WEEX Review: Fees Explained, Leverage, KYC and Safety

WEEX is a crypto exchange built mainly for futures traders. It was founded in 2018, lists around 2,000 spot assets and more than 500 futures contracts, and offers leverage of up to 400x on its main pairs. It also lets you trade without verifying your identity, something few large exchanges still allow.

Most WEEX reviews stop at the fee table. This one works through what you actually pay on a real trade, where the hidden costs are, and what changes the numbers in your favour. In short: spot fees are standard, the futures taker fee is higher than at most big rivals, funding can quietly cost more than trading fees, and a referral code at sign-up takes 20% off every trade for the life of the account.

WEEX at a glance

• Founded: 2018
• Markets: about 2,000 spot assets and 500+ futures contracts
• Spot fees: 0.1% maker and 0.1% taker
• Futures fees: 0.02% maker and 0.08% taker
• Fee discount with a referral code: 20%
• Maximum leverage: up to 400x on selected pairs such as BTC
• KYC: optional to trade; needed for higher withdrawals, P2P and cards
• Withdrawal limit without KYC: about 10,000 USDT a day
• Products: spot, perpetual futures (crypto and US stock futures), copy trading, bots, staking and P2P
• Apps: web, iOS and Android
• Not available in: the US, Canada, mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and some other countries

WEEX fees explained

WEEX charges a percentage of each trade, split into maker and taker fees. A maker order is a limit order that sits in the order book until someone fills it. A taker order fills straight away, either a market order or a limit order priced to match an existing one. Makers add liquidity, so they pay less.

Spot fees

Spot trading costs 0.1% for both makers and takers. A $1,000 purchase of ETH costs $1 in fees, and selling it later costs another $1 or so. This is the same rate most large exchanges charge, so spot traders gain or lose little by choosing WEEX on fees alone.

Futures fees

Futures are where WEEX is different. The maker fee is 0.02%, which is normal. The taker fee is 0.08%, which is above Bybit (0.055%), Binance (0.05%) and OKX (0.05%) at their base tiers.

• WEEX: 0.02% maker, 0.08% taker
• Bybit: 0.02% maker, 0.055% taker
• Binance: 0.02% maker, 0.05% taker
• OKX: 0.02% maker, 0.05% taker

A gap of 0.025 to 0.03 percentage points sounds tiny. On futures it is not, because fees are charged on the full position size, not on your margin.

What one trade really costs

Say you open a 10x long on BTC with $1,000 of margin. Your position is $10,000.

• Open with a market order: $10,000 × 0.08% = $8
• Close with a market order: another $8
• Total round trip: $16

That is 1.6% of your $1,000 margin gone before the price has moved. BTC has to rise 0.16% just for you to break even.

Change the order types and the cost drops. On the same $10,000 round trip:

• Market order in, market order out: $16, or $12.80 with 20% off
• Limit order in, market order out: $10, or $8 with 20% off
• Limit order in, limit order out: $4, or $3.20 with 20% off

The most patient trader on WEEX pays a quarter of what the most impatient one pays, on exactly the same trade.

Funding: the cost most people miss

Perpetual futures have no expiry date. To keep their price close to the spot price, longs and shorts pay each other a funding fee every few hours. When the market is bullish, longs usually pay shorts; when it is bearish, the reverse.

A common funding rate is 0.01% every 8 hours. On the same $10,000 position:

• Per funding period: $1
• Per day (3 periods): $3
• Per week: $21

Hold that position for a week and funding costs more than the $16 you paid to open and close it. In hot markets funding can run several times higher. Before holding a trade for days, check the current rate for your coin; free tools such as Kumocast’s live funding rates show it across the major exchanges side by side.

Deposits, withdrawals and other fees

• Crypto deposits: free.
• Withdrawals: you pay the network fee for the coin and chain you pick; WEEX shows it before you confirm. Cheaper networks such as TRC-20 or BEP-20 for USDT cost far less than ERC-20.
• Card purchases: handled by third-party providers, who add their own spread or fee.
• P2P: no WEEX trading fee, but the price you get depends on the seller.
• Inactivity: no inactivity fee.

