Is MEXC Safe? Is It a Scam? Reserves, Fees and Review (2026)

Updated 2026-10-15・Rules checked 2026-10-13

MEXC’s record can be looked at in two parts. On security, as of 2026-10-12, applying this site’s inclusion criteria, I found no major public incident of MEXC’s platform wallets being hacked; what drew more attention was the 2025 account freeze controversy, in which about 3.1 million USD belonging to one trader was frozen under risk-control rules, and MEXC’s chief strategy officer apologized and unfroze the funds on 2025-10-31. Proof of reserves is published monthly; the 2026-09-10 snapshot showed BTC at 297%, ETH 111% and USDT 119%, verified by the security firm Hacken.

Fees are MEXC’s most obvious feature. For regular users, major-coin spot is maker 0% and taker 0.05%, and USDT-margined futures are maker 0% and taker 0.02%; but fees are set pair by pair, and plenty of small-cap spot pairs have a taker fee of 0.08% or 0.2%. For users in Taiwan, MEXC is not on the anti-money-laundering registration list of the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC, 金融監督管理委員會), and the fiat currencies supported on its P2P don’t include New Taiwan dollars (TWD).

This review gives no star rating. It only compiles dated, sourced information: fees, referral rebates, proof of reserves, security and regulatory records, restricted regions and products, and ends with which kinds of traders MEXC suits best.

Key points: as of 2026-10-12, there is no major public incident of MEXC’s platform wallets being hacked; in July 2025 it froze about 3.1 million USD belonging to one trader, and MEXC apologized and unfroze the funds on 2025-10-31. MEXC’s reserve snapshot of 2026-09-10 showed BTC at 297%, ETH 111% and USDT 119%, but users held only 4,106.57 BTC. For regular MEXC users, major-coin spot is maker 0% and taker 0.05%, and the standard rate for USDT-margined futures is maker 0% and taker 0.02%; of the 1,984 spot pairs on 2026-10-11, 1,116 had a taker fee of 0.08%. MEXC’s terms of use (2025-05-29 version) exclude the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and other places, but not Taiwan. As of the list updated by the Securities and Futures Bureau on 2026-09-29, MEXC is not on the FSC anti-money-laundering registration list.

The information below was checked against official pages on 2026-10-13 (the data check date) and is provided for reference. The original check date of each figure is given in the matching section.

What are MEXC’s fees?

Market	Maker	Taker	Taker with MX discount	Notes
Spot (major coins)	0%	0.05%	0.04%	The rate the fee page labels as applying to “most trading pairs,” such as BTC/USDT and ETH/USDT
Spot (most small caps)	0%	0.08% or 0.2%	—	Set per pair; some pairs are zero-fee
USDT-margined futures	0%	0.02%	0.016%	Standard rate; some small-cap contracts are 0.01% / 0.04% or higher
Futures via API	0.06%	0.08%	Not available	Charged separately from 2026-06-01, with no rebate

The rates come from the MEXC fee overview and the MEXC futures calculation guide, and the API rates from the MEXC announcement on API futures fees, checked on 2026-10-11. The MX discount gives 20% off and works on both spot and futures; the 50% discount for holding 500 MX has been suspended since 2026-02-09 (MEXC announcement on changes to the MX discount).

It matters that “0.05%” only applies to major coins. In the per-pair fee table on the fee page, read on 2026-10-11, of 1,984 spot pairs, 328 were 0% / 0.05%, 361 were zero-fee, 1,116 were 0% / 0.08% and 178 were 0% / 0.2%. Futures are the same: according to MEXC’s contract specification data, of 1,088 USDT-settled contracts, 884 were 0% / 0.02% and 108 were zero-fee, most of the rest were 0.01% / 0.04%, and a few small caps were 0.04% / 0.1%. Also, MEXC’s zero-fee spot FAQ of 2025-12-23 says all spot is zero-fee, which doesn’t match the fee page; this site goes by the fee page.

