(November 2018)
Frustrated with the horrible user experience and visibly absent customer service on the fledgling crypto exchange called "Binance", I took out all the assets that I could; that is, the cryptos that met the minimum balance for withdrawal (minus, the withdrawal fees first, of course).
All that was left was what they called "Dust" (small amounts of crypto leftover from previous transactions and converted to their new BNB coin; considered by most as just another worthless "alt-$hitcoin").
The "Dust" was 0.87 BNB - approximately $7 (USD) at the time and was too small to withdraw.
I just chalked it up as the cost of doing business and walked away, thinking, "What did I expect? Binance is just one of the many upstart crypto exchanges in the turbulent cryptocurrency sea; a leaky "USS Minnow" toy boat 'circling the drain'."
Fast forward to February, 2022.
My original phone was stolen during a New Year's party and after 3 1/2 weeks, I finally completed the painfully frustrating process of changing my phone number to that of my new phone's SIM for my 50+ online accounts!
When this happens, it gets ugly, fast.
For those lucky ones that have never lost a phone and updated their accounts, let me take a moment to 'splain it for you.
(Warning: Rambling tangent to follow.)
Quite frankly, it's a horrible, nail-biting clusterf*ck! Guaranteed to raise your blood pressure, give you migraines and trigger paradoxical insomnia secondary to extreme fatigue.
Why is this?
Because virtually all customer accounts on exchanges, stock markets, crypto wallets, banks, credit unions, PayPal, Google Wallet, cross border money transfer services (Western Union, Wise, Stripe, Privacy, etc), futures trading accounts and asset holdings firms use mobile numbers to verify ID (via short code texts and OTPs).
TLDR?
NO ACCESS TO YOUR MONEY AND ASSETS.
You're not poor. The accounts aren't empty. The assets are still there, but you're locked out.
And if you can't rectify the situation quickly, you'll be flat broke before you can say, "Hey Mister, you gon'na eat that?"
"Nuff said about that.
(End of side-bar)
Back on topic: The Binance account.
In the course of doing the mass mobile number update + double verification, I came across my old Binance account and regained access.
Guess what?
That piddly $7, 0.87 BNB "Dust" I'd so nonchalantly walked away from over 4 years earlier was now "very withdraw-able".
And withdraw it, I did!
All $370 (USD) worth of BNB "Dust"...
Submitted FYI.
May you and yours be well and loving life today.
In Lak'ech,
JaiChai
