LBank is an offshore crypto exchange that says it was founded in 2015. It is known for listing new tokens and meme coins quickly. Regular users (VIP 0) pay 0.1% maker and 0.1% taker on spot, and 0.02% maker and 0.06% taker on USDT-margined perpetuals. Its user agreement names "LBK Exchange" as the operator, applies the law of the British Virgin Islands and sends disputes to the Dubai International Arbitration Centre. The site does not list any financial licence. Regulators in Japan, Ontario (Canada), the Philippines and Indonesia have each said it served their residents without registration. Residents of the US, Canada, mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, among others, cannot sign up (checked 19 October 2026). This review is built from LBank's website, help centre, official API and regulator notices, as a neutral starting point for anyone looking at the exchange.
It covers the company, licences, products, fees, proof of reserves, security record and regional limits. For fee details see LBank fees, for futures rules see LBank futures guide, and for sign-up steps see how to register on LBank.
LBank at a glance
| Item | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2015 | LBank "About" page |
| Operator | "LBK Exchange" in the user agreement; the site's structured data gives the legal name LBK BLOCKCHAIN CO FZCO | User agreement, homepage |
| Governing law and disputes | British Virgin Islands law; negotiation first, then arbitration at the Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC), seated in Dubai | User agreement |
| Scale (self-reported) | 25 million registered users, 160+ countries and regions, 800+ coins, 600+ futures pairs | LBank "About" page |
| VIP 0 spot fees | 0.1% maker, 0.1% taker | Official VIP page |
| VIP 0 futures fees | 0.02% maker, 0.06% taker | Official VIP page, futures fee article |
| BTCUSDT perpetual max leverage | 200x (default 20x) | Official futures API |
| KYC | The user agreement requires identity verification before trading | User agreement, KYC FAQ |
Sources: LBank "About LBank", LBank User Service Agreement (updated 2026-09-23), LBank VIP page, LBank futures public API, checked 2026-10-19. User numbers and volume are LBank's own claims; we had no third-party data to check them against.
Company and operating entity
LBank publishes little about its corporate set-up. The definitions in the user agreement say "LBank" means the digital asset trading platform at lbank.com operated and managed by LBK Exchange, and that the brand and trademarks belong to LBK Exchange. Structured data embedded in the homepage gives the legal name as LBK BLOCKCHAIN CO FZCO. FZCO is a common suffix for Dubai free-zone companies, but the site gives no registration number or address.
Regulator documents use other names too. The Ontario Securities Commission warning calls it "LBank Exchange (PT LBK Teknology Indonesia) and LBK Exchange Limited". Indonesia's OJK listed "LBK Blockchain Co Limited (lbank)" in June 2026. Japan's FSA wrote in 2024 that both the representative and the address were "unknown". LBank's website lists no place of incorporation, no registration number and no financial licence for the entity that runs it, which is the clearest difference from most large exchanges. If something goes wrong, it is hard to know which country's regulator to turn to.
Licences and regulator actions
We found no licence page on LBank's website, its "About" page or its help centre. Third-party sites often say LBank holds a US FinCEN MSB registration and similar, but LBank's own pages don't mention it, so we left it out. These are the regulator notices we could find:
| Date | Body | What it says |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-06-14 | Japan Financial Services Agency | Warning that "LBank Exchange" ran a crypto exchange business for Japanese residents without registration; representative and address unknown |
| 2025-05-20 | LBank's own notice (Dubai VARA) | LBank said it was applying for a Dubai VARA licence; new UAE sign-ups paused, existing UAE users limited to cancelling orders, closing positions and withdrawing |
| 2025-08-20 | Philippine SEC | Named LBank among five platforms that let Filipinos register with +63 numbers and pay in pesos without being registered as crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) |
| 2025-08-27 | Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) | Investor warning: www.lbank.com is not registered in Ontario to engage in the business of trading in securities |
| 2026-06 | Indonesia OJK Satgas PASTI | LBK Blockchain Co Limited (lbank) on the list of illegal digital asset traders submitted for blocking |
Sources: Japan FSA warning (PDF), LBank notice for UAE users, full text of the Philippine SEC advisory reproduced by BitPinas (we couldn't find the original on the SEC site), OSC investor warning, OJK Satgas PASTI release, checked 2026-10-19. We did not search the VARA public register entry by entry, and LBank has posted no follow-up on whether it got the Dubai licence.
These notices are about operating without a local licence. None of them accuses LBank of misusing customer funds. What they do mean is that local regulators in those places can't help users if a problem comes up. For how licensing works by country, see crypto exchange licences by country.
