MEXC is our top pick as a Bybit alternative for perpetual futures within this comparison, on two measures: 0.020% taker on BTCUSDT against Bybit's 0.055% on its own published schedule, and more thanMEXC is our top pick as a Bybit alternative for perpetual futures within this comparison, on two measures: 0.020% taker on BTCUSDT against Bybit's 0.055% on its own published schedule, and more than
Best Bybit Alternatives 2026: 6 Derivatives Platforms Ranked on Fees, Contracts and Reserves
MEXC is our top pick as a Bybit alternative for perpetual futures within this comparison, on two measures: 0.020% taker on BTCUSDT against Bybit's 0.055% on its own published schedule, and more than 1,020 USDT-margined perpetual pairs on MEXC's own fee page against the roughly 740 third-party trackers attribute to Bybit.
OKX is the alternative if regulatory footprint matters more than cost, and Bitget if copy trading is what kept you on Bybit.
Key Takeaways
- MEXC is our top pick in this comparison for manual perpetual trading, at 0.020% taker on BTCUSDT against Bybit's 0.055% on its own published schedule.
- At 500,000 dollars of monthly volume, that gap is about 2,100 dollars a year in trading fees.
- MEXC's own fee page lists more than 1,020 USDT-margined perpetual pairs, against the roughly 740 that third-party trackers attribute to Bybit.
- The ranking reverses for bots, because MEXC charges 0.060% maker and 0.080% taker through its API and those rates override every web discount.
- Bybit's UK and EEA entities do not offer perpetual contracts, so a European trader who used Bybit for derivatives has not had that product restored.
- Bybit lost roughly 1.4 to 1.5 billion dollars in the February 2025 breach, restored reserves within 72 hours, and no user losses were reported.
Why Bybit Traders Are Hunting for Alternatives in 2026
Most people searching for a Bybit alternative are not angry with the platform.
They are spreading counterparty risk after February 2025, reacting to a change in what Bybit can legally offer them, or looking for contracts and pricing that a derivatives-first venue with a curated listing policy does not provide.
The third reason is the one with a measurable answer, and it is where this article starts.
If you are adding a second venue rather than closing your Bybit account, the decision collapses into two questions.
What does a round trip cost on the contracts you actually trade, and does the venue list those contracts at all?
The pages we reviewed for this comparison in August 2026 answered neither.
Each of them used spot maker and taker rates as the cost axis and spot listing counts as the coverage axis, on a query whose audience trades perpetuals.
MEXC as a Bybit alternative: what the numbers show
One caveat before the figures, because it decides whether any of this applies to you.
MEXC does not serve the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia or Kazakhstan, and it is not a MiCA-authorised option for readers in the EEA.
The jurisdiction section further down sets that out in full, and if you are in one of those markets the rest of this comparison is background reading rather than a recommendation.
For everyone else, the case rests on two numbers.
The contract you want has to be listed
Bybit's derivatives listing policy is curated, which is a strength for liquidity on major pairs and a constraint everywhere else.
If your strategy involves smaller-cap perpetuals, the contract you want is frequently not there, and you end up either skipping the trade or holding spot with no way to hedge or short it.
MEXC's answer is listing volume.
Its official fee schedule runs to 103 pages of USDT-margined perpetual pairs at ten pairs per page, putting the count above 1,020 contracts, and that figure is a first-party count rather than a tracker estimate.
Then the fee has to survive repetition
Perpetual taker fees are charged on leveraged notional rather than on the margin you posted, and you pay them on every entry and every exit.
MEXC's official fee schedule shows 0.000% maker across BTC and ETH perpetuals, 0.020% taker on BTCUSDT, 0.010% on ETHUSDT, and a set of pairs including SOLUSDT and XRPUSDT currently carrying zero fees on both sides.
The 20% MX deduction applies on top, taking a 0.020% taker rate to 0.016%.
Take a trader running twenty round trips a month on 12,500 dollar positions.
That is 500,000 dollars of monthly volume, or 6 million dollars a year.
