Bitget Review 2026: Fees, Safety After the $388M Hack and Who Can Use It

Bitget is a crypto exchange founded in 2018 that built its name on futures, copy trading and trading bots. Two events shape any Bitget review in October 2026: on 24 September 2026 attackers stole about $388 million from the exchange's hot and warm wallets, and Bitget still holds no authorisation under the EU's MiCA rules. Bitget says customer balances were never affected, and all withdrawals have been open again since 2 October. This review covers what the platform offers, what trading costs, how the hack unfolded, where the Protection Fund and Proof of Reserves stand now, and who is allowed to use Bitget at all.

Our up-to-date Bitget review covers fees, the proof of reserves, the September 2026 hack and Bitget's licence status in the EU.

Key Takeaways

• Standard fees are 0.1% for spot trades (20% less when fees are paid in BGB) and 0.02% maker and 0.06% taker for futures.
• The September 2026 hack ran through a zero-day flaw in a third-party security product. Chainalysis attributes the theft of $387 million to North Korean actors.
• The Protection Fund absorbed the loss and was back above $300 million on 30 September. The Proof of Reserves snapshot of 29 September shows a 131% reserve ratio.
• Bitget's Terms of Use list the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Austria, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong, among others, as prohibited countries.

Bitget at a Glance (October 2026)

What Is Bitget?

Bitget is a centralised exchange. Customers deposit coins or cash, the exchange holds the assets and matches orders in its own order book. Trading on Bitget therefore means holding a claim against the exchange, not your own private keys. According to its company page, Bitget was founded in 2018 and counts 120 million registered users and more than 1,800 employees from 60 countries and regions. Gracy Chen is the CEO.

Since September 2025 Bitget has called itself a “Universal Exchange”: a single venue for crypto plus contracts on stocks, gold, forex and commodities. We covered the launch of its gold, forex and commodities markets separately. Crypto derivatives and copy trading remain the core of the business.

Which country is Bitget based in? Under its Terms of Use the platform is operated by BTG Technology Holdings Limited, and the terms are governed by Hong Kong law. Bitget's licence page lists registrations or licences in Australia (AUSTRAC), Switzerland (membership of an anti-money-laundering self-regulatory body), South Africa, Argentina, Mexico, El Salvador, Mauritius and Georgia. In the UK, Bitget lists an arrangement with an FCA-authorised firm. It lists no licence in any EU country.

Key Features Of Bitget Exchange

Spot Trading

On the spot market you buy and sell coins at the current price with immediate settlement. Bitget says it lists more than 600 tokens, most of them traded against the stablecoin USDT.

Futures Trading

Bitget offers perpetual contracts settled in USDT, in USDC or in the underlying coin (Coin-M). Leverage turns small price moves into large gains or losses, and a position is liquidated once the margin no longer covers it. Perpetuals also carry a funding payment between longs and shorts every eight hours.

Copy Trading

Copy trading mirrors the positions of other traders in your own account. Bitget describes itself as the largest crypto copy trading platform. The trader you follow passes on losses just as readily as gains, so set a maximum allocation and a stop-loss before you start. Our Bitget copy trading guide walks through the settings.

Trading Bots And Bitget Earn

Bots execute buy and sell orders by fixed rules, for example inside a preset price grid. Bitget Earn bundles savings and staking products whose yields change by coin and campaign. Neither a bot nor an Earn product removes market risk.

BGB Token

BGB is Bitget's own token. Paying spot fees in BGB cuts them by 20%. The token's price moves like any other coin, so a fee discount can easily be wiped out by a drop in BGB.

Bitget Wallet

Bitget Wallet is often confused with the exchange, but according to Bitget Wallet it is a self-custodial wallet, and the wallet and the exchange are separate businesses with separate ownership. You hold the keys yourself. The September attack hit the exchange's hot and warm wallets, not the wallet app. For larger amounts, a device from our hardware wallet comparison keeps the keys offline.

Bitget Fees In 2026: Spot, Futures And Withdrawals

Bitget charges trading fees as a percentage of the traded value. The standard rates apply to accounts without a VIP tier; higher trading volume, larger balances or BGB holdings lower them. The table uses the rates from Bitget's Trading Fees FAQ (updated 20 August 2026) and its spot trading rules.

Futures fees are charged on the position value, not on your margin. Open a 1,000 USDT position with 100 USDT of margin at 10x leverage, close it with a market order, and you pay 0.60 USDT twice. Those 1.20 USDT equal 1.2% of your margin before any funding is due. Frequent high-leverage trading therefore costs far more than the small percentages suggest. How network fees for withdrawals differ across coins is covered in our overview of crypto withdrawal fees.

Is Bitget Safe? The September 2026 Hack

What Happened

At 18:31 UTC on 24 September 2026, Bitget detected unauthorised transfers from part of its hot and warm wallet infrastructure. Cold wallets holding the majority of platform assets were not affected, the exchange says. In its incident overview Bitget puts the verified loss at about $388 million.

