KuCoin Review: Offerings, Fees, Pros and Cons

KuCoin undoubtedly has a place among the top crypto trading platforms in the industry. With its vast offerings and products, coupled with mouthwatering incentives and futures trading, KuCoin keeps pushing to new heights.

But does it mean the exchange has no flaws too? We’ll find out in this well-researched KuCoin review, as well as every necessary information you need before deciding on whether to trade on the platform or not.

At a Quick Glance

Pug Score	4.2/5
Fees (Maker/Taker)	0.1%/0.1%
Cryptocurrencies Traded	150+
Most Suitable For	Beginners and Advanced Traders

Key Findings

KuCoin is a safe exchange with many crypto trading options. There is a 100x leverage available to pro futures traders. Margin and spot trades are also available to all traders.

In addition to crypto staking, KuCoin provides many incentives and earning campaigns to provide more liquidities to decentralized products and the platform.

KuCoin is easy to use and navigate, and newbies can leverage their educational tools and learn how to trade on the platform. The exchange is also KYC compliant, meaning that you must submit at least one document to enable you to withdraw funds.

Pros	Cons
Trade futures at 100x leverage	UI appears clustered
Over 150 trading options	Requires KYC to withdraw and deposit
Margin and spot trading is available	Not available to US citizens
Available globally
Low trading fees
Educational tools are available.
Advanced charting systems

What is KuCoin?

KuCoin is a Singaporean-based crypto trading platform launched in 2017 by two tech Gurus, Michael Gan and Top Lan, who serve as the exchange’s CEO and CTO, respectively. 

The exchange has grown considerably to serve a global audience, launching its utility token, the KCS, and enlisting several crypto instruments in its database. Little wonder KuCoin claims to be “the people’s exchange.”

KuCoin is not regulated and doesn’t have the license to operate in the US. However, the exchange is available in over 100+ countries and boasts a daily trading volume of about 2 Billion USDT.

Range of Offering

KuCoin offers many products and services, and we will discuss some of them in detail in this section.

1. KuCoin Trade

KuCoin, as a crypto trading platform, offers trade services such as margin and spot trading. You can trade over 150 crypto assets on the margin trade and even more on the spot trade.

KuCoin’s margin trading comes with so many benefits, which include,

• Grand prizes when you trade regularly and invite friends through referrals
• Incentivized earning mechanisms, including VIP bonuses and trading fee discounts for loyal traders. 

Asides from these, you can generally trade cryptocurrency pairs at margins up to 10x leverage and earn 10x profits when you long or short the market.

In spot trading, you can create order books as a maker or taker. As a taker, you borrow money to trade cryptocurrencies when your order matches the one you set.

Generally, it is pretty easy to trade on KuCoin’s margin and spot trading offering, especially because KuCoin provides various resources for newbies to learn how to trade when they sign up.

2. KuCoin Finance

KuCoin dedicates the Finance section to incentivized programs such as crypto lending, Pool-X Earn, the KCS token and bonuses, referral, and KuCoin mining.

Crypto lending allows you to invest your crypto assets to earn interest after a stipulated period. Interests rates range from 12% – 300% in APY. KuCoin shares the profit among participants depending on the amount lent.

Pool-X Earn is an incentive to increase the earning margins of investors and traders. It works like the Crypto Lending offering, whereby you invest crypto assets and earn rewards after a period.

The KCS token is KuCoin’s utility token. Holding the token qualifies you to participate in several of KuCoin’s incentivized programs and campaigns, including bonuses such as reduced trading and withdrawal fees, staking, etc.

Finally, KuCoin mining gives you the platform to participate in mining protocols without needing mining hardware. You can say you are soft-mining while you earn rewards in the process. 

3. Buy Crypto

Binance and OKEx are some of the few crypto trading platforms that come close to KuCoin in this type of offering. The Buy Crypto section comprises fiat-to-crypto payment portals, P2P, and the Fast Buy option.

The fiat-to-crypto payment option allows you to purchase and deposit cryptocurrencies into your account through different money services such as Simplex or Banxa using your credit or debit cards. 

