Gate, the exchange formerly branded Gate.io, scores 4.0 out of 5 on our six-dimension scorecard as of September 2026, leading on asset coverage and reserve disclosure and trailing on entry-tier feesGate, the exchange formerly branded Gate.io, scores 4.0 out of 5 on our six-dimension scorecard as of September 2026, leading on asset coverage and reserve disclosure and trailing on entry-tier fees
Gate.io Review 2026: 4.0 Out of 5, the Widest Exit Window in Crypto, and a 0% Maker Rate That Starts at VIP 11
Gate, the exchange formerly branded Gate.io, scores 4.0 out of 5 on our six-dimension scorecard as of September 2026, leading on asset coverage and reserve disclosure and trailing on entry-tier fees and support; it suits altcoin traders who hold small positions for months, and EEA and Japanese readers who want a licensed platform, and it is the wrong pick for makers who want a 0% rate without climbing a seventeen-step VIP ladder.
Key Takeaways
- Gate scores 4.0 out of 5 overall, with 4.5 on asset coverage and on security and custody, and 3.5 on fees and on customer support.
- Spot fees are 0.1% maker and 0.1% taker at VIP 0, or 0.09% paid in GT, so $50,000 of monthly taker volume costs $600 a year, $540 in GT, and $300 at MEXC's 0.05% standard rate.
- Gate sets no withdrawal cut-off after a delisting, keeps the account working as a wallet for the removed token, and runs a buyback window, the most generous exit terms in our eight-exchange index.
- Gate publishes a self-reported reserve ratio of 115% with zero-knowledge proofs, covering about $8.18 billion as of 22 June 2026, and has no custody-level breach on record in our review.
- Gate holds a MiCA authorisation from Malta passported across the EEA and a Japan FSA registration, two licences MEXC does not hold, and its global platform is not offered to US residents.
- Readers who want a 0% maker rate from the first trade and day-one listings will find both on MEXC; readers in the EEA or Japan, or who want a wide Earn shelf, should stay.
Is Gate.io Still Called Gate.io, and Does the Name Change Anything?
Gate.io now trades as Gate at gate.com, the rebrand changed the name and the domain rather than the product, and the platform it describes is still the one altcoin traders know: the widest long-tail catalogue among the large offshore exchanges, a seventeen-level VIP ladder, and a licence stack that most of its peers cannot match.
The name still confuses search results, which is why this review keeps the old brand in the title.
What has not changed is the trade-off that defines the platform.
Gate lists more small-cap tokens than almost anyone, and in the second quarter of 2026 it also removed more tokens than every other major exchange combined, according to CryptoRank research on the first half of the year.
A catalogue that wide needs an exit policy to match, and Gate has one: no withdrawal cut-off after a delisting, and a buyback window for holders.
The other side of the ledger is the entry-tier fee.
At VIP 0 Gate charges 0.1% on both sides of a spot trade, and its perpetual maker rate reaches 0% only from VIP 11, which is why fee-sensitive makers keep comparing it with platforms that publish a single flat schedule.
The rest of this review scores that trade-off dimension by dimension.
How We Scored Gate
This review scores Gate from 0 to 5 on six equally weighted dimensions: fees and costs, asset coverage, derivatives, security and custody, deposits and withdrawals, and customer support.
Every figure comes from Gate's own fee pages, help centre, announcements or licences page, from a regulator, from CoinGecko exchange data, or from an established news organisation, and each carries a retrieval date.
Regional availability and regulatory standing are disclosed but never scored, because a platform is either usable where you live or it is not.
MEXC operates a competing exchange, and the full scoring rules, source hierarchy and conflict-of-interest policy are published in our exchange review methodology.
The support score is based on published channels only; our timed-ticket test for this platform is scheduled for the next review cycle.