On Bybit's standard 0.055% taker rate that costs 3,300 dollars a year, and on MEXC's BTCUSDT perpetual at 0.020% it costs 1,200 dollars.
The 2,100 dollar difference 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 pairs and the trading fee goes to nothing, leaving funding as the only running cost.
Our position on the trade-off
MEXC publishes this article, so the interest is worth stating rather than hiding.
This is the view we would defend to a trader who asked us directly.
The perpetual fee gap is the largest recoverable cost in a retail derivatives stack, because it compounds with frequency in a way that nothing else in the stack does.
That is the argument for MEXC, and it is narrower than exchange marketing usually admits.
It applies to manual traders on the pairs carrying Special Rate or zero-fee pricing, and it does not survive contact with the API schedule set out below.
We also do not think MEXC wins on reserve disclosure, and the fund safety section says so with the evidence rather than skipping past it.
Our reading is that these are two separate purchases: you buy execution cost at whichever venue prices it best, and you buy custody assurance by not leaving idle balances sitting anywhere.
Splitting them is why running more than one account is common.
Where MEXC does not fit
Four cases, stated plainly.
You trade through an API.
MEXC's 0.080% API taker rate is the highest in this comparison and roughly 45% above Bybit's, which cancels the advantage entirely.
You trade options.
Bybit runs an options market at 0.020% maker and 0.030% taker, and MEXC does not offer a comparable product.
You are in a restricted jurisdiction.
The list is above and the detail is further down.
Reserve disclosure is your primary criterion.
Bybit's proof-of-reserves publication and its documented post-incident audit are more developed than MEXC's.
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.
Bybit Alternatives Compared on Real Derivatives Fees, Not Spot Fees
These are standard, non-VIP rates for USDT-margined perpetual contracts.
Spot rates are excluded deliberately, because they tell you nothing about what a perpetual position costs.
Platform | Perp maker | Perp taker | Every 8 hours on main perpetuals | Native token discount | Notable structure |
MEXC | 0.000% on BTC and ETH perps | 0.020% on BTCUSDT, 0.010% on ETHUSDT | Every 8 hours | 20% with MX | Range across all pairs runs 0.000% to 0.040% maker and 0.000% to 0.100% taker; some pairs carry zero fees on both sides |
Bybit | 0.02% | 0.055% | Every 8 hours | None on derivatives | Pre-market perpetuals charge 0.040% maker and 0.100% taker; delisting closures carry a 0.05% settlement fee |
OKX | 0.02% | 0.05% | Every 8 hours | Tier progression via OKB holdings | Top VIP tiers move maker into rebate territory |
Bitget | 0.02% | 0.06% | Every 8 hours | Tier progression via BGB | Runs periodic maker rebate campaigns on selected perpetuals |
Gate | 0.02% | 0.05% | Every 8 hours | Points cards offset taker fees | Seventeen-tier VIP ladder |
Binance | 0.02% | 0.05% | Every 8 hours | 10% on futures with BNB | Largest open interest of the group |
Data verified as of 31 August 2026. MEXC, Bybit, OKX and Bitget rates are taken from each platform's own fee page or help centre. Gate and Binance rates are cross-referenced across multiple independent sources, because their published fee schedules did not return retrievable content on the date of checking.
Two things in that table deserve more than a glance.
The first is that MEXC's headline advantage is pair-specific rather than universal.
BTCUSDT and ETHUSDT carry a Special Rate, a handful of pairs sit at zero on both sides, and ordinary pairs are priced at 0.010% maker and 0.040% taker.
The second is that MEXC's own fee page states that rates vary with platform events and with user region.
It means the rate you personally see may differ from the schedule above, so the figure in your own account is the one that counts.
What a perpetual position actually costs
Trading fees are the part everyone compares.
Funding is the part that usually costs more.
These venues settle funding on an eight-hour cycle on their main perpetual contracts, which is three payments a day.
At a 0.01% funding rate, the level several of these exchanges use in their own worked examples, a position held for seven days pays 21 intervals of funding, or 0.21% of notional.
On a 10,000 dollar position that is 21 dollars in funding, against 11 dollars of round-trip taker fees on Bybit or 4 dollars on MEXC's BTC perpetual.
