KuCoin Review & Beginner’s Guide (2025 Updated)

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

It opened for trading in September 2017 and strongly emphasizes the projects listed, based on thorough due diligence by its research department.

The exchange accepts users from over 200 countries and regions; it has more than 1,300 trading pairs and north of 200 project launches. Its simple and fast user interface is coupled with timely customer and technical support. The exchange has 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 trading platform.

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

• Kucoin Review: Pros and Cons
• How to Register an Account on Kucoin?
• How to Deposit and Withdraw on Kucoin?
• How to Trade on Kucoin?
• Kucoin Futures Exchange
• The Kucoin native token or KCS
• What are the Kucoin Trading Fees
• Kucoin Customer Support
• Kucoin Earn and Mobile App
• Is Kucoin Safe?
• Kucoin Review Conclusion and How it Can Improve?
• Frequently Asked Question

KuCoin Review: Pros and Cons

Before we dive completely into this KuCoin review, let’s briefly discuss the exchange’s pros and cons and what users can expect.

How to Register an Account on KuCoin?

First, you 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. This 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 to register using a phone or an email address, but in both cases, you must provide valid details because you will have to verify your account using a code.

Once this is done, your basic account is set up. You can then review the platform’s features and begin depositing and trading.

However, please note that it’s important to take a few additional steps to increase the 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 can 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 completed all of the above, 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, making it effortless to transfer funds between them.

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

On the right side of each asset, you can see options to deposit, withdraw, transfer, and (optionally) 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.

When the selection option is available, make sure that you are using the correct network. 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, you will have to transfer them to your “Trading Account” by clicking the transfer button to start trading.

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 deposited and transferred the funds 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 prepare your account. Once you input it, it will automatically unlock the different orders, and you are good to begin trading.

This is what 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 what 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 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 when you execute the order. It will go to the order book immediately and be filled at the best available price at that moment.

It’s worth noting that KuCoin also supports Stop Limit and Stop Market orders. These orders 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 from our KuCoin review, we will use the basic market order to do it.

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 in 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, and USDC-denominated futures contracts for BTC and ETH.

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, SOL, 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 exchange’s native token, launched in 2017. It’s a profit-sharing cryptocurrency issued on Ethereum’s ERC20 protocol standard, supported by most Ethereum wallets. Token holders receive 50% of the overall trading fee revenue. Perhaps this is why it 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 is 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 the USD value of the fee 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, currently in 10th place in terms of global volume, according to CoinMarketCap. As such, it has a dedicated team that handles a range of issues.

Apart from an extensive FAQ section, users can submit a ticket or chat online and rely on a virtual assistant. 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.

However, the online KuCoin reviews for the support team have been gradually declining. According to more than 1,100 opinions shared on TrustPilot, the experience of contacting the support team has been underwhelming in the past year or so.

KuCoin Earn and Mobile App

As most cryptocurrency exchanges offer these days, KuCoin launched a mobile application that allows users an even easier gateway to deposit, trade, and withdraw funds. The features are mostly the same as those on the desktop version, and it has high rankings (of over 4) on both Google Play and Apple App Store.

KuCoin Earn allows users to lock their holdings on the platform and earn a certain percentage as a passive income. For some of the largest and most popular cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon, the current rewards could go as high as 6% (for SOL) and 3.7% (for ETH).

There are varieties of options to choose from, such as flexible and locked staking, as well as low risk and high yield categories. New users can take advantage of special staking offers that are usually higher than the regular ones but are valid only for a certain time.

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 despite a few previous hacks against it.

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.

On the question of how safe KuCoin is, the exchange’s website reads:

“KuCoin is committed to providing a safe and trustworthy trading platform and boasts one of the most sophisticated security technologies and maintenance teams in the world, including a dedicated security team that constantly works to keep your assets and account secure alongside independently-verified Proof of Reserves that verifies all user assets are backed on a 1:1 basis.”

According to the current PoR, the BTC reserve ratio is currently over-collateralized at 112%, ETH at 116%, USDT at 106%, and USDC at 116%.

KuCoin Review Conclusion and How It Can Improve?

Although it definitely has certain beneficial features that will attract customers, the exchange is not without its flaws and can undertake steps to address them.

Such is the case with the lack of licenses in major jurisdictions like the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and even Europe. It provides features to customers from those regions, but the missing regulatory acceptance could raise a few eyebrows, and customers could turn to other exchanges that seem more trustworthy.

Still, it’s worth noting that KuCoin is based and licensed by the Seychelles’ FSA, but it also has licenses from Malta’s MFSA and the Cayman Islands’ CIMA. However, it doesn’t have a regulatory nod from any highly reputable watchdogs.

Additionally, the platform’s virtual assistant support has seen better days as users frequently complain about the lack of adequate solutions to their issues. A more hands-on approach with faster response rates could definitely benefit KuCoin.

For other spot exchanges, check our Binance review.

FAQs

Where Is KuCoin Based?

The cryptocurrency exchange is based in the Seychelles and has a local license to operate as a digital asset company, as well as others from Malta and the Cayman Islands.

Is KuCoin Legal in the United States?

KuCoin does not have a designated license to operate in the US, as well as the UK, Europe, and Australia. Still, users can register on the platform, but those based in these regions will not be fully verified and will only have limited features.

Does KuCoin Have PoR?

Ever since the collapse of FTX, multiple crypto exchanges have tried to enhance users’ trust by publishing proof about the assets stored on those platforms. KuCoin is one of them, as it frequently updates the numbers for the largest digital assets. 

What Are KuCoin’s Fees?

As mentioned above, the exchange has a competitive fee structure. Most of the fees range between 0.1% and 0.3% for takers/makers. Customers holding KCS tokens will have a discount on the fees.