Coinbase vs Bybit: fees, MiCA licences and products

Coinbase vs Bybit is a choice between two exchanges that both hold a MiCA licence, so EU readers can decide on cost and products rather than legality. Bybit EU is the cheaper of the two for spot trading, with a flat 0.25% fee; Coinbase charges more but offers more coins, free euro withdrawals, EU futures and the audited accounts of a Nasdaq-listed company. The catch on each side: Coinbase’s fees, and Bybit’s $1.5bn hack in February 2025.

We checked both exchanges’ fee pages, licence registers and public records on 23 October 2026. For the full picture, read our Coinbase review and Bybit review.

Coinbase vs Bybit: which cryptocurrency exchange is better?

Bybit wins on spot fees; Coinbase wins on almost everything else. If you mainly buy and sell large coins with euros and want the lowest trading fee, Bybit EU is the cheaper cryptocurrency exchange. If you want more coins, futures, free SEPA withdrawals or a US account, Coinbase is the better fit.

• Lower fees: Bybit EU charges 0.25% maker and taker. Coinbase Advanced charges 0.60% maker and 1.20% taker at entry level.
• More assets: Coinbase lists 400+, Bybit EU 100+.
• Futures trading: Coinbase offers EU futures; Bybit EU offers none.
• Track record: Bybit’s 2025 hack is the largest incident in either exchange’s record that we found. Coinbase has a longer list of fines.
• US residents: only Coinbase.

Coinbase vs Bybit: regulation and country access

On regulation, Coinbase vs Bybit is a tie: both are licensed in the EU under MiCA, which means a national regulator supervises them. Since 1 July 2026 only MiCA-authorised firms may serve EU residents, so both pass the first test.

Coinbase serves the EEA through Coinbase Luxembourg S.A., authorised by Luxembourg’s CSSF on 20 June 2025 for custody, exchange, order execution, placing, order transmission and transfer services. EU futures run through Coinbase Financial Services Europe Ltd, a CySEC-licensed MiFID II firm. Coinbase Germany GmbH was the first firm to receive a BaFin crypto custody licence, in June 2021. In the US, Coinbase holds a New York BitLicense and state money transmitter licences, and its futures trade on a regulated venue: Coinbase Derivatives, LLC, a CFTC-registered designated contract market.

Bybit EU is Bybit EU GmbH in Vienna, authorised by Austria’s FMA on 28 May 2025 for custody, exchange of crypto for funds and other crypto, placing and transfer services. Its licence is passported across the EEA, including the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Ireland, but excludes Malta. In August 2026 the FMA also licensed Bybit Payments GmbH as an electronic money institution. The Bybit group is headquartered in Dubai, and Bybit EU is not available to nationals of the US, Malta, Russia and several other countries.

Don’t use Bybit’s global site or other offshore exchanges from the EU: only the licensed EU entity gives you a supervised account. A licence is about regulatory compliance and supervision, not about protecting your investment. Crypto-assets are not covered by investor compensation schemes, and neither licence makes up for losses if prices fall.

Coinbase vs Bybit fees

In the Coinbase vs Bybit fee comparison, Bybit EU has the lower fees on spot trades. Since 5 October 2026 it charges a single rate of 0.25% for both maker and taker orders on accounts under 100,000 USDC of 30-day trading volume. Coinbase Advanced charges 0.60% maker and 1.20% taker at its lowest tier, based on a copy of its in-app table; Coinbase no longer shows Advanced rates on public pages, and the figure may differ for EU accounts.

Spot trading fees: worked examples

On a €1,000 market order, Bybit EU saves you €9.50 compared with Coinbase Advanced’s taker fees. Even if you use limit orders on Coinbase, Bybit EU is €3.50 cheaper per €1,000. On €100 a month, the difference is €4.20 to €11.40 a year.

Both offer a fee discount as you trade more:

• Bybit EU: the 0.25% rate falls to 0.15% for the best non-VIP tier and to 0.045% for Supreme VIP.
• Coinbase Advanced: tiers fall with 30-day volume or your USDC balance, down to 0.00% maker and 0.02% taker.

