MEXC is the better exchange in this comparison for manual perpetual and altcoin traders outside the US, UK and EEA, on two verified numbers: 0.020% taker on BTCUSDT perpetuals against Bybit's 0.0550%, and more than 1,040 USDT-margined contracts on MEXC's own fee page against the roughly 740 that third-party trackers attribute to Bybit.
Bybit is the better choice if you trade options, run bots through an API, need a MiCA-authorised entity, or weight a documented crisis record above cost.
Key Takeaways
MEXC is the better choice in this comparison for manual perpetual and altcoin traders outside the US, UK and EEA, at 0.020% taker on BTCUSDT against Bybit's 0.0550% and 0.0000% spot maker against 0.1000%.
On 500,000 USD of monthly BTC perpetual volume the gap is 2,100 USD a year, and on the same volume of resting spot orders it is 6,000 USD.
Bots reverse the order: MEXC's API futures rates of 0.060% maker and 0.080% taker sit above Bybit's 0.0200% and 0.0550% and override every MEXC discount.
MEXC's own fee page lists more than 1,040 USDT-M contracts and 2,080 spot pairs, while third-party trackers attribute roughly 740 perpetuals to Bybit.
Bybit leads on options, its Unified Trading Account, MiCA authorisation through Bybit EU, and a February 2025 record of restoring reserves within 72 hours with no user losses.
MEXC is not MiCA-authorised and appears on ESMA's non-compliant register, neither platform serves US residents, and Bybit has exited Japan and Malaysia.
Most people who compare Bybit vs MEXC are not angry with Bybit.
They are doing one of three things: spreading counterparty risk after February 2025, reacting to a change in what Bybit can legally offer in their region, or looking for contracts and pricing that a derivatives-first venue with a curated listing policy does not provide.
The third one has a measurable answer, and it is the one this comparison starts with.
Bybit's standard perpetual schedule is 0.0200% maker and 0.0550% taker, charged on leveraged notional on every entry and every exit.
VIP 1 requires roughly 250,000 USD in assets or 10,000,000 USD in 30-day futures volume, so most accounts stay on the standard rate for as long as they trade.
Bybit's listing policy is curated, which is a strength for liquidity on major pairs and a constraint everywhere else, because the small-cap contract you want is frequently not there.
If your question is what a round trip costs on the contracts you actually trade, and whether the venue lists them at all, the next two sections answer it with the numbers.
We publish this comparison and we are one of the two platforms in it, so here is our position stated plainly.
For a perpetual trader, the fee that matters is not the one on the pricing page, it is that fee multiplied by the number of times you pay it, and a taker fee that looks trivial per trade is charged hundreds of times a year.
That is the whole case for MEXC: BTCUSDT at 0.000% maker and 0.020% taker, ETHUSDT at 0.010% taker, a set of contracts at zero on both sides, and a 20% MX deduction that applies from the first trade with no VIP threshold.
The case is narrower than exchange marketing usually admits, and we would rather draw the boundary ourselves.
It applies to manual traders on the pairs carrying Special Rate or zero-fee pricing, it does not survive contact with our API schedule, and it does not apply at all if you trade options, because we do not offer them.
We also do not win on reserve disclosure or on regulatory footprint.
Bybit's proof-of-reserves publication and its documented post-incident audit are more developed than ours, Bybit EU holds a MiCA authorisation, and we appear on ESMA's register of non-compliant entities following a Dutch AFM decision in September 2025.
Our reading is that execution cost and custody assurance are two separate purchases, and many traders sensibly buy each from a different venue.
If you are outside the restricted jurisdictions listed below and you trade perpetuals by hand, the arithmetic in the next section is why we think one of those venues should be MEXC.
Perpetual taker fees are charged on the full leveraged notional rather than on the margin you posted, and you pay them on entry and again on exit.
A trader running twenty round trips a month on 12,500 USD positions puts 500,000 USD of notional through the book every month, which is 6,000,000 USD a year and 480 separate fee events.
