Bitget review 2026: copy trading, fees and EU status

Bitget is a global crypto exchange built around futures trading and copy trading, operated by BTG Technology Holdings Limited. It has no MiCA licence: Bitget EU applied to Austria’s Financial Market Authority (FMA), and the application is still pending in October 2026.

Our verdict is wrong way for EU residents until Bitget EU is licensed. Germany, France and Austria are barred outright, the rules for the Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland are unclear, and in September 2026 attackers drained hundreds of millions of dollars from Bitget’s hot and warm wallets. Crypto-assets can lose all their value, and an unlicensed platform gives you no EU regulator to turn to. We checked every fact on this page against official sources on 23 October 2026.

Quick verdict: who is the Bitget exchange for?

Bitget is aimed at active traders who want futures and copy trading at low fees, but for EU residents it is the wrong way. The low fees sit next to a missing EU licence, a large 2026 hack and a copy-trading product with no EU authorisation.

	Bitget (checked 23 October 2026)
Operator	BTG Technology Holdings Limited
MiCA licence	None; Bitget EU applied to the FMA (Austria)
Prohibited countries	Austria, France, Germany, United States
Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland	Unclear
Spot fees	0.10% maker / 0.10% taker (20% off in BGB)
Futures fees	0.02% maker / 0.06% taker (VIP 0, USDT-M)
BTC withdrawal	0.00002 BTC
Crypto	About 500 assets on the main spot market
Proof of reserves	Monthly, Merkle tree
Last major incident	Hot and warm wallets drained, 24 September 2026

Beginners are an even weaker fit than experienced traders. Bitget’s strengths, leverage and copy trading, are exactly the products where new investors lose money fastest.

Is Bitget available in Europe?

Not under an EU licence. Bitget confirmed on 2 July 2026 that Bitget EU had applied to the FMA in Austria for authorisation as a crypto-asset service provider, but Bitget does not appear in the ESMA register file of 22 October 2026.

That matters because MiCA’s transitional period is over. Since 1 July 2026, only MiCA-authorised companies may provide crypto-asset services in the EU, and ESMA told unauthorised firms to stop onboarding and wind down in an orderly way. Bitget’s own licence page lists no EU licence; it lists the UK (through an FCA-authorised partner) and non-EU registrations such as AUSTRAC in Australia, El Salvador and Mauritius.

Country	Bitget access (23 October 2026)
Germany	Not available: prohibited country
France	Not available: prohibited, all services ended 31 March 2026
Austria	Not available: prohibited country
Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland	Unclear: not listed as prohibited, but no MiCA licence
United Kingdom	Restricted, via an FCA-authorised partner
United States	Not available: prohibited country

What happened in France and Germany

France’s regulator, the 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 stopped new sign-ups from France and Germany on 16 January 2026 and ended all services for French residents on 31 March 2026.

The French exit covered every product: spot, derivatives, copy trading, Earn, Quick Buy and P2P. Remaining assets were moved to a third-party platform. That is what an exit looks like when an exchange loses access to a market, and it’s a good reason not to build a portfolio on an unlicensed platform.

The Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland

Bitget’s terms of use (updated 20 October 2026) don’t list the Netherlands, Belgium or Ireland as prohibited. That doesn’t make Bitget licensed there. Without MiCA authorisation, it may not offer crypto-asset services in the EU, so we treat these countries as unclear and don’t recommend Bitget to their residents.

Bitget copy trading review: how it works and what it costs

Copy trading on Bitget lets you automatically mirror the trades of another trader, called an elite trader on Bitget’s leaderboard, in your own account. It’s offered only on the global platform, with no EU authorisation, so EU residents shouldn’t use it.

Because many readers come to this page to read a Bitget copy trading review, this section explains it honestly: how copy trading works, what it costs and why a list of top performers is not a forecast.

How Bitget copy trading works

The idea is simple. Bitget offers three types on its global platform: spot copy trading, futures copy trading and bot copy trading. In general, you choose a trader from the leaderboard, set an amount, and the platform opens and closes positions in your account when that trader does, in proportion to the money you assign.

Bitget’s copy trading page lists elite traders with their total profit, copiers’ profit, ROI (return on investment) and maximum number of copiers. When you copy, you copy everything: the winning trades, the losing trades and the leverage.

What copy trading costs

Every copied trade pays Bitget’s normal trading fees, and futures copy trading adds funding payments. Lead traders on copy-trading platforms are usually paid through a share of their followers’ profits; we couldn’t find Bitget’s current profit-share rate on an official page, so check it on the trader’s profile before you copy.

Here is a worked example with futures copy trading. You assign €100, and the trader uses 10x leverage, so each copied position is worth €1,000.

