11 Best Crypto Affiliate Programs in 2026: Exchanges and Wallets Compared

Key Takeaways

• Exchanges pay a share of the trading fees your referrals pay, after rebates and discounts. OKX starts at 30% and reaches 50% at 10 million USDT of monthly spot volume; Bitget pays 40%, 45% or 50%; KuCoin 40%, 50% or 60%; MEXC advertises 70% and defaults to 50%.
• How long it lasts matters as much as the rate. Bitget, Bybit, KuCoin and Crypto.com's Exchange program pay for life (Bybit can drop a user after 180 days without trades), Crypto.com's Impact program for 180-365 days after KYC, Coinbase for the first 3 months.
• Search ads are the most common ban: Binance bans referral links in search engine ads, OKX and MEXC ban bidding on their brand, KuCoin bans "placing KuCoin ads through search engines". Google's own crypto policy rejects affiliate sites with broker reviews as ad destinations.
• Country rules decide who you can promote to. Binance closes the EU/EEA, the UK, the US, Singapore and Hong Kong to affiliate marketing; Bybit excludes the US, the UK, Canada and others; in the UK, refer-a-friend bonuses for crypto have been banned since October 8, 2023.

Which Crypto Affiliate Programs Pay the Most in 2026?

A crypto affiliate program pays you for users who sign up through your link and then trade or buy. Exchanges pay a revenue share of the trading fees those users generate, often for as long as they trade. Hardware wallet makers pay a percentage of each order, like any e-commerce program. Most exchanges run their programs in-house; Coinbase and Crypto.com track through Impact.com, and Kraken offers it as a second track, which is as close as this market gets to crypto affiliate networks.

I checked each program's own affiliate page, help center articles and terms on November 12, 2026: the commission and its tiers, how long it lasts, how and when it's paid, who gets approved, what's banned and which countries are closed. Where 2 pages of the same program disagree, I say so. These are the programs' numbers, not our earnings. Here are all 11 at a glance:

Commissions, durations and payouts come from each program's affiliate page, help center or terms; "not stated" means I found no figure on the pages the program publishes.

Crypto Affiliate Rules Compared: Search Ads, Countries and KYC

The rate is half the decision. The other half is what you're allowed to do with the link and where. Checked on November 12, 2026:

Bitget and Bybit, which publish no search rule, still ban misleading statements and spam in their terms. No exchange here publishes a rule that allows bidding on its brand, so I treat brand search as closed everywhere until a manager confirms otherwise in writing.

11 Best Crypto Affiliate Programs in 2026

The order is editorial: exchanges that publish their full tier rules and attribution terms come first, wallets last.

1. OKX — Best for Published Tiers and Rate Protection

OKX publishes the whole ladder in its affiliate rules (updated September 29, 2026) and its affiliate FAQ (updated August 11, 2026): what monthly volume and how many traders each level needs.

• Commission: 30% by default, then 35%, 40%, 45% and 50%. Spot level 5 needs 10 million USDT of monthly volume and 40 new or 200 total traders; futures level 5 needs 200 million USDT. When spot and futures land on different levels, the higher one applies to both.
• How long: commission on "every trading fee paid by your invitees for their duration on OKX". A lapsed user, with no deposits, trades or withdrawals for 180 days, can be re-engaged through your link and moves to you.
• Payouts: the EEA program settles "hourly in USDC"; the global rules page gives no schedule.
• Approval: a form with your channels and prior crypto affiliate experience, then "10 valid new users to unlock your affiliate eligibility". Affiliates, co-inviters and sub-affiliates must pass identity verification to receive commissions.
• Banned: brand keywords in search engines, lookalike sites and social accounts, impersonating OKX in emails or SMS, self-invites, and promoting to its Prohibited Jurisdictions.
• Pros: a 5-month rate protection, a downgrade only after 3 consecutive months below your level, sub-affiliate rates you can change at any time.
• Cons: no commission on zero-fee trades, rebate cards, special fee rates, market makers or brokers; VIP5-VIP6 traders stop paying after a monthly cap of 100,000 (the unit isn't given) and VIP7+ pay nothing; the invitee rate can be raised but never lowered; the FAQ table shows 30% at level 0, while the rules say level 0 earns nothing.

