Bitflyer vs Lbank: Fees, Security, Features & Which to Choose (2025)

Trying to choose between Bitflyer and Lbank This side-by-side comparison reveals total cost (fees + spreads), security & licenses, coins/derivatives, deposits/withdrawals, and app quality. In 2 minutes you’ll see who wins for beginners, active traders, and long-term holders. Clear pros/cons, a quick verdict, and safe links to get started.

Last updated on August 16, 2025

Bitflyer

Lbank

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Available Countries

United States

Yes

Europe

Yes

Latin America

India

China

Canada

United Kingdom

Yes

United States

Yes

Europe

Yes

Latin America

Yes

India

China

Yes

Canada

Yes

United Kingdom

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Bitflyer is ideal if:

Great for cautious starters – Offers a clean, beginner-friendly interface with strong regulation and security, especially suited if you value peace of mind and a guided experience.
Smart for professionals too – Its Lightning platform and API support advanced trading styles while remaining within a trusted, compliant ecosystem.
Best for mainstream assets – Focuses on the core major cryptocurrencies rather than obscure altcoins—ideal if you're after simplicity, not a sprawling asset list.

Lbank is ideal if:

Altcoin & Meme Enthusiast Fit: With hundreds of altcoins and a dedicated “Meme Zone,” it's ideal for traders chasing emerging tokens and meme-driven trends.
Passive Income Friendly: Offers optional staking, Launchpad & Launchpool features, plus copy-trading tools—great for users looking to earn without nonstop manual trading.
Fiat On-Ramp Simplicity: Supports instant fiat buying, P2P options, and broad fiat access via multiple gateways—making entry smooth for beginners and casual investors.

Bitflyer isn’t ideal if:

Not for altcoin hunters — Offers only a small selection of mainstream cryptocurrencies, limiting your options if you're looking to explore lesser-known tokens.
Limited advanced trading tools — Lacks robust derivatives, futures, lending, and staking features that active or margin traders often need.
Less competitive for cost-focused users — May involve higher spreads or fewer deposit options compared to more versatile, low-cost exchanges.

Lbank isn’t ideal if:

Support-Dependent: If you're looking for fast, multi-channel customer service, LBank may feel too limited—it mainly relies on email and live chat, with slow response times.
Beginner Unfriendly: Without demo accounts, structured tutorials, or an extensive FAQ, newbies might find it hard to get started confidently.
Skeptic by Nature: If you prefer exchanges with independent audits or top-tier regulation, LBank's lack of transparent audits and lower-tier licensing may raise red flags.

Fees & Total Costs

Spot Maker/Take

On bitFlyer’s Lightning Spot, maker and taker fees decrease progressively as your 30-day trading volume grows—from about 0.10 % at lower volumes down to roughly 0.03 % for very high turnover, with potential bespoke discounts for particularly active users or sizeable trades.

LBank charges a flat maker and taker fee of approximately 0.10% on spot trades—fixed regardless of your trading volume and without discounts linked to its native token, LBK.

Futures/Derivatives

bitFlyer offers Bitcoin futures and crypto CFDs with margin, where trading fees fall in the same low double-digit-basis-point range, plus a funding cost applied at fixed intervals based on price divergence from spot—creating a small rollover cost for open positions.

Futures trading on LBank involves a maker fee of around 0.02% and a taker fee of about 0.06%, though there is no specified funding rate disclosed for perpetual contracts.

Average Spreads on Liquid Pairs

Spread information isn’t explicitly disclosed on bitFlyer, but based on its exchange design, liquid pairs typically carry modest spreads that are embedded in prices, especially via the Easy Exchange interface where the buy/sell price includes conversion margin rather than a separate fee.

While exact numbers fluctuate moment-to-moment, spreads on highly liquid pairs like BTC/USDT and ETH/USDT tend to remain tight due to deep market liquidity and efficient order execution.

Fiat Deposits & Withdrawals

methods, fees, timing

You can deposit or withdraw fiat via diverse third-party gateways—such as cards, bank transfers, or digital wallets—where LBank itself charges no extra fees, but gateway fees usually range from 1% to 5%, with processing times depending on the provider.

On-chain Withdrawals

fixed vs dynamic fees

Crypto withdrawals incur network fees determined by the blockchain (e.g. fixed small BTC fee like ~0.0001 BTC), which can rise in times of congestion—fees vary by asset and must be checked at the time of withdrawal.

Hidden Costs

There are no apparent idle-account or express-KYC charges; however, minor implicit costs can stem from currency conversion spreads if you’re using a non-native fiat, and any third-party wire or bank fees—which vary regionally—can affect your overall cost.

There are generally no inactivity or account maintenance fees, but costs may arise during currency conversions and expedited KYC—since certain payment gateways may tack on surcharges not directly outlined by LBank.

Real-World Cost Example: “€500 BTC

Buying €500 worth of BTC would entail a small embedded spread (via Easy Exchange) or low Lightning fee, plus the flat withdrawal charge (e.g., ~0.0004 BTC) if you choose to withdraw—resulting in a modest overall impact relative to the value but with no hidden or percentage-based surprises.

