Binance's U.S. exchange division has slashed spot trading fees across all digital assets to "near zero," according to an announcement on Wednesday. The move appears to be a bid to gin up competition among U.S. exchanges and draw attention to a trading platform that has struggled to attract users.

"American crypto traders have been paying too much for too long," Binance.US CEO Stephen Gregory said in a statement. "Today we're proving that a fully regulated U.S. platform can also be the most affordable one, and that competition in this industry directly benefits consumers."

Spot trading will incurr 0% maker fees and 0.02% taker fees on all trading pairs. Maker and taker fees are based on how a trade interacts with an exchange's order book, with "makers" adding market depth by placing orders that are not immediately filled, and "takers" removing liquidity by closing immediately.

Binance.US’s new fee structure is competitive, though not completely out of the norm. The global Binance platform, by far the largest crypto exchange, typically charges 0.10% fees for makers and takers, though VIPs and BNB token holders are given better pricing, according to Binance’s website. Notably, the updated scheme applies even to low-value trades and low-volume traders.

Coinbase, the largest U.S. exchange, has a fee structure based on size that consistently charges takers more than makers. Retail traders placing orders below $10,000 face the highest costs at 60bps and 40bps for taker and maker fees, respectively, according to the exchange’s disclosures. This equates to $60 taker fees on a $10,000 order.

Crypto exchanges in general are often criticized for charging high fees compared to traditional brokerages, which will make pennies compared to dollars on most trades.

Binance.US previously introduced 0% fee trading on some bitcoin pairs and extended that to 0% maker fees and 0.01% taker fees on its 20 most common trading pairs in September.

Launched in 2019, the platform has seen limited growth. CoinGecko recorded $14.8 million in trading volume on Binance.US in the past 24 hours, compared to $10.7 billion on the global Binance exchange and $1.9 billion on Coinbase and $1 billion on Kraken. Binance.US ranked as one of the 20 lowest-volume exchanges tracked by CoinGecko.

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The platform’s growth was completely stalled in June 2023, when the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Binance, causing its U.S. operation to suspend its dollar rails, leaving it as a crypto-only platform for two years. The SEC dropped its civil case last year, and the exchange restored U.S. dollar deposits and withdrawals.

Binance and former CEO Changpeng Zhao also pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act in a criminal lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice. Zhao stepped down as Binance CEO and chairman of Binance.US, though he was officially pardoned by President Donald Trump in a controversial decision.

Gregory was named Binance.US CEO in March, replacing interim CEO Norman Reed, who previously worked at both the SEC  and Ripple. Gregory previously led Currency.com.