Gate.io Scorecard 2026: Six Scores and One Overall Figure
Gate earns 4.0 out of 5 overall, with 4.5 on asset coverage and on security and custody, 4.0 on derivatives and on deposits and withdrawals, and 3.5 on fees and on customer support, a profile that rewards holders and altcoin hunters more than it rewards high-frequency makers.
Dimension | Score (out of 5) | What we measured | Verified against |
Fees and costs | 3.5 | 0.1% spot maker and taker at VIP 0, 0.09% paid in GT, 0.02% maker and 0.05% taker on perpetuals at entry, seventeen VIP levels | Fee overview page, help centre example of 30 July 2026, perpetual fee announcement of February 2025 |
Asset coverage | 4.5 | Dated listing and delisting archives, a named delisting framework, no withdrawal cut-off after delisting, a buyback window, 1,561 coins tracked on CoinGecko | Platform notices, our listing disclosure index, CoinGecko |
Derivatives | 4 | 912 futures pairs on CoinGecko, European-style options, gold and stock CFDs, event contracts, a unified trading account, copy trading and bots | Product pages and CoinGecko |
Security and custody | 4.5 | Self-reported 115% reserve ratio with zero-knowledge proofs, about $8.18 billion as of 22 June 2026, no custody-level breach on record in our review | Platform reserve page and CoinGecko |
Deposits and withdrawals | 4 | Card, SEPA, peer-to-peer and OTC bank transfer routes; 3,000,000 USD per 24 hours at VIP 0; verification required before deposit and withdrawal | Fee overview page and help centre |
Customer support | 3.5 | Help centre and online support; no phone line found; timed ticket test not yet run | Platform support pages |
Overall | 4 | Average of the six dimensions | Methodology page |
What Does Gate.io Charge in Fees?
Fees and costs: 3.5 out of 5.
Gate charges 0.1% maker and 0.1% taker on spot at VIP 0, 0.09% on both sides when fees are paid in GT, and 0.02% maker and 0.05% taker on USDT perpetuals at the entry tier, with seventeen VIP levels that are reached through 30-day volume, 14-day GT holdings or total account asset value.
The spot figures come from Gate's live fee overview page and its help centre example of 30 July 2026, and the perpetual ladder from its February 2025 fee announcement.
Third-party guides still disagree about the base rate, with some showing 0.2%, so we use Gate's own pages and date them.
Two features of the ladder matter more than the entry rate.
Perpetual maker fees fall to 0.015% at VIP 8 and reach 0% only from VIP 11, and the taker rate reaches 0.015% at VIP 16, so the discounts most traders read about are earned near the top of a seventeen-step climb.
The GT discount is smaller than the BNB or MX equivalents on rival platforms, trimming 0.1% to 0.09% rather than to 0.075% or 0.04%.
Our methodology prices the same monthly volume on every platform, so the table below runs three volumes as spot taker orders for a full year.
Monthly spot taker volume | Gate at 0.1% | Gate paying fees in GT at 0.09% | MEXC at 0.05% | MEXC with MX deduction at 0.04% |
$1,000 | $12 a year | $10.80 a year | $6 a year | $4.80 a year |
$50,000 | $600 a year | $540 a year | $300 a year | $240 a year |
$500,000 | $6,000 a year | $5,400 a year | $3,000 a year | $2,400 a year |
Annual cost at each platform's published entry or standard tier, verified as of 3 September 2026; spreads, funding, card fees and network fees are excluded.
On perpetuals the gap narrows but does not close.
A trader filling $300,000 of monthly notional as a taker pays $1,800 a year at Gate's 0.05%, $1,440 at MEXC's standard 0.040%, and $720 on BTCUSDT at MEXC's 0.020% pair rate.
MEXC's futures figures apply to web and app orders, because API-routed futures orders on MEXC carry a separate schedule of 0.060% maker and 0.080% taker, and a bot trader should price that line rather than the headline.
Every tier, discount and exception on Gate is laid out in our guide to Gate.io fees.
How Broad Is Gate.io's Asset Coverage?
Asset coverage: 4.5 out of 5.
