Bitget: The Complete Guide

What is Bitget?

Bitget (Bitget is a major centralized crypto exchange founded in 2018, best known for copy/social trading, alongside spot, USDT-M and coin-M perpetual futures, Launchpad, an Earn yield suite, and the self-custody Bitget Wallet formerly known as BitKeep; it is not available to US persons, publishes monthly proof of reserves, and runs a Protection Fund) is a major centralized crypto exchange founded in 2018, best known for copy trading — letting users automatically mirror "elite traders" — alongside spot markets, USDT-margined and coin-margined perpetual futures, a Launchpad/Launchpool, an Earn yield suite, and the self-custody Bitget Wallet (formerly BitKeep). It ranks among the larger global exchanges by derivatives volume and has grown its user base aggressively through marketing partnerships. Bitget does not serve US persons. Last verified: 2026-06-19.

Bitget built its identity around social trading: where Bybit and Binance are derivatives- and breadth-first, Bitget's calling card is making it easy to discover, rank, and follow other traders and copy their positions automatically. Around that core it has assembled a full-stack platform — spot, perpetuals, a Launchpad for new-token launches, structured yield, and an on-chain Bitget Wallet. Its native token, BGB, powers fee discounts and ecosystem access, and underwent a large supply burn in late 2024.

Unlike Bybit, Bitget has no single defining hack in its history — its story in 2026 is one of scale, the BGB tokenomics overhaul, and the trust-building work of monthly proof of reserves and a Protection Fund. We cover all of it honestly below.

The Bitget short answer

1. Copy-trading-first CEX. Social/copy trading is the signature product; spot, USDT-M/coin-M perps, Launchpad, Earn, and Bitget Wallet round it out.
2. Founded 2018. A top-tier global exchange by volume — but not available to US persons.
3. BGB token with a real burn. ~40% of supply burned in Dec 2024 plus an ongoing quarterly buyback-burn — but BGB is volatile, not a safe bet.
4. Custodial, not self-custody. Monthly proof of reserves and a >US$300M Protection Fund help, but your funds are a claim on the exchange.
5. Copy trading ≠ passive safety. You inherit an elite trader's leverage and drawdowns; review drawdown history, not just headline returns.

Fees

Bitget's spot fees are 0.1% maker / 0.1% taker at the base tier — about 0.08% if you pay fees in BGB (a 20% discount) — while USDT-M perpetual futures run roughly 0.02% maker / 0.06% taker at the base tier, with VIP tiers cutting both substantially. Last verified: 2026-06-19.

Like most large exchanges, Bitget uses a maker/taker model with volume-based VIP tiers. Makers (who add liquidity with limit orders) pay less than takers (who remove it with market orders), and high-volume accounts pay far less than the base tier. Holding and paying fees with BGB adds a discount (about 20% on spot/margin). Derivatives fees are charged on notional position size, and leveraged perpetuals also incur a periodic funding rate paid between longs and shorts — for a held position that funding cost is often larger than the trade fee.

These are base VIP 0 rates (confirm the live taker rate — sources have quoted both 0.055% and 0.06% for the base USDT-M tier, and Bitget's own current schedule lists 0.06%); they fall with 30-day volume and BGB holdings, and can vary by region — confirm the live numbers in your account's fee view and on Bitget's official spot-fee page.

Worked example: fees on a $10,000 perp trade

Say you open a $10,000 notional USDT-M perpetual at 10× leverage (so $1,000 of margin) as a taker, then close it as a taker:

• Open fee: 0.06% × $10,000 = $6.00
• Close fee: 0.06% × $10,000 = $6.00
• Round-trip trade fee: $12.00 (paying fees in BGB cuts this ~20% to ≈$9.60).
• Funding: held across one funding window at, say, +0.01%, you (if long) pay 0.01% × $10,000 = $1.00 per window — and funding recurs every few hours, so a position held for a day can owe several times the trade fee.

The lesson the table can't show: on leverage, fees are charged on the full $10,000 notional, not your $1,000 margin — that round-trip is effectively 1.2% of your margin — and an adverse ~9–10% move on the underlying liquidates the position entirely. The per-trade fee is the smallest of your costs; funding and liquidation risk dominate.

