Binance vs Bybit.

Which is safer? — the sourced record

Proof of reserves is the clearest structural difference. Bybit publishes a monthly Merkle-tree proof-of-reserves audited by Hacken with on-chain wallets (the December 2025 report showed BTC 105%, ETH 101%, USDT 102% coverage). Binance self-publishes a regular Merkle-tree proof with zk-SNARKs and on-chain disclosure (January 2026: BTC ratio 100.06%) — but without independent auditor sign-off.

On regulation, Bybit holds a MiCAR CASP licence (Austria’s FMA, decision 2025-05-28) with its European headquarters in Vienna and EEA passporting; it paid an Indian FIU penalty of ~$1.06M in early 2025 and completed registration there. Binance had no MiCAR licence verified as of the 2026-06-10 research pass (a Greek application was pending) and resolved a $4.3B US enforcement action with a guilty plea in November 2023; its SEC civil suit was dismissed with prejudice in May 2025.

Then there is the event that defines Bybit’s record: on 2025-02-21, approximately $1.4–1.5B in ETH was stolen via compromised third-party wallet infrastructure — the largest crypto theft on record, attributed by the FBI to Lazarus. What the incident record also shows: withdrawals stayed open throughout, 99.994% of more than 350,000 withdrawal requests were processed within ~10 hours, the gap was closed within ~72 hours, and 1:1 client backing was restored and subsequently Hacken-audited, with no user losses reported. Binance’s recent record is milder in kind: a ~23-minute precautionary withdrawal pause during the 2025-04-15 AWS outage, and $283M in user compensation paid within days of the 2025-10-10 crash-day depegs. The live scores above weigh both records with 24-month decay — sources and dates on each venue page.

Which is cheaper? — what stays true between snapshots

Published base-tier fees and the measured cost of the same $1,000 BTC buy are in the live cards above; the hidden-spread component moves with each venue’s orderbook depth at measurement time. Both venues publish a fixed BTC withdrawal fee (shown live above from their published schedules), so the withdrawal leg enters both totals on equal terms. As always: the ranking is by what you actually receive, never by affiliate relationship — and a snapshot is not a verdict, so recompute your own size on the live tool.