Bybit vs Binance: fees, futures and EU access compared

For anyone living in the EU, the Bybit vs Binance question has a short answer: choose Bybit. Bybit serves EEA residents through Bybit EU GmbH, which Austria’s Financial Market Authority (FMA) authorised under MiCA on 28 May 2025. Binance holds no MiCA licence, withdrew its application in Greece on 24 June 2026, and since 1 July 2026 lets EU users do little more than withdraw. If you live outside the EU, the comparison is closer, and this page explains the differences that matter: fees, futures, coin choice, security and each exchange’s track record.

We checked both exchanges’ fee pages, licence registers and public records on 23 October 2026, and every number below comes from those checks. For the full picture of each platform, read our Binance review and Bybit review.

Bybit vs Binance: quick verdict

Bybit wins for EU users because Bybit EU is licensed under MiCA and Binance is not. Outside the EU, Binance has the lower spot fees and the larger catalogue of assets, while Bybit has the cleaner position with European regulators but a large 2025 hack in its incident history.

• You live in the EU and want to buy crypto with euros: Bybit EU. It is the only one of the two that can take you on as a new customer.
• You live outside the EU and trade spot: Binance is cheaper on paper, at 0.10% per trade against 0.25% at Bybit EU, and lists 500+ assets. Weigh that against its regulatory record.
• You want futures: neither exchange offers derivatives to EU residents. Outside the EU, both run futures markets on their global platforms.
• You live in the US: neither. Binance serves US residents only through the separate Binance.US, and Bybit excludes US persons from both its EU and global platforms.

Can EU users still use Binance or Bybit?

EU users can open, fund and trade on a Bybit EU account; they cannot open a Binance account. That split follows from MiCA, the EU’s crypto law: since 1 July 2026 only MiCA-authorised crypto-asset service providers may serve EU residents, and ESMA told unauthorised firms to stop onboarding and wind down in an orderly way.

Binance filed a MiCA application with Greece’s Hellenic Capital Market Commission in January 2026 and set up a Greek holding company for it. It withdrew the application on 24 June 2026, after reports that the regulator was leaning towards rejection. No Binance entity appears in ESMA’s interim MiCA register (update of 22 October 2026). Binance has said it is “not leaving Europe” and will seek authorisation in another member state, with the Financial Times naming France as the likely target, but we could not confirm a new application as of 23 October 2026. In October 2026 EU officials also questioned Binance’s use of MiCA’s reverse-solicitation exemption to keep serving some EU customers.

Bybit EU’s MiCA authorisation covers custody, exchange of crypto for funds and other crypto, placing and transfer services. It is passported to the EEA, including the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Ireland, with Malta excluded. Bybit EU is based in Vienna, while the Bybit group is headquartered in Dubai. In August 2026 the FMA also licensed Bybit Payments GmbH as an electronic money institution.

Country checks: Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Ireland

Binance is not available in the Netherlands and is restricted elsewhere in the EU; Bybit EU is available in all four countries. The details:

• Netherlands: De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) fined Binance €3.3m in 2022 for operating without registration, and Binance left the country in 2023, moving Dutch users to withdrawal-only from 17 July 2023. Bybit has its own Dutch history: DNB fined Bybit Fintech Limited €2.25m in 2024 for serving Dutch clients without registration until September 2023. Today Dutch residents use bybit.eu. See our Netherlands guide.
• Germany: Binance withdrew its application for a BaFin crypto custody licence in 2023 and is now restricted. Bybit EU is available.
• Belgium and Ireland: Binance is restricted; Bybit EU is available.

You can check any provider yourself in ESMA’s interim MiCA register. Don’t use a VPN or a false address to reach a platform that isn’t licensed where you live: you lose the protection that comes with a licence, and the account can be frozen.

Bybit vs Binance fees

Binance has the lower headline spot fee: 0.10% maker and 0.10% taker, or 0.075% if you pay fees in BNB. Bybit EU charges one rate, 0.25% for both maker and taker orders, since 5 October 2026 for accounts with less than 100,000 USDC of 30-day trading volume.

