KuCoin 2025 Review: Pros, Cons, Features, Fees & More

KuCoin is one of the largest and best known of the cryptocurrency exchanges, as it’s been serving its clients and providing excellent service since launching in August 2017. There’s little surprise that traders like the exchange as it offers access to over 800 different cryptocurrencies and more than 400 separate markets. KuCoin is often considered to be the best crypto exchange for altcoin hunters thanks to its massive selection of tradeable assets

In addition to that, it also sports very low fees, a platform interface that’s suitable for pros and beginners, bank-level security, and a number of other services that can be difficult to find elsewhere. These include futures and margin trading, crypto purchases using credit and debit cards, instant exchange, peer-to-peer exchange, crypto lending and staking services, its own utility cryptocurrency, initial exchange offerings for new projects, and even more which will be covered in this review!

Get Up to 60% Fee Discount!

Traders particularly like KuCoin because they tend to list some of the smaller-cap cryptocurrencies that have massive potential upside. They also appreciate the wide variety of coins on offer, and the opportunity to earn and save on fees through the KuCoin Shares (KCS) tokens.

TL; DR Verdict and Summary for KuCoin

KuCoin has been an industry-leading cryptocurrency exchange since its launch in 2017. KuCoin was created with a mission to provide a professional-grade exchange for cryptocurrency traders, a mission they continue to deliver on to this day. The KuCoin exchange has become a favourite platform for crypto traders thanks to the following key features and strengths:

• Low fees
• Professional-grade trading platform
• Massive selection of tradeable coins, markets and instruments
• Strong reputation, trustworthy exchange
• Impressive Earn section
• Supports a large number of products and features
• High liquidity and trading volume

If you want Guy's take on the KuCoin exchange, he put together a great video that can be found below:

If you want to find out about how KuCoin stacks up against other major exchanges, feel free to check out our:

• OKX vs KuCoin Review
• KuCoin vs SwissBorg Review
• Binance vs KuCoin Review
• Bybit vs KuCoin
• Coinbse vs KuCoin

Check out our article on the top KuCoin alternatives. Additionally, you can see how KuCoin stacks up against the competition in our Exchanges Compared Head-to-Head article.

Note: Users located in the US and UK are not supported.

Review Summary:

What is KuCoin?

KuCoin was one of the first crypto exchanges to cater to serious and professional traders. Right from the start, their niche focused on attracting experienced traders who needed a robust and comprehensive trading platform. KuCoin has provided this service very well for years and has now expanded into following a similar path to Binance, offering an impressive amount of features and products for traders to dive into.

KuCoin states that ¼ of all crypto traders in the world use KuCoin and this claim may be fairly accurate as KuCoin has the unique ability to list brand new and hard-to-find altcoins quicker than any other major exchange. This is likely thanks in part to the fact that they are unregulated and unlicensed, resulting in KuCoin boasting the largest selection of altcoins of any major exchange.

Many crypto users who primarily use exchanges like Binance or OXK will often keep KuCoin as a secondary exchange to pick up new altcoin gems early that cannot be found anywhere else.

KuCoin has been providing traders with high-quality and reputable services since 2017, which is ancient in the crypto world, but the team actually began working in blockchain way back in 2011 and started designing KuCoin in 2013. It would be years until the team would launch the platform, waiting until they were sure it was perfected and ready for market. Have to admire and respect that kind of perfectionism and dedication. 

Since its launch, KuCoin quickly rose in adoption and popularity as it was, at the time, one of the few professionally developed crypto trading platforms. Users continue to use the platform as they love both the standard trading features and the gamified, Vegas-like trading section, which offers entertaining contests and ways to engage with crypto trading.

KuCoin is a very well-funded exchange with some heavy backers behind it. In the early days, KuCoin launched a highly successful ICO which raised $20 million worth of BTC, then the platform raised $100 million in 2021 for the KuCoin Metaverse Fund. In 2022, despite the bear market, KuCoin raised another whopping $150 million in a pre-Series B funding round led by Jump Crypto, with participation from Circle Ventures, IDG Capital, and Matrix Partners.

The latest funding round brought KuCoin to a staggering valuation of $10 billion. Surprisingly, the lack of regulation and licensing doesn’t seem to be putting investors or users off the platform.

KuCoin is enjoyed by customers all around the world and provides its services in nearly every country. To help cater to clients in various countries, KuCoin supports 19 different languages, including English, various European languages, several southeast Asian languages, Russian, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Hindi, and Arabic.

KuCoin Exchange Key Features

Now we will cover the main features of the KuCoin trading exchange. KuCoin is available as a web platform and mobile app for IOS and Android. We will cover the app and exchange itself later in the platform design and usability section, for this next part, we will look at the key features aside from the exchange.

If you want to see how KuCoin stacks up against other crypto exchanges, feel free to check out our Top Exchanges article where we break down the best exchanges in different categories to help you find the right one to fit your needs. 

