Test with Binance Testnet

Some exchanges provide a so-called ‘testnet’ option. A testnet is a simulated environment that mimics the operations of an exchange, but without using real cryptocurrencies. It provides a risk-free way to test Balance Bot or to explore different balancing strategies. Balance Bot supports Binance Testnet for this purpose.

You can create a special Binance testnet API key here: testnet.binance.vision. You need to log in with a GitHub account at the top of the page.

Once logged in, select the ‘Generate HMAC-SHA-256 Key’ link. On the next page, keep the default settings. Just enter a name for your API key, and click the ‘generate’ button.

Then copy the API key and API secret, so you can use those when creating a new bot.

Even though you can create more than one API key with one GitHub account, all those API keys are for the same testnet, and if you would run multiple bots on that one testnet, they’ll interfere. But if you have multiple GitHub accounts, you can create different testnets (similar to sub-accounts) and run several bots to test with different portfolios and/or settings in parallel, in full isolation.

To use a testnet API key, create a new bot, and select Binance as the exchange. Then check the ‘Using a testnet API key’ checkbox that appears on the right.

Note that a Binance testnet account contains many coins. In the 2nd configuration screen, first select all coins using the checkbox at the top of the list. This will exclude all coins from balancing. Then deselect the coins that you want to be part of your balancing portfolio. As the testnet portfolio value is high, don’t set the coins’ target distribution too far from the current distribution, as it may take a long time for orders to get filled (even market orders), especially for coins with low trading volume.

Once a bot has been created with a testnet API key, it is not possible to use a normal API key with that bot anymore (and vice versa). If you want to use a normal API key, just create a new bot.