OKX vs Bitget: EU licences, fees and which to choose

OKX vs Bitget compares two big derivatives-focused crypto exchanges, and for EU residents it has a clear answer. On 23 October 2026 only OKX holds a MiCA licence, through OKX Europe Limited in Malta, and it offers MiFID-regulated futures to EU users. Bitget has no MiCA licence: Bitget EU has only applied to Austria’s FMA. Bitget’s terms bar Germany, France and Austria, and in September 2026 attackers drained hundreds of millions of dollars from its hot and warm wallets.

Outside the EU the comparison is closer. Bitget is built around copy trading and offers a 20% fee discount when you pay in BGB, its own token, while OKX has the lower futures fees and serves the US through a separate platform. Below we compare licences, fees with euro examples, futures, copy trading and security, using each exchange’s official pages as checked on 23 October 2026. Crypto-assets are volatile and you can lose all the money you put in.

OKX vs Bitget: the short answer

For EU residents, OKX wins outright, because it’s the only one of these two crypto exchanges licensed to serve you. For readers outside the EU and the US, Bitget’s strengths are copy trading and a token discount, against a 2026 hack and no EU licence.

• Choose OKX if you live in the EU or the US, or want regulated futures, free SEPA transfers and a cleaner recent security record.
• Choose Bitget only if you live outside the EU and the US, in a country Bitget serves, and want copy trading or the BGB discount.
• Wait on Bitget if you’re in the EU and specifically want it: its application with the FMA is still pending.

Read our full OKX review and Bitget review for each exchange on its own.

OKX vs Bitget comparison at a glance

Each platform’s main strength comes with a main catch. Here is the short version, with the downside next to every advantage.

• OKX: MiCA-licensed and MiFID futures for EU users, but its lowest spot fees (0.08% / 0.10%) need an X-Perps account, and its operator paid about $504 million after a 2025 US guilty plea.
• Bitget: spot fees of 0.10%, or 0.08% in BGB, and spot, futures and bot copy trading, but no EU licence, three EU countries barred and a large hack in September 2026.
• Coins: Bitget lists more cryptocurrencies, about 500 on its main spot market, against about 270 for OKX’s EEA users.

Can you use OKX and Bitget in the European Economic Area?

Only OKX. Since 1 July 2026, when MiCA’s transition period ended, only firms authorised under MiCA may provide crypto-asset services in the EU, and ESMA told unauthorised firms to stop onboarding and wind down in an orderly way.

OKX Europe Limited: MiCA-licensed in Malta

OKX Europe Limited received its MiCA authorisation from Malta’s MFSA on 27 January 2025, covering custody, operating a trading platform, exchange, order execution, placing and reception/transmission of orders. The licence is passported across the European Economic Area, including the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Ireland, and ESMA’s register file of 22 October 2026 confirms it. OKX serves its EU futures through a separate Maltese MiFID II investment firm it bought in March 2025.

Bitget: application pending, barred in three countries

Bitget confirmed on 2 July 2026 that Bitget EU, based in Vienna, had applied to the FMA for MiCA authorisation. Bitget doesn’t appear in ESMA’s register file of 22 October 2026, and its licence page lists no EU licence. Its terms of use, updated 20 October 2026, list Austria, France, Germany and the US among prohibited countries.

Bitget stopped new sign-ups from France and Germany on 16 January 2026 and ended all services for French residents on 31 March 2026, moving remaining assets to a third-party platform. The Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland aren’t listed as prohibited, but without MiCA authorisation Bitget may not offer crypto-asset services there either.

Country restrictions and product eligibility

Product access differs by residence too. OKX’s EU futures are MiFID-regulated, while nothing Bitget offers has an EU authorisation. UK retail customers get a restricted offer from both: OKX’s UK financial promotions are approved by Gateway 21 Ltd, and Bitget’s by an FCA-authorised partner. Confirm eligibility before you make any fiat deposits.

OKX vs Bitget fees

On spot, the two are close; on futures, OKX is cheaper. OKX’s EEA spot fees are 0.08% maker and 0.10% taker with an X-Perps account, and 0.20% maker and 0.35% taker without it. Bitget charges 0.10% maker and 0.10% taker, 20% less when you pay in BGB. One caveat: our OKX fees are for its EEA platform, while Bitget’s are for its global platform.