MEXC prices its major perpetuals below its standard schedule rather than above it.
BTCUSDT carries a Special Rate of 0.000% maker and 0.020% taker, ETHUSDT and GOLD(XAU)USDT sit at 0.000% maker and 0.010% taker, and contracts including SOLUSDT, XRPUSDT and UNIUSDT are labelled zero fee on both sides.
Enabling the MX deduction takes a further 20% off, which turns 0.020% into 0.016% and 0.0500% spot taker into 0.0400%, with no volume requirement to unlock it.
MEXC's official fee page lists USDT-M perpetual contracts across 105 pages of ten rows each and spot pairs across 209 pages, which puts perpetual coverage above 1,040 contracts and spot coverage above 2,080 pairs. Standard contracts outside the Special Rate list, such as USELESSUSDT, are priced at 0.010% maker and 0.040% taker, and the schedule across all contracts runs from 0.000% to 0.040% maker and 0.000% to 0.100% taker.
Bybit's published schedule is 0.0200% maker and 0.0550% taker on USDT, USDC and inverse perpetuals at VIP 0, 0.1000% on both sides of spot, and 0.0200% maker and 0.0300% taker on options.
Scenario, 500,000 USD per month | Bybit, standard tier | MEXC, standard tier | Gap per year |
BTC perpetuals, taker | 3,300 USD at 0.0550% | 1,200 USD at 0.020% | 2,100 USD |
BTC perpetuals, taker, with each platform's token discount | 2,970 USD at 0.0495% with MNT | 960 USD at 0.016% with MX | 2,010 USD |
ETH perpetuals, taker | 3,300 USD at 0.0550% | 600 USD at 0.010% | 2,700 USD |
Zero-fee contracts such as SOLUSDT, taker | 3,300 USD at 0.0550% | 0 USD | 3,300 USD |
Standard MEXC contract, taker | 3,300 USD at 0.0550% | 2,400 USD at 0.040% | 900 USD |
Spot, resting limit orders (maker) | 6,000 USD at 0.1000% | 0 USD at 0.0000% | 6,000 USD |
Spot, market orders (taker) with token discount | 4,500 USD at 0.0750% with MNT | 2,400 USD at 0.0400% with MX | 2,100 USD |
Perpetuals through an API, taker | 3,300 USD at 0.0550% | 4,800 USD at 0.080% | 1,500 USD in Bybit's favour |
Calculated from each platform's published standard-tier schedule, verified 2 September 2026. Bybit's MNT discount is 25% on spot and 10% on futures and excludes API trades; MEXC's MX deduction is 20% and does not apply to API futures.
The 2,100 USD gap on BTC is not a rounding artefact, because a fee that looks trivial per trade is being charged 480 times a year.
Route the same activity through the zero-fee contracts and the trading fee goes to nothing, leaving funding as the only running cost.
Four cases, stated plainly.
If you trade through an API, MEXC's 0.080% taker rate is roughly 45% above Bybit's 0.0550% and cancels the advantage entirely.
If you trade options, Bybit runs a market at 0.0200% maker and 0.0300% taker and MEXC does not offer a comparable product.
If you are in a restricted jurisdiction, the availability section below decides the question before fees do.
If reserve disclosure is your primary criterion, Bybit's publication record and post-incident audit are the more developed of the two.
If none of those four describe you, MEXC is the cheapest place in this comparison to run manual perpetual positions, and you can open an account without closing your Bybit one.