Funding is roughly twice the fee cost on Bybit and five times it on MEXC over that holding period.
No exchange discounts funding, because it is a payment between longs and shorts rather than a fee the venue keeps.
The practical rule: fee choice decides your cost if you scalp, and funding decides it if you hold.
The API fee layer nobody advertises
If you run bots, this section matters more than everything above it.
MEXC launched API futures trading on 31 March 2026 with a separate fee schedule, and has raised it twice since.
The current rates, effective 1 June 2026, are 0.060% maker and 0.080% taker.
Those rates override the web and app schedule, and they override promotions, zero-fee events and the MX discount.
Route | MEXC maker | MEXC taker | Bybit maker | Bybit taker |
Web and app, BTCUSDT perpetual | 0.00% | 0.02% | 0.02% | 0.055% |
API | 0.06% | 0.08% | 0.02% | 0.055% |
Data verified as of 31 August 2026 against MEXC's API futures fee announcement and Bybit's published derivatives fee schedule.
The inversion is complete.
MEXC is the cheapest venue in this comparison for a manual trader and the most expensive for an automated one, and at 500,000 dollars of monthly volume an API trader pays 4,800 dollars a year on MEXC against 3,300 dollars on Bybit.
Bybit publishes one derivatives schedule that applies to both routes, which for a bot-driven trading style is a genuine structural advantage.
Can You Even Trade Perpetuals Where You Live? Check First
This has changed twice in the past year, and it overrides everything above.
Bybit's restricted list has shortened as the platform converted regulatory friction into local approvals, but the products available under those approvals are narrower than the global platform.
Region | Perpetuals on Bybit | Perpetuals on MEXC | 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 | Spot and P2P only since December 2025 | No access | FCA restricts crypto derivatives for retail consumers; MEXC names the UK as prohibited |
EEA | Spot and margin on bybit.eu, no perpetuals | Not named as prohibited; MEXC holds no MiCA authorisation | MiCA covers crypto services, not crypto derivatives |
Singapore and Hong Kong | Excluded | Named as prohibited | Local licensing regimes |
Japan | Exited; forced liquidation completed 22 July 2026 | Accessible; MEXC is on the FSA unregistered operator list | Japanese registration requirements |
Malaysia and Kazakhstan | Available | Named as prohibited | Added to MEXC's prohibited list |
Most other markets | Available | Available | Standard KYC applies |
Data verified as of 31 August 2026 against each platform's official terms, help centre and regulator publications.
If you are in the United States or Canada
Neither Bybit nor MEXC serves you, and neither is going to.
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 if something goes wrong.
The regulated route for US residents who want leveraged crypto exposure runs through CFTC-regulated venues and the futures products offered by domestically licensed exchanges.
Coinbase, Kraken and CME-listed crypto futures are the categories to research.
This section is informational, and nothing in it is a recommendation to open an account anywhere.
If you are in the United Kingdom or the EEA
The headline that Bybit is back in the UK is accurate and incomplete.
CoinDesk reported that the December 2025 relaunch covers roughly 100 spot pairs and a peer-to-peer venue, operating under a financial promotions arrangement approved by Archax rather than a Bybit licence.
Crypto derivatives remain restricted for UK retail consumers, so a UK trader who used Bybit for perpetuals has not had that product restored.
The EEA position is structurally similar for a different reason.
Bybit EU GmbH holds a crypto-asset service provider authorisation from Austria's Financial Market Authority and appears on ESMA's register, but MiCA governs crypto-asset services rather than derivatives, which fall under separate EU financial instrument rules.
That is why bybit.eu lists spot and margin products and not perpetual contracts.
MEXC is not a solution to this problem and should not be presented as one.
MEXC holds no MiCA authorisation, does not appear on ESMA's register of authorised providers, and has been named on ESMA's register of non-compliant entities following a decision by the Dutch AFM in September 2025.
EEA readers should treat this article as background rather than as a recommendation, and should check any platform's current status on the ESMA register before depositing funds.