Headline fee numbers change, and promotions or BGB discounts alter the effective rate. Always confirm the live fee schedule on bitget.com before trading, and remember that on leveraged products the funding rate and liquidation risk matter more than the per-trade fee. For a cross-exchange comparison, see our best centralized exchanges guide.

Products

Bitget spans copy/social trading, spot, USDT-M and coin-M perpetuals, a Launchpad/Launchpool, an Earn yield suite, and the self-custody Bitget Wallet — a copy-trading-first platform grown into a full-stack exchange. Last verified: 2026-06-19.

Copy trading (the signature feature)

Copy trading lets you automatically mirror selected "elite traders," allocating funds to follow their positions proportionally; elite traders earn a profit share (commonly around 8–10%, set per trader) on the gains they generate for followers. Bitget makes this central — discoverability, leaderboards, follower controls, and (as of 2026) experiments with AI-driven traders in a copy-trading arena. It lowers the skill barrier, but it does not remove risk: many elite traders run high leverage, past performance is not predictive of future results, headline returns hide deep drawdowns, and you bear the losses if a strategy blows up.

How the profit share actually works (worked example). Suppose you allocate $1,000 to an elite trader with a 10% profit share, and over a month they return +20% on your allocation:

• Gross gain: $1,000 × 20% = $200.
• Profit share to the trader: 10% × $200 = $20.
• Your net gain: $180 (18%), before Bitget's own trading fees, which are passed through on each copied trade.

Now the part the leaderboards hide: profit share is taken on up months but you eat 100% of the down months. If next month the same trader is −25%, you lose $250 — no rebate, no clawback of the prior fee. A trader who alternates +20% / −25% looks busy and "active" on the board while bleeding your capital, and high-leverage strategies routinely post exactly that kind of jagged equity curve.

Vet drawdown first, returns second. The biggest pitfall is selection by headline ROI: leaderboards rank on eye-catching cumulative or recent returns, which survivorship bias inflates (blown-up accounts drop off the board) and which a single lucky leveraged streak can manufacture. Before copying anyone, check: maximum drawdown (how deep did followers go underwater — a trader up 300% with an 80% max drawdown is a coin-flip, not a pro), track-record length and trade count (weeks of history is noise), leverage used and position concentration, and AUM/follower assets (very large copied size can move thin markets against the followers). Allocate only a small amount you can afford to lose, set your own stop/loss cap on the copy, and treat copy trading as leveraged exposure to a stranger's risk appetite — not a savings account.

Derivatives (USDT-M & coin-M perpetuals)

Bitget offers USDT-margined and coin-margined (inverse) perpetual futures with high leverage on major pairs. Perpetual futures are leveraged contracts with no expiry that track an asset's price via a funding mechanism. Leverage cuts both ways: a small adverse move can trigger liquidation, wiping out the position margin. New to perps? Start with our how to start trading perps guide and use small size. For non-custodial alternatives, see best perpetual DEXs.

Spot

Bitget's spot market covers hundreds of pairs — buy and sell crypto outright with no leverage and no funding rate. Spot is the right starting point for most users: simpler risk, no liquidation, a clean order book. Fiat access (card purchases, P2P, third-party on-ramps) is available regionally; confirm what's supported for your country.

Launchpad & Launchpool

Bitget runs Launchpad (token sales) and Launchpool (stake to earn new tokens) campaigns, often using BGB or other assets for access. These are promotional, high-variance opportunities — new tokens can spike and dump quickly. Treat any launch allocation as speculative.

Bitget Earn

Bitget Earn bundles yield products: flexible and fixed savings, dual-asset and structured products, and on-chain staking. Rates range from low single-digit APRs on stablecoins to high, volatile promotional yields. None are guaranteed — products carry counterparty, smart-contract, lockup, or price risk depending on type. For self-custody yield alternatives, see how to earn yield on stablecoins.

Bitget Wallet (formerly BitKeep) & on-chain

The Bitget Wallet — rebranded from BitKeep — is a self-custody (non-custodial) multi-chain wallet for swaps, DeFi, NFTs, and on-chain activity, separate from your custodial exchange balance. You control the private keys, so seed-phrase security is on you. It's a convenient bridge from the CEX into on-chain DeFi, but for large long-term holdings a dedicated hardware wallet is safer.

