Gate.io Exchange (Now Gate): What It Is, Fees, Safety and Who Can Use It in 2026

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What is the Gate.io exchange?

A crypto exchange is a platform where you buy, sell and hold cryptocurrency. Gate, formerly Gate.io, is a centralized exchange. A company runs it and holds the coins in your account in its own wallets.

Gate was founded in 2013 by Dr. Han (Gate reserve report, August 2026). In May 2025 it adopted the domain gate.com and a new logo (Gate announcement, May 2025). Gate.io and Gate are the same exchange.

Gate’s own user counts vary, from over 23 million in that announcement to over 60 million on its About Us page (Gate About Us, checked 21 September 2026). Treat them as Gate’s claims.

Many trading pairs on Gate are priced in USDT (Tether), a stablecoin, which is a coin designed to stay at 1 US dollar. The table further down explains Gate’s main products.

Where is Gate.io from, and who runs it?

Gate’s About Us page names its founder, Dr. Han, and its founding year, 2013, but not a home country. It says Gate Group holds licences and registrations in Dubai, Malta, the EU, Australia, Italy and The Bahamas (Gate About Us). The same page says Gate is not registered in the Cayman Islands.

Gate’s regional companies include:

• Gate Technology FZE in Dubai, which holds a full operational licence from VARA, Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (Gate announcement, May 2025).
• Gate Technology Limited in Malta, licensed as a crypto-asset service provider (CASP) on 29 September 2025. The licence falls under MiCA, the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets rules (Gate Learn: MiCA licence, July 2026, checked 21 September 2026).
• Gate US, Inc., incorporated in the United States in 2020, which runs a separate US platform (Gate US, checked 21 September 2026).
• Coin Master, a licensed Japanese exchange that a Gate Group company bought in 2024 (Gate announcement, May 2025).

Is Gate.io a Chinese company? The Gate pages we checked don’t give it a nationality. Mainland China is on its list of Restricted Locations, so the global platform doesn’t serve users there.

This video uses Gate’s 19 August 2026 reserve figures. The safety section below adds the newer 13 September snapshot.

Gate products at a glance

Gate’s products cover trading, earning and on-chain tools. This table gives each one in a line, with its main risk. Alpha, trading bots and Launchpool have their own sections below.

Liquidation means Gate force-closes your position because your margin, the money backing it, can’t cover the losses. Gate’s futures guide says the lower your margin ratio, the higher the risk, and liquidation starts when it falls to 100% or less. You then lose the money in that position (Gate Learn: futures tutorial). If you are new, start with spot or Convert. Skip futures and copy trading until you understand leverage and liquidation.

Gate.io fees: spot, GT discount, Alpha and futures

Gate’s standard spot fee is 0.1% for makers and takers at VIP0, the base level. With GT it is 0.09% (Gate fee page, checked 21 September 2026). A maker places an order that waits in the order book. A taker fills an order that is already there.

Fees fall at higher VIP levels, which you reach by trading more or holding more GT (Gate spot fee guide, December 2024). Regular users can reach VIP 14 at most (Gate fee page). For deposits and withdrawals, check the fee shown for your coin and network before you confirm.

Is Gate.io safe? Proof of Reserves and security

Gate publishes Proof of Reserves reports, and its latest one shows more assets than user balances. Proof of Reserves (PoR) is a report that compares the coins an exchange holds with the coins its users have deposited. The reserve ratio sums it up: 117% means 117 dollars held for every 100 dollars users hold.

Sources: Gate Proof of Reserves, checked 21 September 2026, and Gate’s August report. Total reserves stayed about the same between the two snapshots. User balances rose from 6.46 to 7.01 billion dollars, so the ratio fell from 127% to 117%. In September, Gate listed 25,466 BTC held against 21,166 BTC of user balances, and 433,589 ETH against 350,840.

Gate builds its PoR with a Merkle tree and zk-SNARKs. The Merkle tree lets you check that your own balance is included in the snapshot. A zk-SNARK is a cryptographic proof that the totals add up without showing any user’s data (Gate Security, checked September 2026). The PoR page names Hacken as its audit firm, with an audit time of 3 January 2024.

Gate lists other protections too:

• Cold storage. Most funds sit in offline, multi-signature wallets, which need several keys to approve a transfer (Gate Security).
• SAFU fund. This reserve fund is paid for from trading fee revenue. Gate says it backs user redemptions in extreme markets (Gate About Us).
• Withdrawal pause. Changing your password, email, phone or authenticator pauses withdrawals and P2P trading for 24 hours (Gate account security guide, February 2020).

Is Gate a reputable exchange? That is partly opinion, but some facts are checkable. It has run since 2013, publishes reserve snapshots and has licensed regional companies. Still, PoR is a one-day snapshot published by Gate itself. The SAFU fund is Gate’s own reserve, not government deposit insurance. Keep only money you can afford to lose on any single exchange.

This video also uses the 19 August 2026 figures shown in the second row above.

Can you use Gate.io in the USA, UK or EU?