Here is what that means for realistic orders:

On a €1,000 trade, Binance is €1.50 cheaper than Bybit EU, or €1.75 with the BNB discount. That gap only matters to readers who can still open a Binance account. For EU residents, Bybit EU’s fee is the one you will actually pay.

Both platforms lower their spot fees as you trade more:

• Binance discounts: paying fees in BNB takes 25% off, and VIP tiers based on 30-day volume or BNB balance go lower still. The catch: you must hold BNB, a volatile token in its own right.
• Bybit EU discounts: the 0.25% rate falls to 0.15% for the best non-VIP tier and to 0.045% for Supreme VIP.

The trading fee is not the whole cost. The spread between buy and sell prices and the slippage on larger orders depend on liquidity in each crypto market and on your order size, so check the order preview before you confirm. Our Bybit fees page breaks down each cost.

Binance fees vs Bybit fees for futures

Binance publishes 0.02% maker and 0.05% taker fees for USDⓈ-M futures at the regular-user level, with 10% off when paid in BNB. Futures fees apply to the full position size, not to the money you put up, so leverage multiplies them.

Example: you post €1,000 as margin and open a position at 10x leverage. The position is worth €10,000, so opening it costs €2.00 as a maker or €5.00 as a taker on Binance, and closing it costs the same again. A round trip as a taker is €10.00, or 1% of the money you put in, before any funding payments.

We have not verified Bybit’s global derivatives fee schedule for this page, so we don’t quote it. Bybit EU has no futures at all.

Deposit and withdrawal fees

Withdrawal fees can’t be compared like for like, because neither exchange publishes a full euro fee table that we could read. What we could check:

• Binance: a Bitcoin withdrawal cost 0.00002 BTC on 23 October 2026, according to Binance’s public network data (the fee changes with network conditions). Binance’s euro deposit and withdrawal fees load only dynamically, and EU deposits are suspended anyway.
• Bybit EU: no Bybit fee on fiat deposits, though your payment provider may charge its own. SEPA and crypto withdrawal fees are shown only in the withdrawal window once you are logged in.

Spot trading, derivatives and coin choice

Binance offers far more on paper: 500+ assets and 13 fiat currencies on its global platform, plus futures, margin, staking and copy trading. Bybit EU is a narrower, spot-focused service with 100+ coins (108 base coins in its public spot data on 23 October 2026), euro and Polish zloty funding, spot margin, Earn and a card.

That difference shrinks for EU users, because the global Binance features are not open to them. Binance offers EU residents no derivatives, and since July 2026 no new spot orders either. The derivatives on Bybit’s global platform are not part of the bybit.eu offer.

More listings mean more crypto pairs to trade, including small, new tokens. Those carry more risk, not less: thin liquidity means wider spreads, and a new token can lose most of its price quickly. For most readers buying bitcoin, ether and other large coins, 100+ assets is enough.

Spot margin on Bybit EU

Bybit EU lets you borrow to trade spot, which is a form of leverage. It runs a spot-margin insurance fund fed by a 2% liquidation fee, meant to absorb losses when a liquidated position can’t be closed in time. Borrowed money means interest costs and liquidation risk, so treat spot margin as a tool for experienced traders, not a way to grow a small balance.

Bybit vs Binance futures outside the EU

Bybit vs Binance futures is a real choice only outside the EU: both global platforms offer derivatives trading, while EU residents can use neither for it. If you live in the EU and want regulated derivatives, look at Kraken, which offers futures through a CySEC-licensed entity to clients who pass a MiFID II appropriateness test. See our Kraken vs Bybit comparison.

If you do trade futures outside the EU, compare the full fee schedule for your country, the funding rates, the order types and the maximum leverage each platform allows you, and start with small positions.

Security, proof of reserves and incident history

Both exchanges have been hacked, and Bybit’s incident is the larger one. On 21 February 2025 about $1.5bn in ETH was stolen from Bybit’s wallets; the FBI attributed the theft to North Korea (“TraderTraitor”). In 2019 hackers stole 7,000 BTC (about $40m) from a Binance hot wallet, and Binance covered the loss from its SAFU fund.

