How Crypto Exchange Referral Programs Work

Every exchange has a referral program, and most welcome bonuses run through one. It is worth understanding how they work, because it affects both what you get and whether using someone's link costs you anything. The short answer: it does not.

When you sign up through a referral link or code, the exchange tags your account to whoever referred you. You get the welcome bonus, and the referrer earns a commission, usually a share of the trading fees you later pay. Crucially, that commission comes out of the exchange's cut, not yours. Your fees and your bonus are the same whether you use a link or not.

A referral link applies the code automatically, which is why it is the cleaner way to sign up. A standalone code does the same job if you enter it during registration. Either way, do it before you finish sign-up, because most exchanges cannot attach a code to an account after the fact.

Since the bonus is identical whether you go direct or through a link, using a comparison site costs you nothing and gives you something back: the offers are checked and ranked side by side, so you can see which bonus is actually the best value before you commit. That is the whole point of what we do here. Browse the current offers on our leaderboard.