Earning Passive Income With KuCoin

KuCoin has a robust selection of earn products that provides users with the chance to earn passive income in a multitude of ways. There is lending, staking, the Spotlight launch platform, KuCoin Pool, KuCoin Win, cloud mining, and holders of KuCoin’s KCS tokens can hold them on the exchange to earn daily rewards. KuCoin’s Earn platform is one of the most comprehensive in the crypto space, and one of their biggest strengths over much of the competition. Let’s dive into each earn feature. 

KuCoin Earn

KuCoin Earn provides users with a chance to earn stable profits with professional asset management. The team refers to it as a one-stop wealth management service platform.

This is where users can stake their tokens, stake for ETH 2.0, participate in the Polkadot on-chain ecosystem, and find promotional bonuses for higher APYs on certain stakeable assets.

Scrolling through, there are staking APYs ranging from 0.4% to as high as 101% on 60 different assets, with many in the 20-60% range which is great for some of the more speculative tokens. There are different lockup periods ranging from flexible to 365 days.

KuCoin Burinig Drop

The KuCoin Burning Drop is a program where users can stake cryptocurrencies to earn rewards in new tokens. It combines token burning, where tokens are permanently removed from circulation to potentially increase value, with airdropping, the distribution of free tokens. This incentivizes users to lock their assets for a period, supporting new projects and potentially earning rewards, while also managing the supply of tokens to benefit their long-term value. KuCoin provided support to over 55 projects through the Burning Drop program in 2023.

We have a dedicated article on the products available on KuCoin Earn in our dedicated KuCoin Earn Article.

KuCoin Lend

As the name implies, this peer-to-peer crypto lending program lets users earn interest on their digital assets by lending them out to help fund margin traders on the platform. There are currently over 50 different coins that can be lent out, and when we look at the annualized interest rates, we have some decent returns ranging between 2.9% to 5.47%

I haven’t heard any cases of lenders losing their coins, and KuCoin “guarantees” that lenders’ tokens will be returned to them. This may be a good source of passive income as long as there are traders looking to borrow. Terms on the loans can run for 7 days, 14 days, or 28 days

For a truly passive touch, lenders can choose “auto lend,” which simply lends out funds automatically as soon as they become available again after each term ends.

KuCoin Spotlight

KuCoin Spotlight allows users to acquire token rewards from new projects by committing KuCoin’s KCS token for each Spotlight event they are interested in. This is similar to a DeFi launchpad and the Binance Launchpad which offer similar Initial Equity/Dex/Coin Offerings (IEO/IDO/ICO).

This is a massively popular feature beloved by users as all they need to do is find a new project that is under the “spotlight”, and subscribe to the project by allocating a portion of their KCS tokens to it. At the end of the Spotlight period, users who allocated their KCS tokens will receive the Spotlight project’s token proportionate to the amount of KCS they allocated.

Launchpads can be very lucrative as they allow average users to get in at deeply discounted token sales that were traditionally only available to VC firms and those investors with deep pockets and friends in high places.

The KuCoin Spotlight allows qualified users to receive tokens for early projects that are vetted by the KuCoin team, and only highly promising projects are chosen. To date, KuCoin has launched over 19 projects and opened them up to early investment from traders on the KuCoin platform. The average ROI has been an impressive 70x. Here is a look at some of the projects launched and their returns:

No need to tell you about what an opportunity it can be to get into projects early, think about the sky-high prices reached by some of your favourite tokens during the 2021 bull run, now imagine that you were able to pick up those tokens early before their public sale. That is the potential of the KuCoin Spotlight.

There are three requirements that a KuCoin user has to meet before being eligible to participate in the Spotlight: 

1. Pass advanced verification levels on the platform
2. Be a resident of a supported jurisdiction. Different projects will have different regional restrictions which will be stated on the project’s Spotlight page
3. Sign the Purchase agreement

This is what that looks like on the Spotlight page for the selected project:

Each of the three sections are clickable and will show a little green checkmark once you’ve completed them. You can click on the countries tile to see which countries are not eligible for participation, then the purchase agreement tile to read the agreement and select “I agree.”

Note that there is a minimum KCS token requirement that needs to be held to be eligible for the Spotlight events. This information will be outlined when you click on the Spotlight event banner.

You can learn more in KuCoin’s How to Get Started with KuCoin Spotlight Page. 

KuCoin Win

KuCoin Win is perfect for those who enjoy cheeky little trips to Vegas or their local casino. Win is a KCS ecosystem platform that combines entertainment with token listings, providing another method for KuCoin users to gain access to those coveted initial token distributions that were previously out of the hands of average retail traders.

Participants can gain access to the initial token distribution of promising blockchain projects at an early stage at lower cost, and in a more entertaining way. KuCoin Win is still in fairly early stages with more games to be rolled out. At the moment, they have LuckyRaffling for users to sink their teeth into.

