KuCoin Review: A Comprehensive Overview 2022

As the most well-liked centralized cryptocurrency alternate, KuCoin has over 20 million customers and over $1.2 trillion in buying and selling quantity. 

KuCoin affords one of many largest listings of cryptocurrencies and supplies among the lowest charges throughout competing exchanges.

Between the highly effective buying and selling platform, passive revenue alternatives, and platform rewards, KuCoin has established a wealth of instruments wanted to take advantage of out of crypto.

KuCoin boasts a number of attractive benefits that add to the attract and expertise of its platform.

• KuCoin helps over 700 tokens, together with many altcoins not discovered on different main exchanges.
• In addition to the desktop web site, KuCoin is quickly accessible by a user-friendly, highly-rated cell software accessible on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
• KuCoin doesn’t require KYC verification, however doing so will unlock extra advantages for the merchants. 
• As a cryptocurrency alternate primarily centered on skilled merchants, KuCoin affords superior buying and selling instruments equivalent to spot, margin, and futures buying and selling and entry to quantitative buying and selling bots.
• KuCoin additionally supplies customers extra alternatives to earn yields on their crypto, such because the Crypto Lending and KuCoin Earn options. 
• The platform native token, KuCoin Shares (KCS), affords extra platform advantages to holders, together with buying and selling price reductions and each day dividends.

Although KuCoin supplies some highly effective instruments and choices, there are some downsides to the platform which can be necessary to notice. 

• KuCoin is just not beginner-friendly. Using the platform requires a fundamental information of buying and selling instruments to purchase and promote crypto safely. However, they’ve not too long ago launched a extra intuitive ‘Convert’ characteristic that makes this course of a lot simpler.
• KuCoin affords fiat on-ramps equivalent to financial institution card linking for customers to deposit cash, however it’s not as easy as marketed and is probably not a viable choice for some customers. Many KuCoin customers look to deposit their property on different exchanges and ship stablecoins, or tokens pegged 1:1 to fiat forex, to their KuCoin account for buying and selling. 
• KuCoin is offered in over 200 international locations, however sadly, the United States is just not certainly one of them. Although US-based customers can nonetheless make the most of the platform, they can not full the KYC verification course of that unlocks extra advantages.
• Other cons of the platform embody poor buyer assist, KYC required to extend each day withdrawal and buying and selling limits, and a restricted providing of academic assets.

KuCoin has succeeded as a cryptocurrency alternate because of its in depth providing of options all through its platform.

Fiat On-Ramp Options: KuCoin supplies a number of choices for customers to deposit fiat forex onto their platform. Users can deposit property by credit score/debit playing cards, Apple Pay, ACH transfers, and wire transfers. 

Advanced Trading Tools: The KuCoin buying and selling interface is complete. The spot, margin, and futures buying and selling capabilities are highly effective sufficient for knowledgeable merchants, whereas the intuitive Convert characteristic and cell software make buying and selling simple for inexperienced persons.

KuCoin Shares Token (KCS): The KuCoin native KuCoin Shares token (KCS) was launched to offer extra incentives to platform customers. Those that maintain at the least 6 KCS are eligible to earn 50 p.c of the platform buying and selling charges as a each day dividend. Holders are additionally granted buying and selling price reductions of as much as 20 p.c. 

Yield Generating Strategies: Trading cryptocurrencies is just not the one strategy to financially capitalize on the platform, as KuCoin has a number of options that buyers can make the most of to seize extra yield on their cryptos, equivalent to staking, lending, and mining capabilities. 

KuCoin Wallet: In order to bolster the KuCoin ecosystem and platform choices, KuCoin designed the KuCoin Wallet for customers to handle their digital property. With a multi-chain aggregated token show, NFT storage, and Hacken audited safety infrastructure, the KuCoin Wallet affords a viable answer to the self-custody of digital property.

KuCoin affords among the lowest charges within the ecosystem, giving it a significant benefit over different centralized exchanges.

Trading charges on the platform are structured such that the price quantity decreases as a person’s buying and selling quantity will increase. It can be necessary to notice that charges paid through the Kucoin Shares (KCS) token obtain a 20 p.c low cost.

The buying and selling price degree of a person is decided by both the quantity of KCS held within the final 30 days, complete spot buying and selling quantity (in BTC) within the final 30 days, or complete futures buying and selling quantity (in BTC) within the final 30 days. 

For instance, a person who carried out over 50 BTC in buying and selling quantity within the final month may have degree one buying and selling charges, equating to a 0.09 p.c maker (vendor) and 0.1 p.c taker (purchaser) price. If these charges are paid in KCS, the charges can be lowered to 0.072 p.c maker and 0.08 p.c taker charges. 

KuCoin additionally fees a price when tokens are withdrawn from the platform. Withdrawal charges differ from token to token, some requiring mounted charges no matter transaction measurement and others charging variable charges.

When KuCoin co-founder Michael Gan began mining bitcoin on the age of 16, he realized the pitfalls of the cryptocurrency alternate expertise when transacting on one of many solely exchanges accessible in 2012, the notorious Mt. Gox.¹ 

As blockchain capabilities continued to develop, Michael Gan partnered with Eric Don in 2013 to start ideating on the following nice alternate after they “realized that [blockchain] was reshaping the monetary system into one that might not solely serve the richest few however everybody on the earth”. 

Headquartered in Seychelles, KuCoin formally launched in 2017 and has since expanded its presence throughout the globe, with availability in over 200 international locations and 20 million customers. Although the platform has already skilled success, the KuCoin crew continues to ship modern options and add to its in depth token choices checklist.