Monthly fees at different volumes

Volume is the total size of all your trades, not your deposit. With leverage it climbs fast: $500 of margin at 20x is a $10,000 position, and opening and closing it five times a day adds up to about $3 million a month. Here is what a taker-heavy futures trader pays:

• $10,000 a month: $8 in fees, $6.40 with 20% off, about $19 saved a year
• $100,000 a month: $80 in fees, $64 with 20% off, $192 saved a year
• $1,000,000 a month: $800 in fees, $640 with 20% off, $1,920 saved a year
• $3,000,000 a month: $2,400 in fees, $1,920 with 20% off, $5,760 saved a year

WEEX referral code: 20% off every trade

The single biggest saving is made before your first trade. When you open a WEEX account with a referral code, every spot and futures trade costs 20% less, for as long as you use the account. WEEX labels the sign-up field “VIP code”, but it is the same as a referral or invite code.

Using the WEEX referral code gfek gives the 20% discount and also unlocks WEEX’s new-user rewards, worth up to 10,000 USDT. Those rewards are task-based: small coupons for signing up and logging in, a trial fund for your first deposit, a position airdrop for your first futures trade, and larger trial funds as your volume grows. They must be completed within 14 days of sign-up and are mostly paid as trading coupons or trial funds, not cash.

How to set it up:

1. Start the WEEX sign-up and register with your email or phone number.
2. In the VIP code or referral field, enter gfek (all lowercase, no spaces).
3. Finish registration and turn on two-factor authentication with an authenticator app.
4. Open Promotions in the app to see your welcome tasks and their deadlines.
5. Trade as normal; the discount is applied automatically.

The code has to go in when the account is created. WEEX does not describe a way to add one afterwards, so an existing account cannot get the discount.

Put the code together with limit orders and the cost of that $10,000 round trip falls from $16 to $3.20, a cut of 80%.

Leverage on WEEX

WEEX offers up to 400x on selected perpetual pairs such as BTC, one of the highest limits among large exchanges. Most other pairs have lower caps, and the maximum falls as your position grows, so 400x is only available on small positions.

How far the price has to move against you to wipe out your margin:

• 5x: a move of about 20% against you
• 10x: about 10%
• 50x: about 2%
• 100x: about 1%
• 400x: about 0.25%

At 400x, normal second-to-second price noise can close your position. And because fees are charged on the full position, a 0.16% round-trip cost is already well over half of the 0.25% move it would take to liquidate you. Most experienced traders stay between 2x and 10x and use isolated margin, so a losing trade cannot drain the rest of the account.

Can you use WEEX without KYC?

Yes. You can deposit crypto and trade spot and futures without verifying your identity. Without KYC the withdrawal limit is about 10,000 USDT a day at the entry level. Verifying with an ID document and a short face check raises it to around 1,000,000 USD a day and unlocks P2P trading and card purchases.

This is useful if you want to try the platform with a small amount before handing over documents. The catch is timing: if you make a large profit and want to withdraw more than the no-KYC limit, you will have to verify then, and verification can take time. If you plan to trade bigger amounts, verify early.

Products beyond spot and futures

• Copy trading: follow other traders and copy their futures positions automatically. Check a trader’s drawdown and history, not just their headline profit, and remember the trader takes a share of your profits.
• Trading bots: grid and other automated strategies for spot and futures, useful in sideways markets.
• US stock futures: perpetual contracts that track some US shares, traded with USDT.
• Earn: staking and savings products on idle coins.
• P2P and Quick Buy: buy crypto with local payment methods or cards.
• WE-Launch: access to new token launches.

Is WEEX safe?

WEEX keeps a 1,000 BTC protection fund to cover user losses in an emergency and publishes a proof of reserves page, so users can check that customer balances are backed.

No major external hack has been reported. The notable incident was in March 2025, when an order-matching fault on the ETH/USDT market affected users; WEEX said it compensated 5,022 users with a total of 6,123,393 USDT. Paying out after a platform fault is a good sign, but it is also a reminder that any exchange can have a bad day.

Basic protection on any exchange:

• Use an authenticator app for two-factor login rather than SMS.
• Set a withdrawal allowlist so funds can only go to your own addresses.
• Turn on an anti-phishing code so you can tell real WEEX emails from fakes.
• Keep long-term holdings in your own wallet, not on the exchange.

WEEX vs Bybit

Bybit is the exchange WEEX is most often compared with. Both are futures-focused and both cut fees for users who join with a referral code.