The BGB token

BGB (Bitget Token) is the exchange's utility token: fee discounts (about 20% off when paying fees in BGB), Launchpad/Launchpool access, and ecosystem perks. It trades around $1.76 today. Its defining event was a December 2024 burn of 800 million BGB — 40% of the original 2 billion supply — cutting it to 1.2 billion tokens. In 2025 Bitget moved to a quarterly buyback-and-burn: the Q1 2025 burn was about 30 million tokens and Q2 2025 about 30 million more (roughly US$138M at that quarter's average price). In April 2025 Bitget revised the model so the quarterly burn size is tied to on-chain BGB gas usage (via Bitget Wallet's GetGas accounts) rather than a flat profit cut, and it states the program continues until total supply reaches 100 million. Burns reduce supply, but they do not guarantee price appreciation — treat BGB as a separate, volatile crypto asset, not a safe investment or a reason on its own to use the exchange.

Security & proof of reserves

Bitget publishes monthly Merkle-tree proof of reserves (since December 2022) — reporting a 169% total reserve ratio in February 2026 — and runs a Protection Fund it commits to keeping above US$300M, which averaged about US$451M in March 2026 and exceeded US$511M in April 2026. Last verified: 2026-06-19.

Proof of reserves

Bitget publishes monthly proof-of-reserves reports using a Merkle-tree attestation of customer balances against on-chain reserve wallets, letting users verify their own balance is included. Reported total reserve ratios sit well above 100% — 169% in February 2026, then 154% in March and 130% in April 2026 — meaning platform-held assets exceed user balances across covered assets even as the ratio drifts with market conditions. (That drift is normal as user balances and asset prices move; what matters is staying comfortably above 100%, which it has.) Proof of reserves is a snapshot, not a real-time audit — it shows assets but not the full liability/leverage picture — so read it as one signal among several, and always check the latest report before depositing.

The Protection Fund

Beyond reserves, Bitget runs a Protection Fund — a reserve it commits to keeping above US$300M as a buffer for scenarios outside normal operations (security breaches, operational failures). It published a monthly valuation around US$451M in March 2026 and over US$511M in April 2026. A self-funded protection pool is a genuine cushion, but it is not government deposit insurance (there is no FDIC-style coverage for crypto) — it's a discretionary corporate fund.

The honest takeaway

Bitget has no single catastrophic hack in its history on the scale of, say, Bybit's February 2025 incident — but no CEX is risk-free. Custody means counterparty risk: your funds are a claim on the exchange, and proof of reserves plus a protection fund reduce, not eliminate, the chance of loss in a worst case. Verify the latest proof of reserves and keep long-term holdings in self-custody. Our best centralized exchanges guide compares CEX security track records.

Bitget referral code & sign-up bonus (2026)

Bitget's new-user rewards are applied through a referral link, not a single fixed public code. Open an account through our Bitget referral link and the referral is attached automatically, qualifying you for Bitget's current sign-up offer. We deliberately don't publish a fixed "code" or a guaranteed dollar figure — here's why, and exactly how it works. Last verified: 2026-06-19.

• What a referral does. It tags your new account to a referrer at sign-up. In return you become eligible for Bitget's welcome / sign-up rewards — typically deposit and first-trade incentives (bonus credits or fee vouchers). The exact amounts are set by Bitget's current promotion and change frequently, so treat any fixed "$X bonus" figure you see on other sites as marketing, not a guarantee — confirm the live offer on the rewards page after sign-up.
• Referral vs affiliate — the difference. A referral grants the new user the standard sign-up bonus. Bitget's separate, application-based affiliate program pays the partner a rebate (commission) on referred users' trading fees — up to roughly 50% on spot and futures fees at top tiers, plus on-chain rebates, assigned by an evaluated tier (it defaults to 0% until you meet monthly volume thresholds). Affiliate status doesn't change the new user's bonus; it changes what the referrer earns. If you're just signing up, the referral link is what you want.
• How to claim it. 1) Open the referral link. 2) Complete KYC. 3) Make a qualifying deposit and/or first trade within the promo window. 4) Check Bitget's rewards/Tasks hub for credited bonuses and their unlock conditions.
• Read the terms first. Bonus credits usually carry wagering/volume conditions and expiry — they're trading incentives, not free withdrawable cash. Never deposit more than your normal active-trading capital just to chase a bonus.