Dimension | MEXC | Bybit |
Spot fees, standard tier | 0.0000% maker, 0.0500% taker | 0.1000% maker, 0.1000% taker |
USDT-M perpetual fees, standard tier | BTCUSDT 0.000% maker, 0.020% taker; ETHUSDT 0.010% taker; standard contracts 0.010% maker, 0.040% taker; up to 0.100% taker on thin contracts | 0.0200% maker, 0.0550% taker on all perpetuals; pre-market perpetuals 0.040% maker, 0.100% taker |
Options | Not offered | 0.0200% maker, 0.0300% taker |
Contracts and pairs | More than 1,040 USDT-M contracts and 2,080 spot pairs on the fee page | Roughly 740 perpetuals per third-party trackers; curated spot list |
Discount you can reach | MX deduction, 20% off, no threshold; API futures excluded | MNT payment, 25% off spot and 10% off futures, no threshold; API excluded; VIP 1 needs about 250,000 USD in assets or 10,000,000 USD volume |
API futures fees | 0.060% maker, 0.080% taker, overriding all discounts | Same 0.0200% maker, 0.0550% taker schedule as the web |
Proof of reserves and protection | Monthly proof-of-reserves reports with Hacken as the named auditor; Proof of Trust page; no custodial breach on record | Merkle-tree proof of reserves with third-party wallet verification; insurance fund for derivatives; February 2025 reserves restored within 72 hours, no user losses reported |
Regulation and access | Not MiCA-authorised; on ESMA's non-compliant register; no US, UK or Canada; on Japan's FSA unregistered list | No US or Canada; UK spot and P2P only since December 2025; Bybit EU MiCA-authorised with no perpetuals; exited Japan in 2026 |
Distinctive products | Pre-market trading, Launchpad, Airdrop+, stock perpetuals, DEX+ aggregator | Unified Trading Account, options, xStocks tokenized equities, copy trading with per-master controls |
Data verified as of 2 September 2026 against each platform's official fee schedule, help centre and terms. MEXC figures are read from the official fee page; Bybit figures from its published fee structure and help centre.
Verdict for this section: Bybit has the more complete derivatives product set and the cleaner account structure, and MEXC has the larger catalogue and the faster listing pipeline.
MEXC's fee page carries more than 1,040 USDT-margined perpetual contracts and 2,080 spot pairs, and both figures are first-party counts from its own published tables rather than tracker estimates.
Third-party trackers attribute roughly 740 perpetuals to Bybit and about 481 to OKX, which is the gap that matters if your strategy involves smaller-cap contracts.
On the spot side, Bybit's Adventure Zone for newer tokens and its xStocks tokenized equities carry their own schedule of 0.2000% maker and 0.2000% taker at VIP 0, double its main spot rate.
MEXC offers stock exposure differently, through stock perpetuals such as DELLUSDT that its fee page labels zero fee on both sides.
Bybit's Unified Trading Account pools collateral across spot, margin, perpetuals and options, and its options book is the clearest product advantage over MEXC, which has no options desk.
Its copy trading documentation sets out per-master parameters and multi-master following, a more developed framework than most venues publish.
MEXC's stack is organised around getting into new tokens early: pre-market trading before a listing goes live, Launchpad and Kickstarter allocations for MX holders, Airdrop+ rewards, and a DEX+ aggregator for on-chain tokens that are not centrally listed.
CoinGecko's 2026 perpetuals report counted 879 new perpetual contracts on MEXC between January 2025 and April 2026, roughly 55 a month and the most of any major centralised exchange, while six of the top eleven venues listed fewer than 20 a month. Bybit is not slow: it ran TRUMP pre-market perpetuals from January 18, 2025, and its pre-market product gives early exposure to selected launches.
Faster listing means less vetting, and plenty of tokens that list within days of launch bleed out after the opening move, so limit orders and small sizing are the cost of playing in the long tail.
Verdict for this section: MEXC is cheaper for manual spot and perpetual trading at every standard-tier rate, Bybit is cheaper for options and for anything routed through an API.
MEXC's spot schedule is 0.0000% maker and 0.0500% taker, and the MX deduction takes the taker side to 0.0400%.
Bybit's is 0.1000% on both sides at VIP 0, falling to 0.0675% maker and 0.0800% taker at VIP 1, and paying fees in MNT takes 25% off, which brings VIP 0 to 0.0750%. A resting limit order therefore costs nothing on MEXC and 0.0750% at best on Bybit's standard tier, which is the widest single gap in this comparison.
Bybit charges 0.0200% maker and 0.0550% taker on every USDT, USDC and inverse perpetual at VIP 0, and 0.0180% and 0.0495% when fees are paid in MNT.
