Gate.io Review: Is It Safe to Buy and Sell Crypto?

This Gate.io exchange review x-rays the platform’s entirety, covering its key features and range of offers, fees and commission structure, pros and cons, and some FAQs you may want to learn about the exchange.

Afterward, you can make well-informed decisions and not only navigate the exchange with ease but understand its functions and know if it’s a suitable exchange to trade cryptocurrencies. Continue reading to find out more.

At a Quick Glance

Key Findings

Gate.io is a good exchange with a vast range of features and offerings. Its customer support system and UI is not too good as beginner traders may not find it convenient to use. Fees are relatively standard and low too.

Nowadays, Gate.io’s security measures are great, and there are educational tools available for users. The exchange is also safe for trading and open to US citizens, except New York and Washington.

What is Gate.io?

A brief background into Gate.io shows it is one of the oldest crypto exchanges to come from China. It has been in operation since 2013, rebranding from Bter.com to its current name.

The exchange ceased operation temporarily in 2017 when the Chinese government terminated the issuance and use of Bitcoin in the country.

In 2015, while it was still known as Bter.com, the exchange suffered a major hack in which the hackers got away with over $1.7M worth of BTC. In January 2019, Gate.io suffered another hack, which saw the exchange lose over $271,500 worth of Ethereum Classic (ETC) tokens.

However, the exchange now claims to adopt several security protocols to safeguard its investors’ funds. For a start, in the spirit of transparency, Gate.io reported that the hack resulted from the weak hashing power in the Ethereum Classic network.

This weakness left a vulnerability in all exchanges that support ETC. While Gate.io called on ETC to fix their issue, Gate.io raised the confirmation number of ETC to 4,000 to make any further hack attempt easily detectable and stopped.

Following the series of hacks and ensuing challenges, Bter.com rebranded as Gate.io and has since stepped up its game. Gate.io also has more features and products when compared to competitor exchanges.

Gate.io is based in Singapore, extending its reach to a global audience and offering various investment options for its users, partners, and investors.

Range of Offering

When it comes to the range of offerings and key features, we consider Gate.io is doing very well. There are several investment options to choose from if you do not wish to trade crypto directly. 

It may become complicated for those new to the platform, especially because these options are scattered, making it incomprehensible to keep up with all of them. However, being specific with your investment option would be a better practice.

Gate.io Buy Crypto

The “Buy Crypto” option on Gate.io includes buying crypto with credit or debit cards, bank transfers, or money orders. However, this option varies from one jurisdiction to another due to differences in exchange rates, forex influence, and fees.

Gate.io partners with money service providers such as Mercuryo, Banxa, Coinify, etc., to make it easy to buy crypto using your credit or debit cards in a fiat-to-crypto medium. You can then withdraw your funds in crypto assets to your wallet.

Also, the bank transfer method lets you buy crypto with any supported currencies for transaction fees as low as 0.08%. The supported fiat currencies you can use to buy digital currencies on the platform include:

• USD
• EUR
• CHF
• GBP
• AUD
• MXN
• HKD
• SGD

Gate.io Trade

There are various trade options on Gate.io that could get overwhelming if you do not understand how to be specific in your investment decisions.

Spot and margin trades are available to all users. On the spot trades, you can easily trade BTC for USDT and vice versa. While in margin trading, you create order books and borrow money for other traders’ funds to increase your leverage or margin.

Perpetual Contracts and ETFs are available with leverage too. Users can easily trade USDT perpetual contracts, ETFs, inverse contracts, etc., on Gate.io. However, they are high-risk options for newbies.

Other trade options on Gate.io include:

• Push Transaction: Colloquially known as “P2P transaction,” in which money flows from one account to another in a buy or sell manner.
• Flash Swap: Works just like spot trading, but faster. You can, in one click, swap one crypto asset for another.
• Callable Bull/Bear Contracts: Abbreviated as CBBC, is another contracts trade option that uses high leverage.
• Warrants: In this trade option, you have control over your trade preferences. It is a two-way trading option that includes a “Buy Call Warrant” or “Buy Put Warrant,” depending on which angle the market tends to instantaneously.

Gate.io Finance

Gate.io’s finance section covers many earning and investment options, including lending and borrowing, DeFi and cloud mining, etc. Here’s a further breakdown of the respective categories:

• HODL and Earn: An asset amplifier that uses the PoS consensus algorithm to create a stable earning investment option for coin holders. By holding or locking up Gate’s governance token known as GT or other listed cryptos such as ETH, USDT, etc., you earn appreciable rewards in respective crypto assets.

