OKX vs Bitget 2026: Security, Proof of Reserves, Past Incidents, Fees and Earn Compared

I started with Bybit and Binance, and later began using OKX and Bitget as well because their fee discount percentages were higher. I am now VIP 1 at OKX, and the feature I use most there is Auto Earn in the trading account. I have accounts at both, and this article compares OKX and Bitget side by side: security, past incidents, licences, fees and earn products.

The short version: OKX has lower spot fees for regular users, but with assets between 30,000 and 100,000 USDT you are already a VIP at Bitget, and its fees end up lower. On security, each has a record to know about: OKX has never been hacked, but it suspended withdrawals for 41 days in 2020 and pleaded guilty in the US in 2025; about US$388 million was stolen from Bitget in September 2026, the company and its protection fund absorbed the loss, and withdrawals resumed for all coins 8 days later. OKX has EU MiCA authorisation and Bitget does not. If you often keep USDT in your trading account and have VIP 1, OKX’s Auto Earn is more convenient; if you often move USDT on BEP20, only Bitget supports it.

This article shares my own experience and research. It is not investment, tax or legal advice. Fees, rates, licences and service regions can change; every figure here is from the date shown, so check both exchanges’ official pages before you act. This site does not give advice on futures or leveraged trading; futures fees are listed only so readers can compare costs.

OKX vs Bitget at a glance

Fees and order book depth are from 8 October 2026 (depth from CoinGecko); VIP thresholds are from both exchanges’ official fee pages on 7 October. The two boxes below show each exchange’s rating and key data, from the same data set as my rating table:

OKX key factsData checked: 2026-10-08

As of 2026-10-08, OKX'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. Its 2026-09-08 proof of reserves showed BTC 109%, ETH 101%, USDT 105%.

Item	Details	Source
Jason Finance rating	63.6 / 100	rating method
Highlights	Monthly zk-STARK proof of reserves Auto Earn on idle VIP trading balances EU MiCA and Dubai VARA licences
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	2026-09-08 (monthly): BTC 109%, ETH 101%, USDT 105%	2026-10-08
Main licences and registrations	EU MiCA (Malta MFSA), Dubai VARA licence, Singapore MAS licence, Australia AUSTRAC registration	source 1 source 2 source 3 source 4
USDT withdrawals	Cheapest Arbitrum 0.0033 USDT; 6 common networks supported	2026-10-08
Order book depth (±2%)	BTC/USDT about 15.3M USD, ETH/USDT about 8.9M USD	2026-10-08

Bitget key factsData checked: 2026-10-08

As of 2026-10-08, Bitget's general-user spot taker fee is 0.1% and its futures taker fee is 0.06%; signing up with the invitation code gives a 20% trading fee discount. Its 2026-09-29 proof of reserves showed BTC 142%, ETH 110%, USDT 107%.

Item	Details	Source
Jason Finance rating	63.5 / 100	rating method
Highlights	Disclosed protection fund BTC reserve ratio 142% Sept 2026 hack covered by its protection fund
General-user fees (taker)	Spot 0.1%, futures 0.06%	2026-10-08
Invitation code fee discount	20% trading fee discount	2026-10-07
Proof of reserves	2026-09-29 (monthly): BTC 142%, ETH 110%, USDT 107%	2026-10-08
Main licences and registrations	El Salvador CNAD licence, South Africa FSCA licence, Mauritius FSC licence, Australia AUSTRAC registration, Argentina CNV registration	source 1 source 2 source 3 source 4 source 5
USDT withdrawals	Cheapest BEP20 0.01 USDT; 7 common networks supported	2026-10-08
Order book depth (±2%)	BTC/USDT about 10.6M USD, ETH/USDT about 5.7M USD	2026-10-08

Security: proof of reserves and past incidents

Proof of reserves: OKX uses zero-knowledge proofs, Bitget shows higher ratios

Both publish a proof of reserves once a month, and at both you can use the Merkle tree to check for yourself that your account was included. They differ in how the proof is verified and what it covers:

Data from the OKX proof of reserves page and Bitget’s reserves announcement, checked on 12 October 2026; Bitget’s per-coin ratios are from ChainCatcher’s report.