Futures fees are charged on position value. Open a 10x position with 1,000 USDT of margin and the position is 10,000 USDT; opening and closing as taker costs 10,000 × 0.02% × 2 = 4 USDT, 3.2 USDT with the MX discount, and nothing if you use limit orders throughout. With leveraged trading, if the price moves against you, your position may be liquidated and you can lose your entire margin. New users in Chinese-speaking regions and Malaysia who complete Advanced identity verification also get a zero-fee allowance on BTC, ETH and GOLD futures of up to 3 million USD in total (MEXC announcement on futures fees for new users, 2026-06-04), and MEXC reserves the right to change it at any time.

Here it is next to the other exchanges this site has compared, for a trader doing 200,000 USDT in futures and 20,000 USDT in spot each month, all as taker, with MEXC’s small-cap rates included as well:

Exchange and scenario	Futures taker	Spot taker	Monthly fees	Source
MEXC, major coins	0.02%	0.05%	50 USDT	MEXC fee overview
MEXC, small caps (common rate)	0.04%	0.08%	96 USDT	MEXC contract specification data
MEXC, small caps (highest tier)	0.1%	0.2%	240 USDT	Same as above
Gate	0.05%	0.1%	120 USDT	Gate fee page
OKX	0.05%	0.1%	120 USDT	OKX fee page
Bitget	0.06%	0.1%	140 USDT	Bitget fee page

The formula is 200,000 × futures taker + 20,000 × spot taker, all at VIP 0 rates without platform token discounts (checked on 2026-10-11). The table shows that MEXC’s low fees are mainly on major coins; if what you trade happens to be a small cap in the highest tier, the cost is actually about twice that of the other exchanges. The full fee schedule is in MEXC fees, and you can try your own position in the futures cost calculator.

As for VIP, since 2025-03-27 MEXC has looked only at trading volume: VIP 1 takes 10 million USDT a month in spot plus futures, and MEXC states that affiliates and invited users can’t join the VIP program (MEXC VIP program upgrade announcement).

How much is the MEXC referral code rebate? Has it changed?

For MEXC accounts registered with this site’s referral code, the exchange currently refunds 20% of fees automatically, with separate rates for spot and futures. Below are the changes to the rebate rate this site has recorded.

• 2026-10-07　20% (tracking started)

Rates sync with the exchange daily; every change is recorded automatically.

MEXC’s official rebate rules (MEXC referral rules, MEXC affiliate FAQ):

• Calculation base: net fees = fees − bonuses − vouchers − other fee discounts; the 20% MX discount is applied first, and the rebate is calculated on the discounted amount you actually pay.
• Payout time: paid before 01:00 (UTC) the day after the trade, which is before 9 a.m. Taiwan time.
• Trades that earn no rebate: zero-fee maker orders, zero-fee trading pairs, API orders, fees covered by futures trial bonuses and vouchers, and abnormal trading. Since the maker fee is 0, rebates in practice only come from taker orders.
• Revocation: commission from self-referrals is canceled.
• Adding a code later: a main account with no referrer can bind one itself within 30 days of sign-up, and the referrer must have signed up before you; once bound, it can’t be changed or removed.

The referral code and how to sign up are in the MEXC referral code; the limits on switching referrers are in the MEXC referral switch guide.

Does MEXC have proof of reserves?

Yes. It publishes one every month, verified by Hacken, and users can confirm their balance in their account with a Merkle tree. The latest is the 2026-09-10 snapshot:

Item	MEXC proof of reserves
Latest snapshot	2026-09-10 (published 2026-09-15)
BTC / ETH / USDT / USDC	297% / 111% / 119% / 111%
User BTC vs platform BTC	Users 4,106.57 BTC, platform 12,202.13 BTC, a surplus of about 8,095.56 BTC
Update frequency	Monthly
Self-verification	Merkle tree
Zero-knowledge proof	Not stated officially
Third-party verification	Hacken
Coverage	No full list stated officially

Sources: MEXC proof of reserves and the MEXC September reserves press release.

297% is the highest BTC reserve ratio among the figures published by the exchanges this site covers, but a high reserve ratio doesn’t mean a large scale. MEXC users hold 4,106.57 BTC, roughly 0.6% of Binance’s equivalent figure; where the platform’s surplus of 8,095.56 BTC comes from, and whether it carries matching liabilities, is something the PoR doesn’t explain. The reserve ratio also only reflects the moment of the snapshot and doesn’t include the company’s own borrowing.

