Gate vs MEXC 2026: Security, Proof of Reserves, Fees, Listings and Earn Compared

This article puts Gate and MEXC side by side, based on each exchange’s official information, public APIs, regulator announcements and media reports: security, past incidents, licences, fees, number of listed coins and earn products.

The short version: MEXC has low fees and a Hacken-verified proof of reserves, but I could not find any formal licence for it; Gate holds regional licences such as EU MiCA and its BTC order book is about 11 times as deep as MEXC’s, but its proof of reserves only publishes an overall ratio and its third-party verification stops in 2024. For small trades, MEXC’s total cost is lower; by my rough estimate from order book depth, once a BTC market order goes above about 117,000 USDT, Gate’s total cost comes out lower. Both exchanges are unavailable in quite a few regions, and neither is a good place to keep most of your assets long term.

This article is a compilation of information and does not constitute investment, tax or legal advice. Fees, interest rates, licences and service regions can all change, and every figure here reflects the date shown, so check both exchanges’ official pages before using them. The slippage figures are rough estimates based on simplified assumptions, not quotes. This site does not give advice on futures or leveraged trading; futures fees are listed only so readers can compare costs.

Gate and MEXC in one table

Fees, reserves and order book depth are from 8 October 2026 (depth from CoinGecko); I counted the coins through both public APIs on 12 October. The two boxes below show each exchange’s rating and key data, using the same numbers as my rating table:

Gate key factsData checked: 2026-10-08

As of 2026-10-08, Gate's general-user spot taker fee is 0.1% and its futures taker fee is 0.05%; signing up with the invitation code gives a 20% trading fee discount.

Item	Details	Source
Jason Finance rating	66.4 / 100	rating method
Highlights	EU MiCA, Dubai VARA, Japan and other licences Publishes only an overall reserve ratio
General-user fees (taker)	Spot 0.1%, futures 0.05%	2026-10-08
Invitation code fee discount	20% trading fee discount	2026-10-07
Proof of reserves	2026-09-13 (monthly): overall 117% (no per-asset figures)	2026-10-08
Main licences and registrations	EU MiCA (Malta MFSA), Dubai VARA licence, Japan FSA registration (Gate Japan), Bahamas SCB licence, Gibraltar GFSC licence, Australia AUSTRAC registration, Cyprus CySEC investment firm licence	source 1 source 2 source 3 source 4 source 5 source 6 source 7
Order book depth (±2%)	BTC/USDT about 24.4M USD, ETH/USDT about 9.4M USD	2026-10-08

MEXC key factsData checked: 2026-10-08

As of 2026-10-08, MEXC's general-user spot taker fee is 0.05% and its futures taker fee is 0.01%; signing up with the invitation code gives a 20% trading fee discount. Its 2026-09-10 proof of reserves showed BTC 297%, ETH 111%, USDT 119%.

Item	Details	Source
Jason Finance rating	55.6 / 100	rating method
Highlights	0% spot maker fee Hacken-verified proof of reserves No verified licence
General-user fees (taker)	Spot 0.05%, futures 0.01%	2026-10-13
Invitation code fee discount	20% trading fee discount	2026-10-07
Proof of reserves	2026-09-10 (monthly): BTC 297%, ETH 111%, USDT 119%	2026-10-08
Main licences and registrations	None found
USDT withdrawals	Cheapest Polygon 0.0065 USDT; 7 common networks supported	2026-10-08
Order book depth (±2%)	BTC/USDT about 2.1M USD, ETH/USDT about n/a USD	2026-10-08

Security: proof of reserves and past incidents

Proof of reserves: MEXC has third-party verification, Gate only publishes an overall ratio

Both publish proof of reserves once a month, and at both you can use the Merkle tree to check for yourself that your account was included. The differences:

• MEXC’s reports are verified by Hacken and broken down by coin. The 10 September 2026 snapshot showed BTC 297%, ETH 111% and USDT 119% (MEXC proof of reserves page; detailed figures in the MEXC review). BTC at 297% means the exchange’s wallets hold about 3 times as much BTC as users do, and the report does not say what the extra is used for.
• Gate uses a Merkle tree plus zk-SNARK zero-knowledge proofs, and its verification program is open source. On the official proof of reserves page, the 13 September 2026 snapshot showed a total reserve ratio of 117%, and every 2026 snapshot has been above 115%. The 19 August snapshot, whose breakdown was given in a written announcement, showed BTC at about 123%, ETH at about 122%, and stablecoins such as USDT and USDC combined at about 112%, with no separate ratio for USDT. The only third-party verification the page lists is a single one by Hacken on 3 January 2024 (Gate review).

