MEXC is our top pick in this comparison on scale and cost, at 1,627 coins against 697 and 0.05% taker fees against 0.20%. Key Takeaways CoinGecko tracks 1,627 coins and 2,019 spot pairs on MEXCMEXC is our top pick in this comparison on scale and cost, at 1,627 coins against 697 and 0.05% taker fees against 0.20%. Key Takeaways CoinGecko tracks 1,627 coins and 2,019 spot pairs on MEXC
MEXC vs CoinEx: Fees, Coins, and What Each Platform Did After a Security Incident
MEXC is our top pick in this comparison on scale and cost, at 1,627 coins against 697 and 0.05% taker fees against 0.20%.
Key Takeaways
- CoinGecko tracks 1,627 coins and 2,019 spot pairs on MEXC against 697 coins and 905 pairs on CoinEx, pulled the same day for both.
- Entry-tier spot fees are 0.00% maker and 0.05% taker on MEXC against 0.20% on both sides at CoinEx, a gap worth about $9,000 a year on $500,000 traded monthly.
- The derivatives gap is the widest number here, at 1,214 perpetual pairs and $12.0 billion of open interest against 228 pairs and $147.9 million.
- CoinEx was drained of roughly $70 million in September 2023, resumed withdrawals within about a week, and committed publicly to compensating every affected user.
- CoinEx carries the same CORE3 security rating as MEXC and quotes tighter average spreads on its futures book, at 0.172% against 0.303%.
- Neither platform serves the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada or the European Union, and CoinEx also excludes Switzerland.
The Real Question Behind Every MEXC vs CoinEx Search
Most people who compare these two platforms are not starting from zero.
They already have an account somewhere, and something has made them look around.
For CoinEx that something is usually September 2023, when the platform lost tens of millions of dollars from its hot wallets and froze withdrawals for the better part of a week.
Three years on, the useful question is not whether the hack happened.
It is what changed afterwards, whether anyone independent has checked, and whether the platform you would move to is measurably better on the things that made you nervous in the first place.
So that is how we have built this comparison.
Six trust mechanisms, applied to both platforms in the same table, followed by the numbers that decide what a year of trading actually costs you.
The MEXC View
We run MEXC, so read this as our case rather than a neutral verdict.
Our position is that MEXC wins this comparison on catalogue, on spot cost, and on derivatives depth, and the margins are these.
Catalogue: 1,627 coins against 697.
Spot cost: 0.05% taker against 0.20%, which is $9,000 a year on $500,000 traded monthly.
Derivatives depth: 1,214 perpetual pairs and $12.0 billion of open interest against 228 pairs and $147.9 million, a gap of roughly eighty times.
Our position is also that CoinEx's security posture after 2023 is genuinely solid, that it carries the same third-party security rating we do, and that anyone telling you otherwise has not looked at the data.
Both of those things are true at once.
Is CoinEx Safe? Six Trust Checks, Run on Both Platforms
Here are the six, scored the same way on both sides.
CORE3, the security assessor whose data CoinGecko publishes, lists a penetration test, a proof-of-reserves audit and a bug bounty for both platforms.
Both score three stars out of five.
On that measure we are level, and we are not going to invent a gap that the data does not show.
Two rows do separate us.
MEXC publishes a Merkle-tree Proof of Reserves every month with an independent Hacken audit attached, and the July 2026 report put the BTC reserve ratio at 281% with every major asset above 100%.
MEXC also runs a standing Guardian Fund, currently $100 million and stated to grow to $500 million over two years, alongside a separate Futures Insurance Fund.
The platform's wider security and asset protection measures are set out in our guide on whether MEXC is safe.
CoinEx publishes reserve data that DefiLlama tracks, and it named a User Asset Security Foundation as the vehicle covering losses after the 2023 breach.
What we could not find on CoinEx's side is a published figure for that fund, while MEXC states the Guardian Fund's size and its expansion target.
The CoinEx Hack of 2023: $70M Gone in Hours, and What Came Next
The platform suspended deposits and withdrawals the same day, stated that the stolen assets were platform reserves rather than customer balances, and pledged full compensation for any user losses.
Early estimates from security firms ranged from about $31 million upwards, and CoinEx later put the figure at roughly $70 million, with several blockchain analytics firms attributing the attack to the Lazarus Group.
Withdrawals resumed in phases from 21 September 2023, and CoinEx's founder publicly committed to compensating every affected user in full.
That is a better outcome than most exchange breaches of that size produced.
Separately, and for completeness, CoinEx settled with the New York Attorney General on 15 June 2023 over a failure to register as a securities and commodities broker-dealer.