KuCoin users can select prizes available on the LuckyRaffling page and exchange crypto for lucky codes that give them a chance to win that prize. When the lucky codes are sold out, the system will randomly select a winner, lottery style, and distribute the prize within 3 working days.

Some of the prizes include things like Apple Airpods, KCS, USDT, and tokens for other projects. The process to get involved is really easy. Instead of me explaining it, a picture is worth a thousand words so they say:

KCS Bonus

KCS Bonus is another way users can earn passive income on the KuCoin trading exchange. The KCS Bonus Plan is a unique incentive mechanism that allows qualified KCS token holders to earn passive daily income.

This is probably the easiest way to earn income with KuCoin, users simply need to have at least 6 KCS and they can earn an estimated APR in KCS tokens ranging from 3-30%

The earnings come from 50% of KuCoin’s daily trading fee revenue, so it is great to see the team take half of the trading fees generated, and instead of pocketing it, they funnel it back to the community in the form of community rewards.

The KCS bonus is paid out daily, and to be eligible, customers simply need to hold a KCS balance in either their main, trading, or margin account. Note that KCS tokens allocated to KuCoin Earn are not eligible for rewards.

This should go without saying, but many crypto users often seem to forget this little not-so-fun fact. Be wary of going all in and putting your life savings into something offering a high APY. While it looks and sounds great in principle, just remember that if you are earning 30% on a token that has dropped 90% in value, we don’t need the Count from Sesame Street to tell us we ain’t makin’ money.

This isn’t a dig at KuCoin, this is for all crypto. Before investing in a token for passive income opportunities, be sure you DYOR and are confident in the long-term price appreciation of the project and token.

KuCoin also offers a mining pool and cloud mining which I won’t cover in this article. You can learn more in this KuCoin Mining Pool Article, and about Cloud Mining in their blog and Cloud Mining Article.

KuCoin Margin Trading

Margin trading is one of the biggest attractions that entice traders to the KuCoin trading platform. Since exchanges like Coinbase had to cease offering margin trading, and Kraken only offers 5x, traders who like to play higher stakes can opt for an exchange like KuCoin, which offers up to 10x leverage for spot trading and up to 100x for Futures.

Traders can go long or short on more than 100 different pairs which are identified on the platform by the small green ‘10x’ sign next to the pair, as shown above.

Unlike futures contracts, margin pairs trade on the spot market. Traders will need to enable margin trading and agree to KuCoin’s terms and conditions before placing margin trades.

We have a full KuCoin Trading Guide for reference if you want to get into the nitty-gritty of how to trade on KuCoin. If you prefer video format, Guy has made up this complete beginner's guide to KuCoin, which can help.

Warning ⚠️: Trading with leverage is extremely high risk and is a tool best used by professionals. The Coin Bureau does not recommend using high leverage. 

KuCoin Leveraged Tokens

KuCoin Leveraged Tokens are tokens with the features of leverage automatically attributed to them. These can provide traders with a safer alternative to margin trading while providing more profit (and loss) potential.

There are a number of popular assets available in leveraged forms such as BTC, ETH, ADA, VeChain and more. Using BTC and ETH as an example, the tokens follow this format for their ticker symbols, and can be accessed via the spot trading platform:

• BTC3L- For Bitcoin long with 3x leverage
• BTC3S- For Bitcoin short with 3x leverage
• ETH3L- For Ethereum long with 3x leverage
• ETH3S- For Ethereum short with 3x leverage

Some of the advantages that trading leveraged tokens has over trading with margin are as follows:

1. No liquidation- Though they feature leverage, they are still the spot trading type. No matter how the price of the corresponding coin/token changes, there won’t be a liquidation event resulting in losing the entire trading account.
2. No requirement on margin or loans- KuCoin traders don’t need to pay margin or borrow funds to access leverage.
3. Convenience- Leveraged tokens trade the same way as trading in the spot market which is less complex than margin trading.

The fees for leveraged token trading are the same as the spot trading fees, plus subscription and redemption fees which will be covered in the fees section.

KuCoin Derivatives

KuCoin launched its futures platform originally named KuMEX in mid-2019. Users can trade a number of margined contracts, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, BNB, and many others with leverage as high as 100x. The futures trading platform not only provides in-depth insight into the futures markets and a more powerful trading and analysis interface than the standard KuCoin platform, but it also gives traders access to over 50 perpetual futures contracts for a huge variety of coins and tokens.

KuCoin Futures calculates the underlying spot price using the weighted price average from other exchanges like Kraken, Coinbase Pro, and Bitstamp.

For those interested in learning more about using KuCoin Futures, the exchange has prepared both a guide for beginners and a guide to perpetual contracts. 

Futures Brawl

Futures Brawl is a feature that became wildly popular on the platform as it gave traders a fun and engaging way to easily participate in a game of chance with the chance to win some incredible prizes.

