This KuCoin review will answer any questions about the exchange and explore whether it’s right for you. We’ll look at everything from KuCoin’s fees and features to its security history, user interface quality, and overall performance.
As one of the 10 biggest exchanges in the world by trading volume, KuCoin is a solid choice for all traders. However, it especially shines when it comes to intermediate to advanced traders, arguably being the best crypto exchange out there for high-leverage trading.
Key Takeaways
- KuCoin has some of the lowest trading fees in the space, competing closely with the likes of Binance.
- The exchange is ideal for advanced traders. KuCoin sports high leverage, customizable charts, a launchpad, and an entire Web3 ecosystem.
- Copy trading makes getting to grips with the exchange easier for beginners.
- KuCoin has the biggest availability of ICOs and newly listed tokens among the top 10 exchanges.
- Due to regulatory concerns, KuCoin is not officially available in the UK, US, or Canada.
Disclaimer: Investing in cryptocurrencies carries significant risk. Values are highly volatile. Never invest more than you can afford to lose. This site does not provide financial advice. Act based on your own research and consult with a financial professional before making decisions.
Quick Verdict: Is KuCoin a Good Crypto Exchange for You?
As one of the biggest crypto exchanges, KuCoin is a solid fit for most traders. Its copy trading functionality and abundant learning resources are great for new traders, but the real meat is in the advanced features.
The exchange offers everything you need in crypto, from leverage and futures to a DeFi wallet and multiple passive income options. The biggest downside is that KuCoin isn’t officially available in many countries, including the US, and the company has had some regulatory issues.
Pros and Cons of KuCoin
Here’s a quick snapshot of our KuCoin review.
Pros:
- Low fees compared to most top exchanges.
- Massive breadth of options for advanced traders, including high leverage, customizable charts, bot integration, futures trading, and more.
- Over 1,000 tokens available and a massive number of trading pairs.
- Advanced passive income options, including dual investment, loans, and others.
- A variety of options to invest in new and upcoming tokens before the hype.
Cons:
- Not officially available in the US, UK, or Canada.
- It can be difficult to use for beginners.
Basic Details of KuCoin
KuCoin was founded in China back in 2017 by Chun Gan, Ke Tang, Michael Gan, and Johnny Lyu. After China outlawed most crypto operations, KuCoin moved its headquarters to Singapore and finally to Seychelles. Today, KuCoin is available in over 200 countries worldwide and is the ninth-largest crypto exchange in the world. Unfortunately, the company has had some regulatory struggles in most of the English-speaking world, pulling out of the US, UK, and Canada.
Main Features and Services Offered by KuCoin
Let’s take a deeper look at what features KuCoin has to offer.
Available Trading Pairs & Supported Cryptocurrencies
The number of supported tokens and trading pairs determines how easy it is to diversify your crypto portfolio and makes it more likely for you to be able to invest in a new token that catches your eye.
KuCoin has one of the widest pools of available tokens among the top 10 exchanges. It supports over 1,000 cryptocurrencies, including all the heavy hitters, many meme coins, and a variety of brand new tokens launching on the KuCoin launchpad.
Margin, Futures, and Other Advanced Products
KuCoin has one of the most significant leverage opportunities, capping out at a massive risk limit of 125x leverage. This makes it one of the best crypto exchanges for margin trading. However, it’s worth noting that beginner users do have lower leverage limits to restrict the amount of losses you can incur early in your journey.
Futures are also widely available on KuCoin, along with many popular trading pairs. Advanced traders will be happy to know that Kucoin offers customizable charting and API integration, allowing for extremely sophisticated trading strategies.
Staking, Borrowing, and Lending Options
KuCoin’s passive income platform, KuCoin Earn, has three main aspects through which you can earn crypto passively:
- Simple Earn: Provides you with an easy way to earn crypto, compounded daily, and akin to a TradFi savings account except for crypto. The terms are flexible, so your assets are never left unavailable.
