Binance or Bybit: which is better for your first futures trades?

01Start with the one that actually works where you live

Before anything else, check that the exchange even opens for you. Bybit's restricted list (updated 16 October 2026) covers the United States, Canada, mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Uzbekistan and several sanctioned places, and the list is not exhaustive. Bybit's list also names Dubai, but only for one of its local entities — if you are in the UAE, check in the app which entity signs you up and whether futures are there.

Binance does not offer futures and other leveraged products in the United Kingdom, Brazil, Australia, South Korea, New Zealand or Hong Kong, and does not serve users in the United States, Canada, the Netherlands and a few sanctioned places. Both lists can change without notice, and neither exchange publishes a clean "futures are available here" map — so the only reliable check is to go through sign-up yourself and see whether the futures tab opens for you. More on that in which futures exchanges are available in my country.

02How the two terminals feel in your first week

The order window looks much the same on both: LONG and SHORT buttons, a leverage selector, a choice between isolated and cross margin, market or limit order, and fields for stop-loss and take-profit. If you can open a trade on one, you can open it on the other. What differs is the amount of company that window keeps — Bybit keeps fewer other products in front of you on the way to futures, while on Binance you walk past spot, bots and copy trading first. Both get you to the same order window.

Binance also has a few rules that quietly protect a new account. When you open the futures account you pick an experience level, and that sets your starting leverage — "Beginner" starts you at 2x. For the first 30 days you cannot go above 20x at all. One thing to fix yourself: new contracts open in cross margin by default, and for a first trade you usually want isolated margin instead, so only the money you set aside for that position is at stake.

03Fees: same structure, different numbers

Both exchanges charge the same way. The fee is a small percentage of the size of your trade — not of your margin — and it is charged twice: once when you open and once when you close. You pay the lower maker rate when you place a limit order and it waits in the queue for someone to trade against it; you pay the higher taker rate when your order fills straight away at the price on screen.

On Binance USDⓈ-M futures the base level is 0.02% maker and 0.05% taker, dropping to 0.018% and 0.045% if you let the exchange take fees in BNB. Bybit publishes its own futures schedule in the app, and both exchanges adjust tiers over time, so compare the two fee pages on the day you sign up rather than trusting any article's table. On a 500 USDT position at 0.05% each way you are talking about half a dollar in total — real, but not what decides whether you make money. Exchanges sometimes attach a fee discount to a sign-up link, and the conditions change — what that actually means is explained in this page on referral links.

04Trying it without money first

Bybit has a demo trading mode with play money, which is the gentlest way to learn where the buttons are and what it feels like when the exchange closes your trade on its own because the margin ran out — that is called liquidation, and in demo it costs you nothing (more on liquidation). Binance has demo trading too, for spot and both futures types, but it is not available in all countries — so if practice without risk is your main reason for choosing, the quickest route is to sign up on Bybit and switch the app into demo mode, then try the same on Binance and see which one lets you in.

Demo teaches the mechanics, not the nerves. Your fills are simulated and you feel nothing when a position goes red, so treat it as a rehearsal of where things are, then move to a tiny real position.

05Signing up, verifying and putting money in

On Binance the futures tab opens only after you open a futures account, choose your experience level, accept the futures agreement and verify your identity. Expect something similar on Bybit — follow whatever the app asks, and have a passport or national ID photo ready either way. What identity verification involves is much the same on both.

For funding, both let you buy USDT with a card, a bank transfer or directly from another user, but which of those actually appear depends on your country — your real options show up on the deposit screen once the account is open. One extra step on Binance: money you deposit lands in your spot wallet, and you move it to the futures wallet with an internal transfer inside the account before you can trade.

06So which one for you?

• You want to practise in demo first and mostly trade coin perpetuals — start with Bybit.
• You want traditional markets as well as coins — Binance lists perpetuals on stocks, gold, silver and oil; Bybit also has contracts on traditional markets. The exact tickers differ, so if you have a specific one in mind, search for it in each app before you deposit.
• You are in the EEA — Bybit signs you up through a separate European entity on bybit.eu, which is its own account with its own terms, and Binance may also route you to a local entity whose product list is not identical to the global one.
• Neither one opens for you — see which exchange suits a beginner for the other options.

If you are still torn, open the one that lets you in, put in an amount you would not mind losing, and take a single small trade with a stop-loss. The walkthrough in how to trade futures on Bybit step by step covers the taps; the habits that keep you solvent are in how to set a stop loss.