KuCoin Exchange & Review: Beginner’s Guide (Updated 2021)

KuCoin is amongst the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges by means of users and average daily trading volume.

It opened for trading back in September 2017 and has a strong emphasis on the projects listed based on thorough due diligence on behalf of their research department.

The exchange accepts users from over 100 countries. It has a simple and fast user interface, coupled with timely customer and technical support. They have one of the largest trading communities in the industry.

With this in mind, below is a comprehensive step-by-step guide on how to trade on the KuCoin spot exchange, as well as information on some of the most important points when choosing a cryptocurrency exchange.

We suggest you open a new window of KuCoin’s homepage while following this guide.

How to Register an Account on KuCoin?

First things first, you would need to open an account with KuCoin. It’s important to note that users don’t have to go through a Know Your Customer (KYC) verification upon registration – this is done later. It unlocks additional features such as increased withdrawal limits and more.

Upon landing on the home page, you need to hit the Sign Up button in the top right corner and follow the registration form that pops up subsequently.

Initially, you can choose whether you want to register using a phone or an email address, but in both cases, you have to provide valid details because you will have to verify your account using a code.

Once this is done, you have your basic account set up, and you can take a look at the platform’s features and begin depositing and trading.

However, please note that it’s important to take a few additional steps for the increased security of your account. From the ‘Account Security’ tab, you should go through the following actions:

• Set up a Two-Factor Authenticator (2FA)
• Verify your email and/or phone
• Set up a trading password
• Set up safety phrases for email, login, and withdrawals

Additionally, you can also restrict the login IP, which is recommended if you hold a balance greater than 0.1 BTC (at the time of this writing).

Without a KYC verification, you will be able to withdraw as much as 5 BTC per day. If you want to increase this limit, you should have your personal information verified. The process is relatively quick and easy to follow.

Once you have all of the above completed, you can begin trading cryptocurrencies. Of course, first, you would have to deposit funds.

How to Deposit and Withdraw on KuCoin?

KuCoin gathers all of the different account types in one comprehensive dashboard, and it’s effortless to transfer funds from one to another.

To deposit and withdraw, however, you need to use your main account’s tab.

As you can see, on the right side of each asset, there are options to deposit, withdraw, transfer, and (optionally) to lend.

Clicking on the deposit button gives you the following screen:

In this case, we’ve selected the Tether (USDT) stablecoin, but you can deposit pretty much any cryptocurrency.

Make sure that you are using the correct network when the selection option is available. For instance, with USDT, you can use Ethereum (ERC20), TRON (TRC20), EOS, and Algorand.

You will see the address you need to send funds to – this is your Main Account KuCoin address. Once you have funds deposited, to start trading, you will have to transfer them to your “Trading Account” by clicking the transfer button.

The withdrawal process is pretty much the same thing in reverse.

Again, you need to specify the network you want to use, input the destination address and the amount you want to withdraw, and (optionally) put a remark.

Once you have the funds deposited and transferred to your Trading Account, you are all set to start trading. Let’s see how.

How to Trade on KuCoin?

As soon as you land on the exchange, you will notice in the bottom right corner that you have to input your trading password. That’s an extra security measure, and this is why we mentioned in the beginning that you have to set it up when you are preparing your account. Once you input it, it would automatically unlock the different orders, and you are good to begin trading.

This is how the trading interface looks like:

It’s sleek and easy to use. You have a chart displayed on the main panel, and on top of it, you can add your favorite trading pairs. On the right side, there’s the order book, and right below it, you can see the different types of orders you can open.

Right below the chart, you have your positions panel, where you can monitor how your trades are going.

To open a position, you have two options – a limit order and a market order.

• What is a Limit Order?

Limit orders are used when you want to buy at a specific price:

To set a limit order, you have to specify the price at which you want to buy or sell. In this example, we are using the BTC/USDT trading pair, which, at the time of writing, trades at around $54,000. We want to buy 1 BTC when the price drops to $50,000, and that’s how our limit order looks like. As soon as the price drops down to this point, our limit order will be placed in the order book and get filled.