MEXC prices per contract: 0.020% taker on BTCUSDT, 0.010% on ETHUSDT and GOLD(XAU)USDT, zero on a set of contracts, 0.040% on standard contracts, and up to 0.100% on the thinnest, with the MX deduction taking 20% off each.
The top of MEXC's range is nearly double Bybit's flat rate, so the pair you trade decides the outcome, and the rate on your own contract is the one to check before sizing a strategy around it.
MEXC launched API futures trading on 31 March 2026 with a separate fee schedule, and the rates effective 1 June 2026 are 0.060% maker and 0.080% taker, overriding the web schedule, promotions, zero-fee labels and the MX deduction. Bybit publishes one derivatives schedule that applies to both routes, and its MNT discount excludes API trades, so a bot on Bybit pays 0.0200% and 0.0550%.
Route | MEXC maker | MEXC taker | Bybit maker | Bybit taker |
Web and app, BTCUSDT perpetual | 0.00% | 0.02% | 0.02% | 0.06% |
Web and app, standard MEXC contract | 0.01% | 0.04% | 0.02% | 0.06% |
API | 0.06% | 0.08% | 0.02% | 0.06% |
Data verified as of 2 September 2026 against MEXC's fee page and API futures fee announcement and Bybit's published fee structure.
The inversion is complete: MEXC is the cheapest venue here for a manual trader and the most expensive for an automated one.
Both platforms settle funding every eight hours on their main perpetuals, and no exchange discounts it, because it is a payment between longs and shorts rather than a fee the venue keeps.
At a 0.01% funding rate, a position held for seven days pays 21 intervals, or 0.21% of notional, which on a 10,000 USD position is 21 USD against 11 USD of round-trip taker fees on Bybit or 4 USD on MEXC's BTC perpetual.
The practical rule: fee choice decides your cost if you scalp, and funding decides it if you hold.
Platform | Spot fees, standard tier | Native-token discount | USDT-M perpetual fees, standard tier | BTC and ETH perpetual specifics | Verified |
MEXC | 0.0000% maker, 0.0500% taker | MX deduction, 20% off, no volume threshold | Standard contracts 0.010% maker, 0.040% taker; range 0.000% to 0.040% maker and 0.000% to 0.100% taker | BTCUSDT Special Rate 0.000% maker, 0.020% taker; ETHUSDT 0.000% maker, 0.010% taker; API route 0.060% maker, 0.080% taker | Official fee page, 2 September 2026 |
Bybit | 0.1000% maker, 0.1000% taker | MNT payment, 25% off spot and 10% off futures, API excluded | 0.0200% maker, 0.0550% taker | Uniform across BTC and ETH; options at 0.0200% maker, 0.0300% taker | Official help centre, 2 September 2026 |
Binance | 0.100% maker, 0.100% taker | BNB, 25% off spot and 10% off futures | 0.0200% maker, 0.0500% taker on all USDT-M pairs | Uniform across BTC and ETH; USDC-M pairs at 0.0000% maker, 0.0400% taker | Dated capture of official schedule, 31 August 2026 |
OKX | 0.08% maker, 0.10% taker | OKB holdings move you up the fee ladder | 0.02% maker, 0.05% taker | Uniform across BTC and ETH; options at 0.02% maker, 0.03% taker | Official fee page, 31 August 2026 |
Data verified as of 2 September 2026 against each platform's official fee schedule or help centre. Standard, non-VIP tiers only; VIP levels, token discounts and time-limited campaigns can lower effective rates.
Verdict for this section: Bybit's crisis record is the strongest single trust datapoint in this comparison, MEXC's custody record is clean but its published reserve documentation is thinner, and neither should be treated as a vault.
The sequence, neutrally stated.
On 21 February 2025 Bybit disclosed that an attacker gained control of an Ethereum cold wallet during a routine transfer to a warm wallet, with reported losses of roughly 1.4 to 1.5 billion USD in ether and related tokens, the largest recorded exchange theft at the time. That outcome is a point in Bybit's favour and should be read as one.