If you are in Japan
Bybit announced in December 2025 that it would wind down services for Japanese residents in phases through 2026, and told users flagged as Japan-based to complete Level 2 verification by 22 January 2026.
MEXC does not name Japan in its prohibited jurisdictions, and MEXC also appears on the Financial Services Agency's list of operators conducting crypto-asset exchange services without registration, with entries in March 2023 and November 2024.
Japanese readers should weigh that disclosure alongside anything else in this comparison.
Where Bybit still leads
Three areas where switching away costs you something.
Copy trading depth and structure.
Bybit's copy trading documentation sets out per-master parameters and multi-master following, which is a more developed framework than most venues publish.
An actual options market.
Very few centralised exchanges run one, and Bybit's options fees of 0.020% maker and 0.030% taker undercut its own perpetual taker rate.
Regulated entities in Europe.
The Austrian MiCA authorisation and the August 2026 electronic money institution licence give Bybit a European regulatory footprint that none of the offshore venues in this comparison can match, even though those entities do not offer perpetuals.
Add to that the reimbursement record discussed below, which is the strongest single trust datapoint any platform in this comparison can point to.
The other venues, briefly
OKX pairs a 0.050% standard taker rate with the broadest regulatory footprint of the offshore group, including a MiCA authorisation held through its Maltese entity.
Benefits: competitive derivatives pricing, published proof-of-reserves using zk-STARK verification, deep liquidity on major pairs, and an integrated Web3 wallet.
Limitations: perpetual coverage of roughly 481 contracts is narrower than MEXC or Bybit, EU retail leverage sits well below the global headline, and the product surface is dense for newcomers.
Bitget is the copy trading alternative if that is why you were on Bybit.
Benefits: the largest social trading network of this group, monthly Merkle-tree proof-of-reserves, and periodic maker rebate campaigns on selected perpetuals.
Limitations: its 0.060% standard taker rate is the second highest here, mandatory KYC has applied to core functions since January 2024, and educational resources trail the larger venues.
Gate competes on breadth of listings and matches the 0.020% and 0.050% derivatives pricing of the larger venues.
Benefits: one of the widest token catalogues in the industry, monthly proof-of-reserves publication, and a points system that offsets taker fees.
Limitations: entry-level spot pricing of 0.100% maker and 0.200% taker is above average, the seventeen-tier VIP ladder is hard to navigate, and its restricted market list is long.
Binance remains the deepest derivatives market by open interest, which matters for large positions and for slippage on fast moves.
Benefits: unmatched liquidity on major perpetuals, a 10% futures fee discount when paying with BNB, and monthly proof-of-reserves alongside its insurance fund.
Limitations: product availability varies sharply by jurisdiction, its European regulatory position drew scrutiny through the MiCA transition, and the account interface is the most complex of this group.
After February 2025: what actually protects your funds
Most pages competing for this query mention the February 2025 breach in passing.
Few of them compare what protects you now, which is the more useful question.
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.
Reported losses ranged from roughly 1.4 to 1.5 billion dollars in ether and related tokens, the largest recorded exchange theft at the time.
CNBC reported that Bybit reassembled its reserves within 72 hours through emergency loans and deposits, and that a proof-of-reserves audit by Hacken found collateralisation above 100% on major assets.
Withdrawals stayed open throughout, and no user losses were reported.
Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic attributed the attack to the Lazarus Group.
That outcome is a point in Bybit's favour and should be read as one.
Platform | Reserve disclosure | Protection fund | Documented reimbursement record |
MEXC | Publishes a Proof of Trust page and a Transparency Hub | Not disclosed in the pages reviewed | No comparable large-scale breach reported in this period |
Bybit | Publishes proof-of-reserves; third-party audit cited in February 2025 coverage | Insurance fund covering derivatives liquidations | February 2025 breach: reserves restored in under 72 hours, no user losses reported |
OKX | Proof-of-reserves using zk-STARK verification | Risk reserve fund | Not applicable in this period |
Bitget | Monthly Merkle-tree proof-of-reserves | Protection fund | Not applicable in this period |
Gate | Monthly Merkle proof-of-reserves published since 2020 | Not separately disclosed | Not applicable in this period |
Binance | Monthly proof-of-reserves | SAFU insurance fund | Historic incidents reimbursed in full |
Data verified as of 31 August 2026 against each platform's official transparency pages and mainstream media reporting.
