As always with these kinds of services, I encourage users to take a look at the Terms of Service to see what they are actually signing up for. It is never just as simple as "Deposit your coins and earn interest". There is
always a catch. Let's take a look:
When using Binance Savings service, you should note that:
a. Binance Savings assets will be used in cryptocurrency leveraged borrowing and other businesses.
So, the funds you deposit are given out to other users and third parties as loans. Lots of risk there from failed repayments, loan defaults, bankruptcies, scams, etc. "Other businesses" handily incorporates literally
everything else in the entire world. They want to use your deposit to buy shares? They can. To buy property? They can. To YOLO in to some penny stock or shitcoin? They can.
Binance offers crypto secured loans that are structured similarly to how loans in the
lending subforum work, the borrower puts up 1xx% collateral of one coin, and receives a loan of another type of coin.
You are right though, this language is very broad, and Binance could expand into other, more risky businesses while your coin is tied up in "activity".
And a little bit further down:
e. You agree that all investment operations conducted on Binance represent your true investment intentions and that unconditionally accept the potential risks and benefits of your investment decisions.
You
unconditionally accept the risks. If anything goes wrong, Binance hold absolutely zero responsibility for it going wrong. All the risk is on you. If an investment goes bad, Binance take zero hit but you lose your money. If a borrower doesn't repay the loan, Binance take zero hit but you lose your money. If the platform is hacked, Binance take zero hit but you lose your money.
There's an awful lot of risk there for very little benefit.
It would be unusual for an exchange to give lenders a 'haircut' when a borrower is unable to fully repay their loans. The last time I remember this happening was poloniex I believe in 2019, and this was because the losses exceeded their reserves. I believe it is most common for exchanges to have reserves to be able to temporarily take over margin positions until market conditions improve, and/or to cover losses up to a limit.
If lenders had to take a haircut every time a borrower is unable to repay a margin loan, the rates lenders would demand would be too high for borrowers to want to use the platform.