Gate runs dated public archives for listings and removals, publishes a named delisting framework, sets no withdrawal cut-off after a delisting, and tracked 1,561 coins and 1,713 spot pairs on CoinGecko in early September 2026, which puts it in the same league as MEXC on catalogue size and ahead of every platform in our index on exit terms.
We do not score platforms on self-reported coin totals, and Gate's own figure of 4,900 plus assets counts across products, so the tracked CoinGecko number is the one we cite.
Where Gate stands apart is what happens after a token is removed.
In our listing disclosure index, verified on 28 August 2026, Gate's notices set no withdrawal cut-off, state that the account continues to work as a wallet for the removed token, and open a separate buyback application window at stated prices with a per-person cap.
The other platforms in that index close withdrawals between 28 and 92 days after the trading halt.
That generosity sits beside a second fact: Gate removed more tokens in the second quarter of 2026 than every other major exchange combined, per CryptoRank.
The platform that delists the most also gives holders the longest exit, which is the right pairing for a catalogue this wide.
On listing speed the evidence is one-sided, because Gate does not publish a periodic listing count and MEXC does, and Gate's Alpha and pre-market products give early access of their own.
How Strong Is Gate.io for Derivatives?
Derivatives: 4.0 out of 5.
Gate lists 912 futures pairs on CoinGecko and adds European-style options, gold and stock CFDs, event contracts and a unified trading account, a product range wider than most offshore rivals, while its entry-tier perpetual rate of 0.02% maker and 0.05% taker is not the cheapest in the comparison.
The product range is the strength.
Options, CFDs on gold and on stocks, and 24/7 stock futures are products MEXC does not run, and the unified account lets collateral work across them.
Leverage on Gate is set per contract, and we do not quote a single maximum figure, because a leverage number without its position band is marketing rather than a specification.
Copy trading and grid bots are available on both Gate and MEXC, and neither is claimed here to have the deeper tool set.
Cost is where the score loses half a point, since a maker on a standard MEXC pair pays 0.010% against Gate's 0.02%, and a taker pays 0.040% against 0.05%, with BTCUSDT on MEXC at 0% maker and 0.020% taker.
Is Gate.io Safe? Security, Custody and Reserve Disclosure
Security and custody: 4.5 out of 5.
Gate publishes a self-reported reserve ratio of 115% verified with zero-knowledge proofs, covering about $8.18 billion across nearly 500 user assets as of 22 June 2026, and has no custody-level breach on record in our review, which places it in the leading band on disclosure among the platforms we score.
A reserve ratio above 100% is a stronger public number than a monthly attestation alone, and we count it as self-reported, as we count MEXC's own monthly proof-of-reserves reports.
CoinGecko lists Gate with a trust score of 10 out of 10 and reserve data available, which is a data aggregator's assessment rather than an audit, and we treat it as such.
Account-level protections follow the industry standard: two-factor authentication, withdrawal whitelists, anti-phishing codes and a fund password.
The half point Gate does not earn is the gap between a self-reported ratio and an independent attestation naming the auditor, and the absence of third-party insurance on customer balances.
For the full incident record across the industry, our crypto exchange hacks database lists 81 breaches with their reimbursement outcomes.
How Easy Are Deposits and Withdrawals on Gate.io?
Deposits and withdrawals: 4.0 out of 5.
Gate supports card purchases, SEPA transfers, peer-to-peer trading and OTC bank transfers, publishes a withdrawal limit of 3,000,000 USD per 24 hours at VIP 0 on its fee page, and requires identity verification before both depositing and withdrawing, with a second ceiling set by KYC status on a separate help page.
The SEPA route matters for EEA readers, because Gate's MiCA authorisation makes it one of the few platforms in this comparison that can serve them with a euro rail.
The limitation is disclosure rather than capability.
The VIP-based limit and the KYC-based limit sit on two different pages, so a new user has to read both to know which ceiling applies.
