Bitget first became known for copy trading before gradually expanding its model. In 2026, the company no longer wants to be presented solely as a crypto exchange. It uses the term Universal Exchange, or UEX, with the ambition of bringing cryptocurrencies, tokenized assets and traditional finance products together within a single infrastructure.
This expansion should not obscure what Bitget is, legally and technically, for its users: an intermediary. When crypto assets are held on the exchange, Bitget controls the custody infrastructure. This is fundamentally different from a non-custodial wallet, where users directly control their keys.
Fees, security, proof of reserves, BGB, copy trading, regulation and country-based access: here is what you really need to understand before using Bitget.
Bitget is first and foremost a centralized crypto exchange
To understand Bitget, you first need to understand how a CEX works. Our guide to how a centralized crypto exchange works and how it differs from a DEX explores this distinction in greater detail.
A centralized exchange primarily acts as a marketplace.
One user may hold euros, dollars, USDT or other assets. Another may want to buy or sell Bitcoin. Bitget provides the infrastructure needed to match these transactions, maintain an order book and execute trades.
Think of it as a digital market operating 24 hours a day.
Sellers offer BTC at different prices. Buyers indicate how much they are willing to pay. Bitget’s engine matches the orders.
That is the principle behind spot trading.
Bitget is therefore different from Bitcoin itself. Bitcoin is a decentralized network. Bitget is a company that builds services around Bitcoin and other assets.
The distinction may seem basic, but it prevents a common misunderstanding.
Buying BTC on Bitget does not mean Bitget controls Bitcoin.
The platform does control the account from which its user buys and sells for as long as the funds remain within its system.
Bitget launched in 2018 and now says it has 120 million registered users. CoinGecko currently gives it a Trust Score of 10/10 and ranks it among the leading centralized exchanges covered by its rankings. The score takes into account factors including liquidity, trading volumes, cybersecurity and the availability of reserve information. It is obviously not a guarantee against bankruptcy or future losses.
Buying crypto remains its simplest function
Bitget’s most basic use does not require any sophisticated product.
The user creates an account, completes the required checks, funds the account using the methods available in their country and then buys a cryptocurrency.
Take 100 USDT.
On the BTC/USDT market, the user can exchange part of those 100 USDT for a fraction of Bitcoin.
There is no need to buy one entire BTC.
The same applies to Ethereum, Solana and other assets available on the platform.
Two order types are enough to understand the basics.
A market order seeks to buy or sell immediately at the best price available in the order book. Its priority is execution.
A limit order, by contrast, lets the user set a price. If Bitcoin is trading at 80,000 dollars and a user only wants to buy at 78,000 dollars, they can place a limit around that level. The order will remain pending until the conditions are met.
Bitget also offers Convert, which further simplifies swapping between two assets by sparing beginners from having to work directly with the order book.
That simplicity should not hide the differences in cost.
A market order may experience slippage when liquidity is low. A Convert product may include a spread between the quoted prices. A bank card may have a different fee structure from a standard deposit.
The platform is therefore easy to use.
Understanding the price actually paid requires a little more attention.
That applies to Bitget, as it does to practically every exchange.
Spot fees start at 0.1%
Bitget currently applies a standard spot fee of 0.1% for makers and 0.1% for takers.
The terminology may sound technical.
It is fairly straightforward.
A maker generally places an order that is not executed immediately and therefore adds liquidity to the order book.
A taker accepts an offer already available and removes that liquidity.
On Bitget, the base spot rate is the same for both at 0.1%. The platform also says that paying fees in BGB can reduce the standard rate to 0.08%, before any benefits linked to VIP tiers.
On a 1,000 USDT spot purchase, 0.1% represents 1 USDT in trading fees.
That may seem small.
However, traders who make numerous transactions must add up both purchases and sales.
Withdrawals also need to be considered.
Sending Bitcoin, Ether or a stablecoin to an external wallet incurs fees that depend in particular on the asset and the network. They are separate from trading commissions.
Futures use another fee schedule: Bitget currently lists 0.02% for makers and 0.06% for takers at standard rates. Perpetual contracts may also involve funding rates paid periodically between traders.
The figure “0.06%” should therefore never be interpreted as the total cost of a futures strategy held for several weeks.
Transaction fees, funding and potentially interest all add up.
This is precisely where Bitget becomes much more complex than spot trading.
Futures are powerful and much riskier
Bitget has grown substantially through derivatives products.
A future provides exposure to an asset’s price without functioning like a simple spot purchase.