What each platform publishes on reserves and protection:

• Binance: Merkle-tree and zk-SNARK proof of reserves, with a statement that it holds user assets 1:1. Its SAFU user-protection fund was converted to 15,000 BTC (about $1bn) in February 2026, and Binance says it will top it up if it falls below $800m.
• Bybit: Merkle-tree proof of reserves with published wallet addresses; the latest snapshot we found is dated 23 September 2026. Bybit EU also runs the spot-margin insurance fund described above.

Proof of reserves shows that an exchange held certain assets at one moment. It is not a full audit: it doesn’t prove the exchange has no other debts, and it says nothing about the next day.

So is Bybit safe, or Binance? We don’t call any exchange safe. A MiCA licence means a regulator supervises how Bybit EU holds client funds; it does not protect you from losses, and crypto is not covered by EU investor compensation schemes.

Account protection you control

Your own settings matter as much as the exchange’s security. On either platform:

• use an authenticator app for two-factor authentication rather than SMS;
• turn on withdrawal address allow-lists where offered;
• send a small test withdrawal before moving a large balance;
• keep long-term holdings in your own wallet, not on the exchange.

Regulatory track record

Binance’s record is heavier. Its main entries:

• 2022: DNB fined Binance €3.3m for offering crypto services in the Netherlands without registration.
• 2023: Binance left the Netherlands, withdrew its BaFin application in Germany and paused new UK sign-ups. In the US it pleaded guilty to anti-money-laundering and sanctions violations and agreed to pay about $4.3bn; founder Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty and stepped down as CEO.
• 2025: the SEC dismissed its 2023 civil lawsuit with prejudice, and President Trump pardoned Zhao in October.
• 2026: Binance withdrew its MiCA application and wound down EU services from 1 July, which affected users across the EU.

Bybit’s main entries:

• 2024: Bybit agreed a settlement of about $228m with the FTX estate over pre-collapse withdrawals by its investment arm Mirana, and DNB fined Bybit Fintech €2.25m.
• 2025: India’s Financial Intelligence Unit fined Bybit Fintech ₹9.27 crore for operating without registration. In May, Austria’s FMA authorised Bybit EU under MiCA.

Neither record is clean. The difference for EU users is that Bybit EU now sits under a European supervisor, while Binance has no EU licence at all.

Deposits, app and support

Bybit EU is the more practical option for euro users. It accepts euro deposits with no Bybit deposit fee, and card and wallet top-ups (Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay and Google Pay) in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland, among other EEA countries. You need to verify your identity with an ID document and a selfie before fiat deposits, Earn and higher withdrawal limits. Bybit says it offers 24/7 customer support, with cases and complaints submitted through its help centre.

Binance has suspended EU deposits, and we could not confirm its support channels or KYC rules from official pages. Both platforms have an app and an API, so you can connect a trading bot or portfolio tracker to your account if you need one.

Which exchange wins for each trader?

The deciding factor is where you live. For each type of reader:

• EU beginner investing €50–500 a month: Bybit EU works, at €0.25 per €100 buy. If you want more coins or EU futures, also compare Coinbase vs Bybit.
• Active EU spot trader: Bybit EU, with the flat 0.25% falling as volume grows.
• EU trader who wants futures: neither. Look at Kraken’s CySEC-regulated derivatives instead.
• Spot trader outside the EU: Binance has lower fees and more coins, if you accept its regulatory history.
• Futures trader outside the EU: compare both global platforms’ current fee schedules for your country before choosing.
• US resident: neither. Bybit excludes US persons and Binance.com doesn’t serve the US.

Who should look elsewhere: if you want EU-regulated derivatives, a history without a major hack, or a wider coin list inside the EU, compare other licensed exchanges before you open either account.

Bybit vs Binance: final recommendation

Bybit wins this comparison for anyone in the EU, simply because it is licensed and Binance is not. Bybit EU’s 0.25% spot fee is higher than Binance’s 0.10%, but Binance is not an option for new EU customers. Outside the EU, Binance offers the lower fees and the broader platform; Bybit offers a cleaner regulatory position in Europe but carries a $1.5bn hack from 2025. Whichever you pick, keep only the money you are actively trading on the exchange, and remember that crypto can lose its entire value.