Bitget’s ratios are higher, and OKX’s proof can be checked yourself with open-source code; these are two separate points. The two snapshots are also three weeks apart: OKX’s is from early September, Bitget’s from after the hack. 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: a withdrawal freeze and a guilty plea, versus a hack

The two exchanges’ major events are of different kinds, so I put “how long users could not withdraw” and “who bore the loss” in the same table:

The number of days is calculated from the suspension and resumption dates each exchange announced, using the same method as the “Centralized exchange incident timeline”. Sources: The Block (OKX), Bitget’s incident write-up.

OKX, which was not hacked and had no missing assets, actually left users unable to withdraw for longer. Its critical private keys were concentrated in a few people’s hands, so when one of them ran into trouble, withdrawals stopped. Bitget did have money stolen this time, but it had a protection fund and its own capital to absorb the loss, and it restored withdrawals in stages. While withdrawals are suspended, users cannot tell which kind of situation they are in.

Other records:

• OKX: on 24 February 2025, its operating entity pleaded guilty in the US to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and paid more than US$504 million (US Department of Justice); the same year it was fined about €1.05 million by Malta’s FIAU and €2.25 million by the Dutch central bank; on 11 September 2026, the US state of Texas issued a consent order against OKX Inc. These are compliance and licensing issues, not thefts of user assets.
• Bitget: Japan’s Financial Services Agency issued warnings in March 2023 and November 2024; in April 2025, after abnormal trading in VOXEL futures, Bitget rolled back the related trades and compensated affected users.

The full lists and sources are in the “OKX review” and the “Bitget review”.

Who pays when something goes wrong: the protection fund and OKX Shield are different

• Bitget protection fund: set up in 2022 with 5,500 BTC, with an official commitment to keep it at no less than US$300 million. It covers user losses from platform-level incidents, subject to Bitget’s investigation and claims review. It absorbed the loss from the September 2026 incident, and Bitget said it had topped it back up to more than US$300 million by 28 September (official announcement).
• OKX Shield: a voluntary compensation programme launched in October 2026. It covers only losses from a third party taking over your account, up to US$100,000 for regular users; OKX decides whether to pay, and you must first enable it and turn on passkeys and other security settings (official Q&A). I found no published size for an OKX insurance fund.

The protection fund is for incidents at the exchange itself; OKX Shield is for an individual account being taken over. Neither is insurance, and in both cases the exchange decides how it is used. You can reduce the risk of account takeover with your own settings first; see “Exchange account security settings”.

Licences: a regional entity’s licence does not mean the global site is regulated

Sources: OKX MiCA page, OKX Dubai licensing page, Bitget licence page, Cryptonomist (Bitget MiCA), checked between 7 and 12 October 2026. I did not check Singapore’s status or each licence Bitget lists against the regulators’ registers one by one.

Licences are issued to specific regional entities. OKX’s MiCA authorisation belongs to OKX Europe and covers users in the European Economic Area; whether OKX’s fee schedule and OKX Shield apply to you also depends on which entity serves your account. My inference: for Chinese-speaking users who live somewhere without a regional entity and use the global site, the entity serving you is usually the Seychelles operator. When comparing the two exchanges’ licences, look at which entity serves you, not at how many licences each has.

Regions where they cannot be used (partial):

• Neither can be used in: Hong Kong, Canada, Japan, Malaysia.
• Bitget’s list also includes: the US, Singapore, Thailand, Kazakhstan, France, Germany, Austria and others (Bitget terms of use, updated 15 September 2026). In the US, Singapore and the European Economic Area, OKX serves users through local entities (OKX INC., OKX SG, OKX Europe).
• OKX’s list also includes: India, Nepal, Uzbekistan, parts of the US and its overseas territories, and others; in the UK, South Korea and Brazil only some services are restricted (OKX risk and compliance disclosure, updated 8 July 2026).

