What is KuCoin?
According to trader union KuCoin review is an extremely popular cryptocurrency trading platform that was originally launched in Hong Kong in 2017 and is marketed under the name “The People’s Exchange”. KuCoin’s goal was to provide people around the world with access to a simple and secure platform for trading various digital currencies. It has certainly influenced the global crypto community, growing its user base to over 11 million in just 5 years and serving one in four cryptocurrency holders worldwide.
KuCoin offers more than 600 cryptocurrencies that can be traded with low fees of only 0.1%. When paying with KCS coins, you get a 20% discount on fees. KuCoin users will find various trading methods such as spot trading, margin trading, P2P and futures trading. Borrowing and lending cryptocurrencies is another feature available to users.
Pros and Cons of KuCoin
Pros
- A large crypto exchange with more than 11 million users worldwide
- Extremely low fees of 0.1% with an additional 20% discount when paying with KCS
- Mobile app available for iOS and Android
- There are more than 600 cryptocurrencies available
- Other features like Crypto Currency Lending, Trading Robots, Margin Trading, Futures Trading
Cons
- High fees when buying cryptocurrency via fiat (3%-5%)
- Cannot select fiat currencies
- Poor customer service – no live chat support
KuCoin Deposit Fees
If you deposit cryptocurrency into KuCoin, you pay no fees. KuCoin does not support fiat deposits. However, if you want to buy cryptocurrency using fiat, you can do so at the time of purchase without pre-funding your account.
How much does it cost to buy cryptocurrencies on KuCoin?
I couldn’t find a clear answer in any review or on the KuCoin website. To find out the answer to this review, I bought USDT using US dollars in my own account. Since USDT has the same value as the US dollar, the difference between what I pay and the amount of USDT I receive will show the deducted fee. As you can see in the screenshots below, depending on the payment method and payment channel, the fees vary.
The best value seems to be Visa/Mastercard using Simplex where $100 will get you 96.38 USDT. This means that the fee charged is approximately 3.62%. If you use Banxa, the fee is about 4.24%
Fees for trading on KuCoins
KuCoin fees of spot trading (buying and selling cryptocurrencies) start as low as 0.1% and you can easily get a 20% discount if you use KCS coin (kucoin token) to pay the fees. This equates to only 0.08% per trade.
The Verdict
KuCoin is one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges and it has a lot going for it. Extremely low trading fees, a fee-free P2P marketplace, over 600 cryptocurrencies, and tons of other features that advanced traders love, such as trading bots, futures, margin trading, and crypto lending.
A few disadvantages of KuCoin are that if you want to buy crypto using fiat, the minimum fee will be 3% and also you cannot withdraw fiat currency from the exchange. It may not be the best exchange for new cryptocurrencies, but for experienced traders the pros outweigh the cons.
If you want to compare other options, Binance is the largest crypto exchange in the world by trading volume. You can read my full Binance review and I also have an article comparing KuCoin to Binance.
