Bitget review 2026: application filed, no licence yet
Bitget has applied for authorisation. It has not been granted yet, and an application is not an authorisation.
Where it falls down
No authorisation, but an application in progress. Bitget EU, based in Vienna, filed a MiCAR application with the Austrian regulator FMA on 17 June 2026. Bitget itself states that it will not offer services in the EEA without permission, and that the application must not be read as approval. As of 30 July 2026, Bitget does not appear in the ESMA register.
This is the only one of the four where the outcome is still open. If the authorisation is granted, Bitget will meet all five conditions and will enter the comparison.
What Bitget is
Bitget started in 2018. The main company is BTG Technology Holdings Limited, with Hong Kong law in its terms; alongside it there is BGR Tech Limited in the Seychelles. Gracy Chen has been chief executive since May 2024. The company itself says it has more than 120 million users and 1,800 staff.
In derivatives volume Bitget ranked fifth in the first quarter of 2026, with an average of $6.4 billion in open interest — behind Binance, OKX, Bybit and Gate. In February 2026 it opened a European office in Vienna, headed by Oliver Stauber, previously at KuCoin EU and Bitpanda.
Products
| Product | Status | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Spot | Live | More than 600 coins |
| Futures & perpetuals | Live | Leverage up to 125x |
| Copy trading | Live | Core product; 10 to 20% of the profit goes to the trader you follow |
| Tokenised equities | Live | Stocks 2.0 since 2 June 2026, 36 shares, settled in USDT |
| Equity options | Live | Since 3 July 2026, bought calls and puts only |
| Earn | Live | Savings and staking |
| Wallet | Live | Bitget Wallet, formerly BitKeep |
Fees
- Spot (maker/taker): 0.10% / 0.10%, or 0.08% / 0.08% if you pay the fees in BGB
- Futures (maker/taker): 0.02% / 0.06% at the entry level
- BGB discount: 20% on spot, but only if you switch it on yourself and there is enough BGB in the right account at the moment of your order. Otherwise you pay the full rate. Not on futures
- PRO levels: since 26 March 2026 there is a PRO tier above the VIP tiers, from $50 million on spot and $100 million on futures
- SEPA: deposits free, withdrawals €1, both via SEPA Instant
- Crypto withdrawal fees: dynamic per coin and network, only visible at the moment you withdraw
Regulation and warnings
- 17 June 2026: Bitget EU announced that it had applied for a MiCAR licence with the Austrian FMA. Exactly when the application was filed is stated nowhere — not even in Bitget's own announcement
- Not yet granted: as of 5 August 2026 Bitget does not appear in the ESMA register. Bitget itself says the application should not be read as approval
- France: on the AMF blacklist since 7 November 2023; the service stopped completely on 31 March 2026 and the listing was removed on 9 July 2026
- Germany: BaFin has been investigating the company since 29 January 2024; since 16 January 2026 no new German customers are accepted
- Elsewhere: CySEC (21 June 2024), the Japanese FSA (2 December 2024) and the Australian ASIC (28 July 2025). Bitget is leaving Japan entirely: the last positions there close on 31 December 2026
For the Netherlands there is no warning. The Netherlands is not on the list of excluded countries either — but anyone opening an account here contracts with the party outside the EU, not with Bitget EU. That entity has not started yet.
Track record
- December 2022: $8 million taken through a fake version of the BitKeep app that captured seed phrases. All victims were repaid, the last of them in March 2023
- 6 October 2024: its own BGB token fell 52% in a single night, from $1.14 to $0.54. Bitget promised full compensation within 72 hours, but published no amount
- 20 April 2025: the VOXEL perpetual briefly did more volume than bitcoin. Bitget called it market manipulation, reversed all the trades and compensated the losses
- The exchange itself: no breach reported. The two losses above hit the wallet app, not the trading environment
Protection fund and Proof of Reserves
According to the fund page the protection fund consists of 5,500 bitcoin, with a committed minimum of $300 million. In June 2026 it was worth $346 million on average. Two caveats: its own March report mentions 6,500 bitcoin where the fund page says 5,500, without explanation, and nowhere is there a wallet address. "On-chain verifiable" is a promise here, not a fact.
The reserve check is done properly: a Merkle tree in which you can find your own balance, every month since December 2022, 43 editions by now. In June 2026 bitcoin stood at 138%, ether at 137% and USDT at 121%. No external auditor is named — you check it yourself with their open-source tool.
What does check out
On the other four points Bitget scores well. There is an order book, there is a public fee schedule with volume tiers — spot maker from 0.04% to 0.0125%, taker from 0.06% to 0.035% — and euros go in and out by bank transfer.
What this means for you
Until the authorisation is in place, you are trading with a company that says itself it is not there yet. As soon as it is granted, Bitget will appear here in the comparison and we will update this page.
Last checked on 10 August 2026 · Sources: Bitget on its MiCAR application ↗ · ESMA register ↗ · Protection fund ↗ · AMF press release ↗
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