• Futures taker fee: 0.08% on WEEX, 0.055% on Bybit
• Futures maker fee: 0.02% on both
• Spot fees: 0.1% maker and taker on both
• Referral discount: 20% on WEEX with code gfek, up to 20% on Bybit with code 93065
• A $10,000 round trip with market orders, after the code: $12.80 on WEEX, about $8.80 on Bybit
• Maximum leverage: up to 400x on selected WEEX pairs, up to 100x on Bybit for BTC and ETH
• KYC to trade: optional on WEEX, required on Bybit

Bybit is cheaper for traders who use market orders and has deeper order books on the biggest coins, which means less slippage on large trades. WEEX allows higher leverage and lets you trade before verifying. For a trader who mainly uses limit orders, the gap almost disappears, since the maker fee is the same on both.

Many traders keep both accounts: Bybit for size on BTC and ETH, WEEX for smaller coins, high-leverage setups or trading without KYC. If you go with Bybit, the Bybit referral code 93065 cuts its fees by up to 20% in the same way.

Who WEEX suits

WEEX is a good fit if you:

• trade futures and mostly use limit orders, where its fees match the big exchanges;
• want to start without uploading ID;
• want copy trading or bots built in;
• trade smaller coins or US stock futures.

It is a weaker fit if you:

• scalp with market orders all day, where the 0.08% taker fee adds up;
• trade very large sizes on BTC and ETH and need the deepest order books;
• live in the US, Canada or another country WEEX does not serve.

Common mistakes that cost WEEX traders money

1. Signing up without a referral code. The 20% discount cannot be added later.
2. Using market orders out of habit. On futures that is four times the maker fee.
3. Forgetting about funding. On multi-day positions it often costs more than trading fees.
4. Picking the highest leverage because it is there. At 400x a tiny move ends the trade.
5. Withdrawing on an expensive network. Check the network fee before you confirm.
6. Leaving KYC until a big withdrawal. Verify early if you plan to trade size.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Up to 400x leverage on major pairs
• Trading without KYC, with a 10,000 USDT daily withdrawal limit
• 20% fee discount with a referral code
• Large choice of coins and futures, including US stock futures
• 1,000 BTC protection fund and proof of reserves
• Copy trading and trading bots built in

Cons:

• Futures taker fee (0.08%) is higher than at most large exchanges
• Not available in the US, Canada and several other countries
• Card purchases and P2P need KYC
• Welcome rewards are mostly trading coupons, not cash

Frequently asked questions

What are WEEX trading fees? Spot trading costs 0.1% for makers and takers. Futures cost 0.02% for makers and 0.08% for takers at the base tier. Signing up with a referral code such as gfek cuts both by 20%.

Is WEEX more expensive than Bybit? For market orders on futures, yes: 0.08% against 0.055%. For limit orders the maker fee is the same, 0.02%, on both.

How much does a WEEX futures trade cost? On a $10,000 position, opening and closing with market orders costs $16, or $12.80 with a 20% referral discount. Using limit orders both ways costs $4, or $3.20 with the discount.

Does WEEX charge funding fees? WEEX does not keep funding itself; it is paid between longs and shorts every few hours. At a typical 0.01% every 8 hours, a $10,000 position costs about $3 a day.

Is WEEX legit and safe? WEEX has operated since 2018, holds a 1,000 BTC protection fund and publishes proof of reserves. No major external hack has been reported; in March 2025 it compensated 5,022 users after an order-matching fault.

Does WEEX require KYC? No. You can deposit crypto and trade without KYC, with a withdrawal limit of about 10,000 USDT a day. Verification raises the limit and unlocks P2P and card purchases.

What is the maximum leverage on WEEX? Up to 400x on selected perpetual pairs such as BTC. Most pairs have lower limits, and leverage falls as position size grows.

What is the WEEX VIP code? It is WEEX’s name for the referral code field at sign-up. Entering gfek there gives 20% off trading fees and access to up to 10,000 USDT in new-user rewards.

Can I add a referral code to an existing WEEX account? WEEX does not describe a way to do this. The code has to be entered when the account is created.

Is WEEX available in the US? No. WEEX does not accept users from the United States, Canada, mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and several other countries.

Conclusion

WEEX is a solid choice for futures traders who want high leverage, built-in copy trading and the option to start without KYC, backed by a protection fund and proof of reserves. Its weak spot is the 0.08% futures taker fee, which is higher than the big rivals.

The good news is that most of that cost is in your hands. Open the account with a referral code such as gfek to take 20% off every trade, use limit orders where you can, watch funding before holding positions for days, and keep leverage modest. Do all four and a WEEX trade can cost less than a careless trade on a cheaper exchange.

Crypto trading, especially with leverage, carries a high risk of loss. This review is for information only and is not financial advice.

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