edgeX vs MEXC

edgeX or MEXC: which to use

edgeX vs MEXC is a decentralized exchange against a centralized one. On edgeX you trade from a self-custody wallet without ID, at 4 bp maker and 4.5 bp taker, up to 100x. MEXC requires KYC before trading, holds your funds in an account, and charges 1 bp maker and 4 bp taker, up to 1000x. MEXC lists 1202 perp markets against edgeX's 179, and edgeX pays funding every 4 hours on every market. Custody, ID and market count are the main differences between them.

How each exchange is built

edgeX is a decentralized exchange (DEX) that runs on edgeX L2. You log in with a wallet or MPC login, and you trade from your own self-custody wallet. It matches orders on a central limit order book.

MEXC is a centralized exchange (CEX): you open an account with the company, and the account holds your funds. It also matches orders on a central limit order book.

Both match orders on a central limit order book. The difference is custody. On edgeX your wallet is the account. On MEXC the company's account is, and trading needs a verified identity.

Fees and what they mean

edgeX's base tier is 4 bp maker and 4.5 bp taker, per edgeX's fee page. MEXC's base tier is 1 bp maker and 4 bp taker, read from MEXC's API, which has no fee page to link.

A taker fee is paid when an order takes liquidity, so a market order pays it to open and again to close. That is 9 bp per round trip on edgeX and 8 bp on MEXC at base tier. A limit order that rests on the book and is filled later pays the maker fee instead: 4 bp on edgeX and 1 bp on MEXC.

Fees are only part of a trade's cost. Slippage, the price you move by eating through the order book, grows with size. The cost table above adds the taker fee twice and the measured slippage at each size from $1k to $5M, and every exchange's trading cost is compared on one page.

Markets and leverage

As of 1 October 2026 edgeX has 179 active perp markets, 107 of them stocks, commodities, FX or other real-world assets. MEXC has 1202, of which 93 are real-world assets. edgeX therefore has more real-world asset markets than MEXC, while MEXC has far more markets in total.

edgeX offers up to 100x on its highest-leverage market and MEXC up to 1000x. Most markets on both allow less, so check the cap of the market you trade.

Funding is the periodic payment between longs and shorts, and a positive rate means longs pay shorts. edgeX pays it every 4 hours on every market, so a position settles 6 times a day. MEXC pays every 1 hour, 4 hours, 8 hours or 24 hours depending on the market. Check a market's interval before you hold it: an hourly market settles 24 times a day, a 24-hour market once. The list further down this page shows the markets both exchanges have, each one's funding rate and the spread between them.

Who can use them

edgeX asks for no ID. A wallet or MPC login works. It is closed to US and Ontario residents and to sanctioned countries, and it forbids VPNs.

MEXC requires KYC before trading, and has since February 2026. Unverified accounts see market data only.

Token and points

edgeX's token is $EDGE, and as of 19 September 2026 its points and airdrop program status was "Active". The airdrops page lists the points programs running and the tokens launched. MEXC's token is $MX. edgeX has no vault run by the exchange that arb.sh tracks.

Reading the numbers on this page

Both exchanges publish open interest as one side of open positions. The open interest row and chart above are therefore a like-for-like comparison of position size between them, with no halving or doubling needed.

TVL is different. On arb.sh it is DefiLlama's figure, and for edgeX it is the deposits its bridge holds. MEXC publishes no TVL, as is usual for a centralized exchange, so that row and chart show edgeX alone.

Which one fits you

• Pick edgeX if you want to keep funds in your own wallet and trade without ID.
• Pick edgeX if you want every market on a fixed 4-hour funding schedule.
• Pick edgeX if you want stock, commodity and FX perps: 107 of its 179 markets are real-world assets.
• Pick MEXC if you prefer an exchange account and accept KYC before trading.
• Pick MEXC if you rest limit orders: 1 bp maker against 4 bp.
• Pick MEXC if you need more than 100x, or want a choice of 1202 markets.

To see where funding differs between the two on the same asset, use the funding arbitrage ranking, which lists every exchange pair by spread.