The full lists are in each exchange’s terms of service.

Fees: OKX is cheaper for regular users, but Bitget reaches VIP first with 30,000 to 100,000 USDT in assets

According to both exchanges’ official fee schedules on 8 October 2026, for regular users:

In money terms: buying 1,000 USDT of spot at market costs 1 USDT in fees at either exchange, or 0.8 USDT at Bitget paying in BGB. If a limit order fills as a maker, it costs 0.8 USDT at OKX and 1 USDT at Bitget (0.8 USDT paying in BGB). The BGB discount applies only to spot and margin, not futures, and holding BGB also exposes you to its price swings. OKX’s official fee page currently offers no discount for holding OKB.

By assets: which tier you would be at each exchange

At both exchanges you move up a tier when either your assets or your trading volume reach the threshold, but the thresholds are far apart. The table below looks at assets only. Using the VIP tables on both exchanges’ official fee pages on 7 October 2026 (OKX, Bitget), it shows which tier the same assets would put you in at each:

Calculation: 100,000 USDT a month × 12 months × spot taker fee. This volume does not reach either exchange’s volume threshold, so the tier depends only on assets. OKX’s thresholds are in US dollars and Bitget’s in USDT; the table treats them as equal. It does not include the BGB discount or the invitation code fee discount.

The gap is widest with assets between 30,000 and 100,000: on the same volume, you pay 240 to 360 USDT less a year at Bitget. Once your assets pass 100,000 and you reach OKX VIP 1, the gap narrows, and OKX’s maker fee is even lower in the 200,000 to 250,000 range. You can also reach Bitget VIP tiers by holding BGB; the BGB thresholds are adjusted every two weeks based on its price.

Signing up with an invitation code gets you an additional official fee discount; both exchanges’ percentages are in the invitation code boxes at the end of this article. OKX’s fee discount is calculated separately from the VIP fee and paid back to your funding account on the day of the trade (see the actual screenshots in the “OKX review”). For how it is calculated, see “What is a crypto exchange fee discount”; for a comparison with other exchanges, see the “international exchange fee comparison”.

Deposit networks and moving USDT between the two

• BEP20: Bitget supports USDT on BNB Smart Chain (BEP20), with a 0.01 USDT withdrawal fee; OKX supports it for neither USDT deposits nor withdrawals. When moving from Bitget to OKX, you cannot choose BEP20.
• Supported by both: TRC20, ERC20, Solana, TON, Arbitrum, Polygon.
• Withdrawal fees: both publish their USDT withdrawal fees. The data from 8 October 2026:

Sources: OKX withdrawal fees, Bitget official API. By this table, from OKX to Bitget, Arbitrum is the cheapest of the networks both support; from Bitget to OKX, Polygon and Arbitrum are the cheapest, and TRC20 costs 1.5 USDT on both sides. OKX labels Arbitrum and Polygon as USDT0, so before transferring, check on both deposit pages that the network name and contract address match. Bitget’s minimum withdrawal is 10 USDT.

Withdrawal fees change with network conditions; the withdrawal page has the current figure. For a comparison by exchange and network, and the steps for choosing a network, see “How to choose a USDT withdrawal network”; for what to do if you pick the wrong network, see “USDT sent on the wrong network?”.

Earn: OKX Auto Earn needs VIP 1, Bitget’s auto-subscribe lists no tier requirement

Sources: OKX Auto Earn, Bitget Simple Earn flexible savings, checked on 12 October 2026. Bitget’s page gives two subscription times: the step-by-step guide says 15:00 (UTC+8) daily, while the FAQ says twice daily at 3:00 and 15:00. Your account settings are what count.