If you buy €500 worth of BTC, you’d face the ~0.10% fee on the spot trade, a minor spread embedded in the market rate, and a dynamic withdrawal fee (e.g. ~0.0001 BTC)—all combining into a modest overall cost.

Crypto Offering & Trading Features

Number of Coins & Pairs

bitFlyer supports around 7–8 core cryptocurrencies with roughly 10–12 trading pairs, mainly focused on major assets like BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH, ETC, LSK, MONA, and a few fiat pairings—its offering remains intentionally compact.

LBank lists over 900 cryptocurrencies across around 1,100 trading pairs, with the top 20 by volume dominated by major tokens like BTC/USDT, ETH/USDT, SOL/USDT, XRP/USDT, and UGOLD/USDT.

Product Range

The platform offers spot trading, margin trading (up to around 2×–4× leverage depending on region), Bitcoin futures (derivatives), Ethereum staking (upcoming), and OTC for large volume trades—but lacks more exotic features like options, ETFs, lending, copy-trading, automated bots, or full DCA tools.

The platform supports a broad suite including spot, futures (perps), options, crypto ETFs, staking, crypto loans, P2P, copy trading, grid bots, and automated DCA strategies.

Liquidity

bitFlyer handles daily trading volumes in the low-hundreds of millions USD (with top pairs like BTC/JPY and ETH/JPY dominating), while its order book depth on main pairs remains modest compared with major global exchanges—sufficient for moderate trades but not for ultra-large orders.

Daily volume averages a few billion dollars (e.g. $4–5 billion), with BTC/USDT and ETH/USDT showing deep order-book liquidity and tight pricing, reflecting robust market depth.

Tools

Advanced users benefit from a Lightning platform offering standard order types (limit, stop), custom alerts, charting, API and WebSocket access, and a native professional interface—but there’s no built-in TradingView integration or OCO orders.

Traders benefit from limit, market, stop-limit, and OCO orders, price alerts, advanced charting (TradingView integration built in), plus full API and WebSocket access.

Geographic Restrictions by Product

Derivatives and margin capabilities vary by region, with limited pairs available in the U.S. (e.g., BTC/USD, ETH/USD, BCH/BTC) and broader altcoin access in Europe and Japan, reflecting regulatory constraints across jurisdictions.

Derivatives and other advanced products are unavailable in certain jurisdictions, and services like futures or options may be restricted depending on local regulation.

Innovation

Recent enhancements include ETH staking (pending launch) and ongoing CFD asset expansions. However, bitFlyer does not currently offer launchpads, flexible vs locked Earn products, or structured innovative financial instruments.

LBank adds value through its launchpad and launchpool initiatives for new token launches, and offers both flexible and locked staking/earn options for users with varying liquidity preferences.

Security, Regulation & Custody

Operating Entity & Jurisdiction

bitFlyer, Inc. was founded in 2014 and is based in Tokyo, Japan; it has extended operations internationally through regulated subsidiaries such as bitFlyer Europe to serve multiple regions globally.

LBank is operated by LBK Exchange Limited and related entities, founded around 2015/2017, with headquarters registered in the British Virgin Islands—though it maintains a significant business presence in Hong Kong or Indonesia.

Licenses/Registration

It holds Virtual Asset Exchange licensing under Japan’s FSA, and its European arm is a fully regulated payment institution in Luxembourg, holds the first VASP registration there, and undergoes annual audits by a Big Four firm.

The platform holds multiple registrations—including as a Money Services Business with FinCEN (U.S.) and FINTRAC (Canada), AUSTRAC in Australia, plus VASP registrations in Lithuania and Italy—in addition to participating in Korea’s CODE VASP Alliance.

Custody

Customer assets are stored offline in proprietary cold wallets (often over 80–100%), with multilayer physical security; while specific Proof of Reserves disclosure isn’t public, financial statements undergo external audit and assets are held separately from company funds.

LBank uses cold storage for the majority of user assets, employs cryptographic proof-of-reserves mechanisms, and has partnered with Elliptic for transaction monitoring, but there’s no public percentage of assets stored offline.

Insurance & Protection Funds

There’s coverage for unauthorized withdrawal via encrypted authentication and secure wallet infrastructure, but no widely advertised comprehensive insurance fund for hacks or exchange-level failures.

There is no general user-asset insurance; the internal “Insurance Fund” only covers futures liquidation deficits, leaving users fully exposed in case of hacks or platform failure.

Incident History

Apart from regulatory enforcement fines (e.g., levied by New York DFS), bitFlyer does not have public records of hacks or fund losses, reflecting a clean operational history with no major security breaches or customer fund suspensions.

Remarkably, LBank has not experienced any verified major security breaches to date, maintaining a clean track record with no hacks reported.

Risk Controls

The platform enforces strong password policies, two-factor authentication, account lockouts, encryption, and segregates client and company funds; features such as whitelists, sub-accounts, anti-phishing, and granular API permissions enhance security.

Users benefit from strong security features like two-factor authentication, anti-phishing mechanisms, withdrawal whitelists, customizable withdrawal limits, and a dedicated Incident Response Team for rapid support.