Futures Brawl started as a temporary promotion in August 2020, but it became so popular that it remained on the platform. Here is the long and short of how to play, (pun intended):

It is a pretty simple concept:

1. Decide how much in USDT you’re going to wager in the brawl.
2. Choose to go long or short on the price of Bitcoin, whichever direction you think Bitcoin is going to go over the next 24 hours.
3. The system will match you with an opponent who has a different bias.
4. Win tokens if you choose right, lose the brawl if you choose wrong.

The number of points you can win increases for larger wagers and increases more when you are on a win streak. Here is the reward system:

Brawl can be participated in once per day and you can increase the size of winnings by joining a 3v3 match. Previous prizes included things like an iPhone, a full Bitcoin, and cash prizes.

To learn more, KuCoin put together a Beginners Guide to Futures Brawl

P2P Fiat Trading

The P2P marketplace is another great service available on KuCoin that allows users to trade off-exchange with other individuals. The marketplace allows for buying and selling BTC, ETH, USDT, KCS, and USDC.

The marketplace supports a number of payment methods, although the most popular are ACH transfer and PayPal. The marketplace also supports a wide variety of fiat currencies including USD, CAD, and CNY.

One downside to the P2P marketplace is that users are required to complete KYC verification on their KuCoin account before using it, which sort of defeats the privacy aspect of a P2P marketplace. That could be why we see so few orders posted there.

KuCoin Fast Buy

Fast Buy is the most convenient method of purchasing crypto on KuCoin, allowing users to pick up crypto without dealing with the intricacies of the trading platform. This is more like a broker than an exchange, and users can quickly and easily purchase BTC, ETH, and USDT with low fees.

The platform supports over 70+ payment methods which is pretty impressive. This convenience comes with an additional transaction fee that is automatically deducted from your payment. I could not find any figures here, KuCoin just states: “KuCoin will deduct transaction fees from your payment. Refer to the order confirmation page for specific fees”

So be sure to have a look at the confirmation page before finalizing the transaction to ensure you aren’t being charged an arm and a leg.

Once the purchase is made, the funds can be sent to the user’s KuCoin platform or wallet.

KuCoin Trading Bots

Many of us dream of kicking back on a beach and allowing an army of robots to do everything for us, from our dishes to trading. While I don’t know of any dishwashing robots yet, KuCoin has got traders covered on the trading aspect, though you’re unlikely to find a bot that can run on full auto while you kick back on a beach. You can find out why trading bots aren’t money printers in our article on Crypto Trading Bots. 

Trading bots are a popular “assistant” for traders who know how to use them, allowing traders to save time and energy while potentially increasing their profits as they can trade round the clock. These bots can help reduce repetitive work and reduce a trader’s need to stare at screens all day. KuCoin’s bots can help with things like rebalancing a trading portfolio, following DCA strategies and executing trades based on pre-set parameters.

Trading bots are tools best utilized and deployed by professional traders who already know how to trade and have developed profitable manual trading strategies. Check out KuCoin’s article on trading bots to learn more about how they work and the bots available.

If you are interested in exploring trading bots further, I recommend checking out our Top Trading Bots article, where we cover some of the best platforms that offer automated bot trading.

KuCoin App

KuCoin has a mobile app available on both IOS and Android which is hugely popular with 5M+ downloads.

The app has fantastic reviews with an average rating of 4.4 out of 5 on Google, with over 100k reviews, and 4.5 out of 5 on the App Store, with over 15k reviews. Those numbers certainly speak for themselves.

The KuCoin team did a fantastic job with the UX/UI of the platform, it is easy to navigate and the menus are intuitive, making finding your way around the platform a breeze. I would have assumed that such a feature-packed platform like KuCoin wouldn’t be able to cram everything into an app, at least, not one that was easy to use, but KuCoin nailed it on this front.

KuCoin’s mobile features are as follows: 

• Buy crypto via card and trade assets seamlessly with low fees
• Review the value of your portfolio
• Access multiple Earn features, as well as KuCoin Win, KCS Bonus, and trading bots
• Fast Trade, spot trade, and margin trading are supported
• 24/7 support

While no serious trader is likely to use a mobile trading app as their primary trading tool, and trading is best left for desktop setups, the KuCoin app is a fantastic app for trading on the go when needed, and for accessing the plethora of Earn features offered.

KuCoin vs US Department of Justice

In March 2024, the US DOJ sued KuCoin and two of its founders, Chun Gan and Ke Tang, accusing them of violating anti-money laundering laws. KuCoin was also charged with operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business and a substantive violation of the Bank Secrecy Act. The founders remain at large, the release said.

According to the DOJ, the exchange failed to implement basic anti-money laundering policies, which allowed KuCoin to be used as a “haven” for illicit money laundering. By the department's estimate, KuCoin received over $5 billion and sent over $4 billion of suspicious and criminal funds since its founding in 2017.

