WikiBit Exchange Exit Risk Rankings #51: Bitget — 131% Reserve Ratio, a $387.5 Million Theft, and ZachXBT’s Claim That Its CEO Is Just a “Figurehead”
Introduction: The Regulatory Cracks Behind a Data-Driven Success Story In our first 50 installments, we investigated a series of exchanges ranging from HashKey to Gate. For Episode 51, we turn to a platform whose compliance narrative appears particularly contradictory: Bitget. On paper, Bitget performs impressively across several key metrics. It has more than 125 million users worldwide, held a 6.4% market share at the end of 2025, and ranked sixth globally. It has published 47 consecutive Proof of Reserves (PoR) reports, reports an overall reserve ratio of 131%, responds to 81% of negative Trustpilot reviews, and holds a 4.6-star rating on both the Apple App Store and Google Play. From almost any angle, it looks like a major exchange that takes its operations seriously. But there is another side to the story. In November 2023, France‘s financial markets regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), placed Bitget on its blacklist, confirming that it was operating without authorization. Although its blacklist status was removed on July 9, 2026, Bitget also exited the French market around the same time. As of October 2026, Bitget is still absent from the European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) register of MiCA-authorized Crypto-Asset Service Providers (CASPs), and the MiCA transitional
