Ourbit Review 2026: Is It Safe? UK FCA Warning, Proof of Reserves, Licences, Fees and Sign-up

This review is based on Ourbit’s official materials, regulators’ announcements and public records.

The short version: Ourbit is a small international exchange whose operating entity is registered in the British Virgin Islands. I could not find a formal licence from any regulator, and the UK FCA added it to its warning list of unauthorised firms on 14 May 2026. It publishes a proof of reserves, and the snapshot of 1 October 2026 showed BTC at 110%, ETH at 109% and USDT at 103%, but with no third-party verification. Regular users pay 0% on spot. When judging Ourbit, the question that matters more than fees is “who steps in if something goes wrong”. On the information available now, it suits only small amounts you can afford to lose.

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

Ourbit key factsData checked: 2026-10-08

As of 2026-10-08, Ourbit's general-user spot taker fee is 0% and its futures taker fee is 0.04%; signing up with the invitation code gives a 50% trading fee discount. Its 2026-10-01 proof of reserves showed BTC 110.31%, ETH 108.76%, USDT 102.56%.

Item	Details	Source
Jason Finance rating	43.5 / 100	rating method
Highlights	0% spot fees Reserves verified per asset No verified licence
General-user fees (taker)	Spot 0%, futures 0.04%	2026-10-08
Invitation code fee discount	50% trading fee discount	2026-10-07
Proof of reserves	2026-10-01 (irregular): BTC 110.31%, ETH 108.76%, USDT 102.56%	2026-10-08
Main licences and registrations	None found
USDT withdrawals	Cheapest BEP20 0.01 USDT; 7 common networks supported	2026-10-08
Order book depth (±2%)	BTC/USDT about 12.7M USD, ETH/USDT about 8.5M USD	2026-10-08

What kind of exchange is Ourbit

The operating entity comes from Ourbit’s terms of service (updated 30 May 2026). The user count is Ourbit’s own claim, from a press release dated 12 May 2026. The same release calls it a “second anniversary”, which does not match the 2020 date on CoinGecko. The AMF in Quebec, Canada, had already warned about Ourbit at the end of 2023 (see below), so it was operating by 2023 at the latest. I found no clear official statement of when it was founded.

Relationship with MEXC: many third-party review sites say Ourbit was founded by a former MEXC core team, but I could not find any official statement from Ourbit or MEXC. The press releases say only that the team comes from “top-tier exchanges”; the press contact is a brand manager, and no founders or executives are named.

Is Ourbit safe

Proof of reserves: a Merkle tree, each coin calculated separately, no third-party verification

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 moment of the snapshot the exchange held enough coins to cover all user balances.

Ourbit’s proof of reserves page, snapshot taken at 00:00 on 1 October 2026 (Taipei time):

• Method: a Merkle tree built from a hash of each user’s UID and balance; users can check with open-source code whether their balance is included.
• Public wallet addresses: the page lists 28 wallet addresses with their chains and block heights, so you can check them on-chain yourself.
• Each coin calculated separately: Ourbit says one asset cannot be used to cover a shortfall in another.
• No third-party verification: the page does not say which accounting or security firm verified it, and there is no fixed publication schedule.
• The page text says it covers USDT, USDC, BTC and ETH, but the ratio table shows only BTC, ETH and USDT.

The wallet figures also show its size: at the snapshot, users held about 22.70 million USDT and fewer than 700 BTC on Ourbit. A proof of reserves is a snapshot at one point in time, not a financial audit, and it cannot prove that the exchange has no other liabilities. What it can and cannot prove, and how exchanges’ reserve ratios compare, are in the proof of reserves guide.

Security testing and hack record

In a May 2026 press release, Ourbit said it had completed a penetration test and security audit by Hacken. Hacken’s website has an Ourbit web and API penetration test report titled September 2025, and the search snippet shows a final report date of 10 October 2025. I could not open the report page directly, so I did not see how many issues were found or whether all were fixed. A penetration test checks the website and API for vulnerabilities; it is a different thing from a proof of reserves.

As of 9 October 2026, I found no media reports of Ourbit being hacked, suspending withdrawals or facing rumours of collapse.

User complaints: accounts frozen by risk control

On Trustpilot, Ourbit’s rating on 9 October 2026 was 1.9 out of 5 from about 30 reviews, more than 70% of them 1 star. Most negative reviews describe accounts suddenly put under risk-control review and frozen for 30 to 180 days, with support giving no reason or unfreeze date.

These are one-sided user accounts that I cannot verify one by one, and there are few reviews. Read together with the licensing situation in the next section, what these complaints show is that when an account is frozen, there is no regulator or complaints channel that can step in; you can only wait for the exchange to deal with it.

Account security settings

According to the security centre on Ourbit’s website (9 October 2026), you can set up:

• Two-factor authentication: Ourbit or Google Authenticator, SMS and email.
• Withdrawal whitelist: once on, withdrawals can go only to whitelisted addresses.
• Anti-phishing code: official emails include a string you choose.
• After you change your phone number, email or login password, or unbind the authenticator, withdrawals are blocked for 24 hours.

I did not see an option for passkeys or hardware security keys in the interface, and I found no public information on a bug bounty programme or an insurance fund.

Ourbit licences and regulatory warnings

No formal licence found

As of 9 October 2026, I could not find a formal licence for Ourbit from any regulator, and I did not see Ourbit list any licence or registration itself. The terms of service only name the operating entity as Ourbit Holdings Ltd. in the British Virgin Islands.

Regulatory record and warnings

The regulatory records I found as of 9 October 2026:

Warnings like these mean “not authorised locally”; they are not a finding that the platform is a scam. But they do mean that in these places, a user in a dispute with the exchange has no local regulator to turn to.

