MEXC Review 2026: Is It Safe? Proof of Reserves, the Frozen Funds Dispute, Regulatory Warnings, Fees and Sign-up

This article brings together MEXC’s official information, regulators’ notices and media reports.

The short version: MEXC was founded in 2018, CoinGecko lists its place of registration as Seychelles, and the company says it has more than 40 million users. Its main selling point is low fees: on 9 October 2026, BTC/USDT spot was 0% maker and 0.05% taker, and perpetual futures were 0.02% taker. Its proof of reserves is published monthly and verified by Hacken, and the snapshot of 10 September 2026 showed BTC 297%, ETH 111%, USDT 119%. The downsides to know first are just as clear: I could not find any formal licence, regulators in Japan, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Dubai, Seychelles and elsewhere have publicly warned about it, and in 2025 there was a dispute over user funds frozen for about three months.

This article is a compilation of information. It is not investment, tax or legal advice. Fees, rates, licences and service regions can change; every figure here is as of the date shown, so check MEXC’s official pages before you act. Crypto prices are volatile, and keeping assets on an exchange carries the risk of the exchange itself. Before using MEXC, check whether the law where you live allows it.

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 0.02%; 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	64.3 / 100	rating method
Highlights	0% spot maker fee Hacken-verified proof of reserves No verified licence
General-user fees (taker)	Spot 0.05%, futures 0.02%	2026-10-08
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

What kind of exchange MEXC is

The user and coin counts and the “top five global trading volume” claim are MEXC’s own, from its press release published by The Block. The rank is a same-day snapshot from CoinGecko and changes every day.

MEXC’s user agreement refers to the “MEXC Trading Platform” and does not give the full name of the operating entity (user agreement, updated 29 May 2025). The Seychelles Financial Services Authority, in a 2026 notice, identified MX Global Ltd as MEXC’s operator, while Dubai’s VARA warning named MEXC Estonia OÜ and MEXC Global LTD. In other words, if something goes wrong, it is unclear which company to deal with or which country’s law applies.

Is MEXC safe?

Proof of reserves: monthly, verified by Hacken

A proof of reserves is an exchange publishing how much it holds in its wallets and comparing that with the total of all user balances. A ratio of 100% or more means that at the time of the snapshot, the exchange held enough coins to cover all user balances. MEXC uses a Merkle tree, so users can check for themselves that their balance was included in the total.

MEXC’s September 2026 report (snapshot taken 10 September 2026, published 15 September):

The figures come from MEXC’s announcement. The verifier is Hacken, and the checks cover proof of liabilities, proof of wallet ownership and the reserve calculation. The latest data and verification of your own account are on the MEXC proof of reserves page.

BTC at 297% means the exchange’s wallets hold about three times the BTC that users hold, and the report does not say what the extra is used for. A high BTC ratio does not mean every coin has the same surplus. A proof of reserves is also a snapshot at one point in time, not a full financial audit, and it does not show the exchange’s full liabilities. What it can and cannot prove is in How to check proof of reserves.

Guardian Fund and futures insurance fund

On 11 June 2025 MEXC announced a US$100 million Guardian Fund to deal with security incidents such as large-scale attacks or system vulnerabilities, with public wallet addresses (announcement). There is also a futures insurance fund that covers shortfalls when liquidation losses exceed margin; the September 2026 announcement put it at about 798 million USDT.

Both funds are money managed by MEXC itself. Neither is third-party insurance, and there are no public claim rules that guarantee you would get your money back.

User funds frozen for about three months in 2025

In July 2025 a trader using the name The White Whale said MEXC had frozen about US$3.1 million even though he had not broken its terms of service. MEXC said at the time that the restriction was because the account had “triggered risk control rules, not because of profits”, and asked him to verify his identity in person in Malaysia. He put up a bounty of US$2 million, later US$2.5 million, on social media to apply pressure (Cointelegraph).

On 31 October 2025, MEXC executive Cecilia Hsueh publicly apologised and released the funds, admitting that the company’s risk control, operations and customer service had not kept up with its growth, and promised a fast track for handling account issues (Decrypt). Around the same time, other users also reported frozen accounts on social media.