MEXC’s reports are easier to check coin by coin and have third-party verification; Gate’s overall ratio is high, but you have to dig the breakdown out of its announcements. A proof of reserves is a snapshot at one point in time, not a financial audit; for what it can and cannot prove, see How to check proof of reserves.

Past incidents: Gate has a theft record, MEXC a frozen funds dispute

Gate: In February 2015, its predecessor Bter announced that 7,170 BTC had been stolen from a cold wallet, worth about US$1.75 million at the time, and later said it would repay in instalments. In January 2019, Ethereum Classic (ETC) suffered a 51% attack in which Gate.io lost about 40,000 ETC; the attacker later returned about US$100,000. In 2022, on-chain investigator ZachXBT alleged that Gate.io had about US$230 million stolen in 2018 without disclosing it. This is a third-party allegation, and I found no official statement from Gate.

MEXC: I found no reports of the exchange’s wallets being hacked. In July 2025, a trader using the name The White Whale said MEXC had frozen about US$3.1 million of his funds; MEXC said the account had triggered its risk control rules. On 31 October, a MEXC executive publicly apologised and released the funds, about 3 months after the freeze. In June 2025, MEXC also set up a US$100 million guardian fund to respond to large-scale security incidents.

The two risks are different. Gate’s record is about assets being stolen, and the most recent confirmed incident was in 2019. MEXC’s dispute is about the exchange freezing an account on risk control grounds; there was no regulator for the user to complain to, and it was resolved only after public pressure. Sources for each incident are in the incident sections of the two reviews.

Licences, regulator warnings and restricted regions

Two things to note. First, Gate’s licences all belong to regional entities, each serving only local users; the global site that regular users in the Chinese-speaking world sign up on is outside the supervision of these licences. Second, it is unclear which legal entity operates MEXC: the Netherlands’ AFM said it does not know from which country or through which entity MEXC provides its services, while Seychelles’ FSA identified the operator as MX Global Ltd. The regulator warnings against both exchanges are about operating without local authorisation; none involve users’ assets being stolen.

The full lists are in each exchange’s user agreement; sources are in the licence sections of the Gate review and the MEXC review.

Gate vs MEXC: fees and trading costs

Official fees: MEXC is cheaper

Based on the official fee schedules (Gate on 8 October 2026; MEXC on 13 October 2026, after its futures taker fee dropped from 0.02% to 0.01%), for regular users (VIP 0):

In money terms: buying 1,000 USDT of spot at market costs 1 USDT at Gate and 0.5 USDT at MEXC; filled with a limit order, it costs 1 USDT at Gate and nothing at MEXC. MEXC’s futures fees vary by contract; the table shows the rates for main contracts such as BTC/USDT.

In an official announcement on 22 December 2025, MEXC made all spot pairs zero-fee with no set end date; institutional accounts, market makers, project teams and API users are excluded. While the promotion runs, actual fees may differ from the table above, so go by what each pair’s order page shows (see Are zero-fee exchanges really cheaper?).

VIP thresholds: Gate’s official fee page lists VIP tiers, but you have to log in to see the full thresholds; MEXC does not publish its VIP thresholds. Signing up with an invitation code gets you the official fee discount on top; each exchange’s percentage is shown in the invitation code boxes at the end of this article, and how it is calculated is explained in What is an exchange fee discount?.

