Long before P2P crypto trading existed, electronic markets already split participants into two roles: those who add liquidity by posting a standing order (makers), and those who remove it by trading against an order that's already there (takers). Stock exchange ECNs, forex ECNs, and virtually every centralized crypto exchange use some version of this split, usually charging takers more than makers — the logic being that makers are doing the market a favor by being there to trade against, and takers are paying for the convenience of not having to wait.
The general mechanics
A maker's order sits on the book, visible, waiting. It adds depth — it's a reason someone else might want to trade on that platform at all. A taker's order executes immediately against whatever is already resting there, consuming that depth rather than adding to it. Because of this asymmetry, maker/taker fee schedules across almost every electronic market charge takers something and makers less, sometimes even paying makers a rebate to encourage them to keep posting liquidity.
How this maps onto P2P
On Binance P2P, Bybit P2P, and comparable platforms, posting an ad — the standing offer with a price, a size, and accepted rails — is the maker action. Hitting someone else's ad directly is the taker action. The published fee schedule follows the same logic as everywhere else: Binance charges 0% to takers and roughly 0.15–0.35% to makers depending on region and fiat, meaning the maker bears the visible cost of being the one who's already standing there.
Why this changes what actually matters to you
A taker's whole question is simple: what's the best price on the board right now? A maker's question is structurally different and harder: where should I place my own ad, relative to every other maker's ad, so that I'm competitive enough to get filled but not so aggressive that I'm giving away margin I don't need to? That's a positioning problem, not a price-lookup problem — and it needs a different kind of tool. See maker vs. taker for a direct side-by-side, or jump straight to the maker guide.
The number makers actually watch
Queue position — an ad's rank on its own side of the book, where 1 is the best price — is the maker's equivalent of a taker's 'current price.' A high reprice rate combined with a top queue position means a maker is actively defending the best spot; a stale price with a bad queue position usually means they set it once and stopped paying attention. Neither is directly visible from the price alone — you have to watch how an ad behaves over time.