The protection is the useful part: whatever level your first month lands on, the rate holds for 5 months while your traffic ramps up.

2. Bitget — Best for a 40% Floor That Doesn't Drop

Bitget's affiliate policy was last updated on August 21, 2026, and its academy guide of August 27, 2026 lays out the 3 levels.

• Commission: Level 1 pays 40% after you verify your identity and your referrals trade 10,000 USDT in any 30-day window. Level 2 pays 45% with at least 50 trading users and 30 million USDT in a calendar month; Level 3 pays 50% with 100 users and 150 million USDT. It covers spot, futures, TradFi and stocks; Onchain stays at 40% on every level.
• How long: "Lifetime commissions... This relationship is permanent," in its FAQ.
• Payouts: its FAQ says commissions settle daily and reach your spot account the next morning (10:30 AM UTC+8 in one answer, 10:00 AM in another on the same page); its policy says "typically paid weekly or monthly". You can take USDT or the original fee currency.
• Approval: the policy says anyone with an audience can apply; the FAQ asks for at least 100 followers, a 500-member community or activity in 5 crypto communities.
• Banned: promoting to its Prohibited Countries, multiple accounts or shared IPs for fake referrals, disparaging statements, posing as a Bitget representative, unofficial trading APIs. 3 serious warnings revoke your status.
• Pros: "40% is your floor": once unlocked, the rate stays while your verification is active; sub-affiliates; no cap on referrals or income.
• Cons: commission is calculated "on a net basis after deducting such costs, fees, charges... as Bitget may deem applicable"; Bitget "reserves the right to revoke your Affiliate status and recover paid rebates".

3. KuCoin — Highest Published Tier: 60%

KuCoin's affiliate page promises "up to 60% of trading fees, and permanent affiliate relationships", and links to its 2025 guide with the level rules.

• Commission: 40%, 50% or 60%, the same rate for spot, margin and futures. Hit a level's targets within any 30-day window and the upgrade comes on T+1; downgrades are reviewed every quarter (see the table below).
• How long: "permanent affiliate relationships".
• Payouts: commission goes "automatically" to your KuCoin master account on T+1; the dashboard counts in USDT.
• Approval: social accounts over 5,000 followers or communities over 500 members, crypto websites, marketers and institutions; the guide asks for advanced KYC to apply.
• Banned: "hijacking official traffic", including lookalike accounts, content or domains, or "placing KuCoin ads through search engines".
• Countries: "not applicable to residents of Belgium, Turkey, France, or the Netherlands"; terms vary by country.
• Cons: miss the LV1 target for 2 quarters in a row and you drop to 15%; the guide excludes trades by "Level 3 or above invitees" in one place and "LV4 or above" in another.

60% is the highest rate in this list that comes with a published threshold: 100 new users and 20 million USDT a quarter.

4. Bybit — Best for Lifetime Commission Without a Follower Minimum

Bybit's affiliate page says "no minimum follower requirement", and its FAQ was updated on October 29, 2026.

• Commission: "Up to 50% Commission" of what Bybit calls trading fee profit: fees minus market maker rebates minus bonuses and coupons. Its terms say the ratio grows with new clients and their volume, with no retroactive changes; the tier table isn't public.
• How long: "lifetime", but if a referred user makes no trades for 180 days in a row, "the affiliate relationship may be terminated".
• Payouts: daily by 4 AM UTC, T+1, to your affiliate account, then to your trading account. Its terms pay in the coin of the trade: BTC trades pay in BTC, ETH in ETH.
• Sub-affiliates: you get 10% of a sub-affiliate's rebate; on VIP clients the total is capped at 50%, so a sub-affiliate at 50% leaves you nothing.
• Banned: unsolicited ads and mass email; brand use only to solicit clients under its terms.
• Countries: its terms (effective June 12, 2024) exclude the United States, mainland China, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Canada, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine and Syria.
• Cons: no public tier table; users on other Bybit rebate programs "may not contribute" to your commission; with a tracking gap over 10%, "the Company's tracking report shall prevail".