Not in the US or the UK, and not in six EU countries: all of them are on Gate’s list of Restricted Locations. US residents and EU residents have separate Gate services instead. Check the live list before you sign up.

United States. Gate US, Inc. offers buying, spot trading, Convert and staking. It is registered with FinCEN, the US Treasury’s financial crimes office, as a money services business. It holds money transmitter licences, which US firms need to move customers’ money, in 37 US jurisdictions. It doesn’t operate in Alaska, Louisiana, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Washington or the US Virgin Islands (Gate US; Gate US licences, checked 21 September 2026).

European Union. Clause 2.5 names only these six EU countries. Gate may send other EU residents to its EU service, Gate Technology Limited, so follow what the sign-up page shows. Its MiCA licence covers spot trading, custody, exchange and transfers. It doesn’t cover leveraged contracts, staking or Earn unless Gate lists them (Gate Learn: MiCA licence).

Our code and sign-up link are meant for Gate’s global platform. We have not checked whether they work on Gate US or on Gate’s EU service.

Do you need KYC to use Gate?

Yes. KYC (Know Your Customer) is the identity check an exchange runs before you can move money. Gate requires it before you deposit crypto, withdraw, trade with fiat money (such as dollars) or join Launchpool (Gate KYC guide, April 2020).

• Document: a valid government-issued passport, driver’s licence or ID card.
• Photos: of the physical document. Gate doesn’t accept copies, scans, screenshots or edited images.
• Age: you must be at least 18 (Gate User Agreement, clause 2.1).
• Face scan: the Rewards Hub identity task also asks for face verification (Gate Rewards Hub, checked 21 September 2026).

So can you trade on Gate without KYC? No. Without verification you can’t deposit or withdraw, so you have nothing to trade with.

What is Gate Alpha?

Gate Alpha is a section of the Gate app for buying early on-chain tokens, such as new meme coins. You pay with USDT from your Gate account. On-chain tokens live on a public blockchain and trade on decentralized exchanges (DEXs), not on Gate’s order book. With Alpha, you don’t need a separate wallet to buy them (Gate Alpha FAQ, May 2025).

• Former name: MemeBox, renamed Alpha in May 2025.
• Routing: Gate mainly uses outside DEX aggregators, such as Jupiter, 1inch and Li.fi, to find the on-chain price. These are tools that compare prices across many DEXs.
• Cost: 0.8% per trade at VIP0, well above the spot fee (Gate fee page).
• Order size: usually about 5 dollars minimum and 10,000 dollars maximum.
• Risk scans: the token risk checks come from outside services such as GoPlus and QuickIntel.

A risk scan is a warning tool, not a promise that a token is safe. Only buy amounts you could lose in full.

How do Gate trading bots work?

A trading bot places buy and sell orders for you by rules you set in advance. Two bot types Gate explains for beginners are Spot Grid bots and DCA bots (Gate Learn: trading bots, September 2026).

• Spot Grid works inside a price band you choose. It places buy orders below the current price and sell orders above it. Gate says it pairs orders only when the expected profit exceeds fees.
• Arithmetic or geometric grid. An arithmetic grid spaces orders by equal price steps, and a geometric grid by equal percentage steps.
• DCA bots and Auto Invest use dollar-cost averaging (DCA): they buy a fixed amount on a schedule, whatever the price.

If the price falls below the band, the bot can end up holding coins worth less than you paid. Gate’s reward tasks don’t count futures volume made with bots, API trading, automated strategies or Futures Vouchers (Rewards Hub FAQ, November 2024).

Gate Launchpool: stake coins, earn new tokens

Gate Launchpool lets you stake coins you already hold to earn hourly airdrops of new tokens. Staking here means putting coins into a pool, and an airdrop is a token payout to eligible users (Gate Launchpool FAQ, June 2024). Pools have accepted GT, BTC, ETH, USDT and GUSD, a dollar token Gate counts among its stablecoins.

• Hourly rewards. Gate snapshots your staked amount several times an hour and pays rewards into your spot account.
• Simple Earn by default. When a project ends or you redeem early, your coins move to Simple Earn. You can untick that option. Coins sent to the 7-day fixed term are locked for 7 days.
• VIP still counts. Staked coins still count toward your VIP level.

Both the new token and the coin you stake can fall in price.

Gate anti-phishing code and other security settings

An anti-phishing code is a word you choose that Gate then shows in its genuine emails about your account. If an email claims to be from Gate but lacks your code, treat it as fake (Gate security measures, June 2024). Phishing means fake emails or websites built to steal your login.

Set these up before your first deposit:

1. Anti-phishing code. Gate’s 2021 guide puts it under Security verification, then Password Management (Gate security zone, September 2021). Menu names may have changed, so look in your account’s security settings.
2. 2FA. Two-factor authentication asks for a second code from an authenticator app. Gate supports Gate Authenticator or Google Authenticator, one at a time (Gate help, November 2025).
3. Fund password. This separate password confirms trades and withdrawals (Gate security measures).
4. Official verification. Gate’s Verification Search, at the bottom of its website, checks whether a domain, email, phone number or Telegram account is Gate’s.