Bybit publishes Merkle-tree proof of reserves with third-party verification of wallet ownership, audited monthly by Hacken since June 2024, and runs an insurance fund covering derivatives liquidations.
MEXC publishes monthly proof-of-reserves reports with Hacken as the named independent auditor alongside a Proof of Trust page, has no large-scale custodial breach reported, and its documentation of protection funds is less detailed than Bybit's, which our proof-of-reserves comparison sets out platform by platform. One honest note on MEXC: third-party reviews regularly flag risk-control checks that can delay a withdrawal pending extra verification, so run a small withdrawal before you move size.
Both platforms offer two-factor authentication, withdrawal whitelisting, anti-phishing codes and device management, and every one of them should be switched on before you hold a balance.
The pattern worth taking from this section is that the venue with the more developed reserve disclosure is not the cheaper one, and that is a trade-off to price consciously rather than a reason to pick either extreme.
Verdict for this section: this check overrides everything above, and it has changed twice in the past year on Bybit's side.
Region | Perpetuals on MEXC | Perpetuals on Bybit | What decides it |
United States | No access | No access | Both platforms name the US as an excluded or prohibited jurisdiction |
Canada | No access | No access | Excluded by both platforms |
United Kingdom | No access | Spot and P2P only since December 2025 | FCA restricts crypto derivatives for retail consumers; MEXC names the UK as prohibited |
EEA | Not named as prohibited; no MiCA authorisation | Spot and margin on Bybit EU, no perpetuals | MiCA covers crypto-asset services, not derivatives |
Singapore and Hong Kong | Named as prohibited | Excluded | Local licensing regimes |
Japan | Accessible on the web; apps removed from Japanese stores; MEXC is on the FSA unregistered operator list | Exited; close-only from 23 March 2026 and forced close from 22 July 2026 | Japanese registration requirements |
Malaysia | Named as prohibited | | Both platforms are unregistered with the SC; Bybit complied with the order |
Kazakhstan | Named as prohibited | Available | Added to MEXC's prohibited list |
Most other markets | Available | Available | Standard KYC applies |
Status verified as of 2 September 2026 against each platform's official terms, help centre and regulator publications. Our restricted countries guide carries MEXC's full list.
The headline that Bybit is back in the UK is accurate and incomplete.
MEXC is not a solution to that problem and should not be presented as one.
Neither platform serves you, and several pages ranking for this query suggest a VPN as the workaround.
That advice is worth ignoring: both platforms treat misrepresenting your residency as grounds to close the account and liquidate open positions, and an offshore venue you are not permitted to use offers no recourse.
The regulated route for leveraged crypto exposure runs through CFTC-regulated venues and domestically licensed exchanges, and this paragraph is informational rather than a recommendation to open an account anywhere.
Five areas where switching away costs you something, and if any of them is why you are on Bybit, staying is the right call.
An actual options market at 0.0200% maker and 0.0300% taker, which very few centralised exchanges run and MEXC does not.
A Unified Trading Account that pools collateral across spot, margin, perpetuals and options, which is real capital efficiency for anyone running hedges rather than directional trades.
One fee schedule for web and API trading, which makes Bybit the cheaper venue for bots by a wide margin.
Regulated entities in Europe and a documented February 2025 reimbursement record, which is the strongest trust datapoint any platform in this comparison can point to.
Copy trading depth, with per-master parameters and multi-master following, and xStocks tokenized equities for readers who want stock exposure on a spot book rather than through perpetuals.
