Luno vs Binance Singapore – Which Exchange Is Better?

Last updated on January 19th, 2022

There are many crypto exchanges that you can use to buy cryptocurrency.

2 of them include Luno and Binance Singapore.

Which one is better and which one should you choose?

Here’s what you need to know:

The difference between Luno and Binance Singapore

Luno charges you much lower trading fees compared to Binance Singapore. However, you can only trade in 6 currencies on Luno, compared to the 8 currencies you can trade with Binance Singapore.

Here’s an in-depth comparison between these 2 exchanges:

Founder

Luno is based in London and was founded earlier in 2012.

Meanwhile, Binance Singapore was launched in 2019. It was launched as a separate exchange from Binance.com.

Luno can be found in 8 countries, such as Singapore and Malaysia.

Both of them seem to be rather reputable companies that have a strong background in the cryptocurrency scene.

Number of currencies

Luno allows you to trade in 6 currencies:

1. BTC
2. BCH
3. ETH
4. XRP
5. LTC
6. USDC

These currencies are the more well-known ones that have been around for quite a while!

Binance Singapore allows you to purchase 8 currencies

Meanwhile, Binance Singapore gives you slightly more variety. This is because you can purchase 8 cryptocurrencies.

This includes:

1. BTC
2. ETH
3. BNB
4. LTC
5. BCH
6. XRP
7. NEO
8. LINK

One advantage that Luno has is that it allows you to trade in the stablecoin USDC. This allows you to use these coins to earn a rather high interest rate with crypto savings accounts!

Methods of funding your account

To start buying crypto on either exchange, you will need to fund your SGD wallet. Both exchanges allow you to deposit SGD using your Xfers account.

Xfers is a payment solutions that allow you to transfer your money securely into the crypto exchanges.

It sort of acts like the middleman between your bank accounts and the exchanges.

However, you will need to first transfer your SGD to your Xfers account via FAST. After that, you can transfer your SGD from your Xfers account to either Luno or Binance Singapore.

Methods of buying crypto

For both exchanges, you can use SGD to purchase your crypto.

Binance Singapore only allows you to buy the 8 currencies directly from SGD. It does not allow you to exchange between currencies.

However for Luno, you are able to exchange between different cryptocurrencies.

You are able to buy crypto directly from SGD, or exchange it from another currency.

This makes Luno’s platform slightly more flexible.

You are buying crypto directly instead of trading

When you are purchasing crypto on either exchange, you are buying it directly based on the prevailing market rate.

This is slightly different from trading, where you get to choose the limit price that you pay!

As such, the exchange rate of the crypto that you’re paying may differ slightly.

Here is Luno’s rate,

and Binance Singapore’s rate at around the same time.

The rates for Luno are much higher compared to Binance Singapore!

This means that you’ll require more SGD to purchase the same amount of BTC in Luno.

Withdrawal of funds

Both Luno and Binance Singapore allow you to transfer your funds to your Xfers wallet.

This is slightly more troublesome compared to Coinhako or Gemini, which allows you to withdraw directly to your bank account!

Sending and receiving crypto

Both Luno and Binance Singapore allow you to send and receive crypto from external wallets.

This makes it easy for you to transfer your crypto to another exchange.

You can also send your crypto to a savings wallet that earns you high interest, such as:

1. Celsius
2. BlockFi
3. Hodlnaut
4. Youhodler
5. Nexo

Fees

The most important thing when it comes to trading crypto are the fees. You should try to minimise your fees as much as possible!

Here are some of the fees you may incur when using either exchange:

#1 Depositing and withdrawing fees

There are no deposit or withdrawal fees for either platform.

This is better compared to Coinhako, which charges you:

1. 0.55% deposit fees (if you use Xfers)
2. $2 for every withdrawal

#2 Buying and selling crypto

Here are the fees that you’ll be charged for both exchanges:

Luno has lower fees if you use their Exchange platform

If you want to use Luno’s instant buy function, you will incur a 1% fee.

This is similar to the fee that Coinhako charges.

However, Luno has an exchange platform as well.

Luno charges you the trading fee based on your 30-day trade volume:

Trade Volume	Fee
SGD 0.00 – SGD 349,999.99	0.10%
SGD 350,000.00 – SGD 699,999.99	0.09%
SGD 700,000.00 – SGD 1,399,999.99	0.08%

There are much higher trade volumes, but I do not think you will hit those amounts.

Even at the lowest tier, the fee charged by Luno is really low.

At 0.10%, it is cheaper compared to most platforms!

The only drawback is that the Luno Exchange only has BTC/SGD as their SGD trading pair.

If you wish to buy other currencies, you will have to make at least 2 trades.

Binance Singapore charges 0.6% for each trade

When you make a buy or sell order on Binance Singapore, you will be charged 0.60%.

The fees are 6 times higher compared to Luno!

If you are just looking at fees alone, Luno is definitely more cost effective.