Transparency

While bitFlyer doesn’t publish monthly reserve reports or wallet addresses, it provides audited compliance, segregated custodian practices, encryption standards transparency, and maintains clear regulatory and operational SLAs via its regional legal frameworks.

While LBank offers proof-of-reserves and maintains regulatory registrations, it lacks regular public transparency reports, visible wallet addresses, or formal SLAs for security response times.

Deposits, Withdrawals, KYC & Support

Fiat Deposit Methods

Bank transfers (like SEPA, ACH, Fedwire) are available (sometimes free), with PayPal accepted in Europe; credit/debit card options depend on region, and deposit limits lift with full Trade Pro verification, while processing ranges from instant (cards) to 1–3 business days (bank transfers).

Users can fund via bank transfer, credit/debit cards, and e-wallets through various third-party providers; deposits are generally fast and fee-free on LBank’s side, though daily min/max thresholds depend on the payment partner and can take a few minutes to process in most cases.

Supported Fiat Currencies & Conversion

KYC (Verification Levels)

Accounts start at a basic (Standby) level with entry-only access, upgrade to Trade Class to deposit and trade within limits, and finally Trade Pro unlocks unrestricted activity—requiring progressively more ID documentation during verification.

No KYC is required to trade, but completing verification enables higher withdrawal limits (e.g. from 0.5 BTC up to 5.5 BTC per day) and unlocks access to fiat services and special features.

Withdrawals

Crypto withdrawals have fixed minimums (e.g., 0.001 BTC plus fee), fiat withdrawals via bank take about 1–3 business days, and supported networks include the standard ones like BTC and ETH—no TRC20/BEP20 options mentioned.

Withdrawal limits rise significantly post-KYC, processing speed depends on network status, and withdrawals via ERC-20, TRC-20, BEP-20, and others follow dynamic, blockchain-determined fees visible at the time of withdrawal.

Customer Support

Support is accessible via email and contact form (weekdays during business hours), with response typically within that timeframe; a FAQ/help center exists, but there’s no live 24/7 chat available.

Support is available around the clock via live chat and email, though some users report response delays; a detailed knowledge base and FAQs help address common issues.

Languages & Localization

The platform offers native-level English (and other EU languages like French); pricing and fees are shown in local fiat (€/USD/JPY), with region-specific regulatory compliance embedded per locale.

The platform operates in native English with fiat values shown in multiple currencies (€, $), and while localized for global users, regulatory frameworks vary widely—some regions see limited features.

App Quality & Stability

The mobile app supports core functions, is generally stable, though users report some limitations in advanced trading features, occasional minor bugs, and mixed ratings—recent updates aim to improve usability and reliability.

LBank’s mobile app (iOS and Android) is feature-rich and generally stable, though specific metrics like crash rates aren’t publicly disclosed; the interface receives regular updates to support evolving features.

Experience, Performance & Ecosystem

UX/UI

bitFlyer strikes a balance between accessibility and power—casual users will find the Lite interface intuitive with a gentle learning curve, while experienced traders can switch to a Pro mode that offers deeper functionality without overwhelming novice users.

LBank features a clean, intuitive interface that’s easy for beginners to navigate while still offering pro-level tools; although there’s no formal “Lite” or “Pro” toggle, the design flows naturally from simple trading screens to advanced panels as needed.

Performance

Order execution is generally responsive during normal conditions, but like many exchanges, there can be brief latency or slight slowdown during high-volatility spikes; KYC queues may also lengthen during strong bull runs, potentially delaying onboarding.

Thanks to recent core matching engine upgrades, order execution is noticeably faster and more stable; platform downtime during extreme volatility has been minimal, and KYC processing scales reasonably well even in bull markets.

Education

The bitFlyer Academy provides beginner-friendly articles and guides to help users understand crypto fundamentals, though there’s no live demo or simulator, and educational content in languages other than English is limited.

LBank provides an educational academy with glossaries and guides, though it lacks a live demo or simulator; content is improving in localization, with support pages and FAQs available in Spanish.

Community

bitFlyer maintains an official help center and blog for updates, but lacks public community forums like Discord or Telegram; it does offer a referral program to incentivize bringing new users—but no broad peer-to-peer community space is currently provided.

The platform supports active communities via Telegram and Discord, and rewards engagement through a structured referral and ambassador program that includes peer networks, campus partners, and a points-through-activity system.

Integrations

The platform supports API and WebSocket access for automated trading, yet does not offer native TradingView charts, external bot marketplaces, or integrated tax/accounting tools—so users typically rely on external systems for advanced analytics or bookkeeping.

LBank integrates native TradingView-style advanced charts and offers full REST/WebSocket APIs for external bots or tax/compliance tooling, though no built-in tax accounting features are currently advertised.

Who Each One Is Best For

bitFlyer is ideal for traders who want a secure, regulated platform with a choice between streamlined and professional UIs, while those who prefer community-driven tools, extensive integrations, or a learning sandbox may find more options on other platforms.

LBank is ideal for altcoin enthusiasts and active traders seeking fast execution, reward channels through referrals and gamified points, and a globally intuitive interface—while more casual users or accountants might miss simulator tools or integrated tax tracking.