- Staking: Through staking, you can lock up your tokens for a predetermined duration and get more once the time is up. Currently, the highest APR offered is 13%, significantly higher than the expected returns of TradFi investments like the NASDAQ.
- Structured Products: An advanced investment vector covering everything from dual investments to Snowball strategies. While this is only recommended for advanced investors, it can provide a significant edge over staking if used correctly.
Aside from this, Kucoin has a full-fledged loan program. You can easily take out crypto-backed loans with relatively favorable repayment terms compared to most providers on the market. These loans can then be used to trade on the exchange, effectively providing a multiplier on leverage.
Furthermore, at KuCoin, you can lend out your crypto to other users and have them pay you. KuCoin takes a 15% cut off of your earnings, but the APY for providing these loans can be as high as 32%.
Launch Hub
KuCoin is one of the most active exchanges for crowdfunding new projects and listing brand-new tokens on the exchange. Here, you can trade brand-new tokens over the counter before they’re fully listed, allowing you to get in at a fixed price before the broader market starts buying.
On KuCoin spotlight, you can access token ICOs and buy tokens before they’re listed anywhere.
In the GemSpace and GemPool, you can lock up your tokens for newly listed projects and earn free airdrops. Overall, KuCoin provides the most opportunities for investors to engage with new tokens compared to any other top 10 exchange.
Comprehensive Web3 Ecosystem
KuCoin has an entire Web3 ecosystem built around it, apart from the exchange. This all starts with the KuCoin Web3 wallet, which enables easy access to the world of Web3 and is seamlessly integrated with the exchange platform.
The wallet allows you to access DEXs, as well as tokenized stocks through xStocks. There is also a platform exclusively for meme coins in MemeX.
The dApps view allows you to explore new dApps and find projects with ease. Once you’ve engaged with a dApp, you can favorite it for easy access later. Some of these dApps are built directly for the KuCoin ecosystem, such as Forward, a dApp enabling low-code creation of other dApps, much like WordPress does for websites.
KuCoin Mobile App
KuCoin has a well-rated mobile app on both iOS and Android. The app sports a similar green-on-white design to the desktop version. It has all of the functionalities available on desktop, just packed up tidier.
The app is very responsive, more so than most competitors. This makes it a great choice for traders on the go looking to execute time-sensitive strategies like swing trading.
Security and reputation of KuCoin
Overall, KuCoin has robust security and a reputation for being one of the safest exchanges. That said, the company has had regulatory issues in the past.
Security Features
KuCoin has an abundance of security features, ranging from protecting everything from your account credentials to the exchange’s own systems. The exchange regularly publishes its proof of reserves, showing that it has a better-than-1:1 ratio on ETH, BTC, USDT, and USDC. On top of that, the company has its holdings verified by a third party routinely.
KuCoin uses a mix of ID verification, anti-phishing protection, and withdrawal anti-tampering to keep your funds safe even if someone does access your account. To keep the exchange’s funds safe, they use cold storage, firewalls, unified egress management, and proactive scanning against asset exposure.
Overall, KuCoin takes a holistic approach to security, with plenty of security measures in place at every access point to keep would-be attackers at bay.
Track Record
KuCoin was the victim of the biggest cyberattack of 2020, with almost $300 million in funds stolen from the exchange. This severely damaged its credibility in the short term; however, KuCoin recovered as best it could.
The exchange managed to recover all of these funds, whether through partners, law enforcement, or insurance. From there, through a concentrated effort into cybersecurity, KuCoin managed to recover its reputation. The company hasn’t suffered a cyberattack since, and has maintained robust protections on user funds.
KYC/AML Requirements
In August 2023, KuCoin implemented mandatory KYC for all its users. This process involves the user submitting their personal information, ID photos, and undergoing face verification. While KuCoin is known to be a little more lenient on KYC than most major exchanges, it’s still not as private as the best no KYC exchanges.
