The LSE Directory / Crypto exchanges
Gate is a centralized cryptocurrency exchange operating today under the gate.com domain (the Gate.io brand name is retained), offering spot trading, margin trading with leverage, futures and options contracts, and staking-style wealth management products across roughly 4,600 to 4,700 listed cryptocurrencies. As of mid-2026 CoinMarketCap's live rankings place the platform second globally by 24-hour spot trading volume, with the exchange citing more than 52 million registered users worldwide. It was originally launched in China in April 2013 as bter.com by founder Lin Han, then relocated to the Cayman Islands and rebranded Gate.io in 2017 as Chinese regulators tightened rules on domestic crypto exchanges; the brand consolidated onto the gate.com domain in 2025. The exchange has built its reputation on breadth and speed of token listings, frequently adding smaller-cap and newly launched tokens ahead of larger competitors, which draws an active altcoin-trading and early-token-access audience rather than a strictly institutional one. It runs its own venture and research arms, Gate Ventures and Gate Labs, to source and vet early-stage blockchain projects, and operates a Startup launchpad that lets users participate in initial exchange offerings for vetted tokens. It has also built an in-house layer-1 blockchain, GateChain, an EVM-compatible proof-of-stake network with a Vault Account feature that lets users set time-delayed, revocable transfers as an on-chain theft-recovery mechanism, a security differentiator most rival exchanges do not offer at the base-chain level. Gate also publishes periodic zero-knowledge proof-of-reserves attestations rather than relying solely on third-party audits. Founded April 2013 by Lin Han, who holds a doctorate and moved from an academic/technical background into bitcoin trading; the exchange, then bter.com, survived a February 2015 breach in which roughly 7,170 BTC, worth about $1.7 million at the time, was stolen. As of January 6, 2026 the company reported total reserves of about $9.478 billion against a 125 percent reserve coverage ratio. Its Malta-based entity, Gate Technology Ltd, received a MiCA license from the Malta Financial Services Authority in 2025 covering exchange and custody services across the EU, followed in February 2026 by a Payment Institution license under the EU's PSD2 framework from the same regulator; the group also holds registrations or licenses in jurisdictions including Hong Kong, Dubai, Australia, Italy, Gibraltar, the Bahamas and Japan (the last via a 2024 acquisition of a Japan-licensed exchange). The company is headquartered in George Town, Cayman Islands, with additional offices including Seoul, South Korea. The 2025 MiCA license and the early-2026 Malta payment institution license mark a continued push into EU-regulated operations, part of a broader wave of major exchanges, including Coinbase, Kraken, Bybit and OKX, securing MiCA authorization as the regulation came into force across the bloc. Gate paired that compliance push with the gate.com domain consolidation while keeping Gate.io as its long-standing, recognized brand name.