• What is a Market Order?

This is the most basic order type – it’s used to buy Bitcoin at the current spot price.

All you need to do is input the amount of USDT you want to spend to buy BTC at the ‘Best Market Price’ available at the time you execute the order. It will go to the order book immediately and fill at the best available price at this moment.

It’s worth noting that KuCoin also supports Stop Limit and Stop Market orders – they are used to set Stop Loss and Take Profit limits which are particularly helpful if you want to trade actively.

How to Buy Bitcoin on KuCoin

Opening a position on KuCoin is fairly simple. In this example, we will use the basic market order to get it done.

As mentioned above, all you need to do is input the USDT amount of BTC that you want to buy. We have opened a position worth $50 of BTC:

How to Sell Bitcoin on KuCoin

Selling Bitcoin on KuCoin is just as easy. To follow up on the previous example, we will again use a market order to sell the BTC we just bought:

You can also use the percentage buttons below for convenience. That’s pretty much everything there is when it comes to buying and selling cryptocurrency on KuCoin’s spot exchange.

KuCoin Futures Exchange

For those seeking to trade with leverage, KuCoin has a futures contract platform called KuCoin Futures.

At the time of this writing, it offers USDT-denominated futures contracts for Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bitcoin SV (BSV), Chainlink (LINK), Uniswap (UNI), and many more.

Users can open positions with up to 100x leverage on some contracts. It’s worth noting that leveraged trading brings an exponentially higher risk of capital loss and should be exercised by experienced traders only.

On the other hand, the COIN-margined contracts support BTC, ETH, DOT, and XRP.

For detailed information on how to trade on KuCoin Futures, please refer to our comprehensive guide.

The KuCoin Native Token or KCS

KuCoin Token is the native token of the exchange, and it was launched back in 2017. Primarily, it’s a profit-sharing cryptocurrency issued on Ethereum’s ERC20 protocol standard, supported by the majority of Ethereum wallets. Token holders receive 50% of the overall trading fee revenue. Perhaps this is why the token was initially known as KuCoin Shares before it was rebranded.

The total supply of KCS is set to 200 million, but the company does a planned buyback and will continue burning tokens until there are 100 million left.

What are the KuCoin Trading Fees?

One of the most important things to consider when choosing a cryptocurrency exchange are the fees.

Luckily, the fee structure of KuCoin is pretty straightforward. For trading, the platform charges:

• 0.1% Maker Fee
• 0.1% Taker Fee

Depositing into KuCoin is free of charge, but there are pretty standard withdrawal fees, and their USD value will depend on the current market price of the asset you want to withdraw.

For detailed information on each cryptocurrency, you can check the official fee page of KuCoin.

KuCoin Customer Support

It’s worth noting that KuCoin is among the largest cryptocurrency exchanges on the market. As such, they have a dedicated team that handles a range of different issues.

Apart from an extensive FAQ section, users can submit a ticket or chat online with a customer representative of KuCoin. The online section is the more immediate way to handle issues as, most of the time, you’re likely to get an answer within the first few minutes.

In addition to the above, KuCoin has also launched a dedicated technical support section with a separate email where users can request technical support concerning a myriad of issues such as API issues, network failures, and so forth.

Conclusion – is KuCoin Safe?

KuCoin is considered to be a safe exchange. In fact, it’s one of the most reliable cryptocurrency exchanges on the market.

It boasts a large international platform and abides by multiple regulatory frameworks of countries around the world.

Unfortunately, the exchange was hacked in 2020, resulting in over $280 million stolen from it. However, a few months later, the CEO of KuCoin reassured users that all of the funds were successfully recovered.

Nevertheless, the exchange is safe for transacting and continues to be one of the most liquid marketplaces with billions in daily trading volume.