Highlights
What Is KuCoin?
KuCoin is a centralized cryptocurrency exchange with over 20 million users in 190+ countries. Some of their key features include 700+ cryptocurrencies, competitive fees, spot trading, margin trading, futures contracts, and their own native utility token called KCS. They were founded in 2017 and currently rank as a top 10 crypto exchange in the world by trading volume.
In addition, they have an optional KYC policy which is appealing to many users who can no longer use Binance or other platforms that have been banned in their region. People from any country can start trading on KuCoin within seconds and withdraw funds immediately with just an email address. These unverified accounts can deposit, trade, and withdraw up to 1 BTC per day.
Does KuCoin Work In Canada?
**Update: KuCoin is adding mandatory KYC starting July 15, 2023.**
While many crypto exchanges are exiting Canada, KuCoin still works. I was able to sign up with an email and quickly deposit, trade and withdraw crypto without any issues. Since KuCoin does not require KYC, anyone around the world (Canada included) can still use the platform. You can immediately withdraw up to 1 BTC per day.
However, it's important to know the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) and Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA), have both banned KuCoin for failing to register with regulators. Additionally, a regulated Canadian exchange called NDAX, blocked my incoming transfer from KuCoin. If you want to cash out from KuCoin, you might have to transfer your funds to a crypto wallet first, before sending it to a Canadian exchange. Use KuCoin at your own risk.
Things To Know
KuCoin KYC Requirements
Similar to platforms like MEXC and Poloniex, KuCoin turns a blind-eye when it comes to KYC. You can trade and withdraw with just an email, without having to share personal information. There is a withdrawal limit of 1 BTC per 24 hours for these type of accounts. KuCoin has 3 verification levels. Each level increases your daily withdrawal limit, access to leverage, and access to features.
Key Features & Benefits
Other KuCoin Features
Security
KuCoin has been operating since 2017 and has many layers of security. They published a proof of reserves and claim to store crypto assets in cold storage. In addition, there is triple authentication to withdraw funds from your account (2FA, email 2FA, and trading password). Users can also set up address whitelists, anti-phishing codes, and other safety measures which I've listed below.
While KuCoin is considered safe overall, a potential concern is their regulatory status. KuCoin is unregulated in Canada and many places around the world. This means they don't hold the same licenses and aren't held to the same standard as platforms like Coinbase, Kraken, and other fully regulated platforms. Canadian exchanges are already starting to ban incoming and outgoing transfers to KuCoin.
Lastly, KuCoin faced a large hack in 2020 for about $285 million. While getting hacked is obviously not good, it doesn't necessarily mean KuCoin is unsafe. Many reputable exchanges have been breached so it would be more concerning if this happened repeatedly. In KuCoin's case, all users were refunded the full $285 million and their CEO said they used this incident to elevate their security protocols.
List Of Security Measures
While KuCoin isn't as safe as someone like Coinbase, a public crypto exchange, they are still a legit crypto exchange that has been serving millions of clients since 2017. KuCoin has many layers of security and and there are no issues when depositing and withdrawing funds from your account.
KuCoin Walkthrough
Let's take a look at the KuCoin platform, it's main features, and how it works.
Main Dashboard
In your main dashboard, you can deposit, withdraw, and transfer funds between your KuCoin accounts. KuCoin offers spot, margin and futures trading on 700+ cryptocurrencies and 190+ futures trading pairs. If you click the withdraw button, you can view your daily withdrawal limit which is currently 1 BTC per day without KYC.
Spot and Margin Trading
KuCoin offers 700+ cryptocurrencies, mostly in USDT trading pairs. It's one of the largest exchanges in the world based on trading volume, which ensures your orders will fill quickly and help you get good rates when trading. The trading fees are 0.10% and can be lowered by using a referral link (10% off), increasing your trading volume, or paying fees with KuCoin's native token, KCS. In addition, up to 10x margin is available depending on the asset.
KuCoin Futures
KuCoin users can enjoy up to 125x leverage, depending on the asset. Unverified accounts, however, are limited to 5x leverage. Over 190 futures trading pairs are supported, allowing traders to open long or short positions on a variety of assets. Users are charged a flat 0.02% maker fee and 0.06% taker fee for futures trades.
If you want up to 200x leverage without KYC and lower fees, you can check out my MEXC review which is a popular KuCoin alternative. They also have high trading volume and 200+ tradable futures contracts.
Trading Bots
The KuCoin Trading Bot is a free tool that uses AI to help you automatically trade the market. According to KuCoin, it helps you "earn profits without monitoring the market." There are 4 different trading and investing strategies available:
KuCoin Earn
KuCoin Earn helps you earn yield on dozens of coins that you hold in your account. Staking, Flexible (withdraw anytime), and Fixed Terms and Promotions are available. The APR can range anywhere from 1%-70% depending on the crypto asset and your risk tolerance.
Other centralized crypto exchanges that offer rewards and staking include NDAX, Kraken, Crypto.com, and many more. You can compare promotions to find the highest offers available. Kraken is usually the best since it has high safety, lots of coins, and zero fees.
Customer Support
While I've never had to use KuCoin's support, they claim to have 24/7 customer service as well as a chatbot to answer your questions. You can also submit a ticket directly. If you don't need to speak with their team, you'll find a help desk with FAQs, articles and a community forum for additional information.