Regulatory Compliance and Licenses
KuCoin has a rather lackluster record when it comes to regulatory compliance. In January of this year, the company was criticized in the US for operating without a license and ended up paying $300 million in fines.
A similar situation happened in Canada, where the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) found that the company was operating without a license, resulting in a $22 million fine.
Finally, in the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued a statement that KuCoin was operating in the country illegally, leading to access troubles for UK users.
KuCoin is looking to obtain a MiCAR license in Austria, which would allow it to operate as a crypto asset/services provider across the EU. The company is also licensed in India using a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license.
Trading Fees and Other Costs at KuCoin
KuCoin is one of the best crypto exchanges out there when it comes to fees. Let’s take a look at a breakdown of what you can expect.
Spot Trading Fees
KuCoin’s spot trading fees start at 0.1%/0.1% maker/taker, which is the same as Binance, considered by many to be the gold standard of spot trading fees. From there, there are two ways you can lower your trading fees:
- Using KuCoin Token (KCS), KuCoin’s native token, to reduce your fees by up to 20%.
- Increasing your VIP level by trading higher volumes allows you access to lower trading fees across the board.
Derivatives Fees
The futures trading fees at KuCoin start from 0.02%/0.06%, which is lower than the vast majority of exchanges. From there, these fees can be reduced by increasing your VIP level.
Deposit and Withdrawal Fees
KuCoin has no deposit fees and has some of the lowest withdrawal fees on the market. While the fees vary per coin, they are often flat fees, meaning you pay the same amount no matter how much you withdraw. For Bitcoin in particular, KuCoin is often the most efficient exchange to withdraw from, according to WithdrawalFees data.
Deposit and Withdrawal Methods Available at KuCoin
KuCoin is quite varied when it comes to deposit and withdrawal methods, so let’s dig into all of them.
Supported Deposit Methods
The supported KuCoin deposit options vary slightly by country, with over 200 being supported in total. Bank transfer, PayPal, Skrill, credit/debit card, and more support 60 fiat currencies. Of course, the exchange also takes crypto deposits.
There are three ways you can deposit into KuCoin:
- Fast Trade: There are some fees here, but you can directly buy crypto through a credit/debit card, Revolut Pay, Banxa, or any other supported option.
- P2P: Zero fees, multitude of options supported, but can take some time to complete.
- Third-party providers: KuCoin accepts off-site deposits through providers like Banxa.
Supported Withdrawal Methods
KuCoin withdrawal methods are a little more limited; however, you can still expect the following in most countries:
- Crypto withdrawal to an external wallet.
- P2P and third party options (country-dependent).
Notably, while KuCoin doesn’t natively support fiat withdrawals, they are easy to do off of the P2P market.
Typical Processing Times
The processing time for withdrawals and deposits will vary depending on your chosen processing method. While crypto deposits and withdrawals can be cleared in less than half an hour, a bank transfer through P2P can take up to 5 business days.
User Experience at KuCoin
Overall, KuCoin’s user experience is high-quality with polished menus and a responsive website.
Registration Process
KuCoin registration is fairly simple; all you need to do is follow these steps on desktop:
- Press “Sign Up.”
- Input and verify your email/phone number.
- Go through the KYC process, have a government form of identification at the ready(such as an ID or passport)
It’s similar for mobile but some buttons might be in different places.
Platform Interface and Design
KuCoin has a straightforward, elegant design. All the available features are clearly displayed in the toolbar at the top of the screen. From there, you can narrow down your search or switch your view to the KuCoin Web3 ecosystem.
The team has done a great job of making the wide range of features KuCoin offers as easy to access as possible. The platform also uses space efficiently, with big buttons for the most important functions on every page..
Educational Resources and Learning Materials
KuCoin has an abundance of learning resources available through KuCoin Learn. It is largely geared towards beginner and intermediate traders, lagging behind exchanges like Kraken when it comes to advanced materials.