EU jurisdictions can use the SEPA option for international wire transfers. Other alternatives include Apple Pay, etc.

The P2P trading desk supports bank transfers between local banks using different exchange rates. It’s a risky medium as scammers tend to use dubious means to milk your profits.

The Fast Buy option allows you to purchase crypto instantly to your trading account in a one-click buy option using various payment options such as Alipay, WeChat Pay, credit or debit cards, etc.

Once the purchase is complete, you will receive your fund directly to your KuCoin wallet. However, you will need to complete a basic KYC verification to use this method.

4. KuCoin Wallet

The KuCoin wallet is an in-built wallet system for holding, depositing, withdrawing, and transferring cryptocurrencies between different wallet addresses and accounts within and outside of KuCoin.

5. KuCoin Derivatives and Futures Trading

You can trade different contracts and futures on KuCoin. There are lite and pro versions of derivatives trading. Meanwhile, the pro version comes with high leverage up to 100x; profit and losses can come in the same vein.

Asides from the leverage offered, the derivatives column comes with an earning campaign known as “Futures Brawl,” from which you can win prizes when you long or short the market.

6. KuCoin Earn

The KuCoin Earn program includes Lucky Raffling, Kanaria Fairdrop, and staking protocols. Each of them allows you to participate in liquidity pools with very little crypto funds and earn massively in cashouts.

7. KuCoin Spotlights

KuCoin helps provide liquidity through regular IEO, especially when a DeFi organization wants to launch a new token or DeFi project. Liquidity providers earn rewards in the process. 

Commission and Fee Structure

KuCoin, like other exchanges such as Binance, Bitstamp, or Coinbase, offers one of the lowest trading fees for both spot and futures trade. 

The exchange adopts a tiered fee structure depending on your trade volume. The fees diminish as you progress from level 0 to 12. At level 1, Maker and taker fees stand at 0.1%, respectively, for spot trades.

Futures and derivatives trades attract an even lower maker and taker trading fees, at 0.02% and 0.06%, respectively, and reduces for higher-volume traders. For instance, level 12 futures traders trade at 0.015% and 0.03% as maker and taker fees, respectively.

That said, here are some other areas KuCoin may charge commissions from:

Deposit and Withdrawal fees

KuCoin, like some exchanges, does not charge deposit fees, but there are fees for each withdrawal made on the platform. The fees vary from crypto to crypto. For instance, KuCoin charges a minimum withdrawal fee of 0.2 XRP and 1 USDT, respectively.

Staking and In-House Fees

KuCoin charges up to 8% in staking fees. A relatively small fee which is higher in Bitstamp staking offering. In-house fees may apply when you participate and withdraw profits in other KuCoin incentivized earning campaigns.

Ease of Account Opening

It is pretty easy to open and run an account with KuCoin. In a few steps, you have your account ready for trading. However, you should bear in mind that KuCoin is a centralized exchange, meaning you must complete KYC to deposit and withdraw funds.

In a few steps, we’ll walk you through the steps to creating your account and trading your first crypto pair on KuCoin.

Step 1: Registration

Your first experience with KuCoin may make you think the exchange is complicated because of its clustered UI. However, it is very straightforward to sign up and start trading cryptocurrencies on the exchange.

• Visit KuCoin’s official website. Ensure you’re visiting the correct one here.
• Toggle to the “Sign Up” button at the top right corner of the landing page.
• You can choose between signing up with an email or mobile number; anyone can serve. You will need to confirm they are yours through the verification code sent to them respectively.
• Set your password and then verify your mobile number or email by entering the codes sent to any of them.

Step 2: KuCoin KYC Verification

KuCoin is a centralized exchange and requires KYC to enable you to access its services and products without problems with your local authority and the exchange.

There are two levels of verification: KYC1 and KYC2. The KYC1 is also known as basic verification, in which you provide just your ID and ID number to enable you to withdraw, deposit using fiat or credit/debit cards, and trade contracts and margins.

The KYC2 enables you to enjoy advanced services such as an increased KuCoin withdrawal limit of up to 100 BTC, and you can trade up to 70,000 USDT daily. Plus, you trade contracts at increased leverage of up to 100x.