A referral bonus is a small kicker, not a reason to choose an exchange. Pick Bitget (or any CEX) on fees, liquidity, security and jurisdiction first — the referral is just the sign-up step.

Bitget vs Bybit vs Binance vs OKX

Bitget is the copy-trading specialist; Bybit leads on derivatives depth, Binance on breadth and liquidity, and OKX on a balanced product range with a strong on-chain wallet — none of the four serve US persons. Last verified: 2026-06-19.

The practical read: if copy trading is your reason for being on a CEX, Bitget is the most fully-built venue for it. If you mainly trade perpetuals, Bybit and Binance run deeper books. Confirm every fee number live — they change and vary by region and BGB/BNB discounts — and remember the table can't price in the thing that matters most in a crisis: solvency at the moment of stress. See best centralized exchanges for the full field, and best crypto trading bots if you'd rather automate a strategy than copy one.

Who Bitget is good for

• Copy-trading users who want to follow experienced traders automatically and are willing to vet drawdown history and start small.
• Active derivatives traders outside the US who want USDT-M/coin-M perps with deep liquidity and competitive fees.
• BGB / ecosystem participants who'll use fee discounts, Launchpad, and the Bitget Wallet — understanding BGB is a volatile asset.
• Multi-product users who want spot, perps, Earn, and an on-chain wallet under one login.

Who should skip it

• US persons. Bitget does not serve the US; there's no compliant way in.
• Beginners who want regulatory clarity and fiat rails — a US-regulated venue like Coinbase or Kraken fits better.
• Passive long-term holders who don't trade — a custodial exchange adds counterparty risk with no upside for buy-and-hold; self-custody instead.
• Anyone treating copy trading as a guaranteed return — it isn't.

Risks and what to avoid

A CEX is custodial — your funds are a claim on Bitget, not self-custody — and copy trading, leverage, BGB volatility, and US unavailability each add their own risk on top of counterparty and regulatory exposure. Last verified: 2026-06-19.

• Counterparty / custody risk. You don't hold the keys. Proof of reserves and the Protection Fund help, but solvency at the moment of crisis is what matters.
• Copy trading is not passive safety. You inherit an elite trader's leverage and drawdowns; headline returns hide risk, and past performance is not predictive.
• Leverage and liquidation. Perpetuals can liquidate your position on a small move, and funding costs accumulate. Size positions conservatively.
• BGB volatility. Fee discounts and burns don't make BGB a safe holding; it's a speculative exchange token that can fall sharply.
• Earn yields are not guaranteed. Lockups, smart-contract, and price risk vary by product; high promotional APRs usually mean high risk.
• Regulatory / regional risk. Bitget is unavailable to US persons and restricted elsewhere; rules change. Evading geo-blocks with a VPN can get funds frozen.
• Phishing. Fake Bitget sites and apps are common — always confirm the URL is bitget.com and set an anti-phishing code.

Safety checklist

1. Verify the URL is bitget.com — fake exchange sites are a top phishing vector.
2. Enable authenticator-app or passkey 2FA — never SMS (SIM-swap attacks are real).
3. Set a withdrawal-address whitelist with a cooldown on new addresses.
4. Check the latest proof of reserves before depositing meaningful amounts.
5. Keep only active-trading capital on Bitget; self-custody long-term holdings.
6. Start small — with spot or a tiny copy-trading allocation — before leverage, and confirm Bitget is legal where you live.

How to get started

Open the official site, complete KYC, lock down 2FA and a withdrawal whitelist, fund only active-trading capital, and start small with spot or a tiny copy-trading allocation before touching leverage. Last verified: 2026-06-19.