KYC1 requires a government photo ID and facial recognition, and Gate's own pages give three different review times, a detail we set out in our guide to Gate.io KYC requirements.
The two limit numbers and where each one is published are in our guide to Gate.io withdrawal limits.
What Is Gate.io Customer Support Like?
Customer support: 3.5 out of 5.
Gate publishes a help centre and an online support channel, we found no phone line, and we have capped the score below 4.0 until our own timed ticket test runs, because a published channel is a promise and a timed reply is a measurement.
Our rule is one non-urgent ticket per platform per review cycle, timed from submission to a reply that answers the question, and Gate's test is scheduled for the next cycle.
Third-party review sites carry a large volume of complaints about account restrictions and slow responses, and our methodology does not count aggregate star ratings, so those complaints are noted here rather than scored.
Where Is Gate.io Available, and Where Is MEXC?
Gate is licensed or registered in the EEA, Japan, Dubai, Australia, the Bahamas, Gibraltar and Hong Kong and does not offer its global platform to US residents, while MEXC is unavailable to residents of the United States and the United Kingdom and holds no MiCA authorisation, so EEA and Japanese readers should treat Gate as the licensed option of the two.
Gate
Gate's licences page, retrieved 3 September 2026, lists a MiCA crypto-asset service provider authorisation for Gate Technology Ltd from the Malta Financial Services Authority, passported across the EEA.
It also lists a Japan FSA registration for Gate Japan K.K. under number 00018, a VARA licence in Dubai, an AUSTRAC registration in Australia, a Bahamas securities approval, a Gibraltar DLT permission and a Hong Kong trust or company service provider licence.
Gate's global platform is not offered to US residents, and a separate Gate US entity listed five coins on CoinGecko when checked.
MEXC
MEXC does not serve residents of the United States or the United Kingdom, and readers there should use a platform licensed by their local regulator.
As of 17 September 2026, MEXC is not authorised under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation and appears on ESMA's register of non-compliant entities following a September 2025 decision by the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets; readers in the EU and EEA should treat a MiCA-authorised platform as the appropriate option.
MEXC appears on Japan's FSA list of unregistered operators, with entries dated March 2023 and November 2024, and the MEXC app is not available in Japanese app stores.
Gate.io Benefits and Limitations
Benefits
- The most generous delisting exit terms in our eight-exchange index: no withdrawal cut-off, a continuing wallet function, and a buyback window.
- A licence stack that includes a MiCA authorisation passported across the EEA and a Japan FSA registration.
- A self-reported 115% reserve ratio with zero-knowledge proofs covering about $8.18 billion as of 22 June 2026.
- Product breadth beyond crypto perpetuals: options, gold and stock CFDs, 10,000 plus US stocks at zero trading fee since 31 July 2026, and a wide Earn shelf.
Limitations
- Entry-tier spot pricing of 0.1% per side, with a GT discount that only trims it to 0.09%.
- A perpetual maker rate that reaches 0% only from VIP 11 on a seventeen-level ladder.
- No published periodic listing count, so the size of the live listing pipeline cannot be checked from outside.
- Withdrawal limits split across two pages, and verification required before the first deposit.
Who Gate.io Is For, and Who Should Look Elsewhere
Gate is the right pick for EEA and Japanese readers who want a licensed platform, for altcoin holders who value a long exit window, and for passive-income users, and it is the wrong pick for makers who want a 0% rate from the first trade and for traders who want a published listing count.
Gate is the right pick if:
- You live in the EEA or Japan and want a platform that holds the local authorisation.
- You hold small altcoin positions for months and want to know a delisting will not lock you out of your balance.
- You want Earn products, options, CFDs or US stocks in the same account as your crypto.
Look elsewhere if:
- You place limit orders on spot and a 0.1% maker fee is a number you notice.
- You trade perpetuals as a maker and do not expect to reach VIP 11.
- You want a venue that publishes how many tokens it adds each month.
