Gate.io (Gate)

Is Gate.io safe?

Gate is a large offshore exchange that has spent the last two years buying itself regulatory credibility, and the licences are real. Its EU arm holds a MiCAMiCAThe EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, which requires crypto exchanges and other providers to be licensed and supervised.More in the glossary licence from Malta, its Dubai arm a VARA licence. The weak part is its history: an old cold-wallet hack under the Bter name, an alleged undisclosed hack in 2018 and a pattern of serving countries where it is not authorised. We score it 52/100, between KuCoin and Bybit.

Which Gate company holds your coins matters more here than at most exchanges. An EU customer of the Maltese entity has MiCA protections; a customer of the global platform mostly does not.

The hacks Gate does not talk about

Gate traces its history to Bter.com, a Chinese exchange. In February 2015 Bter lost 7,170 BTC from its cold walletsCold storageKeeping crypto keys on a device or medium that is not connected to the internet, which protects them from most online attacks.More in the glossary and recovered only part of it. After China banned exchange trading in 2017 the team relaunched as Gate.io.

The more serious question is April 2018. In November 2022, just after FTX collapsed, the on-chain investigator ZachXBT published correspondence and wallet traces suggesting Gate had lost about $230 million in bitcoin, ether and other coins on 18 April 2018 and never told users. Gate rejected the criticism and said its systems could not be penetrated, but it has not published an account of what happened. Funds labelled as coming from that hack were still moving on-chain in 2023.

We cannot say customers lost money in 2018. We also cannot say they did not, and an exchange that will not explain a reported nine-figure loss earns a score below the 60–79 band for hacks that were fully repaid.

Where Gate is licensed

Gate's own licences page lists separate companies that it says operate independently of each other:

Entity	Regulator	Status
Gate Technology Ltd	Malta MFSA	MiCAMiCAThe EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, which requires crypto exchanges and other providers to be licensed and supervised.More in the glossary licence, 29 September 2025
Gate Technology FZE	Dubai VARA	Exchange licence
Gate Japan K.K.	Japan FSA	Registered 2019; handles no coins
Gate Information Pty Ltd	AUSTRAC (Australia)	Digital currency exchange registration
Gate Global Limited	Securities Commission of The Bahamas	Digital asset business approval
Gate US, Inc. (NMLS 2272810)	US state regulators	Money transmitter licences in most states; launched 1 August 2025

That is a better list than HTX or Bitget can show. It still leaves the global exchange, where most non-EU customers sit, under a Bahamas approval rather than a strict regulator, and there is no UK licence for it.

Americans are not customers of the global exchange. They are served by a separate company, Gate US, Inc., which launched on 1 August 2025 with crypto-to-crypto spot trading and holds state money transmitter licences. Its own disclosures say it does not operate in Alaska, Louisiana, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Washington or the US Virgin Islands. A money transmitter licence brings state oversight and bonding, but no SIPC or FDICDeposit insuranceA government-backed scheme that repays bank customers up to a set limit if their bank fails, such as the FDIC in the US or the FSCS in the UK.More in the glossary cover for the coins.

Several regulators have also warned about Gate. Spain's CNMV lists it as unauthorised, Italy blocked its site, and Chile's financial regulator, the CMF, said on 6 May 2026 that Gate was not authorised there. Chile's El Mostrador reported that a Santiago court ordered Gate three times in 2025 to return funds frozen after a theft, and that the victim's lawyer says Gate has not complied. Gate did not answer the paper. None of this is a criminal case or a fine, which is why Gate's legal record score is higher than KuCoin's.

Proof of reserves

Gate publishes a proof of reservesProof of reservesA report in which a crypto exchange shows that it holds enough coins to cover all customer balances, ideally checked by an outside firm.More in the glossary built from a Merkle treeMerkle treeA way to combine many records into one short code, so that each person can check their own record is included without seeing anyone else's.More in the glossary of hashed user IDs and balances, with a zk-SNARK proof that no account was given a negative balance to shrink the total. The security firm Hacken reviewed the method in January 2024. This counts liabilities, which is the point, but Gate checks its own numbers. No accounting firm attests the reserves and there are no audited accounts, so you cannot see debts or how much is lent out.

How to limit your risk on Gate

1. If you live in the EU, check that your account is with Gate Technology Ltd in Malta. It is the only Gate company where MiCAMiCAThe EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, which requires crypto exchanges and other providers to be licensed and supervised.More in the glossary segregation rules apply to you.
2. Use an authenticator app or hardware key, set a fund password and an anti-phishing code, and turn on the withdrawal allowlist.
3. Do not keep large balances on the global platform. Gate lists many small tokens, and buying them is a separate risk from the exchange itself.
4. If your country's regulator lists Gate as unauthorised, expect little help from local courts if something goes wrong.

How we scored it

Security history (45) is Gate's weakest factor because a reported 2018 loss has never been explained. Licensing (62) is its strongest, thanks to the Maltese MiCAMiCAThe EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, which requires crypto exchanges and other providers to be licensed and supervised.More in the glossary and Dubai licences and the separate Gate US company's state licences, held back because the global exchange is not licensed in a strict market. Reserves (55) reflect a self-published proof with liabilities but no accountant.