I found no record of Ourbit being fined by any regulator, being prosecuted, being involved in court cases or being placed on a sanctions list. I also searched the Hong Kong SFC’s list of suspicious virtual asset trading platforms, Japan’s FSA, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Securities Commission Malaysia, Thailand’s SEC, the Philippine SEC, and European regulators including France’s AMF, Italy’s CONSOB, Germany’s BaFin, Belgium’s FSMA and Spain’s CNMV, and found no notices naming Ourbit. Some of these lists are dynamic web pages, so I could not check them completely.

Regions excluded by the terms of service

Under Ourbit’s terms of service (updated 30 May 2026), residents of the following are outside its service area:

• The United States, China, Singapore
• North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and the Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine (currently including Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk)
• France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Austria, Portugal
• The Canadian province of Ontario
• Individuals or entities on US, EU or UK sanctions lists

The UK is not on the list in the terms, but the FCA has issued a warning; Hong Kong is not on the list either. Also, Ourbit’s March 2025 press release gave Singapore as its dateline, yet the terms exclude Singapore residents. Ourbit’s website offers German, French, Italian, Spanish, Persian and other interfaces, but the terms exclude residents of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Iran and other places. A site in your language does not mean it is available where you live; local law and the terms of service are what count.

How to sign up for Ourbit

Create an account with an email address or phone number, enter the invitation code in the invitation code field, then complete identity verification (KYC) as needed. Before signing up, make sure where you live is not on the exclusion list above.

Sign up with an invitation code to get a 50% fee discount. Regular users already pay 0% on Ourbit spot, so the discount applies only to trades that carry a fee.

Ourbit fees: 0% spot

According to Ourbit’s official fee page and official API (9 October 2026):

• The fee page also states that spot fees on 12 pairs, including BTC/USDT, ETH/USDT, XRP/USDT, DOGE/USDT and TON/USDT, “remain 0”.
• The fee page also has a “special pairs” section; some pairs have different fees from regular pairs, so check the actual fee for a pair before placing an order.
• Futures fees can be paid with the platform token OUR; this article does not cover futures trading and does not suggest buying the platform token to get that offset.
• A maker places an order and waits for someone to fill it; a taker fills an order already on the book.

In money terms: a regular user who buys 1,000 USDT of BTC at market on BTC/USDT pays 0 USDT in spot fees. For general-user fees at other international exchanges, see the international exchange fee comparison. Low fees do not mean low total cost: when the order book is thin, the gap between the expected and actual fill price (slippage) is also a cost.

USDT deposits and withdrawals

Deposits are free. Withdrawals carry a fixed network fee that does not depend on the amount. USDT in Ourbit’s official withdrawal fee data on 9 October 2026:

BEP20 is the cheapest and TRC20 the most expensive. Withdrawal fees change with network conditions; the withdrawal page is what counts. The sender and the recipient must use the same network; picking the wrong chain may mean the funds cannot be recovered.

Ourbit Earn

The assets page on Ourbit’s website offers earn options including flexible savings (Flexible Savings), fixed-term products and “Simple Earn”. According to the interface text, once Simple Earn is on, the system takes random snapshots of assets in the spot and futures accounts and starts generating earnings (website interface text, 9 October 2026).

I found no public Ourbit page setting out the earn rules: how rates are set, where the yield comes from, whether you can redeem at any time and how much the platform takes. There is no official material to cite yet, so I am not giving rates here. For what extra risk idle USDT in exchange earn products carries compared with short-term Treasury ETFs and on-chain lending, see Where to park idle USD and USDT.

Pros and cons: who Ourbit suits

How to compare exchanges on safety, transparency and size is covered in how to choose a crypto exchange; how each one is scored is in the exchange rating methodology. More exchange guides and comparisons are on the crypto topic page.

FAQ

Is Ourbit safe?

Ourbit publishes a proof of reserves. The snapshot of 1 October 2026 showed BTC at 110%, ETH at 109% and USDT at 103%, but there is no third-party verification and it is not published on a fixed schedule. I could not find a formal licence from any regulator, and the UK FCA added it to its warning list of unauthorised firms on 14 May 2026. I found no public record of a hack so far.

Does Ourbit have a licence?

On 9 October 2026 I could not find a formal licence or registration for Ourbit with any regulator. The operating entity is Ourbit Holdings Ltd. in the British Virgin Islands. Both the UK FCA and the AMF in Quebec, Canada, have issued warnings saying it is not authorised there.

Is Ourbit owned by MEXC?

Many third-party sites say Ourbit was founded by a former MEXC team, but I could not find any official statement from Ourbit or MEXC. Ourbit's terms of service only name the operating entity as Ourbit Holdings Ltd. in the British Virgin Islands, and its press releases do not name the founders.

What are Ourbit's trading fees?

In Ourbit's official data on 9 October 2026, regular users paid 0% maker and 0% taker on spot, and 0.02% maker and 0.04% taker on BTC and SOL USDT perpetual futures. Deposits are free. USDT withdrawal fees vary by network: 0.01 USDT on BEP20 and 1.5 USDT on TRC20.

Which regions cannot use Ourbit?

Under the terms of service updated on 30 May 2026, the United States, China, Singapore, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Sudan, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Austria, Portugal, the Canadian province of Ontario and the Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine are outside its service area. The UK is not on the list in the terms, but the FCA has issued a warning.

Can Ourbit's proof of reserves be trusted?

Ourbit uses a Merkle tree so users can check for themselves that their balance is included, publishes its wallet addresses, and calculates each coin separately with no offsetting between coins. But the page names no third-party verifier, snapshots are not published on a fixed schedule, and it is only a comparison of assets at one point in time, not a financial audit.