However, KuCoin makes up for it in its breadth of resources, as well as a learn-to-earn (L2E) program that allows beginners to earn different tokens just for learning about the Web3 space.
Customer Support at KuCoin
While the support we received from KuCoin was high-quality, with knowledgeable agents fluent in English, response times were on the slower side. Here are all the ways you can reach them.
Contact methods
You can contact KuCoin directly through any of the following:
Live Chat
You can contact the KuCoin support team through live chat at the bottom left of the main support page. It took our team a little under 15 minutes to get a response.
Submit a Ticket
You can submit a ticket with your email on KuCoin’s website. This method is slightly slower than live chat, taking us almost an hour to get a response from the team.
Social Media
You can reach KuCoin support on their social media pages, such as their official X (Twitter) account.
Community support
Aside from direct methods, KuCoin has a thriving community that you can reach out to through the following methods.
Reddit
KuCoin has an official subreddit with over 100,000 members, with the support team actively monitoring posts.
Telegram
KuCoin’s Telegram channel has almost 200,000 members and is a great place to reach out to the community for support.
KuCoin Supported Countries
While KuCoin is supported in over 200 countries worldwide, including most of the EU, it is missing some crucial locations. The exchange isn’t officially available in the UK, US, or Canada. However, site data shows many KuCoin’s users come from these locales. This is because even users from countries where KuCoin isn’t licensed can make an account and access a restricted version of KuCoin.
Final Verdict: Is KuCoin Worth Using in 2026?
Overall, KuCoin is a rock-solid exchange, and its sheer breadth of features makes it a worthwhile choice for most traders. With its breadth of available tokens, active launchpad, high leverage options, and low fees, it’s ideal for high-volume traders with an appetite for risk.
Benefits
- Massive array of features for advanced users, with some of the largest leverage offerings.
- Some of the lowest trading fees available in the space.
- Wide variety of passive income options, including staking and dual investment.
- Access to new tokens before they list on other exchanges, as well as exclusive ICO access.
- Quality Web3 wallet with an entire ecosystem built around it.
Risks
- It can be cumbersome for beginners to get to grips with.
- Slow customer support response times.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, KuCoin has been operating since 2017 with only a few security incidents. Although there have been reports of users struggling with withdrawals, these are mostly coming from users in countries that aren’t officially supported.
KuCoin was founded by Chun Gan, Ke Tang, Michael Gan, and Johnny Lyu. Johnny Lyu is currently its CEO.
KuCoin’s fees start at 0.1%/0.1% maker/taker for spot traders and 0.02%/0.06% on futures markets. The withdrawal fees are often flat, which is favorable for investors dealing with significant funds. On top of this, KuCoin has no deposit fees whatsoever.
Yes. There is a KuCoin app available for both Apple and Android users.
KuCoin is one of Binance’s closest competitors when it comes to trading fees. Both exchanges have extremely low fees, lowered further with the use of their native token.
Past this, the two diverge. KuCoin offers a higher variety of features, available tokens, and offers more leverage. Meanwhile, Binance has a better beginner experience, a deeper learning platform, and a more thorough vetting process for listing new tokens, among other things.
KuCoin is available in over 200 countries worldwide. To see if your country is one of the few exceptions, take a look at the “KuCoin supported countries” section of our KuCoin review.
To make a KuCoin withdrawal, follow these steps:
- Go to “Assets.”
- Press “Overview” then “Withdraw”
- Pick the currency you would like to withdraw.
- Add your external wallet address and press “Withdraw.”
The process to withdraw fiat is similar, but varies slightly by locale. You should be able to find your fiat withdrawal options in the “Withdraw” menu.
Ilija is a CCN writer with 7 years of experience covering all things crypto. Ever since a fateful run-in with Litecoin in 2013, he's been an avid investor and writer in the space. When he's not maniacally hacking away at his keyboard, Ilija spends his time either hiking in nature or holed up in his apartment gaming.