• Each trade costs €1,000 × 0.06% = €0.60 to open and €0.60 to close as a taker: €1.20 per round trip.
• If the trader makes 20 round trips in a month, fees are 20 × €1.20 = €24, or 24% of your €100.
• A 5% price move against a 10x position costs €50, half your stake. A 10% move wipes it out.

The trader can be right more often than wrong and you can still lose money, because fees on leveraged positions are charged on the full €1,000, not on your €100.

Why top performers in copy trading aren’t a forecast

Copy-trading leaderboards show who did well in the past, not who will do well next. A ranking of the top performers over the last six months mostly tells you who took risks that happened to pay off in that period.

Here is why past performance of copied traders isn’t predictive:

• Leverage inflates ROI. A trader using 20x can show a huge return after a few lucky trades, and a huge loss after a few unlucky ones.
• Survivorship. Traders who blew up their accounts drop off the leaderboard, so the list only shows survivors.
• Short windows. Six months of crypto prices can favour one style, such as betting on rising prices, that fails when the market turns.
• You start later. Copiers join after the good run, at different prices. Compare a trader’s own total profit with the copiers’ profit figure: if copiers earned far less, that tells you something.
• Different incentives. A lead trader paid from profits gains from a winning streak but doesn’t share your losses.

If you still want to try copy trading, use a licensed platform in your country, check the maximum drawdown and how long the trader has a record, avoid traders who use high leverage, and only assign a small amount you can lose. Don’t treat it as hands-off income.

Bitget copy trading in the EU

None of Bitget’s copy trading is provided under an EU authorisation. When Bitget left France, copy trading ended along with every other product, which shows how quickly access to copied positions can disappear.

Bitget fee structure

Bitget’s spot trading fees are 0.10% maker and 0.10% taker, falling by 20% when you pay fees in BGB. Futures cost 0.02% maker and 0.06% taker at VIP 0 on USDT-margined contracts, and withdrawing bitcoin costs 0.00002 BTC.

Cost	Bitget global platform
Spot maker / taker fee	0.10% / 0.10%
Spot fee paid in BGB	0.08% (20% off)
Futures (VIP 0, USDT-M)	0.02% maker / 0.06% taker
VIP tiers	By 30-day trading volume, assets held or BGB holdings
BTC withdrawal	0.00002 BTC on the Bitcoin network
SEPA deposit and withdrawal	Not verified
Card purchases	Not verified

Worked examples in euros

Trade	Standard fee	Paid in BGB
€100 market buy	€0.10	€0.08
€500 market buy	€0.50	€0.40
€1,000 spot trade	€1.00	€0.80
€100 a month for a year	12 × €0.10 = €1.20	12 × €0.08 = €0.96
€1,000 futures position, taker in and out	€0.60 + €0.60 = €1.20	not verified

Those are low fees compared with other exchanges: the same €1,000 spot trade costs €2.50 at Bybit EU (0.25%) and €8.00 at Kraken’s entry-level taker fee (0.80%). The trade-off is that both of those are MiCA-licensed and Bitget isn’t, and lower trading fees don’t help if you can’t get your money out.

Funding rate and network fees

Perpetual futures also carry a funding rate: a payment between long and short traders at set intervals that keeps the contract price close to the spot price. Depending on the market, you either pay or receive it, and on a leveraged position it’s charged on the full position size. In a busy market the funding rate can cost more than the trading fees, so check it before you hold a futures position for days.

Withdrawal fees vary by coin and network. Bitget charges 0.00002 BTC on the Bitcoin network; for other coins, check the exact fee on the withdrawal page before you confirm, because network fees change with demand. Our Bitget fees page tracks the details we can confirm.

Bitget key features many users come for

Bitget’s global platform offers spot trading, futures trading, margin, staking, copy trading, a mobile app and an API. None of it is offered under an EU authorisation, and we haven’t tested the trading experience in the app ourselves.

Spot trading

Bitget’s public API lists about 3,500 spot pairs, but only around 500 base assets trade on its main market; most others are flagged as a separate zone. Thinly traded tokens often have wide spreads and low trading volume, so check the order book, use limit orders and be careful with market orders on small coins.

Futures trading and leverage

Futures are Bitget’s core product. Perpetual futures let you bet on rising or falling prices with leverage, which multiplies gains and losses. Most retail traders lose money with leveraged products, and at 10x a 10% move against you wipes out your margin; the exchange usually closes the position before that through liquidation.

Only consider futures if you are an experienced trader with a stop-loss plan and money you can afford to lose. For EU residents, Bitget’s futures aren’t available under any EU licence.