Simple buys and Coinbase One

Coinbase’s simple buy in the Coinbase app costs more than Coinbase Advanced and has no fixed published price. The quoted price includes a spread, and Coinbase adds a fee that varies by payment method, order size and market; both are shown in the order preview. Simple limit orders add a 1% execution fee. A Coinbase One subscription removes simple-trade fees with limits, though the spread still applies. Bybit EU’s instant-buy and card-purchase fees are shown only to logged-in users, so we can’t compare simple buys like for like.

Either way, the trading fee is only part of the cost. The spread between the buy and sell price, and slippage on larger orders, depend on the market price and liquidity at the moment you trade.

Fiat deposits, payment methods and withdrawals

Coinbase publishes free euro transfers in both directions; Bybit EU publishes free deposits only. Their payment methods:

• Coinbase: SEPA bank transfer deposits and withdrawals in euros, the euro version of wire transfers, are free and take 1–3 business days. You need a fully verified account, and the name on your bank account must match your Coinbase account. Crypto withdrawals pay a network fee estimated at the time of sending.
• Bybit EU: no Bybit fee on fiat deposits by bank transfer or card, though your payment provider may charge its own. Bybit supports card and wallet top-ups with Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay and Google Pay in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland, among other EEA countries. SEPA withdrawal and crypto withdrawal fees appear only in the logged-in withdrawal window.

Round trip example: you deposit €1,000, buy bitcoin with a market order, sell it later at the same price and withdraw. On Coinbase Advanced that is €12.00 + €12.00 + €0 = €24.00. On Bybit EU it is €2.50 + €2.50 = €5.00, plus a SEPA withdrawal fee you see only after logging in. See our Bybit fees page and Coinbase fees page for every cost.

Coinbase vs Bybit: futures trading

On futures, Coinbase vs Bybit is one-sided: Coinbase offers futures to EU users and Bybit EU does not. Coinbase launched crypto and equity-index futures for Coinbase Advanced users in 26 European countries, including Germany and the Netherlands, in March 2026, with up to 10x leverage and fees from 0.02% per contract. Its Dutch Advanced page refers to “professional clients”, so check whether you qualify as a retail client before you count on it.

Bybit’s global platform offers derivatives, including perpetual futures, but those perpetual futures are not part of the bybit.eu offer for EEA residents. In the EU, Bybit offers spot trading, spot margin, Earn and a card. We have not verified Bybit’s global derivatives fees, so we don’t quote them. If you want EU-regulated derivatives with a clearly published retail route, also look at Kraken, which we compare in Kraken vs Bybit.

Risk controls: margin, liquidation and insurance funds

Leverage means you can lose more quickly than with spot trading, and higher leverage means a smaller price move can liquidate you. Bybit EU offers spot margin, which lets you borrow to trade. Every leveraged position has a liquidation price: if the market moves that far from your entry price, the position is closed and you lose your margin. Bybit EU runs a spot-margin insurance fund fed by a 2% liquidation fee, meant to cover losses when a liquidated position can’t be closed in time; it does not cover your own losses.

If you use leverage at all, set a stop-loss and a take profit level before you enter, use small positions and never borrow money you can’t afford to lose.

Spot markets and trading tools for active traders

On coin choice, Coinbase vs Bybit goes to Coinbase. How many cryptocurrencies you can trade differs a lot: Coinbase has the wider range of crypto assets, 400+ assets against Bybit EU’s 100+ (108 base coins in Bybit EU’s public spot data on 23 October 2026). Coinbase supports euros, pounds and dollars; Bybit EU supports euros and Polish zloty.

For most investors buying bitcoin, ether and other large coins, both spot markets are enough. Still, check that the specific digital asset you want is listed before you sign up, because a digital asset on Coinbase may not be on Bybit EU. A wider list adds smaller, emerging tokens, which tend to have thinner liquidity and wider spreads, so a larger list is not the same as lower costs.

For active traders and experienced traders, both exchanges offer API access for automated trading and an app. Copy trading is a different story: we could not verify copy trading on Bybit EU (it appears in Bybit’s global help centre but not the EU one) or on Coinbase in the EU, so don’t choose either for copy trading.

