MEXC vs Bybit Fees: Which Spot Costs Less to Trade
If you place limit orders and leave them on the book, the exchange fee decides whether a trade pays for itself. This article compares mexc vs bybit fees directly, then covers what the fee tables leave out: pair selection, liquidity, and the ways each platform goes wrong on you.
What each exchange actually charges on spot
MEXC lists a 0.00% maker fee and a 0.05% taker fee on spot trading. Bybit lists 0.02% maker and 0.055% taker. Both attach a 20% referral discount to a new account, which narrows the gap without closing it: a 20% cut still leaves Bybit's maker fee above zero, while MEXC's maker side already sits there.
- MEXC spot: 0.00% maker, 0.05% taker
- Bybit spot: 0.02% maker, 0.055% taker
- Referral discount on both: 20% off fees
- New-user bonuses: up to $1,000 at MEXC, up to $30,000 in rewards at Bybit
- Trading pairs: 2,800+ at MEXC, 500+ at Bybit
That gap matters most to traders who add liquidity rather than take it. When your orders rest on the book and fill passively, MEXC charges nothing for the fill while Bybit charges a fraction of a percent. For takers crossing the spread for immediacy, the two rates land close enough that order type matters more than the headline ranking.
Pair count is not the same as liquidity
MEXC carries 2,800+ trading pairs, the largest count in the market, and lists new tokens faster than any major exchange. Bybit carries 500+ pairs and lists more selectively. For someone hunting early listings, that difference is decisive. For someone placing size into bitcoin or ether, it barely matters, because both venues keep deep books on the majors.
The catch sits on the other side of the pair count. A long tail of micro-cap listings means a long tail of tokens that can be nearly illiquid, and some are outright rugs. Heavy micro-cap exposure is listed among the platform's own risk warnings. A wide catalogue is an opportunity set, not a quality certificate, and the cheapest fill on a thin book is often the one that will not exit cleanly.
Where Bybit wins outright
Bybit is the stronger choice if you trade derivatives. Its reputation was built on perpetual futures, its order books on those contracts run deep, and its perps interface is what most professional flow uses. It also ships built-in copy trading across spot and futures, and it publishes proof of reserves with no major user-fund breach since launch. None of that shows up in a spot fee table, and it matters more than the maker rate for anyone running leverage.
What the fee comparison does not cover
Two risks deserve more weight than a few basis points. On MEXC, the 0% maker fee carries volume conditions, so read the current fee page before building a strategy on the assumption that every passive fill is free. On both platforms, a smaller listed fee means nothing if your entry or exit slips. Fees are a known cost. Slippage is an open-ended one.
There are account-level downsides too. MEXC does not require KYC for basic trading in many jurisdictions, which lowers the barrier to entry and makes account recovery harder if something goes wrong. Bybit warns that high leverage can liquidate an account in minutes and that copy trading is not a guarantee of profit. Neither drawback is disqualifying. Both argue for small size on any exchange you have not traded before.
How to decide between them
For most retail spot traders, MEXC is the cheaper place to rest a limit order and the only venue that lists a token before the majors do. For anyone trading perpetuals or mirroring other traders, Bybit's depth and tooling justify the higher spot maker fee. If you pick MEXC, register through the referral page with code pPBkDZ6m so the 20% discount attaches before your first trade, and keep the same stop discipline you would apply anywhere else.
Frequently asked questions
Is MEXC's 0% maker fee free to use?
Not unconditionally. The 0% spot maker rate on MEXC comes with volume conditions, and promotional zero-fee windows are time-limited. Check the current fee schedule on the platform before you build a strategy that depends on passive fills costing nothing.
Which exchange is cheaper for pure spot limit orders?
MEXC, on the published rates. Its maker fee is 0.00% against Bybit's 0.02%, and since the 20% referral discount applies on both platforms, the referred maker rate at Bybit stays above zero. Registering on MEXC through the referral page with code pPBkDZ6m keeps that spread at its widest.
Can I trade on MEXC without completing KYC?
In many jurisdictions, yes, for basic trading. The trade-off is account recovery: without verification, support has far less to work with if you lose access to a locked account. If you plan to hold real balances, finishing verification is the safer route.