Co-founders Gan and Tang are each charged with one count of conspiring to violate the Bank Secrecy Act and one count of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business, each of which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

The DOJ argues that KuCoin only implemented KYC standards in July 2023 after it was notified of a federal criminal investigation into its activities. Still, identity verification was only applied to new customers and not the millions who had already signed up.

After the DOJ made its release public, KuCoin said it was “operating well, and the assets of our users are absolutely safe.”

We are aware of the related reports and are currently investigating the details through our lawyers. KuCoin respects the laws and regulations of various countries and strictly adheres to compliance standards. - X

KuCoin Fees

KuCoin utilizes a tiered fee approach similar to Binance and OKX. Together, these three are neck in neck for offering the absolute lowest fees in the industry. If you are a stickler for low fees, then one of these three exchanges will be your go-to, especially with the additional 60% fee discount you can get by signing up using our KuCoin Sign Up Link.

Kucoin’s fees vary significantly based on the trading volume during a 30-day rolling period. The most traders will pay for Maker and Taker fees is 0.1% and can lower the already rock-bottom fees by an additional 20% if they pay their fees in KuCoin’s native KCS token. KuCoin’s Spot trading fees can be seen below:

Here is a look at the futures trading fees:

When it comes to futures funding fees, KuCoin Futures has an adjustable USD/USDT lending rate as they adjust for the relative funding rates, which can be either positive or negative.

With this adjustment, the lending rate gap between the base currency and quote currency of the perpetual futures funding rate will shift from 0.030% to 0%, which means the funding fee of the perpetual futures of KuCoin will become 0 during normal periods. KuCoin Futures funding occurs every 8 hours at 04:00, 12:00, and 20:00 UTC.

KuCoin Deposit/Withdrawal fees

This section will cover the fiat and crypto deposit and withdrawal fees that you can expect to pay on KuCoin, those fees look a little something like this:

• Crypto deposits- free
• Crypto withdrawals- Vary significantly depending on token and network, up to date fees can be found on the KuCoin Fees Page
• Crypto Purchases with Fiat- Using the Fast Pay option will deduct a transaction fee from your payment. KuCoin does not specify what this fee will be, only states that it will be shown on the confirmation page before purchase.

KuCoin does not support fiat deposits themselves but relies on third-party payment processors, and does not disclose the fees of their partners on their site. Here is a look at the different payment processors that can be accessed to deposit over 50 different fiat currencies or purchase crypto directly either via bank card, bank transfer, Apple Pay, and BTC Direct.

If you are going to deposit funds, be sure to check in the red box to see what the fees are going to be to ensure you receive an amount you are happy with. The fees are going to vary greatly depending on which method is chosen but should never exceed 6% 

• Fiat Withdrawals- Not supported

KuCoin Leveraged Token Trading Fees

• Standard Maker and Taker fees apply
• Subscription and redemption fee of 0.1% per subscription to each leveraged token
• Management fees are charged at the rate of 0.045% for tokens held after 23:45 UTC every day.

KuCoin KYC and Account Verification

In July 2023, KuCoin removed the KYC-free trading option. Many crypto exchanges are requiring KYC as standard now. Unfortunately, the days of the wild west anonymity of crypto are over, and like other exchanges, KuCoin has KYC and account verification requirements for those looking to trade at all limits.

Here is a look at the limits for the different verification levels:

Basic verification Requires the following details:

• Country of residence
• Full name
• ID card type and number

That is still a less burdensome process than US-based exchanges, who feel like they are about one step away from asking for DNA samples, your star sign, and medical records. To reach advanced verification, traders will need to provide the following:

• Country of residence
• Full name
• ID card type and number
• ID photo upload
• Selfie

KuCoin Security

KuCoin meets the high industry standards that you would expect from a top-tier exchange. They keep the majority of their funds in cold storage where they are out of the reach of hackers while providing users with some robust security features.

KuCoin has partnered with Onchain Custodian to help ensure the crypto held on their exchange is secure, and they have insurance to cover customers in the event of a hack. It is important to note that in 2020, KuCoin did experience one of the largest hacks in crypto history. Hackers were able to make off with $275 million worth of customer funds.

Fortunately, all customer funds were reimbursed. Since then, KuCoin has significantly upped its security protocols and has not had any issues since that dark day in crypto history. If you are understandably apprehensive about using an exchange that has fallen victim to a hack, then I would recommend checking out our Kraken and SwissBorg reviews, as those are two of the most secure exchanges in the industry and have never suffered from a known hack.

The security protocols of the exchange are constructed according to industry best practices and utilize encryption technology. On the operational side, there are a number of control departments in place that provide activity monitoring on the platform.

