshosondy]

The average withdrawal fee for Bitcoin is $29 for most platforms and the lowest fee is $2 (at OKX)^[1] so you can exchange Bitcoin to LTC as the withdrawal fee is low.

OKX is my favorite exchange to withdraw bitcoin but it is not allowed in United States.

Lightning Network is not recommendable because the process of using is complicated and the two parties must have the network to per.

This is because you have not used lightning network before or you used a wallet that is complicated for it. Use Phoenix, Zeus, Aqua or Muun wallet and see the beauty in using bitcoin lightning wallet.

[Rikafip]

What happened? Can you share the URL of the news? Twitter asks me to log in and I don't remember my old account because I rarely used it.
Btw I am outside the USA which means that I use binance.com and Bitcoin withdrawal fee for me is six dollars. Are withdrawal fees still the same in your app? 28 dollars is crazy, are they robbing US people?

Nothing to do with US citizens, but instead with Palestinians, as Binance decided to seize a certain amount of accounts (some say all, Binance says only a "few") that Israelis claim have been connected with Hamas.

Read more https://cointelegraph.com/news/binance-seize-funds-palestine-israel

[NotATether]

The reason why Binance withdrawal fees are so high is because they don't bother to estimate the mempool so that they can use an optimal fee. For instance, you will regularly see the mempool nowadays having less than a 5 sats/vbyte fee, and yet these folks are charging an amount that implies a fee of hundreds of sats per vbyte! It makes no sense to do that as it's just giving free money to miners.

[Rikafip]

The reason why Binance withdrawal fees are so high is because they don't bother to estimate the mempool so that they can use an optimal fee. For instance, you will regularly see the mempool nowadays having less than a 5 sats/vbyte fee, and yet these folks are charging an amount that implies a fee of hundreds of sats per vbyte! It makes no sense to do that as it's just giving free money to miners.

So exchanges are actually overpaying? I always thought they were just overcharging their users, using lower fees, and pocketing the rest of the money.  

[DireWolfM14]

Would be better to use litecoin as it usually has low withdrawal fees, and you can swap it back to bitcoin on exch.cx without lossing much

Thanks for the suggestion.  I can't recall ever using Litecoin, but I can figure it out if I choose to go that rout.  I sent them a message yesterday asking about DOGE fees, if they are low enough I'll stick with that since I already have wallets set up.  XMR is not an option on Biniace.US or I would have considered that as well.

Is Binance.US having lightning network?

That was my first thought but unfortunately, no, Binance.US doesn't have LN.

What happened?

Nothing to do with US citizens, but instead with Palestinians,

Yes, more details here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5507692.0

The reason why Binance withdrawal fees are so high is because they don't bother to estimate the mempool so that they can use an optimal fee. For instance, you will regularly see the mempool nowadays having less than a 5 sats/vbyte fee, and yet these folks are charging an amount that implies a fee of hundreds of sats per vbyte! It makes no sense to do that as it's just giving free money to miners.

So exchanges are actually overpaying? I always thought they were just overcharging their users, using lower fees, and pocketing the rest of the money.  

That's what I suspected, but I don't know for sure.

[Taskford]

I really don't want to get into the politics of why in this section of the forum, but due to recent news I've decided to boycott Binance.  I generally don't use CEXs anyway, and rarely to do I keep any significant balances there.  I logged into Binance.US today for the first time in around two years and found I had about $90 worth of BTC.  So I went to withdraw it, and I noticed this:



$28 to withdraw my bitcoin!  WTF!?

Any advice?  Would it be worth converting it to DOGE or something?  Remember, this Binance.US not Binance.com, so withdrawal fees may be different.

Ridiculous that's huge amount to be taken out if you select bitcoin to withdraw. Much better to convert it to other altcoin which have low fees so that you can save some money.

Try to check this coins which have cheapest fees to transfer https://coincodex.com/article/22831/cheapest-crypto-to-transfer/ maybe you can find something good coin for you to exchange your bitcoin.

If I experience the same situation for sure will never immediately close my account and never think about opening it again.

[NotATether]

So exchanges are actually overpaying? I always thought they were just overcharging their users, using lower fees, and pocketing the rest of the money.  

I'd be surprised if for most exchanges it was down to the fact that they are either too lazy to update the code, or that they are scared of breaking something inside the withdrawal system that would cause them to lose much more money if it were to become public.

Or maybe because of the first or second reasons and additionally they want to cover themselves in case there was another huge surge in transaction fees. Though I can't help but think that exchanges themselves contribute to this problem sometimes when a block is full of such transactions.