The dealer instruments supplied by KuCoin are complete and are tailor-made extra in the direction of skilled buyers, offering entry to identify buying and selling, margin buying and selling, and futures buying and selling. 

The desktop buying and selling interface could appear excessive at first look however is pretty easy to grasp after a little bit of navigation. Many customers could discover familiarity with the charting capabilities as they’re straight imported from the favored charting platform, TradingView. 

The mobile-application buying and selling interface is a simplified model of the desktop platform and is way friendlier for inexperienced persons. It additionally delivers an virtually gamified expertise with affords, rewards, and bonuses unique to the app.

KuCoin additionally supplies merchants the flexibility to make the most of buying and selling bots that robotically execute particular methods. Users can choose from a listing of in style buying and selling bots and techniques, or they will implement methods designed themselves. 

For the newbie dealer, KuCoin has launched the ‘Convert’ characteristic, which supplies a extra intuitive buying and selling expertise just like interfaces seen in DeFi exchanges.

Beyond the superior buying and selling instruments on the platform, KuCoin’s Crypto Lending characteristic supplies customers the chance to lend their crypto to different customers at particular time period lengths. With annualized returns of as much as 10 p.c, this characteristic can present customers extra yield for crypto in any other case sitting idly of their account. 

KuCoin Earn is a characteristic distinctive to KuCoin and is referred to by the crew as “a one-stop-shop wealth administration service platform”. Through this service, customers can subscribe to quite a lot of totally different yield-generating methods throughout a number of chains and property. 

For these excited by Proof of Work (PoW) crypto mining, KuCoin Pool affords a low-fee mining pool that miners can be a part of to safe the Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) networks, incomes a yield within the course of. The KuCoin Pool web site supplies extra details about the required gear and account setup.

KuCoin supplies one of many largest choices of cryptocurrencies, with over 700 tokens listed on the alternate. These tokens embody nearly all of the highest 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap, in addition to many altcoins and small-cap tokens which can be unavailable on different in style exchanges. 

The sizable providing of those altcoins is likely one of the main causes that merchants select KuCoin over their opponents, as in lots of instances, these tokens are listed completely on the KuCoin platform.

Security consideration is the principle precedence for cryptocurrency buyers and exchanges. KuCoin affords a variety of security measures that assist guarantee the protection of customers’ funds.

The implementation of Google’s two-factor authentication and buying and selling/withdrawal security phrases ensures that solely a person with particular data and gadgets can entry a person’s account, decreasing the potential of a safety breach. 

User funds are custodied by OnChain Custodian and are backed by Lockton Insurance. These partnerships have been established to extend custodial safety and supply monetary aid to prospects within the occasion of a hack. A portion of platform funds can be saved offline in a chilly storage pockets. 

KuCoin has launched additional safety measures by launching a bug bounty program wherein individuals are awarded as much as $10,000 for locating potential weak factors in KuCoin’s safety. 

It is necessary to notice that KuCoin was hacked in September 2020, leading to a lack of virtually $285 million. About $240 million of the stolen funds had been recovered, and the distinction was coated by KuCoin to customers.² This is a significant safety breach that has led to heavy funding in safety infrastructure to make sure the protection of customers’ funds. 

Since this incident, KuCoin has operated with no main safety breaches.

The buyer assist course of on the platform can generally be just a little inefficient. KuCoin claims 24/7 protection for buyer assist, however all communications are carried out through assist request submittals and electronic mail. Currently, customers can’t converse with an precise particular person relating to complaints, as they don’t have cellphone assist. 

Customer assist will be reached by electronic mail at [email protected], or a support request will be submitted on the web site.

Many cryptocurrency exchanges, particularly these working within the United States, require the completion of Know Your Customer (KYC) verification to start buying and selling. KuCoin doesn’t require KYC verification to make use of the platform, however finishing the verification course of considerably will increase each day withdrawal and buying and selling limits and unlocks entry to leverage buying and selling.

Level one KYC customers are restricted to withdrawals of 1 BTC each 24 hours and as much as 20x leverage, whereas degree two KYC customers have withdrawal limits of as much as 200 BTC each 24 hours and as much as 100x leverage. 

The degree one KYC verification course of consists of offering your identify, nation of residence, and an ID quantity from official identification equivalent to a driver’s license or passport. 

Level two KYC requires customers to add a photograph of their official identification and a photograph of the person themselves. KuCoin additionally supplies a tutorial video describing the precise steps intimately, with the entire course of taking a number of enterprise days to finish.³

KuCoin doesn’t assist KYC verification within the United States. US-based customers can nonetheless use the platform with out KYC, however the expertise could also be restricted. 

KuCoin doesn’t report back to the IRS and is, subsequently, not required to generate the respective tax varieties. Although KuCoin doesn’t present tax paperwork straight, they’ve partnered with Koinly to generate the wanted tax data. This is achieved by exporting KuCoin transaction historical past on to Koinly through CSV information or utilizing the KuCoin API.

KuCoin’s options are loved by prospects spanning over 200 international locations. However, US-based customers have a restricted expertise. These people could go for an alternate with a better give attention to these within the United States that adjust to U.S. laws.

Although there are hurdles, equivalent to the issue of depositing fiat forex and studying easy methods to navigate the buying and selling platform, KuCoin affords a number of distinctive and highly effective options that present a rewarding person expertise.

Between the superior buying and selling instruments, lending/borrowing, and KuCoin Earn characteristic, KuCoin supplies every thing buyers have to take advantage of their crypto expertise. The mixture of low charges and huge in depth token choices provides customers entry to property unavailable on different platforms and at a low value. 

With a user-friendly cell software that’s inviting to inexperienced customers and a desktop platform curated in the direction of veteran merchants, KuCoin supplies availability to customers of all ranges.