From a user perspective, KuCoin traders can rest easy with the following security measures: 

• Two-factor authentication
• Security questions
• Anti-phishing safety phrase
• Login safety phrase
• Trading password
• Phone verification
• Email notifications
• Restrict login IP address 

However, like any other exchange, KuCoin's security, while on par with industry standards, was still the target of a past security breach. On September 25, 2020, KuCoin faced a security breach in which hackers acquired access to the exchange's hot wallets and siphoned off over $280 million in various cryptocurrencies traded on the platform. As with any financial service, users considering KuCoin for cryptocurrency trading must exercise sufficient due diligence and understand the associated security risks.

Anti-Fraud Suite

In early 2023, KuCoin announced the launch of their Anti-Fraud Suite to strengthen security and combat business scams. These measures include advanced anti-phishing verification and business wallet address verification, significantly reducing the potential for fraud. With the addition of these security tools, KuCoin aims to safeguard users by verifying official business wallet addresses and mitigating the risks associated with impersonation and phishing attempts. Through the Official Media and Wallet Verification Portal now available, users can obtain:

• Anti-phishing verification: KuCoin team communications to businesses will feature an 8-digit number created by the business during the listing application filing process, which is used to authenticate it.
• Official contact verification: If any users have doubts about the authenticity of an individual claiming to be from KuCoin, all contact information for KuCoin staff, including email addresses, phone numbers, and social media accounts, can be verified through the same portal.

Proof of Reserves

Days after the FTX collapse, KuCoin sent out an email to customers reassuring them of the safety of their funds. In the email, it mentioned that it’s using Proof of Reserves to guarantee funds' safety. Since CZ from Binance publicly tweeted about its necessity and encouraged its adoption, the term has become a trending topic in the crypto industry.

So what is Proof of Reserves? According to Glassnode, Proof of Reserves (PoR) displays the assets held on-chain and matching liabilities held both on and off-chain. A number of exchanges have disclosed their on-chain addresses (but not liabilities) to Glassnode, including KuCoin.

One thing I find interesting is that amongst all the other exchanges’ websites I’ve seen on this topic, KuCoin’s Proof of Reserves page has the least amount of information, not even a Merkle Tree diagram. Further investigation reveals that this information is only available to customers after they’ve logged in to verify their assets on the exchange.

I’ll take a pause here to explain what is a Merkle Tree. It is essentially a data structure for a group of encrypted data. Each transaction, whether a snapshot of balances or a transaction itself, is encrypted, grouped together and further encrypted, layer after layer, like a Russian matryoshka doll, forming a tree-like structure.

KuCoin’s Proof of Reserves webpage lists the amount of BTC, ETH and USDT reserves they have. All three assets show that the amounts held exceed the liabilities. In other words, they have more coins than necessary to pay out everyone who deposited those three assets in the exchange.

Coinmarketcap also launched their own version of Proof-of-Reserves in an attempt to provide the crypto community with a kind of service in this area. In their version, KuCoin’s finances look relatively healthy. The wallet addresses listed can also be used to check on the blockchain explorer for those interested in doing further analysis.

How do users verify on their own?

First, customers need to log into their KuCoin account. Then, browse to the Proof of Reserves page and click on Verify Now. A pop-up window appears where you are invited to generate an Audit ID. Last step is to click on Verification details. This brings you to a separate page where your balances are shown against what they have in reserves, thereby proving that they have more than enough to cover you should you choose to withdraw your funds.

Recently, they’ve also announced that they’ve hired an independent third-party auditing firm called Mazars to conduct the audit for their reserves, unlike other exchanges, such as Kraken and Gate.io, that uses Armanino instead.

A quick survey on Mazars’ website shows that most of their clients are in traditional industries such as Consumers, Real Estate, Energy and Infrastructure, Transport & Logistics and also Financial Services to name a few. Perhaps the company is looking to break into the crypto industry? I’m not sure if they will be doing the audit for the Merkle tree proofs or if they are conducting a regular audit.

The decision to involve an audit firm could have been caused by the rumours swirling around one of their products called “dual investment,” which offers suspiciously high yields. It is basically a complex option product where the assets involved can have eye-waveringly high gains. ETH is priced at 110.93%, USDT is 240.75% and BTC is 183.89%. Coincidentally, these are also the assets with Proof of Reserves.

Anything that gives that amount of yield, in light of what happened with Celsius and BlockFi, makes for jumpy critics. The fact that this product was listed under Earn instead of Derivatives, whether by intention or not, was also highly criticised, despite the fact that Earn is supposedly managed by professional management.

What does all this mean?

At this point, it’s clear that just having Proof of Reserves is not the be-all and end-all. It works like a snapshot, i.e. a frozen moment of time. What happens before and after is anyone’s guess.

Other measures also need to be taken into consideration if the ultimate goal is to ensure the safety of clients’ funds. This includes visibility into what activity is happening with assets, and what the auditors found when doing the audits. As long as there is activity not put on chain and available for public scrutiny, there will always be an element of guesswork involved. At the end of the day, people are still asked to place their trust in the integrity of the exchange and it is the exchange’s task to convince people of their trustworthiness.