Bitget token (BGB)

BGB is Bitget’s own token. Paying fees in BGB gives 20% off, and BGB holdings count towards VIP tiers. The saving is small: on €1,000 of trades a month, it’s €0.20. Holding BGB for the discount means taking on the token’s price risk, which can easily cost more than you save.

Fiat currencies, fiat deposits and Bitget Wallet

Bitget lists the euro among its fiat currencies, but we couldn’t verify which payment method EEA residents can use (SEPA from a bank account, card or other routes), or what each costs. We also couldn’t verify Bitget’s KYC identity verification tiers for EEA residents, so we can’t tell you what you need to complete identity verification or how long the process takes.

Crypto deposits from another exchange avoid the fiat question, but you then pay that exchange’s withdrawal fees, and you still end up with funds on an unlicensed platform. Withdrawals back to euros raise the same issue in reverse: without verified SEPA withdrawal fees, you can’t work out the full cost of getting your money out.

This review covers the Bitget exchange, not the separate Bitget Wallet app, which is a self-custody wallet with different risks.

Is Bitget safe? Security and the September 2026 hack

Bitget publishes monthly proof of reserves and runs a Protection Fund, but in September 2026 attackers drained part of its hot and warm wallets. Together with the missing EU licence, that’s why we score protection at 2 out of 10.

The September 2026 hack

On 24 September 2026 attackers drained part of Bitget’s hot and warm wallets. The loss was first estimated at $351.6 million and later reported as $387.5 million. Bitget paused withdrawals and said its Protection Fund covers the loss.

We couldn’t confirm the final loss figure, when withdrawals fully resumed or the Protection Fund’s balance after the hack. If you have funds on Bitget, check the latest notices on its official site, not on social media.

Proof of reserves and the Protection Fund

Bitget publishes a monthly Merkle-tree proof of reserves showing platform reserves and a reserve ratio. That’s evidence that assets covered customer balances at a snapshot. It says nothing about the company’s other debts, and it couldn’t stop the September hack.

The User Protection Fund was stated at over $464 million in Bitget’s 24 September 2026 incident notice. It is Bitget’s own fund, not a legal compensation scheme: no regulator guarantees what it pays out. In the EU, crypto-assets aren’t covered by investor compensation schemes at all.

Account security settings

If you hold an account, use app-based two-factor authentication, a unique password, and withdrawal to pre-approved addresses only if the platform offers it. Keep only trading balances on any exchange.

Bitget’s regulatory record

Date	What happened
7 November 2023	France’s AMF blacklisted bitget.com for unregistered digital-asset services (removed 9 July 2026).
May 2024	Bitget temporarily stopped onboarding new UK users after FCA rule changes.
16 January 2026	Bitget stopped new sign-ups from France and Germany.
31 March 2026	Bitget ended all services for French residents.
2 July 2026	Bitget confirmed Bitget EU’s MiCA application to the FMA.

Who should use Bitget, and who should look elsewhere

EU residents should look elsewhere until Bitget EU is authorised. If you live outside the EU where Bitget is permitted, it may suit experienced, risk-aware active traders who understand leverage and funding and can manage the risk of a platform hack.

Look elsewhere if:

• you live in the EU, and especially in Germany, France or Austria;
• you want copy trading as a hands-off way to grow money;
• you are a beginner, or you buy crypto occasionally;
• you want a regulator and a clear legal entity behind your account.

Bitget alternatives: licensed crypto exchanges for EU residents

For EU residents, the licensed alternatives are OKX Europe for futures, and Bybit EU, Kraken or Coinbase for spot. All are MiCA-authorised and operating in the Netherlands and Germany.

• OKX is MiCA-licensed in Malta and offers MiFID-regulated X-Perps futures up to 10x; spot fees are 0.08% / 0.10% with an X-Perps account. See OKX vs Bitget.
• Bybit EU is licensed in Austria and charges a flat 0.25% spot fee at the entry tier.
• Kraken is licensed in Ireland, lists 600+ crypto-assets and offers limited EU derivatives through a CySEC-licensed entity.
• Coinbase is licensed in Luxembourg and suits occasional buyers who want a US-listed provider.

Our verdict on Bitget

Bitget is wrong way for EU residents: low fees and a big copy-trading offer, but no MiCA licence, outright bans in Germany, France and Austria, and a September 2026 hack of its hot and warm wallets (about $351.6 million). We’ll revisit this review if Bitget EU is authorised by the FMA, and check then which services the licence covers.

How we reviewed Bitget

We researched Bitget from official sources: Bitget’s terms of use, fee page, licence page, support articles and incident notice, the ESMA MiCA register and the AMF. All facts were checked on 23 October 2026. We did not open an account, deposit money or copy any trader. Read our methodology for how we score.