The consent order required roughly $1.7 million in refunds and penalties and barred the platform from operating in New York, and the Attorney General's office published the underlying complaint in February of that year.
MEXC has no comparable security breach on the public record, and no monetary settlement of the kind CoinEx entered into in New York.
We do appear on warning lists maintained by regulators including the UK FCA and Germany's BaFin, which we set out in full in our restricted countries guide.
What the fee gap costs over a year
CoinEx charges 0.2000% on both sides of a spot trade at the entry tier, falling to 0.1600% if you pay fees in CET.
MEXC charges 0.0000% maker and 0.0500% taker, with the taker rate falling to 0.0400% using MX deduction.
Run $500,000 of monthly taker volume through each at the published rate.
CoinEx costs $1,000 a month, or $12,000 a year.
MEXC costs $250 a month, or $3,000 a year.
Apply each platform's own token discount and the annual figures become $9,600 against $2,400.
Futures is a different story and we should say so.
CoinEx charges 0.0300% maker and 0.0500% taker on perpetuals at the entry tier, against MEXC's standard 0.010% and 0.040%.
On $500,000 of monthly futures notional that is a difference of about $600 a year, not $9,000.
If futures is all you trade, the fee argument for switching is thin.
Where the gap is genuinely large
MEXC lists 1,627 spot coins against CoinEx's 697.
On derivatives the distance is wider still: 1,214 perpetual pairs against 228, and $12.0 billion of open interest against $147.9 million.
Open interest is the figure worth dwelling on, because it is the one that tells you whether there is anyone on the other side of your trade at size.
A book eighty times larger absorbs a $200,000 position differently from one that does not.
CoinEx's published maximum futures leverage is 100x, while MEXC's BTCUSDT risk-limit table starts at 500x for the first position tier and steps down as size increases.
MEXC vs CoinEx at a Glance: Fees, Coins, Derivatives and Reserves
Dimension | MEXC | CoinEx |
Spot fees, entry tier | 0.0000% maker, 0.0500% taker. 0.0400% taker with MX deduction. | 0.2000% maker and taker. 0.1600% with CET deduction. |
Coins and pairs | 1,627 coins, 2,019 tracked spot pairs. | 697 coins, 905 tracked spot pairs. |
Derivatives | 1,214 perpetual pairs. Open interest $12.0 billion. Entry-tier fees 0.010% maker, 0.040% taker. Up to 500x on BTCUSDT at the first risk tier. | 228 perpetual pairs. Open interest $147.9 million. Entry-tier fees 0.0300% maker, 0.0500% taker. Up to 100x. |
Security and reserves | Monthly Merkle-tree PoR audited by Hacken. Guardian Fund. Trust Score 10 out of 10. CORE3 3 stars out of 5. | Reserve data tracked by DefiLlama. No breach in the past 12 months. Trust Score 7 out of 10. CORE3 3 stars out of 5. |
Deposits and withdrawals | Crypto and card rails. No service to US, UK, Canada or the EEA. | Card, bank and P2P rails. Excludes US, Canada, EU, UK and Switzerland. |
Standout feature | Catalogue depth and derivatives open interest at zero published maker cost. | Tighter average futures spreads and a documented full-reimbursement record after a major breach. |
Data verified as of 4 September 2026 against each platform's official fee schedule, help centre and announcements, and against CoinGecko exchange profiles pulled the same day.
Where CoinEx Is the Stronger Choice
Three things CoinEx does well that we are not going to talk past.
Tighter futures spreads on a narrower book.
CoinEx's average bid-ask spread across its perpetual markets is 0.172%, against 0.303% on MEXC's much larger book.
Listing fewer contracts and keeping them tight is a legitimate design choice, and if you only ever trade major perpetuals you may execute better there.
A compensation record that was tested.
Plenty of exchanges publish reserve attestations.
Far fewer have had a nine-figure-adjacent breach, promised full reimbursement, and then been reported to have delivered it without printing tokens to cover the hole.
Simplicity.
One spot rate on both sides of the trade, six VIP tiers, and a CET discount that applies on top.
Our fee page has more moving parts than that, and for a casual trader CoinEx's is easier to reason about.
For the wider market beyond these two platforms, see our 2026 ranking of the best crypto exchanges.
Where You Can Actually Sign Up
MEXC does not serve the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada or the European Economic Area.
CoinEx's own restricted-regions announcement of June 2026 names the United States, Canada, Mainland China, Hong Kong, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Iran and Cuba.
What MEXC requires at account verification is set out in our guide to MEXC's KYC tiers and limits.
For readers in any of those markets, the honest answer is that this comparison does not apply to you and a locally authorised platform is the right starting point.
Neither MEXC nor CoinEx holds Korean virtual asset service provider registration, and both appear on the list of undeclared operators published by Upbit dated 31 August 2026.