• Crypto Loan and Lending: While crypto loans allow you to pledge one crypto for another to return the borrowed crypto after a specified period, crypto lending offers an investment privilege that allows you to lock in your crypto asset to earn interests after a period.
• Liquidity and Cloud Mining: Cloud mining, also known as soft mining, allows you to participate in PoW protocols without the need for any mining hardware. You earn coins after mining hours.

On the other hand, liquidity mining increases your earning margin through interests when you provide dual-asset liquidity to the market.

• Dual Currency Product: In this option, you earn BTC, ETH, or USDT no matter how the market moves. However, the interest rate is low compared to other investment options.

GateToken

The GateToken is the exchange’s governance token. Holding this token comes with a lot of privileges for Gate.io users. Some benefits include decentralized crypto staking and liquidity pool in Gatechain’s mainnet, discount in trading and withdrawal fees, Gatechain governance protocols, Initial Exchange Offerings, Airdrops, etc.

Gate Wallet

The Gate Wallet is an inbuilt digital wallet that allows you to deposit, hold, and spend your cryptocurrencies. You can also swap crypto assets in the wallet and participate in staking protocols on Gate.io.

Gate.io Copy Trading

Gate’s copy trading system is an AI-driven mechanism also known as Strategybot. With this offering, you can copy and apply other high-profile or top-winning traders’ strategies to your trades to maximize profit.

However, upon the termination of the strategy, 5% of the proceeds are paid to the originator of the strategy. At the time of writing this review, Gate.io has recorded over 30,000 copies with $1.1B in strategy funding and over 60,000 strategies in use.

You can also create your unique strategy and earn in the process when other traders adopt it. When you have winning trades with your strategy, you appear on the leaderboard alongside other winners. Through this, other traders can spot you and easily integrate your strategies into theirs.

Gate NFT Box

Gate users can list and trade NFTs on the platform’s marketplace. With the NFT popularity charts, collectors can find top-ranking or high-value digital assets to buy. 

The ‘Official Screening’ section is where digital assets get listed and selected. The ‘Trading Market’ is the Gate’s marketplace, and you can go to “My Asset” to view your portfolio as a collector or trader.

Gate.io Startup

In this feature, Gate.io offers sales of Blockchain products such as games and decentralized products, among others, at discounted prices. The exchange uses this incentive to provide liquidity for an ongoing project.

Participants earn rewards in the projects’ governance tokens when they invest digital assets in the blockchain project after the funds raising is complete. These tokens come with additional incentives, including staking protocols for the investors.

Gatechain

Gatechain is Gate.io’s decentralized exchange and DeFi ecosystem/ Incubator Labs program. It is open-source and comes with a lot of benefits which include:

• Support and provision of funds for DeFi projects
• Provision of educational materials for developers to build intuitive DeFi projects.
• Easy integration of decentralized apps in the Gatechain mainnet.
• DeFi mining and staking protocols
• Cross-chain swapping and Yield farming on the Hipo.com platform, etc.

Other Offering Gate Services

There are other offerings by Gate.io to enhance user experience on the platform. Some of them include 

• Gate grants support developers and innovative decentralized projects with funds and tools. 
• Institutional Services: Includes special services for high-volume traders and market makers.
• ETH 2.0 Staking: In partnership with the Ethereum network, Gate.io offers a flexible staking protocol for the network, allowing users to earn appreciable interests in the process.
• Block.info: A blockchain explorer tool that allows you to monitor crypto activities outside the market.

Gate.io Commission and Fees

Gate.io adopts a VIP-modelled fee structure. Meaning that every user of the exchange trades at fees depending on their VIP level. VIP levels on Gate.io span from level 0 to 16, and the higher you go in the levels, the more volume you trade and lower fees the exchange charges you.

Trading Fees

Generally, you do not pay maker fees in futures trading, but a 0.05% taker fee applies accordingly. Spot trades, on the other hand, have maker and taker fees of 0.02%, respectively.

However, these fees apply to users on the VIP level. The more volume you trade or, the higher you go in VIP levels, the lower fees you pay. For instance, those in VIP 16 pay maker and takers fees of 0.055% and 0.065%, respectively, on spot trades.

The same applies to GT holders who automatically get discounts on trades and other services that require fees. Institutional traders also get special offers but must confirm their identities before they qualify.

Withdrawal and Deposit Fees

Aside from the fees charged while purchasing crypto using the money service portals, Gate.io does not charge deposit fees. However, withdrawal fees apply to every transaction made on the platform.

Withdrawal fees vary from one crypto to another. There is no direct commission charged for withdrawals; however, the fees come through additional charges in the respective tokens.

Crypto Lending Fees

Gate.io charges you commissions when you borrow loans. Interest rates vary based on your VIP level. The higher the VIP level, the lower the interest rates and vice versa.