On protection funds, MEXC’s Guardian Fund was set up with 100 million USD in June 2025 and now holds 100 million USDT plus 2,000 BTC, with plans to grow it to 500 million USD within two years (MEXC press release); there is also a futures risk protection fund, about 798 million USDT in mid-September 2026. MEXC itself states that the Guardian Fund is a company commitment, not a statutory compensation scheme (MEXC security overview). Dividing the Guardian Fund’s 2,000 BTC by the 4,106.57 BTC users hold gives about 48.7%; this only helps convey scale and is not a compensation cap. The 13 exchanges are compared in exchange proof of reserves compared.

What security or withdrawal incidents has MEXC had?

Under the inclusion criteria of this site’s exchange safety record, as of 2026-10-12 there is no major public incident of MEXC’s platform wallets being hacked; MEXC’s security overview also says there have been no public reports of its exchange wallets being hacked since it launched in 2018. What is on record is the account freeze controversy and regulatory actions in several countries:

• 2023-03-31 and 2024-11-28: Japan’s Financial Services Agency issued MEXC two warnings for operating without registration; in February 2025, it asked Apple and Google to remove the apps of MEXC and other exchanges in Japan (Japan’s Financial Services Agency, The Defiant).
• 2023-12-28: India’s Financial Intelligence Unit served notices of non-registration on 9 offshore platforms and asked for their URLs to be blocked; the list included MEXC Global (The Statesman).
• July to October 2025: MEXC froze about 3.1 million USD belonging to one trader under risk-control rules; after the case went public, MEXC’s chief strategy officer apologized on 2025-10-31, said the funds had been unfrozen, and said MEXC would set up a fast track for account issues (DL News).
• August 2025: the Philippine SEC named 10 unregistered platforms, MEXC among them, and telecom providers then blocked them (Cointelegraph).

This is a different kind of risk from a hack. When a platform is hacked, withdrawals are usually suspended for everyone for a few days; MEXC’s controversy involved an individual account frozen by risk controls. If your account trades large volumes or moves funds in and out often, it’s worth reading MEXC’s risk-control and account terms before you start.

Which countries can’t use MEXC?

Under item 1 of “PROHIBITED JURISDICTION” in the MEXC terms of use (updated 2025-05-29), the regions where MEXC provides no services and accepts no registrations are: North Korea, Cuba, Sudan, Iran, mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, the Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine (currently including Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk and others), Canada, and countries or regions under comprehensive economic or trade sanctions. Taiwan is not on the list.

Of the 16 regions this site compares, MEXC lists 6 (the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia). The terms state that the list is not exhaustive and may change at any time, and item 6 also notes that some products may not be available in every region. These terms are a 2025 version, relatively old among the 13 exchanges. Also, Japan, India and the Philippines are not on MEXC’s list, yet they are countries that have taken regulatory action against MEXC, so the terms’ list and local regulation need to be looked at separately. The 13 exchanges compared are in exchange restricted countries.

What products does MEXC offer?

• Spot and futures: the MEXC spot API, read on 2026-10-11, listed 1,801 tradable spot pairs. On 2026-10-12, 1,098 perpetual contracts were actively settling funding: 560 every 8 hours, 533 every 4 hours (49%), 4 every hour and 1 every 24 hours; on the same day, the official API showed BTC’s funding rate cap and floor at ±0.18% (MEXC funding rate guide). How funding is calculated is in what is the funding rate.
• Copy trading: futures copy trading, with AI traders you can also copy (MEXC copy trading). The profit share is 10% by default, lead traders can apply to adjust it, and it goes up to 50% in private mode; the previous day is settled daily between 00:00 and 01:00, the profit share is frozen when a profitable trade closes, and any excess frozen is refunded; apart from trading fees, funding fees and the profit share, there are no other charges (MEXC profit share rules).
• Trading bots: futures grid (long, short or neutral, from 10 USDT, MEXC futures grid), spot grid and spot recurring buy.
• Earn: there are two kinds of flexible USDT savings. Regular flexible savings pay 6.0% APR on the first 200 USDT, 2.5% from 200 to 500 USDT and 0.3% above 500 USDT, so 10,000 USDT works out to about 0.48% overall; Earn Plus works the other way, with higher tier rates for larger amounts, about 5.35% on 10,000 USDT and about 5.87% on 50,000 USDT (2026-10-13 snapshot, MEXC Earn). The high rates on regular flexible savings come from tiered subsidies; the base rate is only 0.1%. The comparison is in USDT flexible savings rates compared.
• Other: Launchpad, pre-market trading, US stock futures, DEX+ on-chain trading and demo trading; P2P charges no fees.

