Bitget Exchange Review 2026: Is It Safe After the September Incident? Fees and Who Can Use It

Key Takeaways

• This Bitget exchange review in short: Bitget is a centralised exchange with spot, futures, copy trading and P2P, and the exchange holds your balance. Bitget Wallet is a separate self-custody app.
• Bitget says a hot wallet incident on 24 September 2026 cost about $388M, that cold wallets and user balances were unaffected and that withdrawals were fully restored on 2 October. Its Proof of Reserves page now shows 115% (snapshot 21 October) and the Protection Fund page $284M.
• Spot fees are 0.1% maker/taker, or 0.08% when you pay with BGB. Futures are 0.02% maker and 0.06% taker. Deposits carry no Bitget fee.
• Residents of the US, Canada, Singapore, Germany, France, Austria, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand and other listed countries cannot use Bitget. Australia is not on that list, but ASIC warns Bitget has no Australian financial services licence for its futures.
• Identity verification needs a government ID plus a face check and takes about one business day. Trustpilot shows Bitget at 1.7 out of 5 from 1,699 reviews.

What Bitget Is: Exchange or Wallet?

The name covers two products people mix up, and the difference decides who holds your coins. I would not open either before knowing which one a guide is talking about.

	Bitget exchange	Bitget Wallet
What it is	Custodial exchange: spot, futures, copy trading, P2P, Convert, Earn	Self-custody wallet app and web extension with swaps and a card
Who holds the keys	Bitget holds the balance in your account	You do (it also offers a social-login wallet with no seed phrase)
Where	bitget.com and the Bitget app	web3.bitget.com, covered in our Bitget Wallet review
Card	Not part of the exchange	Bitget Wallet Card, see the card guide

Is Bitget Safe? What the Official Pages Show After September 2026

Here is the incident as Bitget itself describes it. It says an attacker exploited a zero-day flaw in a third-party security product to steal internal network credentials and forge withdrawal instructions, that cold wallets were not accessed, that user account balances were unaffected and that its User Protection Fund covered the loss. Mandiant and SlowMist assisted the investigation. These are Bitget’s statements; I found no independent audit of the fund or reserve claims.

Date (UTC)	What Bitget says happened
24 Sep 2026, 18:31	First unauthorized transfer from some hot and warm wallets
24 Sep, 19:05	Reconciliation systems find a discrepancy; the security notice puts the first estimate at about $351.6M
25 Sep	Estimate revised to about $387.5M after adding Zcash and TRON assets (incident update)
28 Sep, 08:00	BTC withdrawals restart first (phased schedule)
29 Sep, 08:00	ETH withdrawals restart on Ethereum, BSC, Arbitrum, Base and Optimism
2 Oct	Bitget says withdrawals were fully restored (safety page)

Check	What Bitget publishes	Why it matters
Proof of Reserves	115% total reserve ratio, snapshot 21 Oct 2026, Merkle tree published monthly (page)	Reserves above 100% of customer balances is the minimum you want to see. Check that the date is recent.
Protection Fund	$284M, 3,705 BTC (page)	The incident notice quoted over $464M at the time and Bitget’s safety page quotes $314M+, so the figure moves. Read the live page, not a screenshot.
Incident record	Security notice, phased withdrawals, Bitget’s safety summary	The same incident is described with three different loss and fund figures across Bitget’s pages.
Trustpilot	1.7 / 5 from 1,699 reviews, 75% one-star (viewed 3 Nov 2026)	Many complaints are about frozen accounts and rejected withdrawals. Trustpilot reviews are unverified, but the pattern is worth knowing.

My read: publishing reserve and fund figures is a point in Bitget’s favour, but the incident and the shifting fund figure mean I would keep only what I am actively trading on the platform and withdraw the rest to my own wallet. That is a habit I would apply to any centralised exchange.

Who Cannot Use Bitget, and the Australian Position

The Terms of Use (updated 20 October 2026) list Prohibited Countries that include the United States, Canada, Singapore, Germany, France, Austria, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Russia and Belarus, among others. Using a VPN to get around the restriction is banned in section 8.6. Read the full list in the Terms of Use before you register.

Australia is not on the list. ASIC’s investor alert of 28 July 2025 adds two caveats: Bitget is registered with AUSTRAC for exchange services, but it holds no Australian financial services licence, and ASIC says its futures were offered to Australians at up to 125:1 leverage when ASIC limits certain crypto derivatives to 2:1. ASIC says Australians who use unlicensed products cannot access the dispute-resolution and client-money protections that licensed ones carry. The alert is aimed at futures, and it is short enough to read in full: ASIC investor alert.