5. Binance — Best for Welcome Bonuses on Your Link

Binance's affiliate starter guide was updated on November 4, 2026. It doesn't give a commission duration or a payout schedule, but it is clear on rates and bans.

• Commission: "up to 50%" on eligible spot, margin and futures fees; you count as an affiliate from a 30% rate, with spot and futures tiers evaluated separately. You can pass a fee rebate of up to 20% to your referees.
• Approval: automatic once you reach Tier 1 in its Spot or Futures Commission Evaluation Program; otherwise an application reviewed on "social media performance, community influence, audience quality, content relevance". The referral program requires KYC.
• Referee bonus: under the Affiliate-Boosted Welcome Bonus, new users get tasks worth up to 100 USD at sign-up and up to 19,700 USD after KYC done within 30 days; each affiliate is capped at the first 1,000 new users per 30-day cycle.
• Banned: bulk registrations, phishing sites with referral links, and "posting referral links as advertisements on search engines".
• Pros: a 1:1 account manager; separate referral links per channel with different rebates.
• Cons: the longest country list here (below), with an obligation to use geo-targeting tools to exclude those countries.

The guide, published July 13, 2026, bans paid placements, content in a restricted country's language, giveaways and first outreach aimed at those users. Its referral terms add that EEA-registered users have been out of the referral program since July 1, 2026, and that UK users' commissions were removed after the FCA's rules of October 2023.

6. MEXC — Best for Building a Multi-Level Network

MEXC's affiliate page headlines "Highly Competitive Commission Rate of 70%" and "10% Sub-Affiliate Commissions", but its own guides start lower.

• Commission: the portal guide (May 25, 2026) sets a default of 50%. To move up, you need 5 valid first-trade users (5 USDT in fees each) plus 2,000 MX held at the end of the period, or 20,000 MX alone; evaluations run twice a month, on the 1st-15th and the 16th to month-end.
• Multi-level: its multi-level guide (September 14, 2026) starts multi-level accounts at 50%, with no limit on levels; each downline must be at least 2 percentage points below its upline, and you earn the difference.
• How long: "Lifetime Commissions" on the affiliate page.
• Payouts: settled the day after the trade and distributed "Daily at 00:00 (UTC)"; the agreement says commissions are credited "after each trade", and the landing page says "Earn monthly commissions".
• Banned: "Bidding on terms in search engines that include your Affiliate Link, Affiliate's Referral Code, "MEXC," or related terms"; MEXC domains as your display URL; unsolicited email; "statements about returns, risks, or success".
• Cons: the higher rate depends on holding MX, MEXC's own token, so part of your income rides on its price; the agreement dates from January 10, 2022 and doesn't name the restricted countries.

7. Crypto.com — Best for Content Sites on Impact

Crypto.com runs 2 programs with different clocks, and it's worth knowing which one you're in.

• App affiliate program (Impact.com): "Earn up to 50%" across products on "a fixed commission plan"; "a time limit on earnings from a referred customer does apply, generally this is between 180 and 365 days after they have completed KYC". Each action has a validation period, and payouts are prioritised monthly.
• Exchange Affiliate Programme (help center, July 20, 2026): "up to a 50% commission on referees' trading fees", paid "perpetually", settled daily at 06:00 UTC in USDC. Commission is (gross fee - referee rebate) x your rate, and referees get rebates for 12 months only. It's for "crypto opinion leaders" with "a considerable social presence"; Broker Programme users can't join.
• Approval: no website needed, but you state where the traffic comes from; review "usually within 1 week"; support from Acceleration Partners.
• Banned: discounts, codes or bonuses outside the approved new-customer offers "may lead to referrals being untracked and unpayable".
• Countries: you can't promote in or be based in countries "where affiliate marketing is prohibited, or where the Crypto.com app is not available"; the list and the products in the revenue share are in the contract.
• Pros: no monthly cap; its EU entity, Foris DAX MT Limited, is authorised in Malta as a crypto-asset service provider under MiCA, which matters for EU traffic (see the legal section).

