MEXC vs Bybit (2026): Fees, Funding, Order Books and Is MEXC Safe?

Описание: MEXC charges 0% on limit orders and 0.02% at market on BTC perps, Bybit 0.02% and 0.055%. Yet a $10,000 BTC long held 90 days cost $155.49 on MEXC and $141.03 on Bybit, because MEXC's funding ran higher.

Five rounds: fees, order books, funding, proof of reserves, and the EU. Final card: two rounds each, one draw.

Method
Public data pulled 6 Nov 2026, 05:04 to 05:10 UTC, from the MEXC contract API and the Bybit v5 API. Order books: the same $100,000 market buy and sell walked through both live books on 8 USDT perpetuals, 5 snapshots on MEXC and 4 on Bybit, averaged. Funding: every BTC, ETH and SOL funding print of the last 90 days (270 per exchange). Regular account fees, no VIP tier, no promos. We did not trade real money: this is a model on public data.

Results
Fees, 20 round trips of $10k BTC at market in a month: MEXC $80, Bybit $220.
Price moved by a $100k market order (basis points, average of buy and sell):
BTC: MEXC 0.1, Bybit 0.2
ETH: MEXC 0.1, Bybit 0.2
SOL: MEXC 0.6, Bybit 1.3
XRP: MEXC 0.4, Bybit 1.4
DOGE: MEXC 1.2, Bybit 2.6
SUI: MEXC 2.5, Bybit 4.7
LINK: MEXC 3.1, Bybit 5.5
WIF: MEXC 19.2, Bybit 17.4
MEXC was deeper on 7 of 8. $100k round trip on SUI with fees: MEXC $90.60, Bybit $204.40.
BTC funding, last 90 days: MEXC 1.515%, Bybit 1.300%. ETH 1.169% vs 1.050%. SOL 1.058% vs 0.758%.
$10k BTC long held 90 days, all in: MEXC $155.49, Bybit $141.03. Break-even: about 3.1 round trips per quarter.
Proof of reserves (both audited by Hacken): MEXC August 2026 BTC 288%, ETH 113%, USDT 115%, USDC 114%, user BTC 4,282. Bybit (balances 27 Oct 2026) BTC 102%, ETH 101%, USDT 112%, USDC 405%, user BTC 57,373.
ESMA interim MiCA register (397 entries, downloaded 6 Nov 2026): Bybit EU GmbH, authorised in Austria 28 May 2025. No MEXC entry.

Chapters
0:00 MEXC or Bybit? Five rounds
0:21 Round 1: fees
0:48 Round 2: order books
1:15 $100k round trip on SUI
1:28 Round 3: funding
1:44 Holding a long for 90 days
1:54 The break-even
2:09 Round 4: is MEXC safe?
2:32 Bitcoin held for users
2:57 Round 5: Europe and MiCA
3:24 Final scorecard

Sources (checked 6 Nov 2026 unless noted)
MEXC public contract API (contract.mexc.com): fees per symbol, order books, funding history, contract list (1,085 USDT perpetuals)
Bybit public v5 API (api.bybit.com): order books, funding history, instruments (819 USDT perpetuals)
Bybit futures fee page (bybit.com/en/fee/futures), checked 22 Oct 2026: non-VIP 0.02% maker, 0.055% taker
Bybit 41st proof-of-reserves report, PR Newswire, 3 Nov 2026 (balances 27 Oct 2026, Hacken)
MEXC August 2026 proof-of-reserves report, Chainwire, 14 Aug 2026 (Hacken)
FBI public service announcement I-022625-PSA, 26 Feb 2025: about $1.5 billion stolen from Bybit, attributed to North Korea (TraderTraitor)
ESMA interim MiCA register of crypto-asset service providers (CASPS.csv)
Finance Magnates, 25 Aug 2026: MEXC to stop serving customers in the Netherlands by 16 Nov 2026, recommends Bybit EU

Bybit EU's product list is not the same as Bybit's global app. Check what is offered in your country. Fees, funding and order books change every minute. Not financial advice.

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