Ease of Account Opening

Like most top crypto exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase, opening an account with Gate.io is easy. In a few minutes, you have your account ready and set for verification.

Step 1 – Signing Up

Visit Gate.io’s official website and enter your details, including your country of origin, username, email, and then create a strong password.

Next, you enter your fund password. Your fund password is the password you must enter before you withdraw your crypto assets to your wallet. It is an extra security measure to safeguard users from third-party theft. The password must not be the same as your sign-in password.

Visit your email and confirm your account. Afterward, log in to the exchange with your sign-up details and the passcode sent to your email.

Step 2 – Verification Process

KYC Verification is highly rudimentary to performing transactions on Gate.io exchange. It typically takes some hours to complete depending on your locations and the document provided. However, confirmation may take a few working days.

The verification process generally includes the KYC and Security Verification. You are to provide more information about yourself and set up some security measures to prevent vulnerabilities while using the exchange. To do this: 

• Visit the profile icon at the top right corner of your web browser. Toggle and click on KYC/ID verification. 
• You can choose between an individual or organizational account. Be certain of which to pick because afterward, you cannot undo it.
• Click on “Verify Now” to proceed.

To complete KYC verification, you must provide a government-issued ID, driver’s license, or passport with your home address and your visibly shown photo.

Next is to complete your security verification which includes SMS setup, two-factor authentication, anti-phishing code, etc.

Deposit and Withdrawal

On Gate.io, you can deposit, trade, and withdraw crypto to your external wallet hassle-free. There are no direct commissions attached to deposits and withdrawals.

However, in-house commission and additional fees may apply when you use credit/debit cards on money services such as Banxa or bank transfers or withdraw to an external wallet.

You can find your wallet at the top right-hand corner of your web application. Users can also deposit crypto from an external wallet directly to their Gate.io wallets and trading accounts and begin trading instantly.

Platform User Interface and Trading Experience

The user interface (UI) of Gate.io is not user-friendly as beginners may find it hard to use and navigate. However, it contains all the necessary features and tools needed to enhance their trading experiences.

Notwithstanding, the exchange has desktop-web and standalone desktop applications. Both have dark and light modes to enhance visibility for day and night traders. Users can also personalize their settings and notification options.

Gate.io simulates the same advanced charting system as that of Binance and corresponding exchanges. There are indicators and trading tools at your disposal, and you can customize and save your chart preferences and technical analysis. 

Market Price and Market Tracker

The market price and tracker feature are products of Gate.io used to know the respective prices and market activities of various crypto assets. While the Market Price gives the direct price of the crypto, the market tracker gives you a holistic price chart and action of the crypto.

Mobile Application

Gate.io does not have a mobile application, but you can access its features through a mobile web browser as it is compatible with all mobile devices, just like in the web and desktop versions.

Supported Cryptocurrency

In addition to high-volume cryptocurrencies traded on the exchange, Gate.io has over 800 crypto assets available for trading in pairs, including its native GateToken. You can easily swap between cross-chain tokens such as BEP20, TRC20, ERC, etc.

Educational Tools

Gate.io has tons of educational tools. They include:

• Gate Blog: Gate.io publishes educational materials on cryptocurrencies and how to navigate the platform on the Gate Blog page.
• The CryptoPedia dives deeper into blockchain technology and its application in the digital and worldwide market. You can get insight into new and future applications of the blockchain ecosystem.
• Gate News: You can find all the past, future, and present announcements, integration, and innovation on Gate.io in the Gate News section.

Customer Support

There are several ways Gate.io reaches out to its users: email, chatroom, livestream, posts, social media, the help center, and FAQs or sidenotes.

You can contact its customer support through [email protected], or you can activate a customer support ticket and lay your complaints directly to the platform’s 24/7 live chat.

Gate.io is also active on social media channels such as Twitter, Telegram, Instagram, Github. Telegram and Twitter are the most effective avenues you can alternatively reach out to Gate’s customer support team other than email.

Regulation and Security

Gate.io exchange has suffered a lot of setbacks in the past due to poor security measures. Since its hack in 2019, the platform has adopted strict security setups and anti-phishing techniques to protect its users.

Some of the security measures used by the platform include 2FA, email code, passwords, cold and hot wallets, IP binding, etc. The exchange is, however, unregulated but is operational globally.

Is Gate.io Safe?

Yes, Gate.io is safe for trading cryptocurrencies. Your funds and assets are stored in cold wallets using private keys. However, a good rule of thumb is to use an external hard wallet to store your cryptocurrencies for better security.

Conclusion

Gate.io proves to be an outstanding exchange considering its wealth of products and offerings compared to competitor exchanges like Coinbase and Binance. However, the exchange lacks a comprehensive UI, as newbies may find it difficult to navigate and use its features comfortably.