Gate.io

What is Gate?

Gate is one of the oldest exchanges still operating, founded in 2013 by Dr. Lin Han as Bter before becoming Gate.io in 2017 and completing a group-wide rebrand to Gate on the Gate.com domain in May 2025. The platform claims more than 49 million users and a top-three position by market share, listing 3,800+ spot assets, one of the broadest altcoin shelves anywhere. Live volume, funding and liquidation data for every Gate perpetual is tracked on this page.

Derivatives are a core pillar: hundreds of USDT- and BTC-margined perpetual pairs, quant strategy bots, Iceberg and TWAP orders, copy trading and unified account management. Gate reported $3.8 trillion in 2024 trading volume, with contract trading contributing $2 trillion, and holds #4 in our perpetual exchange rankings.

Gate Futures Fee Schedule

Gate prices perpetuals on a tiered maker-taker model keyed to 30-day volume, starting at 0.02% maker and 0.05% taker for VIP 0. Funding payments apply on top every eight hours; current rates per pair sit in the markets table below.

Tiers compress steadily, reaching 0% maker and 0.016% taker at VIP 16 for accounts clearing $3 billion in monthly volume, and holding or paying fees in GT unlocks further discounts. Tier thresholds across venues are compared in our exchange VIP program breakdown, and Gate's overall cost position features in our lowest fee perpetual exchanges guide.

Gate Leverage, Margin Modes & Liquidations

Gate offers up to 125x leverage on BTC and ETH perpetuals, among the highest caps of any major venue, stepping down by pair and position size through risk limit tiers. Margin runs in isolated or cross mode, with a unified account letting one collateral pool back futures, margin and spot, plus portfolio margin for qualifying accounts.

Liquidations key off a dual-price system: a mark price derived from external spot indexes triggers liquidations rather than Gate's own last traded price, insulating positions from single-venue wicks. Gaps below bankruptcy price route to the insurance fund before any auto-deleveraging. Live liquidation totals per pair run in the table below and on our liquidations dashboard.

How Gate Funding Rates Work

Gate perpetuals exchange funding between longs and shorts every eight hours, calculated from the premium between contract price and the spot index plus an interest component. Positive funding means longs pay shorts; negative reverses it. Rates float per contract, so thin altcoin pairs can carry sharply higher funding than majors during one-sided positioning.

That matters on a venue with this much long-tail listing depth: an elevated 0.1% rate paid three times daily costs an unhedged position roughly 2% a week before price moves. Predicted rates per pair appear below, and cross-exchange spreads for funding arbitrage live on our funding rates tracker.

All in Web3: Gate Layer, Perp DEX & GT

Gate's strategic push since the rebrand is its "All in Web3" expansion, building onchain infrastructure alongside the exchange. Gate Layer, a Layer 2 network on the OP Stack, recorded 100 million wallet addresses within two weeks of launch, and Gate Perp DEX brought a decentralized perpetuals venue under the same brand, competing in the segment tracked on our perp DEX rankings.

GT, the exchange token, anchors the ecosystem: 20% of annual profits fund buybacks that are burned, and holdings feed fee discounts and launch-platform access. GT reached an all-time high above $18 in January 2025 following a year of aggressive burns.

Gate's Licences: MiCA, VARA & More

Gate assembled one of the wider licence maps among offshore exchanges, published on a consolidated legal page that names each entity. Gate Technology Ltd received a MiCA licence from Malta's MFSA in September 2025 for exchange and custody across the EU, followed by a Malta PSD2 Payment Institution licence in February 2026 that adds passported payment rails. Gate Technology FZE holds a full VARA licence in Dubai, granted April 2025.

Coverage extends through Gate Australia, live since late 2025 under an AUSTRAC-registered local entity, Japan via the 2024 Coin Master acquisition, the Bahamas SCB, Italy's OAM register, Hong Kong and Gibraltar. The pattern mirrors the sector's shift from offshore flag-planting to entity-level local authorisation.

Where is Gate Available?

The global Gate.com platform serves 165+ countries but restricts around 30 regions, including the United States, mainland China, the United Kingdom, Canada and Singapore. Several headline restrictions are now served through licensed local entities instead: Japan through the Coin Master subsidiary, Australia through Gate Australia, the EU through the MiCA-licensed Malta entity and Dubai through the VARA-licensed arm.

That entity split means product menus differ by region, with derivatives access narrower on regulated local platforms than on global Gate.com. The country-by-country breakdown is maintained in our Gate restricted countries guide, and Gate's own user agreement carries the authoritative list.

Is Gate Safe and Legit?

Gate's security history is longer than most because the company is older than most. Researchers alleged a 2018 incident later linked to North Korean hackers, which Gate disputed in scale, and the Bter era saw a 7,170 BTC theft in 2015. No major verified breach has hit the platform since, through eight years that included the largest exchange hacks on record elsewhere.

Current practice is stronger than the history suggests: Gate was an early adopter of proof of reserves and reported a 123.91% reserve ratio with $9.5 billion in reserves at the end of 2024, holding $1.8 billion above customer liabilities. Custody combines cold storage, multi-signature controls and MPC encryption under ISO 27001 certification. Counterparty risk never reaches zero on a centralized venue, so reserve attestations and open interest trends are worth checking before sizing up.