Gate.io pros and cons

Gate suits people outside its restricted list who want many products in one account. It doesn’t suit anyone in a Restricted Location.

Does Gate give new users a welcome bonus?

Yes. Gate’s Welcome Package pays up to 135 USDT in vouchers for finishing all beginner tasks (Gate Rewards Hub). A voucher is a credit for a set use, such as a trading fee rebate (Rewards Hub FAQ, November 2024).

Sources: Gate sign-up page, checked 21 September 2026, and the Rewards Hub. These are vouchers, not cash. The Gate pages we checked don’t say they can be withdrawn, so read each voucher’s terms in the Rewards Hub before you use it.

• 15-day window. Finish the beginner tasks within 15 days of sign-up, and claim each reward yourself in the Rewards Hub.
• Retail users only. Institutional, API and affiliate accounts are excluded, and so are sub-accounts (secondary accounts under a main account).
• One person, one new-user reward. If you close an account and sign up again, you don’t count as a new user. A November 2024 Gate FAQ adds that accounts with the same identity details count as one account.
• One event at a time. The same FAQ says joining another campaign during the beginner period forfeits the beginner rewards. If you also plan to join a referral event, check this rule in the Rewards Hub first.

Gate’s ads say new users can claim “10,000+ USDT”. On the Rewards Hub, the advanced deposit and trading challenges pay up to 10,000 USDT within 15 days, after a 3-day review. “Up to” is a ceiling, so plan around the tasks you will really complete.

A November 2024 Gate FAQ says you must keep your deposit and trading volume during that review. Trades between stablecoins, such as USDC to USDT, don’t count toward Rewards Hub volume. Check what form each challenge reward takes before you deposit for it.

The Welcome Package is Gate’s own program. Its rules don’t mention a referral code, so a code doesn’t create it.

How to sign up on Gate with code LAVALAVA

Our Gate referral code is LAVALAVA. It records YODA COIN as your referrer. Gate pays referrers a share of their friends’ trading fees, up to 40% under its Super Commission program (Gate referral page).

1. Check your location against the table above.
2. Use the official site or app. Type gate.com yourself, or get the app through gate.com or an official app store. Gate warns against third-party download channels (Gate app guide, September 2021).
3. Start the sign-up. Choose your country or region of residence, accept the User Agreement, and use an email address or mobile number (Gate registration guide, September 2021).
4. Add the code. Before you finish, enter LAVALAVA in the optional referral code box if the form shows one. Our Gate sign-up link carries the code for you.
5. Verify and secure. Enter the code Gate sends you and set a strong password. Then complete identity and face verification, turn on 2FA and set an anti-phishing code.

What the code does and doesn’t do:

• One referral per account. Gate says each user can only sign up through one referral method (Gate Super Rebate page, September 2026).
• Add it at sign-up. We found no Gate page that explains adding a referral code to an exchange account later, so enter it while you register.
• No promised fee rebate. LAVALAVA doesn’t change Gate’s fee rates, and we don’t promise any rebate.
• Gate’s referral event has its own rules. We can’t confirm that sign-ups through LAVALAVA qualify for it, so do not count on it. In Gate’s Earn Voucher event, an invited friend can get up to 100 USDT in token vouchers, and the inviter up to 200 USDT. They must pass identity verification, deposit and hold funds for at least 2 hours, and finish trading tasks.
• Its payout has conditions. Gate doesn’t pay it if the inviter or the invitee is a Gate Affiliate. It also can’t be combined with Referral Commission. Residents of Belgium, the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Turkey, Austria, South Korea and other restricted regions are excluded. Debit and credit card deposits don’t count, and Gate puts Google Pay, Apple Pay, SEPA, PIX and bank transfer in that group. GateCode transfers (codes that move funds between Gate accounts) and Gift Coins don’t count either. Gate reviews claims and pays into Vouchers within 14 working days, and the token vouchers must be activated within 14 days of being credited (Gate referral page). We do not promise that signing up with LAVALAVA qualifies you for it.

What to do next

1. Check Gate’s list of Restricted Locations, then sign up at gate.com or in the official app. Enter LAVALAVA in the optional referral code box if you want to support us.
2. Complete identity and face verification, then turn on 2FA, set a fund password and add an anti-phishing code.
3. Start with spot or Convert and a small test deposit on the correct network. Leave futures alone until you understand leverage and liquidation.

More Gate.io exchange videos

Short answers from the same video series. Video titles are written for YouTube search, so go by the sections above for the exact rules.

Gate.io exchange explained (short)Where is Gate.io from (short)Gate.io Proof of Reserves (short)

Frequently asked questions

Every Gate rule and number in this guide comes from Gate’s own pages, linked where it appears. The fees, Proof of Reserves figures, Welcome Package, referral rules and restricted list were re-checked on Gate’s site on 21 September 2026.

Crypto prices move fast and you can lose money. This guide is for education, not financial advice. See our disclaimer.