8. Kraken — Best for Choosing USDC or Fiat

Kraken lists "800+ partners" and 2 ways in: an in-house track for creators and an Impact.com track for media networks, content sites and traditional affiliates.

• Commission: up to 50% on the Kraken app, Pro (spot, margin, futures) and DEX swaps; 25% on Kraken Prop; the Krak card and Earn are "coming soon". "Rates and structures (rev share, CPA) are negotiated per partner during onboarding."
• Payouts: in-house creators get USDC in their Kraken account, "monthly by default, or on-demand once you hit the payout threshold" (the threshold isn't given); Impact partners pick fiat or USDC on Impact's schedule.
• Approval: "typically replies within 5 business days"; the form asks for your social links, target countries, experience with other exchanges and your Kraken Public ID.
• Cons: no tier table, commission duration or country list on the page; "Commission rates vary by product, region, and affiliate profile."

9. Coinbase — Best for Fiat Payouts, With a 3-Month Window

Coinbase's affiliate page is short and specific: "Receive 50% of your referrees' trading fees for the first 3 months".

• Commission: 50% of trading fees for 3 months, the shortest window in this list.
• Payouts: "in your local currency, no matter where you live", via PayPal or bank account.
• Tracking: Impact, with deep links, landing page tools and "20+ customizable performance reports".
• Approval: its help center calls it a program for "qualified businesses": crypto comparison websites, cashback platforms, crypto and financial influencers, media and news sites, gaming platforms.
• Allowed: "Link to Coinbase in articles, create new content, or place ads on your website."
• Cons: for EU/EEA activity under MiFID, "terms, commission structures, and payment schedules may differ"; no tiers.

10. Trezor — Best Hardware Wallet Program With a Cookie Window

Trezor, part of SatoshiLabs Group, sells hardware wallets, so the model is a commission per order, not a share of trading fees.

• Commission: "up to 15% commission on every sale (net order value, excluding VAT and shipping)".
• Cookie window: 30 days: "You'll get credit for any sales made within 30 days of a customer clicking your link."
• Payouts: "Monthly payouts in Euros or BTC. Euro payments are sent by wire transfer."
• Approval: an online application; a dedicated affiliate team and a 24/7 dashboard.
• Cons: no tier thresholds, minimum payout or country rules on the page.

11. CoolWallet — Best for Wallet Commissions Paid in USDT

CoolWallet, a Bluetooth hardware wallet, runs its program on Tapfiliate and pays in stablecoins.

• Commission: "over 10% commission on every successful sale".
• Payouts: "once your commission balance reaches $200 USD, paid in USDT (TRC20)", on request by email.
• Timing: commission shows up "within 7–10 business days after the order is completed", including a 7-day review for cancellations and refunds.
• Attribution: "coupon codes take priority over affiliate links": if a buyer arrives through your link but uses another affiliate's coupon, the sale goes to the coupon owner.
• Cons: the only published minimum payout in this list; its affiliate terms page didn't load for me (a redirect loop), and the cookie length isn't on the FAQ.

How Crypto Affiliate Commissions Work

Exchange programs pay a share of trading fees, not a fee per sign-up, and 4 details decide what that share is worth.