The attacker exploited a zero-day vulnerability in a third-party security product, used it to obtain administrator access and injected forged withdrawal commands straight into the wallet system. Mandiant and SlowMist are supporting the investigation. Chainalysis attributes the theft to North Korean actors: $387 million left the exchange in 23 transfers within three hours, 49.7% via Ethereum, 40.8% via XRP, 7.6% via Zcash and 1.8% via Tron. The details are in our reports on the attack path through third-party software and the North Korea attribution.

Can You Withdraw From Bitget? The Timeline

Trading and deposits kept running while withdrawals were paused. From 28 September Bitget reopened them in four stages at 08:00 UTC each, as set out in its Help Center notice. Bitget says every stage was completed on schedule.

If you still hold a balance, our articles on the withdrawal schedule and on what to check at your exchange list the steps.

Protection Fund And Proof Of Reserves

The Protection Fund covered the loss, and Bitget says account balances were left untouched. On 30 September the exchange reported that it had refilled the fund to more than $300 million, ahead of its own schedule. Customers pulled large sums in the same days, as our report on Bitget net outflows shows, and we also covered the restored Protection Fund. How exchange protection funds compare is explained in our protection fund check.

The Proof of Reserves report of 30 September (snapshot 29 September, 09:00 UTC) shows an overall reserve ratio of 131%, with all 19 covered assets above 100%: BTC 142%, ETH 110%, USDT 107% and USDC 154%. A Merkle tree lets each customer check that their balance is included. It is not an audit: the report names no external auditor, and it covers customer balances, not the company's other liabilities.

Protect Your Own Account

Turn on two-factor authentication before the first deposit, use a withdrawal address whitelist where it is offered, and keep only the amount on any exchange that you plan to trade. Everything else belongs in a wallet whose keys you control.

Who Can Use Bitget? Restricted Countries And Regulation

Bitget is not open to everyone. Its Terms of Use, last updated on 20 October 2026, name Austria, Belarus, Canada, Cuba, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, North Korea, Russia, Singapore, Sudan, Thailand and the United States as prohibited countries, along with further sanctioned or high-risk jurisdictions and the Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. The full, current list is in our Bitget review. Using a VPN to get around the restriction is expressly forbidden. US residents cannot open an account.

In the European Union, the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) requires every crypto service provider to hold an authorisation once the transitional periods have ended, on 1 July 2026 at the latest. Bitget EU applied to Austria's Financial Market Authority, according to an update of 2 July 2026. Bitget does not appear in the ESMA MiCA register as updated on 7 October 2026. New sign-ups from Germany and France stopped on 16 January 2026, and French customers lost all services on 31 March 2026. If you live in the EU, an exchange with MiCA authorisation from our list of the best regulated crypto exchanges is the safer route.

Getting Started With Bitget Using Our Referral Link

This walkthrough shows how to open an account on the web platform using this link. It only applies if you live outside the prohibited countries listed above.

Step 1: Create Your Account

Open your browser and visit Bitget. Sign up with email or phone, set a strong password and confirm the verification code. Before depositing, turn on two-factor authentication in the security settings.

Step 2: Complete Identity Verification

Bitget requires identity verification (KYC) before deposits and trading are unlocked. You submit a government-issued ID and complete a face check; further documents such as proof of address can follow.

Step 3: Fund Your Account

For a crypto deposit, choose the coin and the exact network, copy the deposit address and send a small test amount first. Networks are not interchangeable: coins sent over the wrong network can be lost.

Step 4: Place Your First Trade

Start on the spot market with a small order. If you move to futures, use low leverage, isolated margin and a stop-loss, and check the liquidation price before you confirm.

Bitget Pros And Cons

Pros

• low standard fees: 0.1% on spot, 0.02% and 0.06% on futures
• broad product range with USDT, USDC and coin-margined futures, copy trading and bots
• monthly Proof of Reserves, 131% in September 2026
• customer balances unaffected by the hack according to Bitget, all withdrawals open again after eight days

Cons

• no MiCA authorisation; prohibited in the US, Canada, Germany, France, Austria and other countries
• theft of about $388 million in September 2026
• Proof of Reserves without an external auditor
• leverage and copy trading can lead to fast, large losses

Bitget Alternatives With EU Authorisation

These well-known exchanges appear in the ESMA MiCA register as of 7 October 2026, with the authorised entity and the supervisor in charge.

An authorisation says nothing about fees or coin selection; it governs custody, capital and supervision. Our exchange comparison sets the platforms side by side.

Bitget In October 2026: Strong Tools, A Higher Trust Bar

As a trading venue, Bitget offers low fees, deep futures markets and extensive copy trading. It absorbed the September hack through its Protection Fund and had all withdrawals running again after eight days. The open questions are about trust and regulation: a single flaw at a supplier was enough for a theft that, according to Chainalysis, pushed North Korea-linked crypto theft in 2026 past $1 billion; the reserve report is not audited; and without MiCA authorisation Bitget does not meet the licensing rule that applies across the EU. If you live outside the prohibited countries and want to trade actively, start small, secure your account and use this link to get started.