GT and MX discounts: different rules

• GT (Gate): Gate’s official article, updated in September 2026, says that regular users who qualify for the GT discount pay 0.09% on spot for both maker and taker, about 10% less (my own calculation). The article gives no GT discount rate for futures.
• MX (MEXC): MEXC’s August 2024 announcement describes two options: turn on MX deduction for 20% off spot and futures fees, or hold 1,000 MX or more for 15 consecutive days for 50% off. The two cannot be combined. I found no newer figures on the official pages, so confirm in your account before relying on it.

MEXC’s spot maker fee is already 0%, so there is nothing to discount there. At either exchange, using the platform token for a discount means holding the token first and taking on its price swings; MEXC’s 50% option requires a steady 1,000 MX, and you cannot let the position shrink. For how much monthly trading makes it worthwhile, see Is a platform token fee discount worth it?.

Order book depth: MEXC’s BTC order book is about one eleventh of Gate’s

Fees are only part of trading costs. On 8 October 2026, CoinGecko showed BTC/USDT ±2% order book depth of about US$24.39 million at Gate and about US$2.14 million at MEXC, a gap of about 11 times. The thinner the order book, the worse the prices a large market order fills at (slippage).

Using the simplified method from Are zero-fee exchanges really cheaper? (rough slippage ≈ order size ÷ ±2% depth × 1%, assuming orders are evenly spread), I added fees and slippage together to estimate the rough total cost of buying BTC/USDT at market. The table excludes invitation code fee discounts and MEXC’s zero-fee promotion; amounts are in USDT:

By this method, the rough total costs break even at about 117,000 USDT: below that, MEXC is cheaper; above it, MEXC’s extra slippage outweighs the fees it saves. With the GT discount, the break-even point is about 94,000 USDT; if MEXC’s zero-fee promotion applies to your account, it is about 235,000 USDT against Gate without the discount.

These are all my own estimates, and they have limits: depth is a snapshot from one day, and orders get pulled when the market moves sharply; on major pairs, orders often cluster near the mid price, so actual slippage on small orders may be smaller; and this is only BTC. Less popular coins usually have much thinner order books, so check the best bid, best ask and order book on the order page. Splitting large orders or using limit orders also avoids most slippage.

Listings: the coin count depends on how you count

Both exchanges are known for listing many coins, but the figures each publishes are counted differently:

I counted the second row through each exchange’s public API on 12 October 2026: for Gate, the pairs marked tradable in currency_pairs; for MEXC, the pairs open for spot trading in exchangeInfo; duplicate coins removed for each. Almost every coin at both exchanges has a USDT pair.

Counted the same way, Gate has more tradable coins than MEXC. MEXC’s “3,000” is its own claim and may include delisted or futures-only coins; the press release does not say how it was counted. The pairs listed by the API may also not match the website exactly. To find a specific less popular coin, searching each exchange’s trading page is the most accurate. Also, the less popular the coin, the thinner its order book usually is, so the slippage issue from the previous section becomes more noticeable.

USDT deposits, withdrawals and earn

Deposit networks and withdrawal fees

• Supported by both: TRC20, ERC20, BEP20, Solana, TON, Arbitrum One, Polygon and others. Both support BEP20, so you can move USDT between them without switching networks.
• MEXC publishes withdrawal fees: in official data from 8 October 2026, USDT withdrawal fees were 0.01 USDT on BEP20, 0.0065 on Polygon, 0.05 on Arbitrum, 0.18 on Solana and 0.5 on TRC20.
• Gate’s withdrawal fees are shown on the withdrawal page: Gate adjusts them about every hour depending on network congestion, and its public API does not provide them. The minimum withdrawal is 10 USDT on TRC20 and mostly 1 USDT on the other main networks (public API, 9 October 2026).

For a comparison of withdrawal fees by exchange and network, and steps for choosing a network, see How to choose a USDT withdrawal network.

