1|Ethereum-Classic3

The cryptocurrency exchange Binance is in the recent crypto news, after moving Bitcoin funds to storage over the past couple of days – and paying almost nothing for it.

In a world where large transfers are associated with low fees, Binance decided to step a bit further and demonstrate both the power and irony of the blockchain. A transaction in the block 550211 was a transfer of just over $1 million which took $8 in fees. However, the amount of the fee is usually a matter of convenience as the transaction was not large and was only 1550 bytes.

The other transaction of $600 million was more special, being the largest unspent transaction output existing today and also illustrating the irony of Bitcoin transactions. First flagged by Antoine Le Calvez of CoinMetrics.io, this transaction was made in block 550155 several hours earlier, comprised 5981 bytes yet cost the exchange just over $7.

Binance just created the largest unspent transaction output existing today (but not all time) at 109k BTC (nearly $600M).https://t.co/Ot2ST37flU

— Antoine Le Calvez (@khannib) November 15, 2018

First of all, it is safe to say that there is no banking product with the same security as a cold storage wallet – one that is not connected to the blockchain via the Internet but prompts direct access with no middlemen.

So, there is no reason to compare the world of crypto with traditional transaction movements. For instance, a transaction like this sent via PayPal, according to one data agency, would come with a fee of $17,400,000.30 which is certainly a fortune.

What can be said is the fact that Binance is engaging in money transfers that wouldn’t be possible in a previous era – at a cost that would have been unimaginably low in any previous era.