Introduction           

KuCoin is an online cryptocurrency exchange and trading venue, which was started in 2017. The operational head office of the KuCoin exchange is in Singapore. However, the exchange also operates with a number of trading partners across several countries.

Why is KuCoin listed as an exchange and also a trading venue?

As an exchange, it is possible to send cryptocurrencies from third-party, decentralized wallets to the KuCoin exchange in order to find buyers for such tokens. This is a commonly used pathway for those who bought certain tokens via a pre-sale process, and are looking to cash out of these tokens if they get listed on KuCoin.

As a trading venue, it is possible to buy and sell cryptocurrencies purely on the basis of making a profit from the process. In other words, a trader can buy low and sell high to make a profit. KuCoin also offers special trading products such as leveraged trading products, staking, farming and decentralized finance (DeFi) products.

The KuCoin exchange claims it has conducted more than 810 million trades, with an accumulated transaction volume of 377 billion dollars as of the time of conducting this review.

Trading Platforms

The KuCoin trading portals are all web-based. There are also mobile apps for iPhones/iPads and the Android-based devices. These can be downloaded from the respective app stores.

To start trading on KuCoin, every new user must open an account and pass the Know-Your-Client (KYC) requirements. To pass KYC, you must upload a government-issued ID (international passport or drivers’ license or national ID card), along with a proof of address (utility bill or bank statement) and a selfie on which the current date must be written.

Once the account is opened, the trader is assigned a unique wallet address for each cryptocurrency listed on the exchange. Furthermore, traders are required to secure their login using 2-factor authentication. This is done by scanning a QR code or saving and adding a unique code to the Google Authenticator app on the user’s smartphone. This code must be saved as it is the only way to recover the KuCoin account login details if the device is lost or stolen.

The reason you invest money to trade on an exchange is to make money. Therefore, you need to capitalize on every feature that is available for you to make this happen. One of the ways to do this is by investing in the KuCoin gems. These are undervalued projects that get listed on Kucoin, with a potential of generating returns of 5-10 times your capital in the first few hours of listing. This feature provides a chance for retail investors to get in front of the line and make hay while the sun shines early. While majority of traders are focusing on the big exchanges such as Binance or Coinbase, some very profitable tokens get listed on KuCoin first. You can get these tokens for cheap, before they get listed on the big exchanges where the publicity generates a huge demand that drives prices up. You can get information about these KuCoin gems on the KuCoin news and announcements page.

This brings up the next feature, which is the official Twitter handle where you can get access to some of the breaking news that occurs in the KuCoin ecosystem.

Finally, KuCoin has a news page on the website where you can access the latest news reports. The news page also features the latest promotions, token listing news, announcements and news about the markets. You will also see some top quality articles that discuss aspects of crypto trading on KuCoin.

These resources make crypto trading on KuCoin a very worthwhile experience.

Trading Products

Trading activity on KuCoin is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The following trading products are available on KuCoin.

1. Spot Trade: The spot trade products of KuCoin are based on the formation of “markets”. These markets are actually the core traded products, and are usually paired with other tokens to create tradable assets. When such a pair is formed, the trader who intends to conduct a spot trade on that asset must exchange one of the tokens in the pair with the other token. The predominant markets on KuCoin are formed around Bitcoin (BTC), the KuCoin native token (KCS), US Dollar (fiat), Tether (USDT), altcoins, ETFs, Polkadot and Non-fungible tokens (NFTs). There are also several altcoins such as Ethereum and Tron, and various stablecoins such as TUSD, USD Coin (USDC), DAI, and PAX. The listed markets each have pairs that can be traded. So the BTC market has various pairs such as ETH/BTC, TEL/BTC, DOT/BTC, etc.
2. Margin Trades: These are leveraged trades that allows the trader to trade selected tokens on a leveraged basis. This is a riskier version of trading than the spot trades, as the position can be liquidated if the trade moves contrary to the trade position. In margin trading, the actual tokens are not owned, unlike the spot trades. Margin traded pairs include ETH/BTC, ADA/BTC, LUNA/BTC, BTC/USDT, LTC/USDT, XRP/BTC, ZEC/BTC, EOS/BTC, etc.
3. Lending: You can lend cryptocurrencies to others and earn daily interest rate of between 0.014% and 0.017% for USDT, and 0.008% to 0.011% on a daily basis. Tokens that can be lent for interest are USDT, Bitcoin, Ethereum, EOS, Litecoin, Ripple, Cardano and ATOM.
4. Pool-X: Pool-X is a staking pool that allows users to obtain staking rewards and proof of liquidity (POL) credits. This platform provides the needed liquidity for staked cryptocurrencies. Acquire and stake your tokens in KuCoin’s Pool-X for high returns on interest. Listed in the Pool-X section are tokens that are scheduled for listing on KuCoin. This facility allows users to acquire these tokens before they are listed.
5. Contracts: These are perpetual futures contracts (i.e. they do not expire). A futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell an asset at a predetermined price, at a specified future date/time. It is a leveraged product on KuCoin. You can trade selected crypto pairs on the KuCoin futures platform.