• Net fees, not gross. Bybit counts "Trading fees − Market maker rebates − Bonuses/Coupons"; Bitget deducts whatever it "may deem applicable"; Crypto.com's Exchange formula is (gross fee - referee rebate) x your rate. On $100 of fees with a $10 rebate to the referee and a 50% rate, that's ($100 - $10) x 50% = $45.
• The rebate you give comes out of your share. Binance lets you pass up to 20% to referees, KuCoin and OKX let you set a cashback rate per link. A higher rebate converts better and pays you less, and on OKX you can't lower it later.
• Tiers move on volume and new traders. OKX and Bitget review monthly, MEXC twice a month, KuCoin every quarter. The safety nets differ: OKX protects your first-month rate for 5 months, Bitget keeps 40% as a floor, KuCoin drops you to 15% after 2 weak quarters.
• Duration. Lifetime at Bitget, Bybit, KuCoin, MEXC and Crypto.com's Exchange program; 180-365 days after KYC on Crypto.com's Impact program; 3 months at Coinbase. A 50% rate for 3 months can pay less than a 30% rate for life if your referrals keep trading.

Sub-affiliates add a second layer. Bybit and MEXC pay 10% of a sub-affiliate's commission, and MEXC's multi-level system pays the difference between your rate and your downline's, at least 2 percentage points per level. Exchanges pay in crypto by default: USDC at Crypto.com's Exchange program, Kraken's in-house track and OKX's EEA program, the coin of the trade at Bybit, your choice of USDT or the fee currency at Bitget. If you searched for a bitcoin affiliate referral program, Trezor pays in BTC, and Bybit pays BTC on BTC trades.

Wallets work like e-commerce: a percentage of the order inside a cookie window, 30 days at Trezor, with the coupon-beats-link rule at CoolWallet.

Programs I Checked and Left Out

• Ledger: its partners page promises "Attractive commissions in crypto" but no rate, and its affiliate portal blocked my browser.
• Gate: its affiliate page publishes no rates. Its referral page offers up to 40% for 12 months, but that's the user referral program.
• BingX: "Up to 50% of commissions on trading fees" and daily settlement, but its partner page shows levels Lv2 to Lv7 with sample earnings "for reference only" and no rate or threshold per level.
• HTX: the affiliate guide on its help center, with 8 levels up to 50% on spot and 60% on futures, is dated June 29, 2022. Too old to compare with 2026 terms.
• EMCD Affiliates: the program behind EMCD and its Coinhold savings product offers CPA, RevShare and hybrid deals, but publishes no figures.
• Trade 24/7: a CFD broker with RevShare of "up to 50% performance-based revenue potential", but no crypto product on its homepage.

Best Crypto Affiliate Programs by Product: Exchange, Wallet or Trading Platform

Spot and Futures Exchanges

If your audience trades futures, check how the program counts futures volume. OKX needs 200 million USDT of monthly futures volume for 50% against 10 million on spot, but applies the higher of the 2 levels to both. Binance evaluates spot and futures tiers separately. KuCoin pays the same rate on spot, margin and futures, and Bitget pays its level rate on futures, TradFi and stocks, with Onchain fixed at 40%. For an audience of beginners who buy and hold, volume tiers matter less than duration: lifetime programs keep paying on the occasional trade, while Coinbase stops after 3 months.

Hardware Wallets

Wallets pay once per order: up to 15% of net order value at Trezor, over 10% at CoolWallet. Your buyer doesn't have to open an exchange account, and the pages I read publish no country exclusions. The trade-off is a one-time sale against a stream of trading fees. Wallet reviews and security guides fit this model; exchange comparisons fit the revenue share.

Trading Platforms That Pay in Crypto (Not Crypto Exchanges)

Some searches for crypto affiliate programs lead to trading platforms that pay affiliates in crypto. These are a different product, trading offers rather than crypto exchanges, with different rules. Kingfin is the affiliate program of Olymptrade, a trading platform, not a crypto exchange. It pays RevShare of "up to 80%" of "Olymptrade's trading revenue" from your traders, or a CPA of up to $250 per trader "who registers and makes their first deposit". Crypto appears only as a payout method: its partner page says you can "withdraw up to $5,000 per day with over 15 payment methods", including cryptocurrencies, and its pages disagree on the schedule ("daily" on the Kingfin homepage, "every week" on the Olymptrade affiliate page).

