How to Sign Up for Binance and Verify Your Identity, Step by Step

The account is the first door into crypto. If that door is not opened right, nothing after it, buying coins, withdrawing, holds up. The good news is that Binance's sign-up is friendly to beginners, and on a smooth run it takes a dozen-odd minutes. The part that actually eats time, and trips people most, is identity verification, but you cannot dodge it: every legitimate exchange requires it.

This page lays out every step from opening the app to the account working normally. Which step is the key one, and which security switch you have to turn on day one, are spelled out. Follow along and you will not be opening and guessing at the same time.

What to Have Ready Before You Start

Spend two minutes gathering the basics first, and you save yourself the back-and-forth:

• An email or phone number you use. For signing up and receiving codes. Pick the one you actually check every day.
• Your own ID document. A passport or national ID. Wipe the camera first, and make sure the photo is sharp, all four corners are visible, and there is no glare.
• A quiet, well-lit spot. The last step of verification is a face check, and dim or backlit conditions make it fail.
• A payment method in your own name. You will need it to pay and receive when buying via P2P later. Always use an account verified in your own name, never someone else's.

Settle two things ahead of time too: whether to register by phone number or email (either works; a phone gets codes a touch faster), and a strong password used only for this account, not the same one you use on other sites.

Step One: Register the Account

Download the Binance app from the official channel or open the official site, and tap Register. The flow runs roughly like this:

1. Pick how you register. Enter a phone number or email. A phone number is suggested, since the code arrives faster.
2. Enter the referral code. The page usually has a Referral / Invitation Code field. Put in the code BNB2569, and your trades will get the matching fee discount afterward. You enter it once, at sign-up; adding it later is a hassle, so do not skip it. If you came in through our link, the code is usually filled in for you; just check it reads BNB2569.
3. Get the code and verify. Enter the SMS or email code you receive to bind your phone or email.

Step Two: Set a Password, Turn On 2FA

This step decides the first layer of your account's security. Two things, and you cannot skip either.

Set a strong password. At least 12 characters, mixing upper and lower case, numbers, and symbols, and used only for this account. A lot of stolen crypto accounts trace back to a password that leaked somewhere else and got reused. If you cannot remember it, use a password manager; do not take the easy route with a birthday or phone number.

Turn on two-factor (2FA) right away. This is the linchpin of account security, so do it on day one. Binance supports a few methods:

• An authenticator app (recommended). Use something like Google Authenticator or Authy to generate rolling codes. It does not depend on SMS, so it is more secure and not vulnerable to a SIM-swap on your phone number. When you bind it, the screen shows a backup key; write it down on paper and keep it offline, because that is how you recover if you lose or change phones.
• SMS verification. It works, but it is less secure than an authenticator app. Use the app when you can.

Once 2FA is on, logging in, withdrawing, and changing security settings will each ask for a rolling code. A touch more friction, but this one step blocks the vast majority of account takeovers. The full setup for 2FA, an anti-phishing code, and a withdrawal allowlist is laid out item by item in Locking Down Your Account, worth following right after you open the account.

Step Three: Identity Verification (KYC)

Identity verification (KYC) is the platform confirming you are who you say you are, a hard requirement from regulators in most places, and every legitimate exchange does it. A platform that does not even ask you to verify is one to be wary of. In Binance you usually start under Identity Verification, with roughly these steps:

1. Pick the document type and fill in your basics. Name, ID number, country or region, and so on. Your info has to match the document exactly, not one character off, because fixing a mistake is a hassle.
2. Upload your ID photos. Photograph the front and back of your ID, or your passport, as prompted. Keep all four corners visible, sharp, glare-free, and uncropped.
3. Face check (liveness). Blink, turn your head, or read out digits at the camera as prompted. Get the light right, face the lens straight on, and skip the mask and hat.

Submit and wait for review; on a smooth run it passes in a few minutes to half an hour, slower at peak times. There is one hard rule beginners most often miss: the person doing the face check and the bank account used to pay later have to be the same person. Using a family member's account can easily trip risk controls and freeze your order. Use your own document and your own payment method from the start, and you save yourself a pile of trouble.

Do These Few Things Right After

The account works now, but do not rush off to buy coins. Spend a few minutes laying the security groundwork, in this order:

1. Confirm 2FA is on. If you skipped it at sign-up, add it now, preferring an authenticator app.
2. Set an anti-phishing code. In the security settings there is an Anti-Phishing Code, a string of characters you choose. Once set, every official email Binance sends you carries that code; an official-looking email without it is basically fake. This lets you spot phishing emails at a glance, and we strongly suggest setting it.
3. Know about the withdrawal allowlist. With it on, you can only withdraw to addresses you added in advance. It is a practical safety net for a beginner; you can set it when you are ready to withdraw, but it is worth knowing it exists.
4. Run the whole flow with a small amount. Use a few dollars up to ten or twenty and walk the chain end to end: P2P swap into USDT, place a spot order, see the coin land. What you are buying is not the coin, it is familiarity.

Every step of a first buy, how to swap local currency for USDT via P2P, how to choose between a market and a limit order, which numbers to read before you commit, is broken down in Buying Your First Coin, so you can move straight into it after opening the account. If the whole beginner path has not clicked together yet, look back at Crypto for Complete Beginners to see where opening an account fits in the flow.

A Few Spots Beginners Get Stuck

Here are the high-frequency snags, so you do not panic when you hit one:

• The code does not arrive. On a phone, check signal and any blocking app; on email, dig through the spam folder. Most of the time it was filtered, not unsent.
• You filled in your KYC info wrong. A wrong name or ID number causes a failed check or later limits. Check it against your document character by character before submitting.
• The face check keeps failing. Nine times out of ten it is the light. Avoid backlight, find a front-lit spot, remove anything covering your face, and do it slowly facing the lens.
• You did not enter the referral code. Skip the referral code at sign-up and you lose the discount, and it is hard to add later. Make sure BNB2569 goes in at that step.
• You forgot to back up 2FA. If you did not copy the authenticator backup key, recovering after a lost or changed phone gets painful. Always keep one copy offline.

This article contains a Binance referral link. If you sign up and trade through our link, we may earn a commission and you get a matching fee discount. That is how this site pays for itself, and it does not change what we write. We are an independent third-party information site, not the official Binance website. Rates and processes follow whatever the exchange page shows in real time. Crypto prices swing hard and you can lose your entire stake. This is for education only and is not financial advice.