What LBank offers
- Spot: LBank says it supports 800+ coins, with separate Innovation and Meme zones. Fast listings are its main pitch; the "About" page says a token can go from creation to listing in as little as one hour.
- USDT-margined perpetuals: the official API listed 842 USDT perpetuals on 2026-10-19, including tokenised US stocks, gold and silver. BTCUSDT and ETHUSDT go up to 200x, GOLDUSDT and XAUTUSDT up to 500x, and most coins 20x to 75x. Rules are in the LBank futures guide.
- Copy trading, grid bots and leveraged tokens: the help centre has guides for copy trading, futures grid and 3x LTS leveraged tokens.
- Earn: flexible, locked and airdrop-style products, with terms on each product page.
- Buying crypto and P2P: card purchases through third parties such as Simplex, Mercuryo and Banxa, plus a P2P market.
Product counts and listing speed are LBank's own figures. Fast listing has a flip side: the announcements page carries many notices about suspended trading, delistings and paused deposits or withdrawals, so check a small coin's notice history before you trade it.
LBank fees in brief
LBank sets your VIP level from your past 30 days of spot volume, futures volume or average daily asset balance. Meeting any one of the three is enough, and levels update daily at 10:00 (UTC+8). Here is VIP 0 next to the regular-user fees at a few large exchanges:
| Exchange | Spot maker / taker | USDT-M futures maker / taker |
|---|---|---|
| LBank | 0.1% / 0.1% | 0.02% / 0.06% |
| Binance | 0.1% / 0.1% | 0.02% / 0.05% |
| OKX | 0.08% / 0.1% | 0.02% / 0.05% |
| Bybit | 0.1% / 0.1% | 0.02% / 0.055% |
| Bitget | 0.1% / 0.1% | 0.02% / 0.06% |
LBank figures are from the LBank VIP page (checked 2026-10-19). The other four are VIP 0 list fees from each exchange's official fee page, last checked by Fee Otter on 2026-09-24; the full table is in our VIP fee comparison. LBank's 0.06% futures taker fee matches Bitget and is 0.01 percentage points above Binance and OKX. We found no rule on LBank's official pages for paying fees with its LBK token at a discount; the VIP page only mentions paying fees in USDT.
USDT withdrawal fees depend on the network. On 2026-10-19 the official API showed 0.2 USDT on BEP20, 1.5 USDT on TRC20 and 1 USDT on ERC20. VIP tiers, withdrawal fees and worked examples are in LBank fees; the deposit and withdrawal process is in LBank deposit and withdrawal.
Proof of reserves and transparency
After the FTX collapse in November 2022, LBank announced it "will publish" a Merkle-tree proof of reserves. A February 2024 notice said Merkle-tree proof of reserves had been introduced and shared one BTC hot-wallet address and one ETH hot-wallet address. We found no regularly updated proof-of-reserves page (lbank.com/proof-of-reserves returns 404) and no report from an outside accountant or auditor.
LBank's February 2024 notice says it is sharing "select addresses from our hot wallets": BTC 1MZwhQkkt9wy8Mwm4rx5W3AYiDCJLasffn and ETH 0xfa9f7a1cbfbcb688729c522b4f0905ccf4d26d25. (LBank Strengthens Transparency & Security)
Two hot-wallet addresses show what sits in those two addresses. They say nothing about total customer liabilities, so no reserve ratio can be worked out. The public data isn't enough to tell whether LBank's reserves are fully backed. For how exchanges compare, see proof of reserves compared; LBank's details are in LBank proof of reserves.
Security and outage record
In regulator notices and major media we found no record of LBank being hacked or losing customer funds. What we did find is a series of futures-system problems that LBank announced itself, each time promising to compensate verified losses:
| When | What LBank reported | How it said it would handle it |
|---|---|---|
| Late Aug 2025 | A traffic surge overloaded the system; some users had delays or couldn't trade | Liquidated users compensated at 1.2x the liquidation amount, plus a 100 USDT fee voucher; claims through support within 5 days |
| 2025-12-21 to 22 | Futures front end displayed wrongly in some regions; some users may not have been able to close positions | Submit a ticket; compensation after verification |
| 2025-12-28 | For about an hour some ETH futures users saw abnormal mark prices, which may have caused liquidations | Full compensation within one working day |
| 2026-05-31 | About 45 minutes of front-end display problems affecting position closing and transfers | Submit a ticket; compensation after verification |
Sources: LBank notices Futures Anomaly Explanation and Compensation Plan, Futures Display Anomaly Explanation (12.21), ETH Contract Abnormality (12.28) and Display Issue in LBank Futures System on May 31, 2026, checked 2026-10-19. We can't verify whether the compensation was actually paid.