This was not a hack, but it shows a risk: an exchange can freeze an account on risk control grounds, and with MEXC there is no regulator you can complain to. In the end it was resolved only through public pressure.

Exchange wallet hacks

I found no reports of MEXC’s own exchange wallets being hacked. There are cases of individual accounts being compromised: in September 2026, a user said on X that someone used forged documents to reset his security settings and then moved about US$340,000 in assets out through an API created by the attacker. MEXC confirmed the account had been compromised and froze it, but customer service could not yet say whether the transfers went through the app, the website or the API (ChainCatcher). This is the user’s own account of events, and the results of the investigation have not been published.

Account security settings

MEXC offers passkeys, 2FA, a withdrawal address whitelist and an anti-phishing code, and temporarily locks withdrawals after security settings are changed (official guide). Given the case above, besides turning these on, it is worth checking your account regularly for API keys you do not recognise.

MEXC’s licences and regulatory warnings

No formal licence found

I could not find a formal exchange licence for MEXC on any regulator’s public register. According to FinTelegram, MEXC Estonia OÜ used to hold an Estonian crypto business licence, which Estonia’s Financial Intelligence Unit revoked on 17 November 2023, after which MEXC filed a lawsuit. I found only media reports of this, could not verify it on an official page, and found no ruling.

Regulatory record and warnings

The table lists the regulatory warnings, enforcement actions and service restrictions I found, in date order. Where the source column says “Official”, the source is a page from the regulator or the company itself; sources that are only media reports are noted.

I found no listing of MEXC on US OFAC, UK or EU sanctions lists, and no criminal conviction or fine against MEXC.

All the warnings above concern “not holding a local licence or registration”; none alleges fraud or misappropriation of assets. Hong Kong’s SFC alert page states that if you deal with an unlicensed platform, you may lose your entire investment if the platform collapses, is hacked or misappropriates assets, and that it is hard to pursue firms with no Hong Kong connection. The Seychelles FSA notice likewise states that because MX Global Ltd is not regulated by it, it cannot step in to help recover funds.

Where you can’t use it

According to MEXC’s user agreement (updated 29 May 2025), residents of the following cannot use it: North Korea, Cuba, Sudan, Iran, mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Canada, and the Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine (Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Sevastopol), as well as countries under comprehensive EU or US OFAC sanctions or listed as high-risk by the FATF. MEXC also states that it can change this list at any time.

Users in the Netherlands must also leave by 16 November 2026 (see the table above).

How to sign up for MEXC

Create an account with an email address or phone number, enter the invitation code in the invitation code field, then complete identity verification (KYC). Before signing up, make sure your region is not on the restricted list above.

MEXC fees: 0% maker on spot, 0.02% taker on futures

On 9 October 2026 MEXC’s official public API showed these fees for regular users:

• The figures come from MEXC’s spot trading pair data and futures data. Fees may differ by trading pair; the official fee page and the order screen are what count.
• A maker places an order and waits for someone else to fill it; a taker fills an order already on the book.
• For a comparison with regular-user fees at other international exchanges, see the international exchange fee comparison.

In money terms: buying 1,000 USDT of BTC at market, the 0.05% taker fee is 0.5 USDT; if you fill with a limit order instead, the 0% maker fee means you pay no trading fee.

MX deduction: the official fee page says that with MX deduction turned on, spot trades pay fees in MX first, while for futures you must first transfer MX to the futures account; some trading pairs are excluded. MEXC’s August 2024 announcement said MX deduction gives 20% off and holding 1,000 MX or more gives 50% off (the two cannot be combined). I found no newer figures on the official pages, so check the fee page in your account before relying on them.

Fee discount from the invitation code

Signing up with the invitation code above gives a 20% fee discount (the same for spot and futures). For example, buying 1,000 USDT of BTC at market, the 0.05% taker fee is 0.5 USDT; after the 20% discount you pay 0.4 USDT. Maker orders are already 0%, so there is nothing to discount there. Each exchange’s official fee discount is covered in What is a crypto exchange fee discount.