The KYC2 requires you to:

• Upload a recent photo of yourself
• Upload an ID with your residential address and ID number. But this time, it’s a direct photograph, taken together with the document and showing your ID number.

KYC2 may take a long period to get approval. Until then, you can still trade, deposit, and withdraw with just the level 1 verification.

Step 3: Depositing Funds

The next step is to deposit funds into your account. There are several options available, but the most convenient is the crypto-to-crypto transfer method. Deposit using crypto-to-crypto is free, but network fees may apply.

After depositing funds to your Bitcoin or Main Account, you can transfer between your spot or margin trading accounts. We will discuss more on how to deposit bitcoin into your KuCoin account in the subsequent section.

Step 4: Trading

The next step is to begin trading cryptocurrencies. All you need is a basic understanding of how to trade, carry out technical analysis, and follow the markets. Alternatively, you can use KuCoin’s TradingBot feature to win trades. However, it is not always reliable.

Deposit and Withdrawal

As stated earlier, there are various options to deposit crypto to your KuCoin account, which include the crypto-to-crypto medium, buying crypto from the KuCoin P2P market, and the fiat-to-crypto medium.

The crypto-to-crypto means you send crypto to your KuCoin wallet address from an external wallet. Also, the same thing applies to fiat using credit or debit cards. After you deposit your crypto, you can transfer between markets such as margin accounts and spot accounts.

Withdrawing your crypto on KuCoin is also a straightforward process. However, KuCoin supports only crypto-to-crypto withdrawals, but you can withdraw in fiat through the exchange’s P2P network for non-SEPA withdrawals.

• To withdraw or deposit, visit the “Assets” section at the top right corner of your desktop web app, and click on it to view the dropdown menu.
• Click on “main account” for deposits and withdrawals.
• Click on “deposit” or “withdraw.” to either deposit crypto or withdraw crypto.
• Next, you copy your deposit address and paste it into your withdrawal address box, and vice versa when you want to withdraw; you paste it into your withdrawal address into your deposit column.

There are two boxes present in the deposit or withdraw sections: the BTC and altcoin “main account” box. The main account box only supports ERC20 tokens. You will lose your coins if you transfer non-ERC20 tokens.

The same applies to KuCoin’s mobile app: find the “Assets” section and apply the same process in the web app. You can also scan between wallets to transfer, deposit, or withdraw coins.

Referral and Affiliate Program

Referral and affiliate programs are very active on the KuCoin exchange. You can earn passively outside of investment.

Users can earn by inviting friends and family through social media, their website, or any other rewarding means that compels them to sign up to KuCoin and start trading.

Here is how KuCoin’s referral program works:

• You must first have an account with KuCoin, then proceed to fill out a Google Docs form.
• Next is to share your unique invite code or referral link. You can find your link here.
• Reward comprises five coins: USDT, XRP, ADA, BTT, TRX, upon sign up, and five more when your friend reaches a benchmark of at least 10 USDT.

You should note that the affiliate program contrasts with the referral program, and you cannot participate in the two simultaneously.

Platform User Interface and Trading Experience

KuCoin’s UI is not intuitive and may look overwhelming at first sight. However, the exchange houses tons of exciting features that should convince professional traders of being top-notch.

Also, KuCoin doesn’t have a desktop application; it has only a web app for desktop users. The web app is quite interactive and has what it takes for traders to trade cryptocurrencies comfortably.

Trading experience with KuCoin is generally excellent. Even reviews from users affirm that. The exchange utilizes an advanced charting system that you can integrate easily to your custom trading portal through its API.

There are standard trading indicators and real-time crypto charts available. You can create order books, customize and save your strategies for subsequent one-click execution.

Mobile Application

Although KuCoin’s mobile is not as good for trading as the web application is, it is portable and allows you to take on different positions when your PC is unavailable. 

The mobile app is easy to download and install. You can choose to download it directly from KuCoin’s official website, using the QR Scanning portal available, or from Playstore or Apple app store.

