Two checks — cost and trust

Binance vs Bybit.

Two different questions decide this matchup: whether you get your money out, and what a trade really costs. Below, each venue’s sourced Reliability Score sits beside the measured all-in cost of the same €1,000 Bitcoin buy — trading fee plus the hidden spread from the live orderbook, withdrawal included where the venue publishes one — measured 2026-07-29 07:48 UTC.

On reliability, Binance scores 72, Bybit 84 (of 100, sourced & dated). Bybit currently carries the higher score — cheapest and safest need not be the same venue.

At this measurement, the same €1,000 BTC buy cost €1.01 all-in on Binance vs €1.00 on Bybit. Moments and sizes change the answer — the live comparison recomputes for your exact trade.

Binance

Published fee (maker / taker): 0.10% / 0.10%
Reliability Score: 72 / 100
Measured cost · €1,000 BTC buy: €1.01
You get: 0.01767595 BTC
Of which hidden spread: €0.01
BTC withdrawal: not published — excluded

Open Binance ↗affiliate link

Bybit

Published fee (maker / taker): 0.10% / 0.10%
Reliability Score: 84 / 100
Measured cost · €1,000 BTC buy: €1.00
You get: 0.01767591 BTC
Of which hidden spread: €0.00
BTC withdrawal: not published — excluded

Open Bybit ↗affiliate link

Which is safer?

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.

Full sourced basis, incident by incident: Binance · Bybit.

Which is cheaper?

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.

Questions, answered

Is Binance or Bybit cheaper for buying Bitcoin?

At the most recent measurement (measured 2026-07-29 07:48 UTC), a €1,000 Bitcoin buy cost €1.00 all-in on Bybit versus €1.01 on the other venue (trading fee plus the spread measured on the live orderbook). Market conditions and order size change the answer — the live comparison at skontro.com/true-cost recomputes it for any trade.

Is Binance or Bybit safer?

We don't issue safety verdicts. On Skontro's sourced Reliability Score, Binance currently scores 72/100 and Bybit 84/100 — Bybit scores higher. The score is built from documented withdrawal reliability, proof of reserves, regulatory standing, security history, support and maturity; every negative data point is dated and sourced on the venue pages.

What trading fees do Binance and Bybit charge?

Published base-tier fees: Binance 0.10% maker / 0.10% taker; Bybit 0.10% maker / 0.10% taker. The published fee is only part of the real cost — execution spread comes on top and is measured live on this page.

Has Binance or Bybit ever halted withdrawals?

Bybit’s defining stress test is documented: during the February 2025 hack (~$1.4–1.5B in ETH stolen) it kept withdrawals open and processed 99.994% of over 350,000 requests within ~10 hours. Binance paused withdrawals for ~23 minutes as a precaution during the AWS outage of 2025-04-15. Both records are dated and sourced on the Skontro venue pages.

Method, in one paragraph

We walk each venue’s live public orderbook for the exact order size, add the published base-tier fee and the venue’s published withdrawal fee, and rank by what you actually receive. Venues without fresh data are omitted, never faked. The Reliability Score is sourced and dated, and never part of the cost ranking — and ranking is never influenced by affiliate commissions. Cost methodology · Score methodology.

More comparisons

Some venue links are affiliate links. Skontro earns a commission from the linked platform at no extra cost to you. Ranking is never influenced by affiliate payout. Ranking is always by the measured result of the trade — what you actually receive — never by affiliate relationship.