Crypto Promotion Rules: UK, EU and US

This is a practical summary from the regulators' own pages, not legal advice. The exchange is the regulated firm, but the ad with your link is yours.

UK. The FCA's crypto marketing rules apply from October 8, 2023: promotions must be "clear, fair and not misleading", carry prominent risk warnings, and "'refer a friend' bonuses will also be banned". The FCA says the rules "apply to firms wherever they are based globally", and that promoting crypto to UK consumers without complying "may be committing a criminal offence punishable by an unlimited fine and/or up to 2 years imprisonment". A lawful promotion goes through 1 of 4 routes, such as an FCA-authorised firm approving it. Binance cites these rules for removing UK commissions, and Bybit excludes the UK altogether.

EU. MiCA (Regulation (EU) 2023/1114) sets 3 rules that touch affiliates. Article 66 requires crypto-asset service providers to give information "that is fair, clear and not misleading, including in marketing communications, which shall be identified as such". Article 7 sets the rules for marketing a token offer, including a mandatory statement:

This crypto-asset marketing communication has not been reviewed or approved by any competent authority in any Member State of the European Union. The offeror of the crypto-asset is solely responsible for the content of this crypto-asset marketing communication.

Article 61 matters most: a non-EU firm that "solicits clients or prospective clients in the Union", including through "any other person acting on behalf of" it, can't claim the client came on their own initiative. For EU traffic, promote an entity authorised under MiCA, like Crypto.com's Maltese entity, and use the program's EU track where it has one, as OKX does, not a global exchange that closes the EU.

US. The FTC's Endorsement Guides ask you to disclose an affiliate relationship clearly, both in a video and near the link. "Commissionable link" is "probably not a clear disclosure"; "Paid link" right next to the link "should be an adequate disclosure". If the token you promote is a security, the SEC's 2017 statement adds that a promoter "must disclose the nature, scope, and amount of compensation received". Binance and Bybit close their global programs to the US altogether.

How to Start With a Crypto Affiliate Program: Step-by-Step

1. Start from your audience's countries, not the rate. Match them against each program's closed list: the EU/EEA, UK and US at Binance, the US, UK and Canada at Bybit, Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Turkey at KuCoin.
2. Check the entry bar: 5,000 followers or 500 members at KuCoin, 100 followers in Bitget's FAQ, no minimum at Bybit, "qualified businesses" at Coinbase, 10 valid new users at OKX.
3. Pass KYC on your own account first. OKX pays nothing without identity verification, Bitget's 40% level needs it, KuCoin asks for advanced KYC to apply.
4. Decide the referee rebate before you publish links. It comes out of your share, and on OKX you can't lower it later.
5. Create a separate link per channel. Binance and OKX let you set different rebates per link; Coinbase and Crypto.com track through Impact; Kraken gives you a tracking pixel. Map each link to a SubID or channel in your own records.
6. Plan traffic without brand search. OKX and MEXC ban bidding on their brand, Binance bans referral links in search ads, KuCoin bans its ads in search engines, and Google's crypto policy rejects "affiliate sites containing related content or broker reviews" as destinations (we covered this in a fact-check of a Google Ads crypto case). Content, SEO, YouTube and communities are what these programs are built for.
7. Disclose and warn: a clear affiliate disclosure next to the link, a risk warning, no promises of returns. MEXC's agreement bans "statements about returns, risks, or success".
8. Watch the evaluation cycle: monthly at OKX and Bitget, twice a month at MEXC, quarterly at KuCoin. Plan launches so the volume lands inside a single evaluation period.
9. Check the payout terms against your bookkeeping: daily at Bybit, KuCoin and MEXC, monthly at Kraken and Trezor, from $200 at CoolWallet.

For the wider rules on paid search with partner brands, see our glossary entries on brand bidding and PPC.