A trader can open a long position if they expect prices to rise.
They can open a short position if they expect prices to fall.
Then there is leverage.
This is where the risk changes scale.
With 1,000 USDT and 10x leverage, a position can gain theoretical exposure far greater than the initial capital. A relatively small rise can then produce an amplified gain.
A relatively small decline produces exactly the opposite effect.
If the collateral becomes insufficient, the position is liquidated.
The trader does not need to click “sell” voluntarily. The risk engine can close the position to prevent losses from continuing to grow.
A user who simply wants to buy Bitcoin may therefore encounter two products with almost the same name:
BTC/USDT spot.
BTCUSDT perpetual futures.
Both track Bitcoin.
They do not carry anything like the same level of risk.
Our complete crypto ecosystem glossary helps distinguish futures, CFDs, liquidation, margin and other terms displayed in Bitget’s interface.
Beginners have no obligation to use derivatives.
They can create an account, buy Bitcoin on the spot market and never open a leveraged position.
This is an important distinction when someone simply asks how to use Bitget.
Using Bitget and trading futures are not synonymous.
Copy trading built part of Bitget’s reputation
Copy trading is probably the feature most closely associated with Bitget’s historical identity.
The principle seems almost self-explanatory.
A trader publishes their performance and strategy on the platform. Other users can choose to follow them. When the trader opens certain positions, those positions are automatically replicated in their followers’ accounts according to the defined settings.
This removes the need to place every order manually.
And that is precisely what can create a false impression of ease.
Copying a trader does not mean copying only their gains.
Losses are copied too.
Bitget does allow users to set several parameters, including the capital allocated to a trader, take-profit levels, stop losses and copy limits. Its “smart copy” function notably calculates exposure based on a proportion of the funds allocated to the followed trader.
Copy trading also has an economic dimension.
Bitget says that users copying certain traders may generally share 10% to 20% of realized profits with them, in addition to trading fees and, in the case of futures, any applicable funding rates.
A trader showing an historical performance of +80% may therefore look attractive.
But there is more to examine.
How long have they been trading?
What was their maximum drawdown?
Do they use leverage?
How many positions are open at the same time?
Does the performance come from an exceptional bull market?
Bitget automates the replication of orders.
It does not automate the skill of the trader being followed.
That distinction is worth understanding before clicking “Copy.”
Bitget also offers bots, Earn and automated products
The ecosystem no longer stops at manual trading.
Bitget offers bots that automate certain strategies, including buying and selling grids.
A grid bot, for example, can be configured to buy progressively as an asset falls within a range and then sell in stages as it rises.
The bot works day and night.
It is not afraid.
Nor does it possess magical intelligence capable of predicting the market.
It follows the rules.
If the rules become unsuitable because market conditions change, automation may simply make it more efficient to repeat the mistake.
In 2026, Bitget also launched Bot Copy Trading, allowing users to replicate automated strategies offered by other traders.
Alongside trading, there are various products grouped under labels such as Earn.
The principle generally involves depositing certain assets to earn a return.
You should always ask where that return comes from.
Staking?
Lending?
Promotional campaign?
Token distribution?
Structured product?
The risks differ.
A stablecoin earning 4% and an obscure token promising 60% APY should not be compared solely on the basis of the advertised yield.
Bitget may provide the interface for these products.
The platform does not eliminate the risk of the underlying asset.
In other words, the further users move away from spot purchases, the more they need to understand what they are actually doing.
The app may look the same.
The financial product behind the button may have changed completely.
BGB is the token linked to the Bitget ecosystem
Bitget also has its own crypto asset: BGB, short for Bitget Token.
BGB launched as a utility token associated with the platform. It can provide certain benefits, including fee discounts and access to various ecosystem products or campaigns.
Its role has nevertheless evolved considerably.
In September 2025, Bitget announced a partnership with the Morph blockchain. The Morph Foundation is to take responsibility for part of BGB’s development, while the token is used as a gas and governance asset on Morph. Bitget had planned to transfer 440 million BGB held by its team to the foundation.
The token is therefore now broader than a simple discount coupon internal to the exchange.
This certainly does not mean that holding BGB is equivalent to owning shares in Bitget.
It is not an ownership stake in the company.
Its price depends on the crypto market, demand, supply, its uses and expectations surrounding the ecosystem.
Users can easily use Bitget without building their portfolio around BGB.
The fee discount should also be weighed against the risk of holding an additional token.
Saving a few dollars in commissions is not necessarily worthwhile if a user buys far more BGB than needed and the token loses significant value.