Your situation | Pick | Why |
Manual perpetual trader outside the restricted jurisdictions, paying taker fees hundreds of times a year | MEXC | 0.020% on BTCUSDT against 0.0550%, worth 2,100 USD a year on 500,000 USD of monthly volume |
Altcoin spot trader placing resting orders | MEXC | 0.0000% maker against 0.1000%, and more than 2,080 spot pairs |
Small-cap contracts that curated venues do not list | MEXC | More than 1,040 USDT-M contracts against roughly 740 |
Bots trading through an API | Bybit | 0.0200% and 0.0550% against MEXC's 0.060% and 0.080% |
Options or multi-leg structures | Bybit | MEXC has no options desk |
Copy trading as your core strategy | Bybit | Deeper published framework |
EEA resident | Bybit EU for spot, or another ESMA-registered provider | Neither platform offers EEA residents perpetuals; MEXC is not authorised |
US, Canada or Japan resident | Neither | Research locally licensed venues |
If one of the first three rows is you, open a MEXC account, move a test amount, and check the rate on your own contracts before sizing up.
Running MEXC alongside Bybit is the common answer: execution cost from whichever venue prices your contracts best, and custody assurance from not leaving idle balances anywhere.
Step 1: close positions before you move margin.
Open perpetual positions cannot be transferred, so realise or close them first and move the resulting balance to your funding or spot wallet.
Step 2: match the network on both sides.
Open the deposit page on MEXC first, copy the address and network from there, select the matching network on Bybit's withdrawal screen, and confirm the minimum withdrawal amount before you commit.
If the asset requires a memo or destination tag, such as XRP or ATOM, entering it correctly is not optional, and omitting it is the second most common way transfers go missing.
Step 3: send a small test transfer.
Move a token amount worth a few dollars, confirm it credits, and only then move the balance.
Is MEXC cheaper than Bybit for futures?
For manual trading, yes: 0.020% taker on BTCUSDT and 0.010% on ETHUSDT against Bybit's 0.0550%, which is about 2,100 USD a year on 500,000 USD of monthly BTC volume.
For API trading the order reverses, because MEXC charges 0.080% taker through its API.
Is Bybit safer than MEXC?
Bybit has the more developed reserve disclosure and a documented record of restoring reserves within 72 hours after the February 2025 breach with no user losses.
MEXC has no custodial breach on record and publishes Hacken-audited proof of reserves, but is unlicensed in the EEA, UK and US.
Does Bybit have more liquidity than MEXC?
On BTC and ETH perpetuals, yes: Bybit's books on major contracts are deeper and hold up better under size.
MEXC's advantage is the long tail, where market orders on newly listed contracts can slip, so use limit orders there.
Which has more coins, MEXC or Bybit?
MEXC's own fee page lists more than 2,080 spot pairs and 1,040 USDT-M contracts, against roughly 740 perpetuals attributed to Bybit by third-party trackers.
Bybit's curated list trades with deeper books on what it does carry.
Can I trade options on MEXC?
No, MEXC does not offer an options market.
Bybit runs USDC-settled options at 0.0200% maker and 0.0300% taker, which is its clearest product advantage in this comparison.
Which offers higher leverage, and what does that mean for risk?
Both advertise headline leverage that generally applies only to the most liquid pairs at the smallest position sizes before risk-limit tiers reduce it.
At those ceilings a price move of well under one percent can trigger liquidation, so treat headline leverage as a marketing number rather than a plan.
How do I move USDT from Bybit to MEXC?
Close open positions, copy the deposit address and network from MEXC first, and send a small test amount before the balance.
Perpetual futures are leveraged products and can lose more than your initial margin.
Funding payments accrue every eight hours regardless of whether the position is profitable.
Newly listed and low-capitalisation contracts carry thin liquidity, and on thin pairs the spread can cost more than every trading fee in this article combined.
Availability of every product mentioned here varies by jurisdiction and can change without notice.
MEXC's prohibited jurisdictions are listed in its User Agreement, and fee rates vary by region and by promotional period, so the rate shown in your own account is the one that applies. MEXC holds no MiCA authorisation, does not appear on ESMA's register of authorised crypto-asset service providers, and has been named on ESMA's register of non-compliant entities following a Dutch AFM decision in September 2025.
MEXC also appears on Japan's Financial Services Agency list of operators conducting crypto-asset exchange services without registration.
Nothing in this article is investment, legal or tax advice.