1. Confirm eligibility and open bitget.com. Verify the official domain and that Bitget is legal and available where you live — it does not serve US persons.
2. Create an account and complete KYC. Use a strong, unique password; complete identity verification to unlock withdrawals and most products.
3. Lock down security. Enable authenticator-app or passkey 2FA (never SMS), set an anti-phishing code, and configure a withdrawal-address whitelist.
4. Fund and start small. Deposit only what you'll actively trade. Begin with spot or a small copy-trading allocation before leverage or Earn.
5. Self-custody the rest. Withdraw long-term BTC/ETH to a hardware wallet; treat the exchange as working capital, not storage.

Glossary

• Copy (social) trading — automatically mirroring a selected "elite trader's" positions proportionally, in exchange for a profit-share fee on the gains.
• Profit share — the cut (often ~8–10%) an elite trader earns on the profit they generate for followers; charged on up months, not refunded on down months.
• Maximum drawdown — the deepest peak-to-trough loss a strategy has suffered; the single most important copy-trading metric, more telling than headline returns.
• Elite trader — Bitget's label for a leaderboard trader you can copy; ranking is largely return-driven and subject to survivorship bias.
• Perpetual future (perp) — a leveraged contract with no expiry that tracks an asset's price via a funding mechanism.
• USDT-M / coin-M — USDT-margined vs coin-margined (inverse) perpetuals; the collateral and P&L currency differ.
• Funding rate — periodic payment between longs and shorts that keeps a perp's price near spot; often the largest cost of a held position.
• Liquidation — forced closure of a leveraged position when margin runs out; you lose the position margin.
• Maker / taker — maker adds liquidity (limit order, lower fee); taker removes it (market order, higher fee).
• BGB (Bitget Token) — Bitget's utility token: ~20% fee discount when paying fees in it, Launchpad access, and a quarterly buyback-and-burn.
• Token burn — permanently removing tokens from supply; reduces supply but does not guarantee price appreciation.
• Proof of reserves (PoR) — Merkle-tree attestation that customer balances are backed by on-chain reserve wallets; a snapshot, not a real-time audit.
• Protection Fund — Bitget's self-funded reserve (committed above US$300M) buffering losses from events outside normal operations; not government deposit insurance.
• Bitget Wallet (formerly BitKeep) — Bitget's self-custody multi-chain wallet for swaps, DeFi, and NFTs, separate from the custodial exchange balance.

Looking ahead

Bitget's 2026 story is about converting copy-trading scale into durable trust. Its differentiator — making it trivially easy to follow other traders — is also its biggest responsibility: the honest framing of drawdown and profit-share mechanics matters more as AI-driven "traders" enter the copy arena and headline ROI gets easier to manufacture. Watch three signals: whether BGB's burn-down to 100M supply and the on-chain-gas-tied burn model translate into real utility rather than just price narrative; whether monthly proof of reserves stays comfortably above 100% (it drifted from 169% in February to 130% in April 2026) and the Protection Fund holds above its US$300M commitment; and how Bitget's regulatory posture evolves while continued US exclusion keeps it off-limits to American users. For broader context, see best centralized exchanges, best perpetual DEXs, how to start trading perps, and best crypto trading bots — and the Bybit guide if derivatives depth matters more to you than copy trading. The constant across every cycle: a CEX is custodial, so keep only what you're actively trading and self-custody the rest.

Final verdict

Bitget is a strong, full-stack exchange for non-US traders who want copy trading and a broad product range — backed by real transparency signals (monthly proof of reserves, a >US$300M Protection Fund) and a clean record free of any single catastrophic hack. Its signature copy trading genuinely lowers the skill barrier, but it transfers risk rather than removing it: you inherit an elite trader's leverage and drawdowns, and past performance never guarantees future results. The BGB token's 40% burn and quarterly buyback-burn are real, but BGB stays volatile — use it for fee discounts, not as a price thesis. If you're a US person or a beginner who values regulatory clarity, skip it for a regulated venue. If you're an active, non-US trader who'll use copy trading responsibly — vetting drawdown, starting small, self-custodying the rest — Bitget earns its place on the shortlist. For the full field, see best centralized exchanges; for non-custodial leverage, best perpetual DEXs and how to start trading perps; and to automate strategies, best crypto trading bots. The constant across every cycle: a CEX is custodial, so keep only what you're actively trading and self-custody the rest.