The pattern worth taking from this: the venues with the most developed reserve disclosure are not the cheapest, and the cheapest venue in this comparison has the thinnest published reserve documentation.
That is a trade-off to price consciously rather than a reason to pick either extreme.
Who should switch, who should stay, and who should run both
Run MEXC alongside Bybit if you trade perpetuals manually, care about per-round-trip cost, and want access to small-cap contracts that curated venues do not list.
The cost arithmetic above is the reason.
Stay on Bybit if you run bots through an API, trade options, or rely on copy trading structure.
In all three cases Bybit is either cheaper or the only one of the two that offers the product.
Look at OKX or Bitget if regulatory footprint or copy trading is your deciding factor rather than cost.
Do not use either platform if you are in the US, Canada, UK, EEA, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia or Kazakhstan, for the reasons set out above.
Research locally licensed venues instead.
How to Move Off Bybit Without Losing Your Crypto
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.
The most common loss when moving between exchanges is sending on a network the receiving platform does not credit for that asset.
Check the deposit network list on the destination first, then select the matching network on the withdrawal screen, and confirm the minimum withdrawal amount before you commit.
Step 3. Send a small test transfer.
Move a token amount worth a few dollars, confirm it credits, and only then move the balance.
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.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Bybit alternative for futures trading?
Within this comparison, MEXC is our top pick on cost at 0.020% taker on BTCUSDT perpetuals against Bybit's 0.055%.
OKX is the alternative if regulatory footprint matters more than fees.
Is Bybit available in the UK again?
Yes, since 19 December 2025, through a financial promotions arrangement with FCA-authorised firm Archax.
The relaunch covers spot and peer-to-peer trading only, not derivatives.
Can I trade perpetual futures on Bybit EU?
No.
Bybit EU offers spot and margin trading because its MiCA authorisation covers crypto-asset services rather than derivatives, which fall under separate EU rules.
What are the best alternatives to Bybit for US traders?
MEXC does not serve US residents either, so it is not an answer here.
US traders should research CFTC-regulated venues and domestically licensed exchanges offering crypto futures.
Did Bybit repay users after the February 2025 hack?
Bybit restored reserves within 72 hours through emergency funding, withdrawals stayed open throughout, and no user losses were reported.
A proof-of-reserves audit confirmed collateralisation above 100% on major assets.
Which exchange lists more perpetual contracts than Bybit?
MEXC's official fee schedule lists more than 1,020 USDT-margined perpetual pairs.
Third-party trackers put Bybit at roughly 740 and OKX at roughly 481.
Is a Bybit alternative cheaper for high-volume futures trading?
For manual trading, yes: 500,000 dollars of monthly volume costs about 1,200 dollars a year on MEXC's BTC perpetual against 3,300 dollars on Bybit.
For API trading the order reverses.
Do I need to close my Bybit account to use another exchange?
No, and most active traders keep several.
Spreading balances across venues is a common response to counterparty risk after a large incident.
Risks and disclosures
Perpetual futures are leveraged products and can lose more than your initial margin.
At the leverage ceilings advertised by the platforms in this comparison, a price move of well under one percent against a position can trigger liquidation, and headline maximum leverage generally applies only to the most liquid pairs at the smallest position sizes before risk-limit tiers reduce it.
Funding payments accrue every eight hours regardless of whether the position is profitable.
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.
Japan's Kanto Local Finance Bureau also named MEXC Trading Platform in June 2025 as conducting over-the-counter derivatives business without registration.
Nothing in this article is investment, legal or tax advice.
Where to go from here
If you fall into the group this comparison points toward, manual perpetual trading outside the restricted jurisdictions listed above, the fee page is the place to check the arithmetic against your own pairs rather than taking a table's word for it.
Market Opportunity
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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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