All offers / Crypto / CEX.IO
Examined Sep 14, 2026 Nothing for the new user A correction Someone sends you a CEX.IO link. The standing referral programme gets you nothing.
That is the whole answer, and it took reading three CEX.IO documents together to see it, because no single page states it. The reward is never described from the new user’s side at all, which is a quiet way of saying $0.
What the standing programme pays you
Nothing, and the current terms confirm it. CEX.IO’s Referral Program Terms of Use, last updated 3 September 2026, describe a programme that “allows an eligible Referrer to receive a Referral Reward for referring an eligible new User”. The reward is defined from the inviting side only. None of them contain a sentence addressed to the new customer promising a bonus.
The new-user reward is missing, and we checked for it deliberately. An absence is harder to prove than a number, so we went looking for one. Across CEX.IO’s referral terms and its promotion terms, the phrases sign-up bonus and signup bonus do not appear, and welcome bonuses appear once, only in a list of prohibited abuse. Nothing is promised to the referred friend.
One rulebook now, and it shuts out the commercial kind. The October 2025 terms we read in July defined both an “Affiliate Program” and a “Referral Program”. The September 2026 replacement covers the Referral Program only, and says it “must not be used as a professional, commercial, paid-media, affiliate, lead-generation, agency, broker, introducer or business-development arrangement”. A friend sharing a link is the only use left. As the new customer, you are still not the one being paid.
What pays what
| You, as the new user, under the standing programme | $0 |
|---|---|
| You, as a new user, after your first spot trade | Trading-fee credit, revoked after 14 days |
| The 17 to 31 July 2026 promotion, 25 USDC | Ended 31 July 2026 |
| A referral link someone shared before the relaunch | No longer collects rewards |
| A link used commercially, on a deals or review site | Not permitted by the terms |
| Anyone who has ever held a CEX.IO account | $0 |
| Residents of the United Kingdom | Programme suspended |
Do this, in this order
- Read the link you were sent as what it is. It pays you nothing under the standing programme, and it should not be the reason you pick an exchange.
- Check whether a promotion is actually running. CEX.IO publishes each promotion as its own dated rules article in its help centre. The last one we read ran from 17 July 2026 to 31 July 2026 and paid new users 25 USDC; USDC is a stablecoin pegged one for one to the US dollar. It has ended and governs nothing now.
- Treat trading-fee credit as what it is. CEX.IO’s bonus page says “Trading fee rewards and bonuses are non-withdrawable”, that they can be used “exclusively to cover spot trading fees on CEX.IO”, and that they “are granted for a limited time of 14 days”, after which unused rewards are revoked. It is a discount on trades you make, not money.
- Do not size your first trade around the bonus. CEX.IO says “The bonus amount depends on the size of the user's first spot trade.” A bigger first trade buys a bigger credit that still expires in 14 days, so trade the amount you meant to.
- If someone sent you an old link, it may be dead. CEX.IO relaunched its referral links and tells referrers to update older placements, “because old referral links no longer collect statistics and rewards”. That costs the sender, not you.
- Judge the exchange on its fees, not on its referral. The only thing left to compare is what trading there actually costs you.
The fine print that can still cost you
Where you live can rule you out. CEX.IO states that the “Referral Program for the UK is currently suspended until further notice”, which closes off the standing programme for UK residents.
Disclosure was required, and splitting a reward is barred. The July promotion rules listed as prohibited conduct any “failure, when promoting the Referral Link in any public or semi public forum ... to clearly and conspicuously disclose that the Referring User may receive a reward or other benefit in connection with the referral”. The current referral terms go further on money: a referrer “must not offer, promise, provide or agree to provide any Referred User with money, cashback, kickbacks, rebates, fee reimbursements, a share of your Referral Reward” as an inducement. If someone offers to split their CEX.IO reward with you, that is the rule they are breaking.
Why we carry no CEX.IO link
CEX.IO’s current Referral Program Terms say the programme “must not be used as a professional, commercial, paid-media, affiliate, lead-generation, agency, broker, introducer or business-development arrangement”, and that any “commercial, institutional, B2B, affiliate, paid-media, revenue-share or bespoke referral arrangement must be approved by CEX.IO separately in writing”. A site like this one is exactly the commercial use the ordinary programme excludes.
The reason we gave in July is no longer in the documents. The October 2025 terms we read then carried a non-disparagement clause: “In exchange for receiving Reward, you agree that you will not publicly disparage CEX.IO or any of its products or services or owners, directors, or staff, whether during or after your participation in the Program.” Neither the September 2026 referral terms nor the promotion terms, both read on 14 September 2026, contain it.
A second clause bars using the CEX.IO brand alongside “disparaging or defamatory content” and adds: “You agree that CEX.IO has sole discretion to make the determination as to whether such content is present.” Signing that would have handed CEX.IO the final word on whether a verdict like the one at the top of this page was allowed to exist. The clause has gone, the non-commercial rule has replaced it, and the answer is the same: we hold no CEX.IO referral link, and the buttons below are ordinary links to CEX.IO’s own documents.
Is it worth your time?
As a way to get paid for opening an account, no. The one promotion that put money in a new user’s hands ended on 31 July 2026. What is left is trading-fee credit sized by your first trade, which cannot be withdrawn, only covers spot trading fees and is revoked after 14 days. If you were opening a CEX.IO account regardless, claim it and spend it on trades you meant to make. Otherwise compare the exchange on its trading fees like any other.
