LBank

Is LBank safe?

LBank has a clean security record on paper and very little regulatory protection behind it. We found no hack that cost customers money since it launched in 2015, which is better than many offshore rivals. Against that, no strict regulator licenses it, three regulators have warned that it serves their residents without registration, and we could not find a current 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. We score it 43/100, close to MEXC (45) and below Gate.io (52).

The main risk is not a hacker. It is that if LBank freezes your account or fails, there is no regulator or compensation scheme to turn to.

Who runs LBank?

LBank's user agreement says the platform is "operated and managed by LBK Exchange" and that disputes are governed by the law of the British Virgin Islands and go to arbitration at the Dubai International Arbitration Centre. It does not give a company registration number or a registered address. Ontario's securities regulator lists two more names linked to the site: PT LBK Teknology Indonesia and LBK Exchange Limited. When Japan's Financial Services Agency added LBank Exchange to its list of unregistered operators in June 2024, it recorded both the representative and the address as unknown.

For a customer, the practical meaning is that you would be suing or arbitrating against an offshore company that is hard to pin down, in Dubai, under BVI law.

LBank says it has more than 25 million registered users in over 160 countries. Its terms exclude the United States, Canada, mainland China, Hong Kong and sanctioned countries.

Which regulators have warned about LBank?

Regulator	Date	What it said
FSA (Japan)	June 2024	Listed as an unregistered crypto-asset exchange serving Japanese residents online
OSC (Ontario)	27 August 2025	Not registered in Ontario to trade securities
SEC (Philippines)	20 August 2025	Not a registered crypto-asset service providerCASPA crypto-asset service provider: a firm licensed under the EU's MiCA rules to offer crypto services such as trading or custody.More in the glossary; lets Filipinos sign up with local numbers

The Philippines SEC said it would pursue cease-and-desist orders, website blocking, removal from app stores and criminal complaints against unregistered platforms, and warned that users could lose everything with no legal recourse. It took similar action against Bybit, OKX and others in the same month, so LBank is not unusual among offshore exchanges. LBank is not on the EU's MiCAMiCAThe EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, which requires crypto exchanges and other providers to be licensed and supervised.More in the glossary register, and we found no UK, US or Japanese licence.

None of these warnings is a fine or a finding of fraud. They say LBank operates without permission, which is why licensing scores 12 while the legal record sits in the middle.

Does LBank have proof of reserves?

In November 2022, after FTX collapsed, LBank announced it would publish 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 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 so users could check their balances were counted. We could not find a current version. The proof-of-reserves address on its website loads the home page, the site footer has no reserves link, and we found no report by an auditor or a security firm such as Hacken. LBank publishes no audited accounts either. Compare MEXC, which publishes monthly ratios checked by Hacken, or Bitstamp, which is audited and licensed in the EU and UK.

Without a recent proof of reserves, you have only LBank's word that customer deposits are fully backed.

How to limit your risk on LBank

1. Treat LBank as a trading venue, not a place to store savings. Withdraw to your own wallet after you trade.
2. Check whether LBank is allowed where you live. If your regulator has warned about it, you lose any local complaint route.
3. Use an authenticator app or security key, a fund password and a withdrawal address allowlist.
4. Read the rules before using bonuses, copy trading or bots; the terms let LBank revoke assets gained by breaking them and suspend accounts.
5. Be careful with small, newly listed tokens: with few buyers, their prices can collapse fast and you may not be able to sell.

How we scored it

Security history (80) is LBank's strongest factor, because we found no theft of customer funds, though offshore exchanges face little duty to report incidents. Licensing (12) is the weakest: no strict licence and warnings from Japan, Ontario and the Philippines. 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 (25) and custody (25) are low because we found no current reserve report and no public detail on how customer assets are held.