Spot fees, OKB and BGB

Bitget’s BGB discount is the only token discount between the two that applies here. Paying in BGB cuts Bitget’s spot fees to 0.08% maker and taker, and VIP tiers lower them further by 30-day volume, assets or BGB holdings. OKX’s EEA fee table shows no OKB discount; its VIP tiers start from €100,001 in total assets or by 30-day volume, and some pairs such as USDC-EUR trade at zero fees. Holding a platform token to save fees means taking on that token’s price risk.

OKX’s X-Perps condition

OKX’s low trading fees depend on an X-Perps account, its derivatives account. You don’t have to trade futures, only to open the account. Without it, OKX charges 0.35% per market order, three and a half times Bitget’s rate.

Worked example: €100 and €1,000 spot buys

Here is what a spot buy costs at entry rates, as trade size × fee rate.

Both have low trading fees: on a €1,000 buy the gap is 20 cents at most, unless you skip OKX’s X-Perps account. For EU readers the Bitget columns are academic, because Bitget isn’t licensed to serve them.

Futures fees and funding

Futures fees favour OKX. OKX’s X-Perps cost 0.02% maker and 0.05% taker on the regular tier; Bitget’s USDT-M futures cost 0.02% maker and 0.06% taker at VIP 0. Opening and closing a €1,000 position with market orders costs €0.50 + €0.50 = €1.00 on OKX and €0.60 + €0.60 = €1.20 on Bitget. The funding rate on perpetual contracts comes on top of trading fees and can run for or against you.

Fiat deposits and withdrawal costs

OKX publishes its euro costs: SEPA bank deposits and withdrawals are free (your bank may charge), and card buys cost 1.99%. We couldn’t verify Bitget’s euro SEPA or card fees. A €100 card buy on OKX costs €1.99 before the trading fee, and €1,000 costs €19.90.

For bitcoin, OKX charges from 0.000015 BTC and Bitget 0.00002 BTC on the Bitcoin network. Network selection matters: send a small test first and use the same network on both sides, because coins sent on the wrong network are often lost.

Futures trading, margin and derivatives

Only OKX offers derivatives to EU users under an EU licence. Bitget’s futures are the core of its global platform, but they run without any EU authorisation, and its terms bar several EU countries outright.

What OKX offers EU traders

OKX launched spot margin for EEA customers in December 2025, with up to 10x leverage on BTC and ETH against USDC. In April 2026 it added X-Perps: MiFID-regulated futures with a five-year expiry and up to 10x leverage, for retail and institutional clients. For experienced traders, that combination of spot, margin and futures trading in one licensed account is the main reason to choose OKX.

What Bitget offers outside the EU

Bitget’s global platform offers spot, futures, margin and staking, with USDT-M futures from 0.02% maker / 0.06% taker. Its futures and copy trading are aimed at active trading, and its advanced trading tools reflect the global platform, not anything authorised in the EU.

Copy trading, trading bots and automation

Bitget wins on copy trading outside the EU; OKX’s EU offer is unverified. Copy trading is where Bitget built its name, and it’s also where new traders lose money fastest.

How Bitget copy trading works

Bitget offers spot copy trading, futures copy trading and bot copy trading on its global platform, allowing users to mirror another trader’s positions in their own account. None of it is provided under an EU authorisation, so EU residents shouldn’t use it. When you copy, you copy everything: the winning trades, the losing trades and the leverage, and every copied trade pays normal trading fees.

What OKX offers

OKX serves copy trading and Earn pages on its EEA site, but we haven’t verified their exact scope for EU users. We also haven’t verified either exchange’s current trading bots line-up for EU users, so we don’t compare bot trading features here.

Bitget wins on copy trading for readers outside the EU, with the warning that a trader’s past returns don’t predict future ones.

Coins and markets

Bitget lists more cryptocurrencies. Of about 3,500 spot pairs in its public API, roughly 500 base assets are on the main market; most others sit in a separate zone. OKX lists about 270 for EEA users, based on the 272 assets with EUR pairs in its public API, with EUR and PLN as fiat currencies. Bitget lists EUR as its fiat currency.

