KuCoin has long been under the shadow of other large exchanges but it shines bright on its own and seems ready to conquer the market with realistically necessary features.
In this article we will review one of the oldest Crypto Exchanges KuCoin, whose new version looks sleek and contemporary. We will look into the exchange’s offerings and ease of use.
KuCoin offers spot trading, futures trading, margin trading, instant exchange of one crypto to another, P2P Fiat Trade, partner sites to buy crypto using cards, lending, staking, wallet partners for trading, mobile apps and much more.
The one thing that KuCoin has done right for the longest time to retain its volume and user-base is to list tokens that may not be listed anywhere else. I remember trading ACT on KuCoin back in 2018 when the only other exchange offering it was now-defunct Coindelta. KuCoin, as far as looking up on the internet goes, has also never been hacked.
But shiny new interface and a bunch of tokens found nowhere are not enough metrics in 2020 for a trader to pick the exchange, let us dive deeper into it.
Contents
Getting Started on KuCoin
KuCoin is one of only few exchanges that offer not just spot trading but derivatives, margin, fiat-to-crypto, P2P fiat trades and much more. There is an option for everyone. However, there are different set of requirements to get started on KuCoin and use these features.
Signing Up, Verification and security
Users can sign up on the exchange using their phone number or email address. Once the sign up is complete, users must setup some security measures so their account is secure.
Setting up a Trading password and Two-Factor Authentication with Google auth is what I would recommend personally doing first. To set up, click on your profile avatar in the upper right-hand corner. Once there, you’ll see several options, choose Account security. Max out your security settings as recommended on the page.
While KuCoin offers fast KYC verification, even without doing it, users can withdraw upto 2 BTC per 24 hours. KYC 1 actually only requires the user to provide the name and an ID number.
Now that you have setup the account security and completed verification if needed, it is time to trade Crypto assets.
KuCoin also offers both Android and iOS apps with almost all of the features that are available in the web version of the exchange.
Account Bifurcation for Trading
All of the Indian exchanges and many non Indian exchanges all offer one account that is for trading, deposits and withdrawals. Most people don’t even realize that there is another possibility.
KuCoin separates your account into Four different accounts:
- Main Account
- Trading Account
- Margin Account
- Futures/Contract Account
To trade, you’ll need to:
- Fund your main account by depositing crypto or buying it using your credit card.
- Send funds from your main account to your trading, margin or futures account and start trading in those markets.
To withdraw the funds from the exchange, do the reverse of the above process.
This is safety mechanism in place where you are only exposed to some amount of your balance that is being used for trading. The rest is sitting in the main account and can’t be moved for trading without human intervention.
Buying Crypto on KuCoin
There are three ways to buy any listed Cryptocurrencies on the exchange.
- With Credit or Debit cards using the third party partners on the platform.
- P2P Fiat Trade
- Depositing one Crypto and exchanging it for another.
Both Cards and P2P Fiat Trade have premium in prices, thereby for Indian users it might not be the most profitable to purchase crypto this way. On the other hand, if you are okay with the premium, buying crypto on KuCoin is fast and easy.
Trading Crypto on KuCoin
KuCoin has three exchanges for buying and selling cryptocurrencies.
- Spot market with hundreds of trading pairs
- Instant Exchange to convert one crypto to another immediately
- Margin trading with 10x leverage
All three markets supports its users with a trading engine that can handle up to 2 million orders per second. There is a significant difference in trading experience from when I used KuCoin in 2018 for the first time to today. It is smooth, easy and very intuitive.
Futures Market
Besides the fiat gateways and Crypto trading, KuCoin also offers derivatives trading under a separate brand named KuCoin Futures. The derivatives market currently offers Futures trading for BTC and ETH contracts. Both time bound and perpetual contracts are available.
There are two versions of the futures exchange – Lite and Pro, for beginners and experts respectively.
The lite version is built to make it easy for users to understand derivatives trading. The look and feel is of Binary options’ exchange, but does not take away the aspects of Futures trading.
Exchange Fees
KuCoin trading fees are fairly lesser than many exchanges. The maximum trading fee for a user on Spot exchange is 0.1% which reduces as per the user’s VIP level.
The Trading fee for Futures exchange starts at 0.02% for makers and 0.06% for takers, subsequently reducing as per user’s VIP status.
There is no dedicated page to check withdrawal fees for each Crypto Asset. Judging by the fees to withdraw popular crypto assets, KuCoin also has the least fees compared to major Indian Exchanges.
BTC Withdrawal fee – 0.0004 BTC.
ETH withdrawal fee – 0.004 ETH.
BCHABC withdrawal fee – 0.001 BCHABC.
LTC withdrawal fee – 0.001 LTC.
Staking and Lending
Users can lend cryptoassets on KuCoin exchange and earn interest from it. They can borrow as well. The interest rates for stable coins like USDT go as high as 12% in some offers. Users can lend assets for a period of 7, 14 or 28 days.
Users can stake major Cryptoassets and receive mining rewards from the network. Both staking and soft staking are available.
The rewards and interest are both distributed daily.
Other Features
There are many other features on KuCoin that not only helps traders but also investors and business owners in the crypto industry.
KuCoin Cloud
KuCoin cloud offers exchange infrastructure services to business for launching their own crypto exchanges. Within 72 hours, anyone can use KuCoin Cloud to launch their own exchange with custom branding. Both spot trading and derivatives exchanges are available. KuCoin backs it up with the liquidity and wallet services.
Spotlight
Token sales via exchanges is the new wave. KuCoin Spotlight is the version of Initial Exchange offering, where users can participate in token sales of new blockchain projects directly via the exchange.
Trading without Depositing Coins to KuCoin
Using Arwen wallet, users do not need to deposit the coins to KuCoin for trading. Instead the funds are escrowed on the wallet with on-chain transactions and the exchange of crypto-assets is done with atomic swaps on the wallet itself.
Investment and Incentives
The exchange also has an investment and incubation service for startups, incentives for market makers, global ambassador programs and some more incentives to work in different areas with KuCoin.
The final topic of discussion on KuCoin is KuCoin Shares aka KCS token. KCS is the native token of the exchange. Based on KCS holdings, users receive a daily bonus. KuCoin uses 50% of all trading fees earned by them to buy KCS from the market and then redistribute the KCS back to users.
KCS users also receive discounted trading fees depending on the amount they hold and can subscribe to Token Sales with the token as well.
The KCS Ecosystem will soon be upgrading with a native blockchain. Until then users can still enjoy the other benefits.
Final Verdict
KuCoin, like its counterparts Binance, Okex, has grown a lot over the years since its inception and is still competing head-to-head with them. The exchange offers pretty much everything that crypto industry has to offer when it comes to trading and investing in cryptoassets.
We tested deposits, withdrawals, trading on spot markets, trading on futures market and we faced no issues. It will be interesting to see what the KCS ecosystem has in store and if KuCoin releases Options trading.
The exchange is secure in multiple ways so stealing user funds is pretty difficult. While KuCoin still remains one of the top exchanges by volume and sheer number of listed pairs, I do wish there was a little more for Indian users specifically.
There are no Fiat P2P traders in the Indian market, probably incentivising that could be the next step to grow in India for the exchange.
You can start trading on KuCoin now using this link.
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