Readers in the second group who are outside the United States, the United Kingdom and the EEA can compare MEXC's published rates in the section below, and our comparison of Gate alternatives covers the wider field on the same six dimensions.
The MEXC View
MEXC operates a competing exchange, and this section is where our own position is stated rather than implied.
Gate beats MEXC on licences, on the Earn shelf, on stock breadth, on options and CFDs, and on reserve disclosure, and in the EEA or Japan no fee table should talk you out of the licensed option.
Where MEXC is the answer is the maker line and the listing pipeline.
A spot maker pays $600 a year on $50,000 of monthly volume at Gate's 0.1% and $0 at MEXC's published 0% maker rate, which applies from the first trade rather than from VIP 11.
A spot taker at the same volume pays $600 a year at Gate, $540 in GT, and $300 at MEXC's 0.05% standard rate, or $240 with the MX deduction, with no volume minimum attached to either MEXC figure.
Two boundaries keep that claim honest.
The zero applies to spot maker orders and to web and app futures orders, not to API-routed futures, which MEXC prices at 0.06% maker and 0.08% taker.
And MEXC does not serve the United States, the United Kingdom, EU readers under MiCA, or Japan, so the saving is available to readers outside those markets.
On listings, MEXC recorded 135 new spot listings in March 2026 with 65% platform-first by its own figures, and Gate publishes no comparable number.
Gate is the exchange we would send an EEA reader to, and MEXC is the exchange we would send a maker to, and both of those sentences belong on the same page.
The head-to-head numbers on all eight dimensions we compared are in our MEXC vs Gate.io comparison, and the transfer steps are in our guide to moving crypto off Gate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Gate.io safe to use in 2026?
Gate publishes a self-reported 115% reserve ratio with zero-knowledge proofs and has no custody-level breach on record in our review.
It scores 4.5 out of 5 on security and custody, with the ratio counted as self-reported.
Is Gate.io legit and regulated?
Gate Technology Ltd holds a MiCA authorisation from Malta passported across the EEA, Gate Japan K.K. is registered with Japan's FSA, and the group holds a Dubai VARA licence and an AUSTRAC registration.
Its global platform is not offered to US residents.
What are Gate.io's trading fees?
Spot is 0.1% maker and 0.1% taker at VIP 0, or 0.09% paid in GT.
Perpetuals start at 0.02% maker and 0.05% taker, with the maker rate reaching 0% from VIP 11.
Does Gate.io require KYC?
Yes, Gate states that verification must be completed before both depositing and withdrawing.
KYC1 requires a government photo ID and facial recognition.
Can I use Gate.io in the US?
No, Gate's global platform is not offered to US residents.
A separate Gate US entity exists and listed five coins on CoinGecko when checked.
What happened to the Gate.io name?
Gate.io rebranded to Gate and moved to gate.com, and the product, licences and fee schedule carried over.
This review keeps the old brand in the title because search results still use it.
How does Gate.io compare with MEXC?
Gate leads on licences, Earn, stocks and reserve disclosure, while MEXC publishes 0% maker and 0.05% taker on spot from the first trade and a monthly listing count.
Readers outside the US, UK, EEA and Japan can see the full MEXC vs Gate.io comparison.
Risk and Compliance Notice
Trading cryptocurrencies involves substantial risk, and derivatives and leveraged products can produce losses greater than the amount deposited.
Nothing on this page is financial, investment, legal or tax advice.
MEXC operates a competing exchange; no platform can buy a score or a ranking position on MEXC Learn.
MEXC is not available in every jurisdiction and is not authorised under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation; readers in the European Union, the European Economic Area, the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan should use a platform authorised by their local regulator.
Always confirm current terms on a platform's own official pages before opening an account or placing a trade.
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This article is provided by Sarah Chen for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency markets involve significant risk. Please conduct independent research or consult a qualified professional before making any investment decisions. The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of MEXC or its affiliates.
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