Does Binance copy trading make the copiers money?
Short answer: In a public snapshot of 6,753 Binance Futures leads, only about 1 in 5 had their copiers in profit over the last 30 days, and the copiers as a group lost 1.3 million USDT in that window.
Copy trading is sold with a lead’s ROI: +4,000% in 30 days, 86% win rate, a smooth green curve. The number that matters to a copier is different: did the people copying this lead make money? Binance publishes that number for every lead. We collected it for all of them.
The numbers
Leads with at least 1,000 USDT of copier money (AUM), snapshot taken on 2026-10-22.
| Window | Leads | Leads whose copiers were in profit | Copiers’ combined PnL | AUM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days | 6,753 | 19% | -1,297,265 USDT | 202 million USDT |
| 90 days | 6,757 | 22% | +5,932,114 USDT | 202 million USDT |
| 180 days | 6,741 | 21% | +1,134,994 USDT | 202 million USDT |
Over 180 days, all copiers together made about +0.56% on the money currently copying.
Lead ROI vs copier ROI
One lead featured under “High ROI” showed +2,388 USDT for the lead over 7 days while its copiers were -8,826 USDT over the same 7 days. Likely reasons: copiers enter after the lead, at worse prices, with different sizing, and usually after the chart already looks good. Sorting the “copy traders” tab by profit shows the winners only; the aggregate copier PnL is the honest number.
What the few profitable leads look like
Leads whose copiers made enough for a 10% profit share of at least USD 1,390 a month were 0.5% to 0.8% of all leads. Over 180 days their medians were:
| Metric | Median |
|---|---|
| AUM | 733,976 USDT |
| ROI | +135% |
| Max drawdown | 19% |
| Win rate | 70% |
| Sharpe ratio | 2.6 |
The top 40 leads by copier profit had been leading for a median of 192 days. The median lead earned a profit share of zero.
A stricter filter
From the 271 leads with at least 100,000 USDT of AUM, we kept those with a 180-day max drawdown of 30% or less, copiers in profit on both the 30 and 180-day windows, at least 180 days of history, open slots and no lock-up. Five leads passed, and one of them had a negative ROI. Two of the survivors are now in a 4-week paper test (results on 2026-11-18), next to two high-ROI leads for comparison.
Method and limits
- Data: Binance’s public copy-trading list endpoint, every page, sorted by AUM, plus the public lead detail endpoint for history length. No login, no copying.
- “Copiers in profit” uses the copier PnL Binance reports for each window.
- Survivorship: closed leads are not in the list, so the real picture for copiers is likely worse.
- AUM is a current value, not an average over the window. Windows overlap.
- Profit-share estimates use 10% of positive copier PnL and ignore the high-water mark.
Verdict
FAIL for copy trading in general: four in five leads did not make their copiers money. A small group of long-lived, low-drawdown leads did, and we are paper-testing whether that holds going forward. Not financial advice.