Hate it when people do this. Have you actually even tried it ? It just shows the referral link suggestion at the top, it doesn't hijack the link you typed in. You're still free to open the original link. Of course the twitter post cleverly hides this by hiding the list of suggestions. Now we have this long flaming thread for something that's totally normal and perfectly acceptable.

Firefox: type in Binance.us and immediately press enter - no referral code.

Chrome: type in Binance.us and immediately press enter - no referral code.

Brave: type in Binance.us and immediately press enter - yes referral code.

Looks like their plan for resolving the outrage is an opt-in setting.

https://twitter.com/BrendanEich/status/1269404443818119168

Hahah, when you delete ref code and enter Binance.us again it loads without ref.

This experience sucks, but at least the refs aren't fully hardcoded.

Github issue: https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/10129

I just downloaded Brave onto a computer that has never had Brave on it and typed "binance.us" into its address bar. Hit return. Oh look, I seem to be at "https://www.binance.us/en?ref=35089877".

Works fine on the mobile version. Redirects me to “https://www.binance.us/en”

Part of the problem here is with terminology.

You don't "type a link" into an address bar. You "type an address" (a URL).

Hijacking links has a specific meaning and this isn't it (edit: this remains true no matter how much you downvote me without explaining)

I can see how Brave's practice can be considered bad/deceiving though, especially if it hadn't been disclosed.