Both cover the main coins in the crypto market. Bitget’s extra listings are mostly smaller altcoins, which trade with less liquidity and can swing harder.

OKX Wallet and Bitget Wallet

Both groups also market a self custody wallet, OKX Wallet and Bitget Wallet, separate from their exchanges. In a self-custody wallet you hold the keys, so the exchange can’t freeze your coins, and nobody can recover them if you lose your seed phrase. We haven’t reviewed either wallet, and the MiCA licence described above covers OKX Europe’s exchange services, not what you do in a wallet you control.

Security, proof of reserves and the Bitget hack

OKX has the better recent security record; both publish a monthly proof of reserves. Bitget’s September 2026 hack is the biggest security event in this comparison.

The September 2026 Bitget hack

On 24 September 2026 attackers drained part of Bitget’s hot and warm wallets. The loss was initially estimated at $351.6 million and later reported as $387.5 million. Bitget paused withdrawals and said its Protection Fund covers the loss. The final figure and the withdrawal timeline were still open questions when we checked.

Protection fund and proof of reserves

Bitget runs a User Protection Fund, stated at over $464 million in its 24 September 2026 incident notice; we couldn’t verify the current value after the hack. It publishes a monthly Merkle-tree proof of reserves with platform reserves and a reserve ratio.

OKX publishes a monthly proof of reserves using a Merkle tree and zk-STARK verification. Its 48th report (October 2026 snapshot) showed $29.4 billion in primary assets and a BTC reserve ratio of 110%. OKX publishes no insurance fund figure, and neither exchange publishes a cold storage share. A proof of reserves is a snapshot, not deposit insurance.

OKX’s security and regulatory record

OKX suspended crypto withdrawals from 16 October to late November 2020 while a private-key holder assisted a police investigation in China, and temporarily suspended its DEX aggregator in March 2025 after misuse by the Lazarus group. In February 2025 its global operator pleaded guilty in the US to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and agreed to pay about $504 million. Malta’s FIAU fined OKX’s European arm about €1.1 million in April 2025, and DNB fined the operator €2.25 million for serving Dutch customers without registration. In March 2026 Intercontinental Exchange, the NYSE owner, took a stake in OKX at a reported $25 billion valuation.

Bitget’s regulatory record

France’s AMF blacklisted bitget.com on 7 November 2023 for providing digital-asset services without registration, and removed it from the blacklist on 9 July 2026. Bitget temporarily stopped onboarding new UK users in May 2024 after FCA rule changes. In 2026 it stopped sign-ups from France and Germany and left France entirely. Its licence page lists non-EU registrations, such as AUSTRAC in Australia, El Salvador and Mauritius.

Account controls

Turn on two-factor authentication with an authenticator app, use a withdrawal-address allowlist and other account controls where offered, and keep long-term holdings in a wallet you control. That’s the one part of exchange risk you fully control.

Who should choose OKX and who should choose Bitget

Choose by where you live first. For EU readers, that settles it.

Choose OKX if

• you live in the EU and want a MiCA-licensed exchange with spot, margin and futures in one account;
• you want free SEPA deposits and withdrawals and published fees;
• you live in the US, where Bitget is prohibited;
• you’re moving funds out of an unlicensed exchange and want similar trading tools.

Choose Bitget if

• you live outside the EU and the US, in a country Bitget serves;
• copy trading is the main thing you want, and you understand the risks;
• you accept a September 2026 hack and the lack of any EU licence.

Choose neither if

• you’re a beginner who wants a simple app for small euro buys;
• you don’t want an account tied to derivatives to get OKX’s lowest spot fees.

Other crypto exchanges to compare

If you’re weighing OKX against another big offshore name, see Binance vs OKX. For Bitget against another exchange without a live EU licence, read KuCoin vs Bitget. For an app-first rival under a Maltese MiCA licence, compare OKX vs Crypto.com.

How we compared OKX and Bitget

We’re an editorial team, and we didn’t open accounts for this comparison. On 23 October 2026 we checked both exchanges’ fee pages, terms of use, licence pages, public APIs, proof-of-reserves pages, Bitget’s incident notice and ESMA’s MiCA register (update of 22 October 2026). Figures that change often carry that date. Our scoring follows our methodology. Nothing here is investment advice.