How To Use KuCoin
For more info, you can watch my KuCoin tutorial below:
KuCoin Fees & Spread
KuCoin is one of the best places to buy altcoins at great rates. They have a 0.10% spot trading fee and a flat 0.02% maker fee and 0.06% taker fee for futures trades. Plus, you can get discounts by using a referral link (10% off), using KCS to pay for fees, and increasing your trading volume. In addition, CoinMarketCap data shows KuCoin is a top 10 exchange in the world by trading volume. This ensures you get great rates and low spreads when buying and selling coins.
Deposits & Withdrawals
KuCoin does not offer Canadian Dollar trading pairs, so it's not a good fiat-to-crypto exchange. It does, however, have free crypto deposits and cheap crypto withdrawals for certain coins, so that's how you should fund and cash out of your account to get the best rates. KuCoin does support credit and debit card purchases, but it has 3% fees or higher. There is also a P2P exchange, but it's not available for Canadians.
Crypto Withdrawals
KuCoin has cheap crypto withdrawals for some coins, and expensive withdrawals on others. It also supports multi-chain withdrawals, helping further save on fees. Before you withdraw a token, you should check how much the fees are.
Type | Fee | Minimum Withdrawal |
|---|---|---|
Bitcoin | 0.0005 BTC | 0.0008 BTC |
Ethereum | 0.00625 ETH | 0.01 ETH |
USDC | 15 USDC | 20 USDC |
XLM | 0.02 XLM | 10 XLM |
KuCoin Reviews According To Reddit
I headed to Reddit, Trust Pilot and other online reviews to see what the community thinks of KuCoin. Some of the common concerns are that beginners have trouble with the app and the customer service is poor. In addition, Trust Pilot has horrible reviews on KuCoin, claiming it's a scam and they lost money. However, the app store reviews are quite positive with a 4.3-star rating on Google Play across 131K reviews and 4.6-star rating on iOS from 19k reviews.
KuCoin Alternatives
MEXC Global
MEXC Global is a similar crypto exchange to KuCoin that lets you trade lots of coins at low fees. It has no KYC, spot trading, margin, and futures however, it offers more altcoins, lower fees and higher leverage. MEXC has 1700+ altcoins, 200+ futures trading pairs, and zero spot trading fees with up to 200x leverage. MEXC is available in 170 countries and serves over 10 million users.
NDAX
NDAX is a Canadian-based crypto exchange. While it only offers 30+ coins and requires KYC, it has CAD trading pairs and free interac e-Transfers, allowing you to quickly buy major cryptos from your bank account. It also has advanced trading and is one of the cheapest Canadian crypto exchanges with 0.20% trading fees and decent volume on BTC and ETH.
The Bottom Line: Is KuCoin Worth It?
KuCoin is a great altcoin exchange with hundreds of cryptocurrencies, leverage, and other features with very low fees and no KYC. It has 700+ coins, high liquidity, and you can start trading in seconds with just an email address. From my personal experience, I've been using KuCoin since 2018 and never had any issues. However, there are drawbacks as well. It's unregulated, doesn't support Canadian Dollars, and beginners might find it hard to use.
Pros and Cons
Get 10% off trading fees
KuCoin FAQs
KuCoin is still servicing Ontario residents, but they are unlicensed in Ontario and fall under the OSC's warning list. Users can deposit, trade and withdraw up to 1 BTC per day with just an email address and without any warnings on their account.
Yes. You can withdraw up to the value of 1 BTC every 24 hours. You can only withdraw crypto though, not fiat.
KuCoin does not require KYC. You can sign up, trade, and withdraw crypto with just an email address or phone number. It's very easy to open an account.
You can not access certain features unless you verify your account. For example, you can't buy crypto with fiat or use the token launchpad. Some other features might be restricted as well. The important things like depositing, trading and withdrawing crypto still works and most other features are working as well like lending, KCS rewards, trading bots and more.
The cheapest and fastest option is to use Newton or VirgoCX because they have the lowest fees in Canada and free crypto withdrawals. You can deposit Canadian Dollars with e-transfer then I usually buy Stellar (XLM) and transfer it to KuCoin. I do Stellar because it's free to send and shows up nearly instantly, but you can do any cryptocurrency.
Each cryptocurrency on KuCoin has its own minimum withdrawal amount depending on the coin and network you select but it ranges from $1 to $30 per transaction. As of 2023, there’s a minimum withdrawal of 0.0005 BTC, 0.005 ETH, 0.005 BNB, 1 USDT, 40 DOGE, and 0.002 LTC. Refer to the withdrawal page for more info.
KuCoin offers up to 10x leverage on margin and up to 125x leverage on futures. However, unverified accounts that don't do KYC can only access 5x leverage on futures contracts. For more information, you can check out this official KuCoin support page.
KuCoin is headquartered in Seychelles, an island country located off the coast of Africa. They have also announced plans to open regional offices in multiple locations including Bangkok, Hong Kong, and Dubai.
KuCoin is a subsidiary of MEK Global Limited (MGL), a Seychelles-registered entity. It's unclear who owns what percentage of KuCoin, as the company has not disclosed its exact ownership breakdown. However, it does have multiple co-founders, including Johnny Lyu, Michael Gan, Eric Don, Top Lan, Kent Li, John Lee, Jack Zhu, and Linda Lin. In addition, KuCoin has raised over $150 million from investors across multiple funding rounds.