Trading Conditions

KuCoin offers more than 400 cryptocurrency pairs. The base deposit cryptocurrencies that can be deposited for the purposes of trading are Tether (USDT), Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Kucoin token (KCS). However, those who want to move their cryptocurrencies listed on KuCoin from their decentralized wallets to the exchange, are free to transact in that token.

KuCoin charges a trading fee of 0.1% on all trades. No fees are charged for deposits. Withdrawal fees depend on the selected method of payment. Withdrawal fees for BTC are 0.001 BTC, while those of Ethereum and Litecoin stand at 0.01 and 0.001 respectively. Fees for Tether withdrawals depend on the network, with such withdrawals attracting as high as $30 in fees on the ERC-20 network, but much cheaper on the BEP20 network or Tron’s network.

Withdrawal times rarely exceed a few hours, except where the amount to be withdrawn is so large that manual confirmations have to be performed. In such an instance, withdrawals may extend for a few more days due to security checks.

Special Products and Features

Kucoin has various promotions and competitions which are designed to make the platform attractive. There are lots of competitions which give out tokens that are about to be listed. Here are samples of some current competitions on KuCoin:

a) Holding competition on the Pool-X portal

b) DeFi Grand Pool competitions

c) Leverage trading tokens competition

d) Competitions to reward participation in the Innovation portal

and many more. There are also a lot of periodic airdrops that come up.

KuCoin also offers token listing. Those who have tokens for their crypto projects can apply for listing on the KuCoin exchange, from where the token can be paired with BTC, ETH or any other token.

KuCoin also has a P2P Fiat Trade Merchant Recruitment Program. This program is meant to recruit those who can provide liquidity in the peer-to-peer cryptocurrency to fiat exchange ecosystem. The merchants act as intermediaries for those who want to convert their cryptos to cash. The cash payments are usually in a particular currency, servicing particular locations. There are no deposit requirements and no post-ads fees. There is a dispute handling process and a robust anti-money laundering mechanism.

There is a developer’s section where API tools are available for use to develop various software that are compatible with the KuCoin exchange. The API keys have been upgraded and validation logics changed to give the tools additional security.

Support

The official website features a “KuCoin Help Centre” answers to frequently asked questions on KuCoin are featured. The answers are classified into various groups to make it easy to view them. Other means of contacting the KuCoin customer support desk include the following:

1. “Submit a Request” form, which is a method of creating online request tickets.
2. Email: [email protected]
3. Live chat
4. Social media (Facebook, Telegram, Twitter, LinkedIn) pages which is available in 13 languages.

PROS & CONS of KuCoin

Pros

• KuCoin has an expanded product suite that offers new ways to partake of the cryptocurrency market.
• Trading fees are very low when compared to other exchanges.
• Those who want to list tokens on KuCoin will find that the listing fees are lower than is the case with many other exchanges.
• KuCoin is available in at least 13 languages.

Cons

• There is no customer support available by phone.
• Deposits and withdrawals using fiat currency are not available.

KuCoin Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Below are some of the frequently asked questions that people ask about KuCoin.