Bitget Fees: Spot, Futures, BGB Discount and VIP Levels

Fee	Rate	Source note
Spot (VIP0)	0.1% maker / 0.1% taker	Fee page
Spot with BGB	0.08% / 0.08% (20% discount)	Needs BGB in your balance
Futures (standard)	0.02% maker / 0.06% taker	Fees FAQ
P2P and Convert	0%	Fees FAQ
Deposit	No Bitget fee; network fee still applies to the sending side	Deposit guide
Copy trading	Profit share to the lead trader, typically 10%-20% of realised profit, only on winning closes	Set by each lead trader

VIP level	30-day spot volume (USDT)	Balance (USDT)	Spot maker / taker	With BGB	24h withdrawal limit (USDT)
VIP0	any	any	0.1% / 0.1%	0.08% / 0.08%	3,000,000
VIP1	500,000+	30,000+	0.08% / 0.08%	0.064% / 0.064%	4,000,000
VIP2	2,000,000+	50,000+	0.065% / 0.07%	0.052% / 0.056%	6,000,000
VIP3	8,000,000+	250,000+	0.05% / 0.06%	0.04% / 0.048%	8,000,000

A worked example, in USDT because that is how Bitget quotes it: a 1,000 USDT spot buy costs 1 USDT at the VIP0 rate or 0.80 USDT with the BGB discount. A 10,000 USDT futures position costs 6 USDT to open as a taker or 2 USDT as a maker, before the funding fee that perpetual contracts charge every eight hours. VIP1 starts at 500,000 USDT of monthly spot volume, so most beginners will stay on VIP0 and the BGB discount is the lever that matters. Sources: fee schedule and fees FAQ.

Withdrawals cost a network fee that Bitget shows before you confirm, and the fee page says VIP users without identity verification are capped at 20,000 USDT per 24 hours.

How to Register and Verify Your Identity

1. Register on Bitget with an email address or phone number and set a strong password, then turn on two-factor authentication.
2. On the app home screen tap Verify on the identity verification banner (or open your profile and tap Unverified, then Individual Verification).
3. Choose your country of residence and issuing country, pick an ID type (passport or driver licence), enter your full name and photograph the document on a plain background.
4. Complete the face recognition check. The app shows an estimated review time of 60 minutes; the help article says processing typically takes one business day, with an email once it is approved or if more information is needed.

After Level 1 the app lists withdrawals, crypto deposits, fiat deposits and P2P trading as enabled. The full walkthrough is in Bitget’s KYC mobile guide. If review takes longer than a business day, Bitget asks you to open a support ticket with your UID.

How to Deposit: Crypto Transfer From an Exchange You Already Use

A common route is to buy USDT on an Australian exchange you already use and send it to Bitget by crypto transfer. The steps follow Bitget’s deposit guide, and our deposit and withdrawal guide covers P2P and withdrawals:

1. Tap Add funds, then Deposit crypto, and pick the coin (for example USDT).
2. Choose the network. It must match the network your sending exchange or wallet will use, such as ERC-20 or TRC-20. A wrong network can lose the funds permanently.
3. Pick the destination account (Spot is the default) and copy the address or scan the QR code. Note the minimum deposit shown on that page.
4. Send a small test amount first, wait for the network confirmations, then send the rest. Your balance appears under Assets.

Copy Trading: How the Profit Share Works

Copy trading mirrors a lead trader’s orders in your account. Bitget’s fees FAQ says followers pay a profit share, typically 10% to 20% of realised profit, on top of normal trading fees and, for futures copies, funding fees. Each lead trader sets their own percentage, and it is charged only when a copied trade closes in profit.

Copied trade result	Profit share (15% example)	What you carry
Closes +200 USDT	30 USDT to the lead trader	170 USDT before trading fees
Closes -200 USDT	0 USDT	The full 200 USDT loss plus trading fees

The asymmetry is the point: the lead trader shares your gains but not your losses, so I would read a lead trader’s percentage and drawdown on their own page before following anyone, and start with an amount I could lose.

Who Bitget Is Best For, and Who Should Look Elsewhere

• Suits: traders outside the prohibited countries who want copy trading, a wide coin list and low spot fees through BGB.
• Think twice: anyone who wants futures covered by an Australian licence. ASIC’s alert is about exactly that product, and Trustpilot reviews describe frozen accounts and blocked withdrawals, so finish verification and test one withdrawal before moving large sums.
• Not available: residents of the countries on the Terms of Use list. If you are one of them, see our Bybit guide for another exchange and check that it accepts residents of your country first.

I would register, verify, move a small amount and test one withdrawal back out before using copy trading.

Frequently Asked Questions