Cryptocurrencies Available on KuCoin

This crypto exchange’s greatest strength is the sheer range of cryptocurrencies available. A KuCoin account is a must for those altcoin gem hunters looking to pick up altcoins that are not supported on any other major exchange.

With a massive catalogue of over 800 supported cryptocurrencies, you won’t find a better selection from any of the top 5 exchanges.

KuCoin Exchange Platform Design and Usability

I will preface this section by stating outright that KuCoin is not the most beginner-friendly exchange to start trading, nor was it intended to be. KuCoin was specifically designed for experienced traders; if you are looking for simplicity, I recommend checking out SwissBorg, Kraken or OkCoin.

Though if you aren’t afraid of a learning curve, or if you are an experienced trader, the KuCoin exchange is a fantastic place to get stuck into. It was designed with ease of use in mind, with a straightforward and intuitive design for those familiar with trading platforms.

There are several ways to buy, hodl, and earn at KuCoin that are beginner-friendly and can be easily accessed from the main account screen, but the exchange itself remains the most heavily used feature of KuCoin.

Making a spot trade is as straightforward as any exchange; simply click on the “markets” tab at the top, and you will be met with a list of hundreds of tokens and fiat pairs available for trading.

TradingView provides the trading chart, so KuCoin trading comes with all the power and robust features of TradingView, meaning it offers more than enough functionality for even the most hard-core technical traders. In addition, the exchange interface comes with the following sections:

• Order placing window for buying and selling. KuCoin supports Limit, Market, Stop Limit and Stop Market orders. Also, you can specify extra order characteristics such as Post-Only, Hidden, or Time in Force (Good till Cancelled, Good till Time, Immediate or Cancel, and Fill or Kill) according to your trading tools and strategy.
• The market window allows traders to switch between different trading pairs and pairs with margins available.
• Order book with all current buy and sell orders.
• Recent trades window where you can choose to see the most recent trades in the market or market’s depth.
• Open orders, stop orders and order history.

If you want to learn more about trading, feel free to check out our article on How to Perform Technical Analysis. 

Deposits and Withdrawals at KuCoin

Deposit and withdrawals at KuCoin are one of the exchange's most prominent criticisms and weaknesses. Crypto can be purchased with over 50 different fiat currencies by over 70 different payment methods, which sounds impressive, but as I mentioned in the fees section, this is done through third-party platforms that charge pretty hefty fees ranging between 1-6% depending on the party and method.

Crypto purchases and fiat deposits can be made via credit/debit card, SEPA bank transfer, iDEAL, Bancontact, Giropay, SOFORT Banking, EPS, and Apple Pay through providers such as Simplex, Banxa, and BTC Direct.

There are no options available for fiat withdrawals. 

Most traders, myself included in the rare instance I use KuCoin, tend only to fund KuCoin accounts through crypto transfers as crypto deposits are free, and withdrawals are cheap depending on the crypto asset of choice. It is common for traders on KuCoin to bypass the weak fiat methods altogether and use a different exchange as a fiat on and off-ramp. 

KuCoin Token KCS: Uses and Performance

KuCoin Token with the ticker KCS is the utility cryptocurrency of the KuCoin exchange and is the solitary utility token of the KuCoin ecosystem. KCS tokens are highly valuable for KuCoin users and provide the following benefits:

• KCS holders can receive daily KCS token rewards, which come from 50% of the collected trading fees
• KCS holders receive a trading fee discount depending on VIP level based on the number of tokens held
• KCS holders can gain access to Spotlight projects
• KCS staking benefits
• Holders can access exclusive KCS holder perks and offers.

KuCoin has developed multi-dimensional demand drivers for the KCS token and heavily invests in community rewards to entice traders to the platform and encourage KCS buying and hodling.

Altogether, the bonuses offered by KuCoin return 90% of the collected fees back to the community.

KuCoin Customer Support

I’m going to be blunt here and say the KuCoin support is absolutely terrible. The support wasn’t great last time I tested it, and I rechecked it for this review to see if it had gotten any better over the past year and was shocked to find it had somehow gotten worse.

Pretty disappointing for a company that has been around for as long as KuCoin and has had years to address this issue. Not to mention, you would think a company worth $10b who earns tens of millions in profit every year could invest in providing better support. 

KuCoin offers 24/7 support via online chat if you can get through and an email ticketing system, though you may be stuck waiting for a while to receive a response from either one, and you will be lucky if the response resolves anything.

When you try and access live chat support, KuCoin first deploys an automated chatbot that is more difficult to get past than the gatekeepers of hell, preventing you from contacting a real person. The bot’s name is Emilia, she’s the worst thing since parachute pants, and I would almost rather deal with the T800 from Terminator than ever have to chat with Emilia again.

