How to choose a crypto exchange: fees, safety, availability

An exchange that does not serve your country is not an option, however low its fees. Exchanges publish lists of restricted countries and regions, and the list can change as regulation changes. Check three things:

• Whether residents of your country can open an account at all, and whether some products, such as futures, are restricted separately.
• What verification (KYC) is required, and whether your documents are accepted. Most exchanges require identity verification for withdrawals or for higher limits.
• Whether deposits and withdrawals work for you: bank transfers, cards or third-party payment services in your currency, or only crypto.

Do not work around restrictions with a VPN or someone else's documents. It breaks the exchange's terms, and accounts found doing it can be frozen, sometimes with funds inside. Each Getref exchange page links to the exchange's official list of restricted countries.

The headline fee is only the start. What matters is the effective fee on the markets you will use, after any rebate your account qualifies for:

• Maker and taker. If you mostly place limit orders, the maker fee matters more; if you use market orders, the taker fee does. See maker vs taker fees.
• Spot and futures are priced separately, and a new-account rebate may cover only one of them.
• Discounts for paying fees with the exchange's token or reaching a VIP tier.
• Withdrawal fees, which depend on the coin and the network and are not reduced by any trading rebate.

This table shows base-tier spot fees for the exchanges we cover, before and after the rebate:

Exchange	Rebate	Spot maker	Spot taker	Maker after rebate	Taker after rebate
Binance	20%	0.1%	0.1%	0.08%	0.08%
KuCoin	60%	0.1%	0.1%	0.04%	0.04%
Bybit	20%	0.1%	0.1%	0.08%	0.08%
BingX	50%	0.1%	0.1%	0.05%	0.05%
Gate	20%	0.1%	0.1%	0.08%	0.08%
CoinW	50%	0.1%	0.1%	0.05%	0.05%

• Binance

  20%Rebate

  Spot maker

  0.1%→, Maker after rebate:0.08%

  Spot taker

  0.1%→, Taker after rebate:0.08%

• KuCoin

  60%Rebate

  Spot maker

  0.1%→, Maker after rebate:0.04%

  Spot taker

  0.1%→, Taker after rebate:0.04%

• Bybit

  20%Rebate

  Spot maker

  0.1%→, Maker after rebate:0.08%

  Spot taker

  0.1%→, Taker after rebate:0.08%

• BingX

  50%Rebate

  Spot maker

  0.1%→, Maker after rebate:0.05%

  Spot taker

  0.1%→, Taker after rebate:0.05%

• Gate

  20%Rebate

  Spot maker

  0.1%→, Maker after rebate:0.08%

  Spot taker

  0.1%→, Taker after rebate:0.08%

• CoinW

  50%Rebate

  Spot maker

  0.1%→, Maker after rebate:0.05%

  Spot taker

  0.1%→, Taker after rebate:0.05%

Taken from the exchanges' terms and verified by Getref. Base spot rate (VIP 0).

No outsider can guarantee that an exchange is safe. What you can do is look at evidence and reduce your own exposure.

On the exchange's side:

• Proof of reserves. Many exchanges publish the wallets they hold customer assets in. It shows assets at a moment in time, not liabilities, so it is not an audit and does not prove the exchange is solvent. It is still better than nothing, especially when it is updated regularly.
• Track record. How the exchange handled past incidents — outages, hacks, frozen withdrawals — tells you more than marketing does. Did it communicate, and were users made whole?
• Registration or licences where you live. If your country regulates crypto exchanges, the regulator usually keeps a public register you can search.

On your side:

• Turn on two-factor authentication with an authenticator app rather than SMS.
• Use a withdrawal address allowlist and an anti-phishing code if the exchange offers them.
• Keep on the exchange only what you actively trade with. Long-term holdings do not need to sit on any exchange.

List what you will actually use before comparing: the coins and pairs, spot or futures, copy trading or bots, the networks you deposit and withdraw on, the app and the languages support works in. A thin order book on the pair you trade can cost more in spread than you save in fees, so look at liquidity on your pairs, not only at how many coins are listed. Earn and staking products carry their own risks and terms; treat them as a separate decision rather than a reason to choose an exchange.

Support rarely matters until the day it matters a lot: a withdrawal stuck in review, a lost phone with your authenticator, a login from a place you have never been. Before you commit, check which languages support works in, whether you can reach a person rather than only a help-centre bot, and how the exchange handles account recovery when you lose access to two-factor authentication. A strict recovery process is inconvenient for you but also for an attacker; what matters is that you know it before you need it.

Rebates and welcome bonuses are usually tied to new accounts, and the referral code is attached at registration. That makes the order important: decide which exchange and which link or code you will use before you create the account, not after. If you forget, only some exchanges let you add the code later — on Bybit the window is 14 days; see what to do if you forgot the referral code. For how rebates and bonuses compare, read rebate vs cashback vs welcome bonus.

Because the checks above pull in different directions for different people. An exchange that is cheapest for a high-volume futures trader may not serve your country; one with the widest choice of coins may have thin books on the pair you need; one with an attractive bonus may charge more on the market you trade every day. The comparison pages put pairs of exchanges side by side for exactly this reason — for example:

See also: KuCoin Referral Code: What It Gives and How to Use It.