#3 Sending and receiving fees

You may want to send or receive your crypto from an external wallet.

For Luno, the fees for most currencies that you send are dynamic. This depends on the network demand and traffic when you’re sending your crypto.

The only exception is the fixed fee for sending XRP (0.3%).

For Binance Singapore, the withdrawal fees are fixed. This depends on which crypto you’re sending:

Crypto	Withdrawal Fee	Minimum
BTC	0.0004	0.001
ETH	0.01	0.02
BNB	0.001	0.002
LTC	0.001	0.002
BCH	0.001	0.002
XRP	0.25	2
NEO	0	1
LINK	0.7	2

If you send NEO, then you will not be charged any fees.

If you want to receive crypto from an external wallet, no fees are charged by either exchange.

However, you’ll need to consider the fees you incur when sending crypto from your external wallets!

Limits and minimum amounts

When you want to buy crypto on either exchange, you may be subject to certain limits and minimum amounts.

Exchange	Minimum per Trade	Limits
Luno	SGD $20	SGD $30,000 (monthly)
Binance Singapore	SGD $20	SGD $20,000 (daily)

Both exchanges have the same minimum amount to trade.

Earning interest on your crypto

Luno has one advantage over Binance Singapore as it has a Bitcoin Savings Wallet.

This is similar to a savings account. Instead of earning interest on your fiat currency, you will earn it with Bitcoin!

Crypto.com has a similar programme with its Crypto Earn.

Luno projects that you can earn up to 4% p.a. on your Bitcoin. However, the interest rate may fluctuate!

If you intend to buy and hold your cryptocurrency, this is a great way for you to earn some interest!

Security

You may have heard of how crypto exchanges can be hacked, and these hackers can steal your cryptocurrencies!

So how do these exchanges try and combat this?

Luno stores the majority of your currencies in a cold storage

Luno also uses 2 places to store your crypto:

1. Deep freeze storage
2. Hot wallet

This approach is quite similar to how Coinhako is doing it. Most of your funds are stored in the cold wallet.

However, some of your funds are in their hot wallet, in case you want to quickly withdraw them.

In the hot wallet, another set of keys are held with BitGo. They are considered to be a secure custodian of your crypto.

Once again, your crypto stored with Luno should be rather secure.

Luno provides 2FA to either your email or mobile phone whenever you login to your account.

Binance Singapore does not disclose their security measures

Unlike Luno, Binance Singapore does not disclose the security measures they have put in place. This may be slightly worrying if you are very concerned about security.

Binance.com faced a security breach in 2019. However, Binance Singapore declared that the breach did not affect their exchange.

Although the platform is quite new, Binance Singapore has not been hacked so far!

Platforms

Luno has both a web platform,

as well as a mobile app.

Meanwhile, Binance Singapore only has a web platform.

In my opinion, their platform is slightly ‘less stable’ and doesn’t really have the same ‘professional’ feel compared to Luno.

Verdict

Here is a comparison between Luno and Binance Singapore:

	Luno	Binance Singapore
Year Founded	2012	2019
HQ	London	Singapore
Number of Currencies	6	8
Funding Methods	Xfers	Xfers
Methods of Buying	SGD Wallet	SGD Wallet
Withdrawal of Funds	Xfers	Xfers
Deposit Fees	None	None
Withdrawal Fees	None	None
Trading Fees	1% (Instant Buy) and 0.10% (Exchange)	0.60%
Sending Fees	Dynamic  (Except for XRP: 0.30%)	Depends on currency
Minimum Per Trade	SGD $20	SGD $20
Bitcoin Wallet	Present (Up to 4%)	Absent
Security	Cold storage + hot wallet	Not specified
Platform	Web + Mobile	Web only

So which platform should you choose?

Choose Luno for lower fees

Luno’s Exchange has one of the lowest trading fees, at 0.10%. It is cheaper than Liquid or Gemini, which both have rather cheap fees already!

However, their instant buy option is more expensive compared to Binance Singapore (1% vs 0.60%).

The main limitation is that you can only buy 6 currencies on their platform. This makes it rather limiting, especially if you want to buy other currencies like DOGE.

Apart from that, Luno is a great platform to get some exposure into cryptocurrency!

Choose Binance Singapore for slightly greater variety

Binance Singapore allows you to trade 8 currencies, which is slightly higher than Luno.

Their 0.60% fee is also cheaper compared to Luno’s Instant Buy.

Overall, I do not really like the feel of the platform, however it could just be my personal preference.

Binance Singapore is also an easy way to get exposed to cryptocurrency. However, their higher fees may eat into your returns in the future.

Conclusion

Both exchanges allow you to purchase cryptocurrency directly from SGD.

The exchange that you ultimately choose depends on:

1. The type of currency you wish to buy
2. The trading fees that you wish to incur
3. Whether you want to have a BTC savings wallet

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