Exchange tokens often have an economy closely tied to the activity of their ecosystem.
That can be a strength when the platform grows.
It also creates an additional concentration of risk.
Bitget Wallet is not the same as the exchange
A common question is whether Bitget and Bitget Wallet are exactly the same thing.
No.
They belong to the same brand ecosystem, but their custody models differ.
On the Bitget exchange, the centralized platform holds the assets deposited in the account.
Bitget Wallet, by contrast, is presented as a self-custodial, or non-custodial, wallet.
The user controls their assets through their own wallet.
The current version of Bitget Wallet supports more than 130 blockchains and over one million crypto assets and tokenized assets. It integrates swaps, payments, stablecoins and access to on-chain markets.
BrefCrypto has already published a guide to using Bitget Wallet and the difference made by non-custodial custody.
This difference matters far more than the logo.
Suppose 0.1 BTC is displayed in an exchange account.
The user depends on the exchange to process the withdrawal.
If they withdraw the BTC to a wallet whose keys they truly control, they then become responsible for securing those keys.
The first model creates counterparty risk.
The second creates a much greater degree of personal responsibility.
Neither is perfect.
Losing a seed phrase can be catastrophic.
Leaving all assets on a centralized platform creates dependence on that company.
Understanding Bitget therefore requires separating these two worlds: Bitget Exchange is centralized; Bitget Wallet is designed for self-custody.
Reserves stood at 135% in September 2026
Since FTX collapsed in 2022, the same question has regularly arisen for every exchange: do the assets shown in users’ accounts actually exist in reserve?
Bitget launched its Proof of Reserves system in December 2022.
The platform has published monthly updates ever since.
The 46th publication, dated September 17, 2026, shows an overall reserve ratio of 135% and expands the system to 19 assets. According to the data Bitget published through this proof system, the reserves covered exceed the corresponding customer holdings by the stated ratio.
Users can also verify whether their own assets are included through a system based on a Merkle tree.
That is useful.
It is not the same as a public deposit guarantee.
A Proof of Reserves provides visibility into certain assets held and enables cryptographic verification. It should not, on its own, be interpreted as a comprehensive analysis of a company’s entire financial balance sheet, all of its debts, legal obligations or governance quality.
That is an important distinction.
Saying “reserves stand at 135%” is informative.
Saying “Bitget therefore cannot encounter financial problems” would go far too far.
For context, CoinGecko also displays the exchange’s reserve data and currently gives it its maximum Trust Score of 10/10.
Both pieces of information improve transparency.
Neither makes a CEX equivalent to a risk-free, guaranteed account.
The protection fund exceeded 380 million dollars
Bitget adds a second mechanism: its Protection Fund.
The fund has existed since 2022, and the platform commits to keeping its valuation above 300 million dollars.
In August 2026, its average value reached 382 million dollars. It fell to around 345 million at the beginning of the month and reached a peak above 441 million dollars on August 27. Bitget says the fund is based in part on approximately 5,500 BTC.
The variation is instructive.
Because a significant portion of the fund is denominated in Bitcoin, its dollar value rises when BTC increases and may fall when Bitcoin declines.
The figure is therefore not fixed.
It is also important not to automatically equate the fund with a public banking guarantee scheme.
An internal fund created by an exchange operates under its own terms. A national deposit-guarantee scheme rests on an entirely different legal structure.
This distinction applies to every exchange that highlights protection funds.
The fund provides an additional cushion.
It does not turn the platform into a central bank.
This distinction is one reason why problems faced by other crypto intermediaries remain worth studying. BrefCrypto recently analyzed the Zondacrypto case, in which thousands of complaints and the alleged loss of access to a cold wallet brought custody risk back to the center of the debate.
A CEX may publish more technical safeguards than a competitor.
Counterparty risk never reaches zero as long as a company holds the keys on behalf of its customers.
The European regulatory situation remains unusual
This is probably the most important section for a European reader in September 2026.
Bitget has not yet announced that it has obtained its final MiCA authorization in the European Union.
Bitget EU submitted an application to operate as a crypto-asset service provider to the Austrian FMA. In its July 2, 2026 update, the company stated that European services would be offered once authorization had been obtained and regulatory procedures finalized.
The situation in France is even more specific.
Bitget was placed on the AMF blacklist from November 2023 for providing certain services without the registration required at the time. The AMF now states that www.bitget.com was removed from this blacklist on July 9, 2026.
Being removed from a blacklist does not, however, mean receiving MiCA authorization.