Copy trading uses IOC limit orders, which don’t rest on the order book and pay the taker fee (MEXC copy trading terms explained). Copy a lead trader who makes 40 round trips a month with 1,000 USDT at 5x leverage, and the position is 5,000 USDT; the fees come to 5,000 × 0.02% × 2 × 40 = 80 USDT, a third of the 240 USDT the same scenario costs on Bitget. MEXC doesn’t state whether profit and loss for the profit share are calculated after fees; the details are in the cost of copy trading.

What should users in Taiwan watch out for on MEXC?

• FSC registration: as of the list updated on 2026-09-29 in the Securities and Futures Bureau’s “virtual asset service providers” section, MEXC is not on the FSC anti-money-laundering registration list. Offshore trading platforms aren’t covered by the dispute mechanisms of the Securities and Futures Investors Protection Center or the Financial Ombudsman Institution (FSC press release of 2022-11-23), so a frozen account can only be handled under MEXC’s terms.
• TWD deposits and withdrawals: in the currency list of MEXC P2P, read on 2026-10-11, TWD wasn’t among the 60 fiat currencies. The workable route is to buy USDT with TWD on a registered local platform (such as MAX or BitoPro) and transfer it in, and to reverse the route to withdraw.
• Withdrawal fees: in the MEXC fee overview on 2026-10-12, USDT costs 0.01 USDT on BEP20 (minimum 0.2), 0.094 USDT on ERC20, 0.5 USDT on TRC20 and 0 on Plasma. The cheapest way to transfer to MAX is Avalanche C-Chain (0.000074 USDT), and to BitoPro it’s Polygon (0.0065 USDT). The full comparison is in the USDT withdrawal fee comparison.
• Identity verification: there are two levels, Primary and Advanced, with daily withdrawal limits of 80 BTC and 200 BTC respectively; depending on the regulations where you live, without verification you may be unable to deposit, withdraw or trade, and one ID document can verify up to 2 accounts (MEXC KYC FAQ).
• Know the official channels: MEXC states that its only official website is www.mexc.com. The developer on the Taiwan App Store is Onechain Technology Ltd and on Google Play it’s MEXC Ltd; the different names are normal, and you can check customer service or community accounts with MEXC Verify. Impersonation tactics are covered in crypto exchange scam types.
• Transfer rules: the FSC expects to extend the transfer rules (Travel Rule) to transfers between domestic and offshore providers by the end of 2027 (FSC press release of 2026-08-04), after which the process for moving coins between local platforms and MEXC may change.

Who is MEXC best for?

Based on its fees and products, MEXC works better for these kinds of traders:

• People who mainly trade futures and often use market orders: the standard futures taker fee is 0.02%, so for the same 200,000 USDT of futures a month, you pay 40 USDT on MEXC, 100 USDT on OKX and Gate, and 120 USDT on Bitget.
• People who mainly buy major coins such as BTC and ETH: spot is maker 0% and taker 0.05%, so limit orders cost nothing at all.
• People who want to copy high-frequency futures traders: copy trading pays the taker fee, so the low rate shows up directly in the cost.
• People who forgot to enter a referral code at sign-up: you can still bind one yourself within 30 days; on Bitget, Gate and KuCoin, a code can only be entered at sign-up.
• People who want to keep larger amounts in flexible savings: Earn Plus tier rates rise with the amount, the opposite of most exchanges.

Where it fits less well: if you often trade small caps and mostly use market orders, a 0.08% or 0.2% taker fee makes your costs higher than at other exchanges; if you want to copy spot trades or trade options or CFDs, MEXC’s website lists futures copy trading, and the product list in its footer has no options or CFDs. If you trade in the tens of millions of USDT a month, note that signing up with a referral code means you can’t join MEXC VIP.

FAQ

Is MEXC safe?