Security at both crypto exchanges: custody and transparency

Both crypto exchanges had a security breach in 2025, of very different kinds. On 21 February 2025 about $1.5bn in ETH was stolen from Bybit’s wallets; the FBI attributed the theft to North Korea (“TraderTraitor”). At Coinbase, criminals bribed offshore support staff to obtain data on about 69,000 customers; Coinbase refused a $20m ransom and estimated $180m–$400m in costs.

What each publishes about customer assets:

• Coinbase: no Merkle-tree proof of reserves that we found. As a Nasdaq-listed company since April 2021, it publishes quarterly financial statements, audited annually, and states that it holds customer assets 1:1.
• Bybit: Merkle-tree proof of reserves with published wallet addresses, latest snapshot 23 September 2026, plus the spot-margin insurance fund described above.

Neither publishes a cold storage percentage on the pages we checked. Proof of reserves shows assets at one moment; audited accounts show the whole company at reporting dates. Neither removes the risk of keeping crypto on an exchange.

Your own account protection matters too. Both offer two-factor authentication; use it with an authenticator app, set an anti-phishing code if the platform offers one, use withdrawal allow-lists, and never share codes with anyone who calls you. Keep long-term holdings in cold storage, such as a hardware wallet.

Regulatory track record

Both have regulatory history. Coinbase’s list of fines is longer; Bybit’s record includes fines for operating without registration in the Netherlands and India.

• Coinbase: a $100m NYDFS settlement in 2023 ($50m penalty) over AML and KYC failures; a €3.3m DNB fine in 2023 for serving Dutch customers without registration; a £3.5m FCA fine for its UK unit in 2024; an SEC lawsuit dismissed in 2025; a €21.46m Central Bank of Ireland fine in 2025 over unmonitored transactions; and a €3.25m fine from the same regulator on 22 October 2026 over safeguarding customer funds and outsourcing. Both Irish fines are subject to High Court confirmation.
• Bybit: a settlement of about $228m with the FTX estate in 2024 over pre-collapse withdrawals by its investment arm Mirana; a €2.25m DNB fine in 2024 for serving Dutch clients without registration until September 2023; and a ₹9.27 crore fine from India’s Financial Intelligence Unit in 2025 for operating without registration.

App, cards and customer support

Both have a mobile app, a card and published support channels. Coinbase support offers phone and in-app messaging with a virtual assistant and, depending on hours, live agents. Bybit says it offers 24/7 customer support, with cases and complaints submitted through its help centre.

Cards: in the EU the Coinbase Card is issued by Paysafe Payment Solutions Limited; Bybit EU also offers a Bybit Card. Verification: Bybit EU requires an ID document and selfie for fiat deposits, Earn and higher withdrawal limits, while Coinbase requires a fully verified account before SEPA deposits.

Coinbase, a listed crypto company, also offers staking, with a standard commission of 35% of rewards for assets such as ETH, SOL and ADA; Bybit EU offers Earn products. Rewards vary and the underlying coins can lose value.

Is Coinbase or Bybit better for you?

The Coinbase vs Bybit choice depends on what you trade and where you live:

• Choose Bybit EU if you mainly buy large coins with euros, want the lowest spot fee of the two (€2.50 per €1,000) and like paying in by card or Apple Pay. Its downsides: fewer coins, no futures and the 2025 hack.
• Choose Coinbase if you are among the experienced traders who want EU futures, or you want more coins, free SEPA withdrawals, a US account or a listed company’s audited accounts. Its downside: fees of €6.00 to €12.00 per €1,000 on Coinbase Advanced, and more in the simple app.
• Using both: some investors buy on Bybit EU and keep Coinbase for withdrawals or coins Bybit EU doesn’t list. Crypto transfers between the two exchanges cost a network fee, so only make them with a clear reason.

Who should look elsewhere: if you want EU futures with a clear retail route, or the cheapest spot trading with more coins than Bybit EU, compare Coinbase vs Kraken as well.

Coinbase vs Bybit: final verdict

There is no single winner in this Coinbase vs Bybit comparison: both are MiCA-licensed, and the right pick depends on your goal. Bybit EU wins on spot fees and is the better choice for low-cost euro buying of major coins. Coinbase wins on range, euro withdrawals, futures and transparency, at a higher price per trade. Whichever you choose, keep only what you trade on the exchange, and remember that crypto can lose its entire value.