Whenever I saw adverts related to exchanges, I always ignored them believing it was meant for those who had more than enough to spare. That was still my perspective when I joined Steemit early in December. It was difficult at first, but after earning some SBD on it, I began looking for a way to speed up the earning process.
So I started looking into how to exchange this SBD I had with me for something of more value. And so began my journey into the world of exchanges. Thankfully, the exchange rate back then was quite favourable, so I spent hours at a stretch on the Steemit market, buying and selling, over and over again. And by the time the price of STEEM and SBD skyrocketed during the festive period, I had made more than three times what I initially started with. After that experience, nothing could poison my mind towards exchanges anymore.
A couple of friends ask me, "how do you do this exchange thing Gbenga?" My reply has never changed:
By following the basic rule of business; buy at a lower price and sell it at a higher one.
And that has been my philosophy in the world of crypto-exchanges. Always, I try to buy when the conversion ratio is low and sell when it rises.
But there was one fact that made my efforts seem worthless, there was no way to convert these cryptocurrencies I was earninginto fiat currency. So I laid low for a while, trying to work out a way I could do this. It is quite unfortunate that up till this moment, it is complex and tiring to convert fiat into crypto, and vice-versa.
I read lots of articles and posts dealing with converting cryptocurrencies to cash. The only option that was likely to succeed involved me converting to Bitcoins first, and then selling it on local exchanges. So I read up on the different exchanges and got to know of different exchanges like Poloniex, Binance and Bittrex. I read what others were saying about the different exchanges and decided to go in for Poloniex and Binance. But right before I was ready to sign up, someone dropped a bombshell in the Nigerian Steemit community; he was willing to pay us directly into our bank accounts for our STEEM and SBD. Trust me I hurriedly forgot about Binance as I saw a way that was more straightforward.
There is this popular axiom that it is not in the nature of humans to be fully satisfied. This proved to be true in my case. Which made me sign up eventually for accounts on Binance and Poloniex, believing that I could find better options on these exchanges. As fate would have it, the registration process for Poloniex was looking complicated and taking too long. But Binance was relatively easy which is why I am sticking with it. I have even forgotten my password for Poloniex.
So far, the experience has been exhilarating.
Where do I even start from in describing Binance?
To start with, they handle transactions that are quite large. When I see transactions worth tens and hundreds of bitcoins, I feel overwhelmed, seeing my meagre contribution to the exchange. With the volume of trade running into thousands of bitcoins in a day, Binance is definitel something big, something global, and something wealthy.
- But despite the huge amount of transactions being carried out on the exchange, Binance processes transactions instantly. I have not seen any instance where the exchange has proved slow in response due to the amount of traffic it gets. And that is a big plus for the Binance team.*
I would rate this a poor post if I did not commend the fact that Binance has lots of tokens listed, and adds more to the list as time passes. This has proven useful to me on a couple of occasions when I needed another cryptocurrency apart from STEEM to pay for transactions I carry out online.
I saved the best for last. Going into Binance, I never forgot my motto: buy at a lower price and sell at a higher one. While I have had to ensure the difference in my cost and selling price always remains above a certain margin so as to offset Binance transaction fees, my strategy still works for me. With the huge volumes of trade being executed on the exchange, it is a haven for traders, and I like thinking I am one too. My friends think I am a trading guru or soething, but with Binance all I need to know is which number is greater or less than another, and into what range I forsee prices heading. I have made transactions in which I made profits as high as 3%. That's not a bad deal for me, seeing as Binance only gets to charge me a 0.1% transaction fee. And the withdrawal fees are very low, and non-existent for some tokens.
But it has not always been a bed of roses. I have made a couple of transactions I immediately regretted, because instead of the price going up like I expected, it decides to go into free fall. Those are the periods when I attend classes with a long face, believing the world has it in for me. There was this time when I bought the SALT token, believing it could not fall any lower than the price at which I bought it. You should have seen how frantic I was when it kept on dropping by the minute. I was rabid that day and the nxt, snapping at almost everyone who tried to include me in a conversation.
But Binance remains my exchange of choice, and though I only joined recently, I feel comfortable placing orders on the exchange, and waiting for the money to come rolling in.
Do you have a Binance story too? Well the Binance team wants to read it, so what are you waiting for.
And if you had not heard of Binance, let me offer you some advice pro bono.
YOU NEED TO BE THERE!