I tried a couple of times to get through to support, and I am not exaggerating when I say that I had to tell Emilia over a dozen times that she was not answering my questions and that I wanted to speak to an agent. Yet, the bot kept force-feeding me irrelevant articles that did not answer my question. Finally, after asking about ten or more times to speak to support, I was patched through to an agent who was slightly more helpful than Emilia.

And just when I thought I had escaped the evil chatbot by closing the chat, hours after testing out their email support, she stalked me right into my email inbox. I had emailed their support team to test it out hours prior and was not expecting a follow-up from the savage chatbot. I thought, “you’ve got to be kidding me” surely, she was just messing with me now.

Once again, Emilia tried to throw a bunch of unrelated articles at me that had nothing to do with my question. Talk about persistence! Emilia should work in sales; she doesn't take no for an answer. She let me know my email may take a long time to receive a response; I cannot say that I am surprised. Ay caramba!

When I finally did receive an email response from KuCoin Support, I may have preferred Emilia's answers. Unfortunately, the agent somehow managed to be even less helpful than the chatbot, a feat I did not think would be possible.

My question was: "Could you please let me know the fees associated with using the Fast Buy feature? I could not locate the Fast Buy fees on your site."

This was the response, meme added by me for dramatic effect:

I did not ask for the address? Perhaps this was Emilia pretending to be a live support agent; I'll never know.

Each time I reached out to KuCoin support, I was met with not overly friendly support members, equally poor answers, and sometimes long wait times.

The question: "Is KuCoin licensed in any country?" was answered with: "KuCoin is a legally operating exchange."

Not the most specific or helpful answer.

There are also hundreds of negative reviews online echoing my sentiment, and KuCoin Support received equally harsh criticisms in this Investopedia review.

Fortunately, there is a silver lining, and that is that KuCoin has a very well-built self-help section full of handy articles, beginner guides, and articles.

I would recommend trying to find your answers here first or checking out KuCoin’s YouTube channel for help before battling Emilia or trying to pry answers from the sleepy support staff.

KuCoin Top Benefits Reviewed

KuCoin provides an incredibly powerful exchange for traders and offers more altcoins than any other major exchange. It is one of the top exchanges for an assortment of tradeable markets and futures. KuCoin has more than enough going on to appeal to any skill level or dedication of trader.

The gamified Vegas-style trading games and contests are also a fantastic addition that attracts members who make up a part of the millions of users worldwide who love KuCoin trading.

KuCoin presents a myriad of features tailored to cater to both novice traders and seasoned professionals, resulting in an optimal trading environment. Stand-out features of KuCoin trading experience:

1. Diverse Selection of Coins: KuCoin offers access to an extensive array of cryptocurrencies, encompassing popular tokens, stablecoins, DeFi assets, meme coins, and numerous small-cap coins on its trading platform.
2. Intuitive Interface: The platform prides itself on its intuitive and user-friendly interface, facilitating seamless navigation for users of all levels of experience.
3. Competitive Fee Structure: KuCoin distinguishes itself with its highly competitive fee system, positioning it as one of the most cost-effective choices among cryptocurrency exchanges.
4. Automated Trading with KuCoin Trading Bots: KuCoin provides automated trading bots for various well-established cryptocurrencies, enhancing trading efficiency.
5. Advanced Trading Options: In addition to the spot market, KuCoin supports advanced trading strategies such as margin trading, futures, and leveraged trading.
6. Passive Income Opportunities: KuCoin offers avenues for passive income through cryptocurrency fixed deposits.
7. Integration with DeFi: The platform includes DeFi-specific products, enabling users to stake cryptocurrencies on the blockchain.
8. KuCoin Token (KCS) Benefits: KCS, KuCoin's native token, grants benefits such as reduced trading fees and a share of KuCoin’s trading fee revenue.

What Can Be Improved?

It would be great to see KuCoin place more emphasis on customer support. A company valued at $10b of this calibre and experience has no excuse for poor support. If great support is important to you, I recommend checking out Kraken and SwissBorg as they have top-notch support; KuCoin could take notes.

KuCoin lacks as a primary exchange for traders as they have no fiat offramp. This is their biggest weakness, as any trading profits won by trading crypto needs to be sent elsewhere to be converted to fiat and withdrawn. It would be great if KuCoin found a way for traders to withdraw or spend profits via crypto card or fiat withdrawal methods. 

Final Thoughts on KuCoin Exchange

KuCoin has adamantly stuck to its guns and committed to its original mission, which was to become a top-of-the-line, robust, multi-feature crypto trading exchange, and they have done that very well. With deep liquidity and offering among the highest selection of tradeable markets and assets, it is no wonder that KuCoin has firmly cemented itself as a top 5 exchange.

As mentioned, the main gripe is the inability to cash out. As a result, users who use KuCoin often use it as a secondary exchange and have another exchange such as Coinbase, Kraken, or Binance that they use for crypto to fiat conversions. That aside, KuCoin remains very popular thanks to its contests, trading games, trading bots, and insane selection of altcoins.