Summary
Gate.io Canada Review
The bottom line is if Gate.io wasn't banned in Canada, it would be a good, low-cost altcoin exchange with 1,400+ cryptos. However, it's not worth using a VPN because they can freeze your account or lock your funds at any moment.
If you want a similar altcoin exchange, MEXC Global is the best alternative. It has 1,500+ coins, zero spot trading fees, and billion in trading volume. Keep reading if you still want to learn about Gate.io.
Pros & Cons of Gate.io
Gate.io In Canada: What You Need To Know
Does Gate.io Work In Canada? Gate.io has unfortunately disallowed Canadian users. Their user agreement says, “Use of the service by users from the United States of America, Mainland China, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Malta, Cuba, Iran, NorthKorea, Sudan, Syria, Crimea region, Bolivia is prohibited."
How Can Canadians Get Around The Ban? By using a VPN like ExpressVPN, you can change your IP address to a different country. However, I don't recommend this since they can potentially lock your account and take your funds.
Gate.io Verification for Canadians & Loophole
When you visit Gate.io from Canada, you will get a message that looks something like this:
You can click "confirm" and go on to open an account with just an email address. However, once you try to deposit funds it will ask you to do a light KYC. For this review, I entered entirely fake info as you can see below.
Within 24 hours, I passed KYC and had a verified with fake info. However, I still wouldn't recommend using Gate.io. It's not worth it because at any moment they can take your funds and ban your account.
About Gate.io
Founded in 2013, Gate.io has been around for a while. They have 12 million users and it's one of the 15 largest crypto exchanges in the world by trading volume. One of the main reasons people like Gate.io is because they have 1,400 altcoins, low fees, and advanced trading features. Plus, on their 9th birthday, they rebranded the platform to make it more user-friendly and easier to use which was a big downside in the past.
Key Features
Gate.io is loaded with features. They have more coins than any other centralized exchange (1,400+) and they offer many types of trading such as spot, margin, derivatives, interest accounts, trading bots, and more. Here's an overview of their top offers:
1,400 Cryptocurrencies
Gate.io is one of the better altcoin exchanges since it offers the widest selection of cryptos. Binance currently has 600+ and KuCoin has 700+ and Gate.io has 1,400+. If you want to trade large-cap and small-cap altcoins, Gate.io has it all. You also get zero trading fees on all BTC and ETH trading pairs. However, most trading pairs are in USDT which will have a max 0.20% fee.
Spot Trading / Margin / Derivatives
Gate.io offers countless ways to trade including spot trading, 10x leverage trading, perpetual futures, options, and more. They also have Strategy Bots and Copy Trading if you want to make the same moves as successful traders.
Plus Many Other Features
Gate.io Fees
Gate-Io’s fees vary depending on what type of trading you do, what cryptos you trade, how much GT you hold (if any), and your 30 day trading volume.
Gate.io has maximum maker/taker fees at 0.20%/0.20%. You can lower these fees further if you hold Gate Token (GT). The more GT you hold or the more trading volume you do overall, the lower your fees will be. Gate.io also introduced 0% trading fees for all BTC and ETH trading pairs.
Deposit & Withdrawals for Canadians
Gate.io does not support fiat currencies on the platform, so there is no CAD wallets or CAD trading pairs. The best and cheapest way to fund your account is to deposit a popular cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, Stellar or USDT using a Canadian-friendly exchange. The cheapest and best ones that I reviewed are NDAX, VirgoCx, and Newton which all have free inteac e-transfers and bank transfers.
To cash out from Gate.io, you can withdraw your crypto to any wallet address (eg: hardware wallet or Canadian exchange wallet). Crypto withdrawal fees are dynamic and multi-chain withdrawals are supported.
Gate.io supports credit/debit purchases but only through third-party services which have enormous fees (>5.00%). Plus, they might get blocked by your Canadian bank.
The Bottom Line
While Gate.io used to be a good altcoin exchange for Canadians, it's now restricted in Canada so it's better to use other options.
At the moment, MEXC Global is one of the best altcoin exchange for Canadians. If you want to compare crypto exchanges or find the best fiat on-ramp, check out out free comparison tool here.
