MEXC review 2026: where regulators did step in
Of these four, this is the only one where regulators have actually stepped in.
Where it falls down
No authorisation, and three regulators have said so. In September 2025, the AFM warned that MEXC is active in the Netherlands without the required authorisation and targets Dutch consumers through social media and sponsorship. On 26 May 2026, the regulator in the Seychelles found that MX Global Ltd, the company behind MEXC, was operating without authorisation and referred the case for legal action. On 22 June 2026, VARA in Dubai imposed a fine for years of offering trading and brokerage services without authorisation.
MEXC is not in the ESMA register and holds no MiCAR authorisation in any EU member state. What happens to balances left behind is on our closed exchanges page.
Fees only visible once you are inside. MEXC publishes headline numbers — 0% spot maker and 0.05% taker — but the volume tiers appear only inside your own account. What you end up paying depends on a level you cannot look up in advance.
What MEXC is
MEXC started in 2018 as MXC and has been called MEXC since 8 June 2021. Which company now provides the service cannot be established — the AFM said as much in its warning itself. Regulators name MX Global Ltd in the Seychelles, MEXC Global Limited (struck off in 2023 and dissolved in 2024) and MEXC Estonia OÜ, which has been in liquidation since 22 June 2026.
Vugar Usi has been chief executive since 8 April 2026. The company itself claims more than 40 million users.
Products
| Product | Status | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Spot | Live | More than 3,000 tokens; a low bar for getting listed |
| Futures & perpetuals | Live | Leverage up to 500x |
| Margin | Live | Borrowing against collateral |
| Earn | Live | Including interest on unused futures margin |
| Copy trading | Live | On futures |
| Equity futures | Live | American shares |
| Options | No | Not found |
Fees
- Spot (maker/taker): 0% / 0.05%
- Futures (maker/taker): 0% / 0.02%
- MX discount: 20%, and 50% from 500 MX. The discount takes effect the next day at 16:00 UTC
- The VIP tiers are not public: MEXC names one threshold — $5 million — and refers you to your own account for the rest. So you cannot look up in advance what you will end up paying
- SEPA: euros only, up to €20,000 per transaction and €200,000 per day. The fee is not stated in either of the two guides
- Netherlands: since 20 March 2026 all fiat services for Dutch customers have been suspended — P2P, bank transfer and third-party payment services. Crypto-to-crypto trading stayed open
Regulation and warnings
Of the four exchanges on this list, MEXC is the only one where regulators have actually stepped in. The reason differs from country to country, the pattern does not.
| Date | Regulator | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| 19 Oct 2023 | BaFin (Germany) | Public notice: financial services without the required licence |
| 28 Dec 2023 | FIU-IND (India) | Formal notice; the regulator asked for the website to be blocked |
| 15 Mar 2024 | SFC (Hong Kong) | On the list of suspicious trading platforms |
| 22 Mar 2024 | FCA (UK) | On the warning list |
| 24 Sep 2025 | AFM (Netherlands) | Public warning: crypto services without a MiCAR licence |
| 5 Mar 2026 | VARA (Dubai) | Warning to consumers |
| 26 May 2026 | FSA (Seychelles) | MX Global Ltd was operating without a licence; referred for legal action |
| 22 Jun 2026 | VARA (Dubai) | Fine plus an order to stop. The amount has not been made public |
Track record
- The White Whale case: in July 2025 MEXC froze the account of a trader holding around $3 million, because two orders had been placed within the same second. On 31 October 2025 Chief Strategy Officer Cecilia Hsueh apologised publicly; the money was released on 1 November. There was no compensation, only the release
- 14 March 2025: MEXC itself stated that a freeze can last up to 365 days in cases of coordinated manipulation, and that fewer than 0.1% of freezes turn out afterwards to have been unjustified
- 26 March 2025: more than 1,500 accounts frozen across two networks, in the CIS countries and Vietnam
- The exchange itself: no break-in or theft from its own wallets documented. The problems at MEXC are about access to your own money, not about custody
Proof of Reserves
MEXC publishes a monthly Merkle tree in which you can find your own balance, checked according to the company by security firm Hacken. In July 2026 bitcoin stood at 281%, USDT at 119%, USDC at 115% and ether at 114%.
Those four coins are all there is, though. MEXC lists more than three thousand; about the rest the report says nothing. And 281% coverage on bitcoin says mainly something about how few customers hold bitcoin there, not about how solid the exchange is.
What does check out
Euros go in and out via SEPA, and it is a genuine trading venue with an order book. On those two points MEXC does qualify.
What this means for you
MEXC is still perfectly accessible from the EU at the moment; we checked that on 30 July 2026. But accessible is not the same as authorised, and the AFM warning still stands.
Last checked on 10 August 2026 · Sources: AFM warning ↗ · FSA Seychelles ↗ · VARA fine ↗ · MEXC on the Netherlands ↗
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