Gate review: fees, memecoins and safety

In short

• Base-tier spot fees are the same on both sides and sit well above MEXC’s, discounted by holding GT and by volume across the VIP0–VIP16 tiers.
• Operating since 2013 with one of the broadest altcoin and memecoin catalogues of any major exchange.
• Spot, margin, perpetuals and a Startup launchpad sit in one account.
• No US service; KYC is required for fiat rails.

Overview

Gate launched in 2013 as Gate.io, which makes it one of the longest-running exchanges still listing memecoins aggressively. The catalogue routinely includes tokens that never reach Binance or Coinbase, and pairs usually arrive earlier than on tier-one venues — though generally a little later than MEXC.

Fees follow the industry-standard shape rather than MEXC’s loss-leader pricing: a flat base rate on both sides that Gate reset in April 2026, falling across sixteen VIP tiers as 30-day volume and GT holdings rise, with a further discount for paying fees in GT. For a buyer putting a few hundred dollars into a memecoin, the difference against MEXC is cents; for an active trader it compounds.

Beyond spot, the same account gives you margin, perpetual futures and the Startup IEO platform. That breadth is useful once you are past the first purchase, but it also means the interface is denser than a beginner app like Moonshot. Gate does not serve US residents.

Memecoin coverage

Majors and mid-caps are all present — DOGE, SHIB, PEPE, BONK, FLOKI, WIF, POPCAT — and Gate tends to list Solana and Base memecoins once they show sustained volume rather than on the first day of a spike.

Gate also lists a long tail of small-cap tokens that no US-facing exchange will touch. That is the point of using it, and also the risk: breadth is not curation.

For a coin that launched today on Pump.fun, Gate is not the venue. Buy on-chain with a Solana terminal or bot, and treat a later Gate listing as an exit-liquidity improvement rather than an entry route.

Key facts

What it costs

• Gate reset its spot and futures fee schedule in April 2026 and now shows rates on a logged-in fee page, so the base VIP0 figure quoted on third-party sites is frequently the pre-change one. Check the rate on your own account before sizing a trade.
• Paying trading fees in GT applies an additional discount on top of your tier.
• Fees are charged only on the filled portion of an order, so a partially filled limit order costs proportionally less.
• Withdrawal fees are per chain and separate from trading fees. Gate updates rates periodically — check the live fee page before sizing a large trade.

How to buy on Gate

1. 1

   Register and secure the account

   Sign up, enable authenticator-app two-factor authentication, and complete KYC if you intend to use fiat rails or larger withdrawals.

2. 2

   Fund the account

   Transfer USDT in from another venue or buy it with the fiat options available in your country. Compare the effective rate against the trading fee — the on-ramp spread usually dominates.

3. 3

   Verify the pair before trading

   Search the ticker and check the contract address against our coin page. Memecoin tickers collide frequently, and Gate lists many similarly named tokens.

4. 4

   Use limit orders on small caps

   Thin books mean market orders can slip. A resting limit order also earns the maker side of the fee schedule.

5. 5

   Move holdings to your own wallet

   Withdraw to Phantom (Solana) or MetaMask/Rabby (EVM), ideally with a hardware wallet, once you are holding rather than trading. Send a small test transaction first.

Safety and risks

• Balances are custodial — a lock, hack or insolvency at the exchange affects your coins directly.
• Enable 2FA and, where offered, a withdrawal address allow-list.
• Small-cap listings can be effectively illiquid: check 24-hour volume on the specific pair before buying, not just the coin’s aggregate volume.
• Leverage products sit one click from spot. If you came to buy a memecoin, stay on spot.

Nothing here is financial advice. Memecoins are high-risk and can go to zero; only risk what you can afford to lose.

Alternatives to Gate

• MEXC — Lower headline fees (0% maker / 0.05% taker) and usually faster listings of brand-new memecoins.
• Moonshot — A card-funded mobile route into Solana memecoins with no exchange interface to learn.
• Ledger — Where to move coins once you have bought them, so custody stops being the exchange’s problem.

Coins to research next

• Dogecoin
• Shiba Inu
• Pepe
• Floki
• Popcat

Frequently asked questions