In the meantime, Bitget had suspended its services for French residents.
New registrations from France had stopped as early as January 16, 2026. The platform then announced that it would end its services in France from March 31, 2026, covering spot trading, derivatives, P2P, Earn and copy trading.
Bitget said it wanted to return after obtaining and passporting its future MiCA authorization.
European compliance has become a genuine dividing line in the industry, as our analysis of how MiCA is reshaping the European crypto market shows.
For users, the rule is therefore simple: never assume that an app is legally available in your country simply because it opens on your phone.
Check the legal entity and the license applicable to your place of residence.
Bitget wants to become much more than a crypto exchange
Bitget’s recent evolution is probably the most interesting part of its story.
The company now talks about a Universal Exchange, or UEX.
The idea is to move beyond the traditional CEX model, limited to BTC/USDT, ETH/USDT and other cryptocurrency pairs.
The platform is developing an environment combining native crypto, on-chain assets and exposure to certain products from traditional markets. Bitget highlights tokenized stocks, ETFs, gold, commodities and various trading instruments, depending on the products and jurisdictions available.
This convergence says something broader about the sector’s evolution.
The first crypto exchanges were mainly places where people exchanged Bitcoin for dollars.
Then came altcoins.
Futures.
Staking.
Stablecoins.
DeFi.
Tokenized stocks.
Eventually, users may no longer think in such rigid categories.
They could open a single interface and move from Bitcoin to a stablecoin, then to a tokenized representation of a traditional financial asset.
Bitget is clearly betting on this direction.
But these products do not all have the same legal nature.
An actual share held through a broker, a token representing a share and a CFD tracking a share’s price are three different things.
The chart may look the same.
The rights are very different.
That is why the move toward a UEX model makes education even more important.
The more universal a platform becomes, the more users need to know exactly what they are buying.
Bitget is neither a Bitcoin wallet nor a bank
At this point, the definition can be summarized much more precisely.
Bitget is not a blockchain.
It is not Bitcoin.
Nor is it simply a wallet.
And although several of its functions resemble those of a financial app, it is not automatically a bank with the protections associated with bank deposits.
Bitget is above all a centralized crypto intermediary.
It provides liquidity, order books, trading tools, centralized custody, copy trading and various financial products.
For beginners, its simplest functions remain buying, selling and converting crypto assets.
For more experienced traders, futures, bots, margin and copy trading provide additional tools.
Additional complexity does not necessarily mean a better strategy.
A user can perfectly well use Bitget solely as an on-ramp before transferring their assets to a personal wallet.
Another user may prefer to leave their crypto on the platform for operational simplicity.
A third may trade actively.
All three use the same Bitget.
They do not take the same risks.
That is why custody and jurisdiction matter far more than the app’s appearance.
From the DRC or another market where the crypto framework is still developing, users should also check local rules, the actual availability of services and, above all, deposit and withdrawal options. Our guide to using crypto in the DRC, including mobile money, banks, stablecoins and security, details these constraints.
The world’s best exchange becomes of limited use if money can enter easily but cannot be withdrawn easily to the payment method the user actually needs.
So what is Bitget really used for?
In its simplest form, Bitget is used to buy, sell and exchange cryptocurrencies.
That is already its primary function.
Everything else has been built around it.
Traders have access to futures and margin.
Beginners can use Convert.
Users who want to follow other traders can use copy trading.
Bots automate certain strategies.
BGB connects part of the ecosystem and now has a broader role on Morph.
Bitget Wallet provides access to self-custody and Web3 applications.
Proof of Reserves seeks to provide greater visibility into the assets held by the exchange.
The Protection Fund adds an additional financial cushion.
Then the UEX model pushes Bitget toward tokenized assets and markets that now go well beyond crypto alone.
The breadth of the offering is impressive.
That breadth is also its main challenge.
A beginner who only wanted to buy 50 euros worth of Bitcoin can quickly find themselves facing futures, leverage, bots, Earn, copy trading, BGB and dozens of promotional campaigns.
None of these features is necessary to own Bitcoin.
That may be the most important point to understand.
A platform can offer one hundred tools.
The number of tools used does not measure the quality of an investment.
For anyone discovering Bitget, starting with spot trading, fees, withdrawals and account security is already enough. The rest can come gradually.
And if the goal is simply to buy Bitcoin for the long term, our complete guide to Bitcoin returns to the asset itself rather than the products offered by exchanges.
Bitget then remains what it really is: infrastructure providing access to the market, not the market itself.