That is a statement of regulatory status for both platforms rather than a point of difference between them.
One more thing worth stating plainly.
CoinGecko's regulation field records an International Crypto License in the Comoros for MEXC and no identified regulatory authorisation for CoinEx.
A Comoros licence is a light-touch registration and is not equivalent to authorisation in the European Union, the United Kingdom or the United States, and we would rather you heard that from us than found it out later.
MEXC or CoinEx: Which One Fits How You Actually Trade
You trade spot actively, at size, across the long tail.
MEXC is the answer in this comparison, on catalogue, on published fees, and on the $9,000 annual gap the calculation above sets out.
You trade perpetuals and want depth.
MEXC again, and here the margin is the widest in the article: 1,214 contracts against 228, and open interest roughly eighty times larger.
You trade only major perpetuals in modest size and value tight spreads.
CoinEx is defensible on execution and the fee gap on futures is small enough that switching may not pay for itself.
If neither platform fits how you trade, see our guide to the best crypto exchange alternatives for a wider set of venues.
You are in the US, UK, Canada, the EU or Switzerland.
Neither platform serves you, and no part of this comparison changes that.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CoinEx safe after the 2023 hack?
CoinEx has no security incident on CoinGecko's 12-month record and carries the same CORE3 rating as MEXC, at three stars out of five.
Its reserve data is tracked by DefiLlama.
Did CoinEx compensate users after the breach?
CoinEx pledged full compensation on the day of the incident and was later reported to have completed reimbursement without diluting CET supply.
Losses were estimated between $53 million and $70 million.
Which has lower fees, MEXC or CoinEx?
MEXC on spot, at 0.00% maker and 0.05% taker against a flat 0.20%.
On futures the gap narrows to 0.040% against 0.0500% taker at the entry tier.
How many coins does each platform list?
MEXC lists 1,627 coins and 2,019 tracked spot pairs.
CoinEx lists 697 coins and 905 pairs, on figures pulled the same day.
Is CoinEx regulated?
CoinGecko records no identified regulatory authorisation for CoinEx, and CoinEx settled with the New York Attorney General in June 2023 over registration failures.
MEXC is not authorised in the EU, UK or US either.
Which is better for futures trading?
MEXC on depth, with 1,214 perpetual pairs and $12.0 billion of open interest against 228 pairs and $147.9 million.
CoinEx quotes tighter average spreads on its narrower book.
How do I move funds from CoinEx to MEXC?
Close open positions, withdraw on a chain both platforms support, and check the minimum amount and any memo requirement before sending.
Our withdrawal guide covers the same checks in reverse.
Risk Disclosure
Trading digital assets carries substantial risk, including the total loss of deposited funds.
Perpetual futures magnify both gains and losses, and positions can be liquidated in full during volatile conditions.
Proof-of-reserves attestations are point-in-time snapshots and do not guarantee that any platform will remain solvent.
MEXC is not licensed in the European Economic Area and does not provide services to residents of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada or the EEA.
Nothing here is investment advice, and you should assess your own circumstances before opening any account.
How We Compared These Platforms
Every figure in this article has a named source and a retrieval date, and we pulled both platforms' aggregator data on the same day so the numbers stay comparable.
Our scoring approach is set out in our review methodology, and CoinGecko documents its own in its Trust Score methodology.
For the same cost comparison across more venues, see our exchange fee comparison and our derivatives platform comparison.
Readers weighing a move away from CoinEx specifically may want our CoinEx alternatives comparison, which covers four platforms on one verified fee basis.
What an exchange protection fund does and does not cover is set out in our guide to protection funds.
MEXC's own schedule is in our fees guide, and the regions we cannot serve are listed on our restricted countries page and in the MEXC User Agreement.
Read More
- How to Transfer Crypto Between Exchanges: The Complete Guide to Switching Crypto Exchanges Without Selling a Coin
- Lowest Futures Fees Crypto Exchanges in 2026: Who Actually Charges the Least?
- Best Exchange for New Crypto Listings: Speed, Cost, and the Risk Labels Nobody Compares
- Crypto Exchange Fee Comparison: Only 6 of 12 Exchanges Will Show You Their Fees Without an Account
- MEXC vs BTCC Crypto Exchange: Is a 0.30% Spot Taker Fee Costing You $15,000 a Year?
- MEXC vs Uphold 2026: Uphold Stopped Taking New Accounts in 100+ Countries. Where Do You Go?
Market Opportunity
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This article is provided by Sarah Chen for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency markets involve significant risk. Please conduct independent research or consult a qualified professional before making any investment decisions. The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of MEXC or its affiliates.
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