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Learn before you leap with Binance: why crypto education matters

Posted on January 15, 2026
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Learn before you leap with Binance: why crypto education matters - Hannes Wessels
Binance South Africa GM Hannes Wessels

The crypto world moves much more quickly than most people realise. At this speed, there’s plenty of opportunity, but plenty of danger, too.

For Binance, the way forward is simple: education before action, because nothing in crypto works, not trading, adoption or safety, unless users understand what they are doing.

Binance Academy is not an add-on or a marketing tool. For the company, it is treated as the foundation. It is where users learn about blockchain, how it works and cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. They also learn what drives markets, why cryptocurrency prices fluctuate and what happens when hype moves faster than understanding.

Beginners are encouraged to learn to crawl before they walk

The academy has a library of over a thousand articles, videos, explainers and guided lessons. It was built deliberately like a ladder: the first steps teach absolute beginners in plain language, recognising that many people are starting from a blank slate.

The higher ranks cover advanced topics such as derivatives, bitcoin halving cycles, macro-economics and money supply dynamics.

Beginners are encouraged to learn to crawl before they walk. Binance even includes a demo trading function: a sandbox where newcomers can experiment with fictitious funds, test features, develop instincts and avoid the real-world pain of learning through loss.

What beginners get wrong

Most new users arrive wide-eyed. They see market charts flashing green and red. They see liquidity and volume. They see opportunity, and they leap. That’s the trap.

People start doing too much with too little knowledge, particularly around the BTC-USDT pair (the most heavily traded crypto pair in the world). The scale of movement lures users into believing they can conquer the market on day one.

The guidance is simple: start slowly, experiment cautiously, build knowledge first and then position. Never the other way around.

Confidence can be a false ally, while knowledge is the only real defence.

binance bitcoin

Handling the hard stuff: derivatives, futures, options

Yes, the academy covers these too, in depth. Yet Binance is blunt about the risk. These instruments aren’t toys, and they aren’t built for beginners.

Before users can access derivatives trading, they must complete a skills test, pass platform warnings and acknowledge that these products are “high risk” and intended for hedging, not reckless speculation.

The goal isn’t to push users into complex trading. It’s to protect them.

Seasonal risks? Not exactly. Cycles? Definitely

Crypto doesn’t follow holiday seasons or retail frenzies, at least not in the way traditional markets sometimes do. Instead, two cycles dominate:

  • Bitcoin’s halving cycle: once the main driver of price trends
  • The global macroeconomic cycle: now the stronger force

For years, bitcoin’s supply-shock model dominated the market. However, as supply becomes more predictable and increasingly scarce, demand (driven by dollar liquidity, interest rates and global economic events) has stepped in as the more powerful engine.

That shift stretches the familiar four-year market rhythm into something closer to a five-year cycle.

This year has been flat. Macro shocks, including the recent US government shutdown and tightening liquidity, have weighed heavily on prices. Fortunately, with the restart of government operations and the approach of the US holiday season, we can expect more liquidity flowing into the global system. For crypto, that usually means optimism.

Measuring whether education works

Binance doesn’t track study habits the way it tracks trades, but it does measure academy traffic, article popularity and user flow patterns. As expected, the beginner content attracts the heaviest readership. The complex, mathematical material attracts fewer readers, but those who need it find it extremely useful.

What matters is this: the academy isn’t just for existing Binance users. It serves as a bridge for new learners. The hope is that informed readers will eventually become informed traders, and that knowledge will lead to better financial decisions.

binance bitcoin

Education for the next wave

As adoption spreads, users shift. ETFs have brought in older generations who don’t need to understand blockchain; they only need to understand ETFs. Young professionals (20 to 35) remain the most active cohort across trading, NFTs, gaming and payments.

Yet the next big educational wave may come from SMEs and their suppliers. Once supply chains begin adopting blockchain rails for faster, cheaper working capital flows, velocity increases, and with it, opportunity.

Creatives are another frontier. Although NFTs may have cooled somewhat, they still proved that artists can transact, license and earn directly on-chain. However, there’s still a vast chasm in music monetisation that blockchain can help close.

Follow fast, don’t predict too far

Crypto evolves more quickly than anyone can forecast. So Binance favours responsiveness over prediction. Anyone who tries to predict where it is going from an educational perspective may miss the train. Instead, the academy updates in real time. As new trends emerge, DeFi, tokenisation, AI agents and fresh content will follow.

Crypto isn’t just about markets anymore. It’s about money, identity, trade, culture and trust. As Binance stresses, the safest and strongest step any user can take is the first one: learning, because knowledge is the only asset that can’t be lost, hacked or traded away.

Join a global community and learn about crypto and blockchain for free while you earn. Sign up for Binance today.

About Binance
Binance is a leading global blockchain ecosystem behind the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume and registered users. Binance is trusted by more than 280 million people in 100+ countries for its industry-leading security, transparency, trading engine speed, protections for investors and unmatched portfolio of digital asset products and offerings from trading and finance to education, research, social good, payments, institutional services and Web3 features. Binance is devoted to building an inclusive crypto ecosystem to increase the freedom of money and financial access for people around the world with crypto as the fundamental means. For more information, visit www.binance.com.

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