No exchange can guarantee safety; what you can look at is the record. As of 2026-10-12, there is no major public incident of MEXC’s platform wallets being hacked, and the 2026-09-10 reserve snapshot showed BTC at 297% and USDT at 119%; but in 2025 there was the controversy over freezing about 3.1 million USD of a trader’s funds, and Japan’s Financial Services Agency has issued it two warnings. MEXC is not on the FSC anti-money-laundering registration list.

Is MEXC a scam?

MEXC itself is not a scam; it is an exchange in actual operation: MEXC states that its only official website is www.mexc.com, and its terms of use, updated 2026-10-13, state that the services are provided by MEXC (Comoros) Ltd (MEXC terms of use). What people online call a “MEXC scam” is usually a fake website, fake app, fake customer support or fake investment group using MEXC’s name. The usual demands are to add someone on LINE, to transfer USDT to a “platform” outside the exchange, or to pay an “unfreezing fee” or “security deposit” before you can withdraw. Suspicious URLs, emails, phone numbers or Telegram accounts can be checked with MEXC Verify. The 2025 controversy over frozen trader funds was caused by risk-control rules; for what happened, see “What happened with MEXC freezing funds?” above. Not being a scam doesn’t mean there’s no risk: MEXC is not on the FSC’s AML registration list, and any dispute can only be handled under the platform’s terms. Impersonation tactics are covered in crypto exchange scam types, and rebate-related scams in rebate scam warning signs.

What happened with MEXC freezing funds?

In July 2025, MEXC froze about 3.1 million USD belonging to one trader under risk-control rules; after the case went public, it apologized and unfroze the funds on 2025-10-31. MEXC’s chief strategy officer also said MEXC would set up a fast track for account issues. This was a risk-control dispute over an individual account, a different kind of event from a platform wallet hack.

Could MEXC go bankrupt?

No data can guarantee that an exchange won’t go under. Proof of reserves only shows that at that moment on 2026-09-10, the user BTC MEXC included in the calculation was 297% backed; it doesn’t include the company’s liabilities and says nothing about what comes after. The Guardian Fund is a company commitment, and MEXC itself states that it isn’t a statutory compensation scheme. If something happens to an offshore exchange, neither Taiwan’s Securities and Futures Investors Protection Center nor the Financial Ombudsman Institution can help.

Can I withdraw from MEXC to a bank in Taiwan?

Not directly to a Taiwanese bank account. MEXC’s P2P has no TWD (checked on 2026-10-11); the usual approach is to withdraw USDT to MAX or BitoPro, sell it for TWD, and then withdraw to your bank under that platform’s rules. Transferring from MEXC to MAX on Avalanche C-Chain costs 0.000074 USDT, and to BitoPro on Polygon 0.0065 USDT.

Can I use MEXC in Taiwan?

Taiwan isn’t among the restricted regions in MEXC’s terms of use (2025-05-29 version), the MEXC app is available on the Taiwan App Store, and the website has a Traditional Chinese version. But MEXC is not on the FSC anti-money-laundering registration list, and its terms are an older version that states it may change at any time, so check the latest terms before using it.

Are MEXC’s fees really zero?

Only the maker fee (limit orders) is zero; the taker fee (orders that fill immediately) is charged. Major-coin spot has a taker fee of 0.05% and standard futures 0.02%; in the 2026-10-11 data, 1,116 spot pairs had a taker fee of 0.08% and 178 had 0.2%. Another 361 spot pairs and 108 contracts are zero-fee; those trades carry no fees, so they earn no rebate either.

How big is MEXC’s Guardian Fund?

MEXC’s press release at the end of September 2026 puts it at 100 million USDT plus 2,000 BTC, with plans to grow it to 500 million USD within two years. The Guardian Fund was set up with 100 million USD in June 2025; there is also a futures risk protection fund of about 798 million USDT (mid-September 2026). MEXC states that the Guardian Fund is a company commitment, not a statutory compensation scheme.

To open an account or confirm the referral code, see the MEXC referral code; fee details are in MEXC fees, and if you’ve already registered, see the MEXC referral switch guide and how to check whether a referral code is bound. To compare with other exchanges, there’s MEXC vs Gate, OKX vs MEXC and Bitget vs MEXC, and each exchange’s fees after rebates are in lowest-fee crypto exchanges; two more exchange reviews are the Bitget review and the Gate review.