Unlike traditional currencies, cryptocurrencies exist only as a shared digital record of ownership, stored on a blockchain. When a user wants to send cryptocurrency units to another user, they send it to that user’s digital wallet. The transaction isn’t considered final until it has been verified and added to the blockchain through a process called mining. This is also how new cryptocurrency tokens are usually created.
The supply of a cryptocurrency depends on how many new coins are being mined and how many current owners want to sell their coins.

Spot trading means you’re not technically “buying” the cryptocurrency, but instead trading your USD for it through either a market or a limit order. A market order means you agree to trade for the currency at the current market price. A limit order lets you put in a designated price at which you want the trade to occur, and when the currency reaches that price, the trade happens automatically. These orders then incur “maker” (for limit orders) or “taker” (for market orders) fees — though on Binance.US, there’s just a standard 0.1% fee.
These protocols also mask the identities of cryptocurrency users, making transactions and fund flows difficult to attribute to specific individuals or groups.