Which Countries Does MEXC Restrict?
The Prohibited Jurisdictions clause sits at the top of MEXC's User Agreement, last revised on 29 May 2025. It names eleven countries and regions, excludes the Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine as a group, and adds a catch-all covering any territory under comprehensive EU or OFAC sanctions or on the FATF blacklist, the roster of jurisdictions the global anti-money-laundering watchdog marks for counter-measures.
Kazakhstan is the newest name, added after the country reserved exchange activity for platforms authorised inside the Astana International Financial Centre. Residents there can find compliant venues in our guide to the best crypto exchanges in Kazakhstan.
The agreement obliges users to disclose any move into a banned territory, and a false residency claim lets MEXC close the account and force-close open positions. The company can also rewrite the list at will and app availability differs by market, so the User Agreement is the record that counts.
Why MEXC Blocks These Jurisdictions
Sanctions law, licensing gaps, and outright national bans each put names on the list, and the cause of each block signals whether it could ever lift.
These are the forces behind the list:
- Sanctions obligations: Comprehensive programmes covering North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and the occupied areas of Ukraine leave the exchange no lawful path to those territories. MEXC anchors this to measures enforced by the US Treasury's OFAC, America's sanctions authority, along with EU restrictions and the FATF blacklist named in its terms.
- Missing licences: American law demands federal registrations plus state money transmitter licences, Singapore requires a Payment Services Act licence from its central bank, and Hong Kong runs a mandatory licensing regime for trading platforms. MEXC holds none of these approvals, so its terms exclude the residents instead.
- Regulator pressure and national bans: The UK prohibition arrived after the FCA publicly told consumers to avoid the firm, Kazakhstan permits exchange activity only through its financial centre's licensing regime, and Mainland China bars retail crypto trading altogether.
MEXC Supported Countries
Outside the prohibited list, MEXC serves a claimed base of more than 40 million users across 170+ markets, with over 3,000 listed assets and a spot market that charges no trading fees.
Similarweb measured the June audience for mexc.com with the United States on top at 8.83% of desktop visits, ahead of the Philippines at 7.07%, Singapore at 6.92%, India at 6.8%, and Uzbekistan at 4.13%. Visits from America and Singapore come from people reaching the website only, because registration fails in both markets.
Where the platform operates freely, its strongest footholds run through Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the CIS. Local-currency P2P trading, where buyers and sellers deal with each other directly, carries much of that activity.
Can I Use MEXC in the EU Under MiCA?
Access continues in practice, but the legal basis has gone. MiCA, short for Markets in Crypto-Assets, is the EU law that put every crypto platform in the bloc under one authorisation regime, and its transition period ended on 1 July. Only firms holding a crypto-asset service provider authorisation listed with ESMA, the EU's markets supervisor, may now lawfully serve EEA residents. MEXC holds no such authorisation and has disclosed no application.
The exchange saw the cliff edge coming, telling European users in June to finish their withdrawals before the deadline. What happened next contradicted that notice. A compliance watchdog opened and fully verified an EU account on the day the transition closed, and later reporting found the platform still reachable across the bloc.
European traders on MEXC now hold the weakest position of any of its markets. MiCA's investor protections never attach, no EU authority supervises the relationship, and enforcement could sever access with little warning. Anyone who prefers a supervised venue can compare the best MiCA-licensed crypto exchanges.
Is MEXC Available in the UK?
No, and the exclusion is now written into the terms. The FCA has placed MEXC Global Ltd on its Warning List, stating the firm is unauthorised and that consumers should avoid dealing with it. The User Agreement lists the United Kingdom among the full prohibitions, replacing the earlier app-level limit.
Because the firm was never authorised, nothing held on the platform qualifies for FSCS compensation, and the Financial Ombudsman Service cannot take complaints about it. Our ranking of the best crypto exchanges in the UK covers venues operating inside the FCA's regime.
Can I Use MEXC in the USA?
No. The United States tops the prohibited list, and MEXC has never built an American entity or sought the approvals one would need, from derivatives registration with the CFTC to money services registration with FinCEN and transmitter licences state by state. Geoblocking and identity checks enforce the exclusion at sign-up.
Washington's lighter enforcement stance has tempted other offshore exchanges back, though MEXC has given no signal it will follow. Our guide to the best crypto exchanges in the USA ranks the platforms that hold the required American approvals.
Is MEXC Licensed and Regulated?
MEXC holds no tier-one licence in any market it serves, and its enforcement file keeps growing while rival exchanges collect approvals. Estonia's Financial Intelligence Unit revoked the licence of MEXC Estonia OÜ in November 2023, and Hong Kong's SFC added the platform to its Suspicious Virtual Asset Trading Platforms Alert List in March 2024 for courting local investors without a licence. The FCA warning completes a pattern spanning three major financial centres.
The cost of that gap surfaced in the account-freeze disputes. In July 2025 the exchange locked roughly $3.1 million belonging to the pseudonymous trader The White Whale over suspected automated trading, then returned the money and apologised publicly once a sustained public campaign made the case impossible to ignore. A fresh round of freeze complaints emerged this February, and affected users have no ombudsman to turn to because no authority supervises the platform.
Does MEXC Require KYC?
Registration needs only an email address or phone number, and basic spot and futures trading opens without documents. That privacy appeal has narrowed, since unverified withdrawals now cap near 1,000 USDT per day in most regions.
The verification tiers unlock access in stages:
- Unverified: Sign up with an email or phone number for spot and futures access, with withdrawals capped around 1,000 USDT per day and no fiat services.
- Primary KYC: Submit a government-issued ID and selfie to raise the daily withdrawal limit to 80 BTC and open fiat purchases in supported markets.
- Advanced KYC: Complete facial recognition and liveness checks to lift the ceiling to 200 BTC per day and unlock full feature and promotion access.
Verification doubles as geographic enforcement, since an ID issued by a prohibited jurisdiction cannot clear the checks.
About MEXC
MEXC launched in 2018 and operates from Victoria in the Seychelles, building its retail following on zero spot fees, futures leverage up to 500x, and one of the broadest altcoin catalogues in the industry. Vugar Usi took over as CEO this year and marked the platform's eighth anniversary with a rebrand centred on zero fees and market expansion.
Product growth now reaches beyond crypto. The TradFi lineup added RealStocks for real US stock and ETF trading through a licensed broker partner, more than 260 stock and index futures, tokenised equities, and a Pre-IPO Launchpad whose SpaceX rounds drew over 173 million USDT in subscriptions. We break down the fee schedule, security history, and product suite in our MEXC review.
Final Thoughts
Restriction pages usually track a shrinking list as licences accumulate. This one records the reverse. Within a single revision of its terms, MEXC turned a UK app limit into a ban, added Kazakhstan, and let its European access outlive its European legality.
Supported markets still get one of the deepest altcoin catalogues in crypto at fee levels no licensed rival matches. What they give up is recourse. The freeze disputes show what that costs when a withdrawal stalls.
Before funding an account, read the current User Agreement. The prohibited list sits near the top of the document, and MEXC reserves the right to redraw it at any time.