Auto Earn is the OKX feature I use most: from switching it on on 21 August 2026 to 7 October, it earned about 317 USDT in total. For me, the benefit is that USDT waiting to be traded earns interest while it sits in the trading account, with no transfers. If you are not a VIP, OKX offers Simple Earn, but you have to move the funds in first.

Rates (7 October 2026):

• OKX Simple Earn: the USDT market lending rate is about 3.0 to 3.5%, and OKX keeps 15% of the yield. The 10% shown on the page is a new-user reward, limited to 500 USDT and 180 days.
• Bitget Simple Earn: the page showed several flexible USDT products at once. One of them was tiered: 7.93% on up to 300 USDT and 3.27% on the rest. Bitget’s help pages do not say where the flexible yield comes from.
• Bitget cash product: USDT or USDC is put into USDGO, a US dollar stablecoin backed by short-term US Treasuries, cash and similar assets, which paid about 4% a year at launch.

If you only put in a few hundred USDT, Bitget’s first-tier rate is higher; the more you put in, the closer your overall APR gets to the second-tier rate. Rates change daily and are not guaranteed. For what extra risks exchange earn products carry compared with short-term US Treasuries, Aave and Bitfinex lending, see “Where to park idle USD and USDT”.

Who OKX and Bitget each suit, by situation

Whichever you choose, only keep on it what you can afford to lose, and keep long-term holdings in a cold wallet where you hold the private keys yourself. To pick an exchange by what you do most, see “Choosing a crypto exchange by need”. For comparisons with other exchanges, see “How to choose a crypto exchange”; comparisons in the same format are “Bybit vs OKX” and “Bitget vs Bybit”.

OKX and Bitget invitation codes

More articles are on the crypto topic page.

FAQ

Which is safer, OKX or Bitget?

They carry different risks. OKX publishes a zk-STARK proof of reserves every month, and I found no record of its exchange custody wallets being hacked, but it suspended withdrawals for 41 days in 2020 and pleaded guilty in the US in 2025, paying more than US$504 million. On 24 September 2026, about US$388 million was stolen from Bitget's hot and warm wallets; the company and its protection fund absorbed the loss, and withdrawals resumed for all coins 8 days later. Bitget's proof of reserves shows higher ratios, but Bitget publishes it itself, with no third-party audit.

Which has lower fees, OKX or Bitget?

For regular users on spot, OKX is cheaper: OKX charges 0.08% maker and 0.10% taker, Bitget 0.1% for both, with 20% off when paying in BGB according to Bitget's official 2025 notice. With assets between 30,000 and 100,000 USDT, you are already VIP 1 or VIP 2 at Bitget but still a regular user at OKX, so in that range Bitget's spot fees are lower.

How different are the VIP 1 thresholds at OKX and Bitget?

According to both exchanges' official fee pages on 7 October 2026, OKX VIP 1 requires US$100,000 in assets or US$1 million in 30-day spot volume. Bitget requires any one of: 30,000 USDT in assets, 500,000 USDT in 30-day spot volume, or holding BGB.

Does OKX's MiCA licence protect users of its global site?

Not necessarily. The MiCA authorisation was obtained by OKX Europe, which serves users in the European Economic Area; users without a regional entity are served by Aux Cayes FinTech in Seychelles. Bitget has no MiCA authorisation and says it will not offer services in the European Economic Area until it gets one.

Can I use BEP20 to send USDT from Bitget to OKX?

No. Bitget supports USDT on BNB Smart Chain (BEP20), but OKX supports BEP20 for neither USDT deposits nor withdrawals. Pick a network both support instead, such as TRC20, ERC20, Solana, TON, Arbitrum or Polygon.

How does OKX Auto Earn differ from Bitget's auto-subscribe?

OKX Auto Earn is open only to VIP 1 through VIP 9, and the assets stay in the trading account; OKX says this does not affect their use as trading margin. Bitget's help page for Simple Earn auto-subscribe lists no VIP requirement. At set times it subscribes the available balance in your spot account to flexible savings, and before trading you redeem first, with the funds returning to your spot account immediately.