Binance US, the U.S. arm of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, announced a new pricing model that offers zero commissions for four bitcoin trading pairs, including BTC/USD, BTC/USDT, BTC/USDC and BTC/BUSD. The cryptocurrency giant becomes the first U.S. exchange to make such a service available to its users.
The elimination of such trading fees, according to Binance US CEO Brian Schroeder, should revolutionize the industry’s approach to trading costs and make cryptocurrencies more accessible.
Following the news, Coinbase and Robinhood shares fell nearly 10 percent and 1 percent. Their stock prices are down more than 85% and 90%, respectively, compared to ATH.
As prominent competitors of Binance US, both exchanges recently announced staff reductions, with Coinbase laying off 18% of its employees and Robinhood cutting staff by 9%.
The Binance US announcement comes at a time when trading volume on exchanges has fallen hard amid a broader market slowdown. The company reportedly said that “the best time to introduce zero commissions is now,” as the industry struggles to find a way out of the general bearish mood.
Reducing bitcoin trading commissions relative to U.S. dollar-linked stablenecoin means deducting some of the company’s main revenue stream.
The U.S.-based giant called the new measure a test of such a zero-commission model, noting that if users approve it, the company will apply a similar policy to other assets and pairs in the future. The lost revenue – relatively small – won’t affect the company much, since it has more than 100 other tokens listed on the exchange that require trading commissions, Binance US added.
After raising $200 million from venture capitalists and cryptocurrency firms in April, the exchange reached a valuation of $4.5 billion.