Supported Cryptocurrency

Unless you trade using its decentralized exchange, KuCoin supports ERC20 tokens for normal trading accounts. On the mainnet of KuCoin’s DEX, you can trade BEP20 tokens and ERC20 tokens because the platform is cross-chain.

KuCoin also has over 500 trading pairs, including top-volume cryptocurrencies such as BTC, ETH, USDT, XRP, etc. More tokens get listed regularly, and this is perfect for traders looking to explore more crypto options.

Educational Tools

There are plenty of educational tools available at your disposal. Newbies can leverage on KuCoin’s educational tool to get started on the platform. 

KuCoin’s educational tools come through its help center, comprising the FAQ, blog, and community forum. Additionally, KuCoin has a Medium account that hosts interesting information for its users.

Video logs are another feature KuCoin utilizes to enhance learning and understanding of how to use its platform. Those who need alternatives to written texts can watch the videos to understand the platform better.

Customer Support

Unless you are not speaking directly to the KuCoin team, which can be a ton in the flesh because you are not the only one with complaints, KuCoin has an excellent customer support system.

KuCoin exchange’s customer support system includes:

• Social media: KuCoin is active on several social media channels. Users can reach out to their support team through these avenues. KuCoin has different social media channels for different languages, which is a good thing for single-language speakers.

Twitter and Telegram are great channels to connect with the team. Other social media channels include Facebook, Instagram, Linked In, Github, VK, Reddit, and Weibo.

• Help Center: On the help center, you can get support tickets and lay complaints to the team. You can also join KuCoin’s community of crypto traders and enthusiasts and see what’s happening in the market.
• LiveChat: You can find a 24/7 live chat floating on your screen. It’s a commendable approach for an exchange like KuCoin. However, if the live chat does not solve your pressing issues, you can use the mailing or phone contact media.

Regulation and Security

KuCoin is not a regulated exchange; most top exchanges like Binance and Gate.io do not have licenses to operate in all jurisdictions as well. With that being said, KuCoin offers top security protocols to safeguard investors’ information and funds.

Some of these security measures include:

1. Anti-phishing Confirmation Mechanism

Phishing is a mechanism many scammers use to steal investors’ money by modeling a site that looks exactly like the platform’s official site. To ensure you’re always visiting KuCoin’s official site all the time, always check the site’s information contained beside the lock icon before the site’s URL.

If you don’t see the lock icon, know that the KuCoin site you’re visiting is not secure and could house malicious activities.

2. IP Restriction

By turning on the “Restrict IP” feature, you grant KuCoin the full rights to log you out once an unregistered IP address logs into your account. 

You can do this in your security settings by locating “Restrict login IP” and confirming your IP therein. However, this feature is available to traders who trade at 0.1 BTC.

3. 2FA and other Security Protocols

KuCoin uses the 2FA strategy to secure users’ accounts. It is required when you want to withdraw funds or perform sensitive activities on your account.

It is easy to set up and integrate. Google Authenticator is one of the popular 2FA tools available. You can download the app and connect your email address to your 2FA setting on KuCoin.

Other security mechanisms you can employ include:

• Media verification using KuCoins contact support. By entering any of KuCoin’s contact support email or phone contact on Google search, it will provide you with KuCoin’s official link.
• Anti-Phishing safety phrase: Once you activate this, KuCoin gives you a regular phrase or words you must provide before logging into your account or withdrawing funds. You can find this in your security settings.
• Social media scam alerts: KuCoin does not chat with anyone on social media. So ensure you do not reply directly to an alleged KuCoin correspondent on social media if you did not initiate the conversation.

4. Cold Storage

KuCoin applies this technique to shielding hackers from getting access to your funds at will. However, KuCoin stores regular funds used in the day-to-day running of the exchange in the hot wallet.

Is KuCoin Safe?

Yes, KuCoin is safe for trading cryptocurrencies. The platform boasts of being one of the most secured exchanges available in the industry.

Conclusion

It is evident from this KuCoin review that the exchange is outstanding, adding to its interesting range of offerings and trading options, ease of access, and many earning incentives. 

However, KuCoin UI is not simple as most new traders on the platform may find it difficult to comprehend at first sight. Nevertheless, there are educational resources to keep you informed on the platform.