Earn: Gate has more products, MEXC runs limited-time high-rate promotions

• Gate Simple Earn: Flexible lends your idle assets to users who want to borrow, and you can request redemption at any time; fixed terms run from 3 to 360 days, and redeeming early forfeits the interest accrued. Gate’s flexible USDT rate is updated daily in the USDT earn rate comparison.
• Gate GUSD: a yield-bearing token launched in August 2025, minted 1:1 with USDT or USDC and backed by assets such as tokenised US Treasuries, with a base annual yield of 4.4% at launch. GUSD is issued by Gate itself, so the risk is concentrated on Gate.
• MEXC flexible savings: no lock-up period; you can subscribe and redeem at any time, and interest is calculated daily. In a limited-time promotion in February 2026, USDT paid 20% a year on 0 to 300 USDT and 10% a year on 300 to 100,000 USDT; promotions like this are time-limited and capped, and the rate may be adjusted after they end.

Rates change daily and are not guaranteed. With MEXC earn, you also have to factor in that there is no regulator to complain to. For what extra risk exchange earn products carry compared with short-term Treasuries, Aave and Bitfinex lending, see Where to park idle USD and USDT.

Who Gate and MEXC each suit

Neither can be used in the US, mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada, the UK or Malaysia. Before signing up, confirm that your region is not on the restricted list and follow local laws. Whichever you choose, only keep amounts you can afford to lose there, and after trading, move assets you plan to hold long term to a cold wallet where you control the private keys.

For rating criteria and weights, see the exchange rating methodology; for comparisons with other exchanges, see How to choose a crypto exchange and the international exchange fee comparison.

Gate and MEXC invitation codes

More articles on the crypto topic page.

FAQ

Which is safer, Gate or MEXC?

Each has weak points. MEXC's proof of reserves is verified by Hacken, and on 10 September 2026 it showed BTC 297%, ETH 111% and USDT 119%, but I could not find any formal licence, and in 2025 it froze about US$3.1 million belonging to one trader for about 3 months. Gate's total reserve ratio was 117% on 13 September 2026 and it holds regional licences such as EU MiCA and Dubai VARA, but its third-party verification stops at January 2024, and its predecessor Bter had 7,170 BTC stolen in 2015.

Which has lower fees, Gate or MEXC?

MEXC is cheaper for regular users. Official rates: MEXC charges 0% maker and 0.05% taker on spot, and 0% maker and 0.01% taker on futures (13 October 2026); Gate (8 October 2026) charges 0.1% maker and taker on spot, 0.09% when paying with GT, and 0.02% maker and 0.05% taker on futures.

MEXC's fees are low, but is it also cheaper than Gate for large trades?

Not necessarily. On 8 October 2026, CoinGecko showed BTC/USDT ±2% order book depth of about US$24.39 million at Gate and about US$2.14 million at MEXC. Using a simplified estimate that assumes orders are evenly spread, for a BTC market order above about 117,000 USDT, MEXC's extra slippage outweighs the fees it saves you. This is an estimate, not a quote.

Do Gate and MEXC hold licences?

Gate's regional entities hold licences such as EU MiCA (Malta MFSA), Dubai VARA and registration with Japan's Financial Services Agency, but the global site that regular users in the Chinese-speaking world sign up on is outside the supervision of these licences. I could not find any formal exchange licence for MEXC, and regulators in Japan, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Dubai, Seychelles and elsewhere have publicly warned about it.

Which lists more coins, Gate or MEXC?

It depends on how you count. MEXC says it has more than 3,000, and CoinGecko lists about 1,500 for Gate; but counting tradable spot coins through each exchange's public API on 12 October 2026, Gate had 2,051 and MEXC 1,415.

How do the GT and MX fee discounts work?

Gate's official article says regular users pay 0.09% on spot after the GT discount; it says nothing about futures. MEXC's August 2024 announcement says turning on MX deduction cuts fees by 20%, and holding 1,000 MX or more for 15 consecutive days cuts them by 50%; the two cannot be combined, and both apply to spot and futures.

Can I move USDT on BEP20 at both Gate and MEXC?

Yes. Both support BNB Smart Chain (BEP20) for USDT deposits and withdrawals, as well as TRC20, ERC20, Solana, TON, Arbitrum One and Polygon. MEXC publishes its USDT withdrawal fees, with BEP20 at 0.01 USDT; Gate adjusts its withdrawal fees about every hour based on network conditions, so you have to check them on the withdrawal page.