A 0% fee does not mean zero cost

• Market orders pay the taker fee: if you want to fill immediately, you are a taker, and on spot that is 0.05%.
• Spread and depth: a low fee does not mean a good price. On pairs with thin order books, a market order can eat through several price levels, and the slippage can cost more than the fee. The “order book depth” in the fact card above is the value of orders within ±2% for BTC/USDT; for other pairs, check the depth yourself on the order screen.
• Withdrawal fees: moving coins out costs a network fee; the next section has the USDT fees.

USDT deposits and withdrawals on MEXC

Deposits are free. Withdrawals carry a fixed network fee that does not depend on the amount. In the coin fee data MEXC published on 9 October 2026, the main USDT networks were:

There are also Aptos, Avalanche C-Chain, Celo, NEAR, Kaia, Polkadot AssetHub, Conflux eSpace and other networks. TRC20 is the most expensive in this table; BEP20, Polygon and Optimism are all at or below 0.01 USDT. Fees are adjusted with network conditions, so the withdrawal page is what counts.

When depositing, the sending side and MEXC must use the same network, or you may not get the funds back. If a transfer is confirmed on-chain but the exchange has not credited it, see what to check in USDT deposit delayed: what to do.

MEXC earn products

MEXC has an earn section (MEXC Earn). Its flexible savings have no lock-up: you can subscribe and redeem at any time, and interest is calculated daily. USDT flexible savings have used tiered rates; for example, in a limited-time promotion in February 2026, 0 to 300 USDT earned 20% a year and 300 to 100,000 USDT earned 10% (Invezz). High rates like these are limited in time and amount, may be adjusted when the promotion ends, and the rate shown on the earn page at the time is what counts.

Putting USDT in an exchange earn product means taking on several layers of risk: USDT itself, the exchange and the borrowers. With MEXC, add the fact that there is no regulator to complain to. For what extra risk idle USDT in an exchange earn product carries compared with short-term Treasury ETFs and Aave, see Where to park idle USD and USDT.

Pros and cons: who MEXC suits

How to weigh licences, reserves and fees together when choosing an exchange is covered in How to choose a crypto exchange; more exchange guides and comparisons are on the crypto topic page.

FAQ

Is MEXC safe?

MEXC publishes a Hacken-verified proof of reserves every month. The snapshot of 10 September 2026 showed BTC at 297%, ETH at 111%, USDT at 119% and USDC at 111%. I found no reports of MEXC's exchange wallets being hacked, but in 2025 it froze about US$3.1 million belonging to one trader for about three months, I could not find any formal licence, and regulators in several countries have issued warnings about it. A proof of reserves is a snapshot, not a financial audit.

Does MEXC have a licence?

I could not find a formal exchange licence for MEXC on any regulator's register. Japan's Financial Services Agency, Hong Kong's SFC, the Dutch AFM, Dubai's VARA, the Seychelles Financial Services Authority and others have publicly warned that MEXC is unauthorised. The Dutch AFM even said it is unclear from which country and through which legal entity MEXC provides its services.

What are MEXC's trading fees?

On 9 October 2026 MEXC's official API showed BTC/USDT spot at 0% maker and 0.05% taker, and BTC/USDT perpetual futures at 0% maker and 0.02% taker. A 0% maker fee does not mean trading costs nothing: market orders pay the taker fee, and withdrawals carry a separate network fee.

What happened with MEXC's frozen funds?

In July 2025 a trader using the name The White Whale said MEXC had frozen about US$3.1 million of his funds. MEXC first said the account had triggered risk control rules. At the end of October a MEXC executive publicly apologised, released the funds and promised a fast track for handling account issues.

Where can't you use MEXC?

According to MEXC's user agreement (updated 29 May 2025), residents of North Korea, Cuba, Sudan, Iran, mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Canada and the Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine cannot use it. Users in the Netherlands must also leave by 16 November 2026.

Can I withdraw USDT from MEXC on BEP20?

Yes. In the fee data MEXC published on 9 October 2026, USDT supports BNB Smart Chain (BEP20) with a withdrawal fee of 0.01 USDT; TRC20 is 0.5 USDT and Polygon is 0.0065 USDT. Fees change, so check the withdrawal page.