Four futures-system incidents in under a year matter most to people running large or high-leverage positions. LBank also runs a "$100 million futures risk protection fund" campaign: for the top 100 CoinMarketCap pairs, if a platform-related wick moves the price more than 2% away from a fair price within one minute and snaps back, it pays 120% of the liquidation or stop-loss loss (official campaign notice). These are campaign rules that LBank can change or end at any time.
LBank has also warned about phishing sites such as lbnkex.com and lbankex.com, and suggests checking links and support accounts on its official verification page.
Where LBank is not available
LBank publishes three regional lists that don't fully match. It's safer to treat the three lists combined as the restricted area:
- User agreement (updated 2026-09-23), no registration or investment from: Afghanistan, Antigua and Barbuda, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Crimea, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Donetsk, Egypt, Guinea-Bissau, Hong Kong SAR, Iran, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Luhansk, Macao SAR, mainland China, Mali, Mauritania, North Korea, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Darfur, Syria, United States, Uruguay, Yemen and Canada. A second list later in the same agreement also names Belarus.
- KYC FAQ (updated 2026-07-24) adds Venezuela, India and Palau.
- SMS restrictions notice (2026-04-10) says service is also unavailable in +7 regions such as Russia and Kazakhstan, Ukraine and the UAE. Phone numbers from more than 30 other country codes can't register by SMS, including Vietnam, Germany, Italy, Pakistan and Nigeria.
Sources: user agreement, KYC FAQ, SMS service restrictions notice, checked 2026-10-19.
United States: the user agreement says LBank provides no personal accounts to US residents and no corporate accounts to entities set up or operating in the US.
Indonesia: Indonesia isn't on LBank's lists, but OJK put LBK Blockchain Co Limited (lbank) on its June 2026 blocking list, and LBank is not on OJK's list of licensed traders. Tax and funding routes are in Indonesia crypto tax.
Mainland China, Hong Kong: Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau are all restricted, and the help centre says emails at qq.com or 163.com may not be accepted.
Who LBank suits, and who it doesn't
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Fast listings, many new and meme coins | No licence published; several regulators say it operates without registration |
| Wide futures range, including tokenised US stocks and metals | Proof of reserves limited to two hot-wallet addresses, no regular report |
| VIP 1 reachable with a 10,000 USDT average daily balance alone | 0.06% futures taker fee, higher than some large exchanges |
| Public compensation promises after outages | Four futures-system incident notices in under a year; frequent delistings and paused transfers for small coins |
LBank fits traders who want early access to newly listed small coins, accept platform risk and keep only the money they're actively using on the exchange. If licensing, local legal protection or long-term storage of large amounts matters to you, look first at a platform licensed where you live.
Risks
LBank publishes no licence and no full proof of reserves, so if something goes wrong there may be no regulator able to step in; only keep there what you can afford to lose entirely. Newly listed small coins can swing wildly and may become impossible to sell after a delisting, and futures can wipe out your margin in minutes. Anyone claiming to be "LBank support" who promises profits, offers to trade for you or asks you to send money to a personal account should be checked against the official verification page first.
FAQ
Is LBank a legal exchange?
LBank's website lists no financial licence. Regulators in Japan, Ontario, the Philippines and Indonesia have said it served their residents without registration. Whether you may use it depends on the law where you live.
Where is LBank based?
The user agreement names LBK Exchange as operator, applies British Virgin Islands law and seats arbitration in Dubai. The site's structured data says LBK BLOCKCHAIN CO FZCO. No registration number or address is published.
Has LBank been hacked?
We found no record in regulator notices or major media of customer funds being stolen from LBank. We did find four futures-system incidents between August 2025 and May 2026, after which LBank said it would compensate verified losses.
What are LBank's trading fees?
VIP 0 pays 0.1% maker and taker on spot, and 0.02% maker and 0.06% taker on USDT-margined futures (official VIP page, 2026-10-19).
Does LBank have proof of reserves?
A February 2024 notice announced Merkle-tree proof of reserves and shared one BTC and one ETH hot-wallet address. We found no regularly updated reserves page and no third-party audit.
Can I use LBank in the US?
No. The user agreement excludes US residents and US-based companies.
