Crypto Exchange Review: KuCoin

General Information

KuCoin is a relatively fresh company in the cryptocurrency exchange sphere, starting its operations in 2017. Like most crypto exchanges, it aims to provide an all-around service for traders of all skill and experience levels. However, such a task often sounds much simpler than it is in reality. As such, the company’s launch fell flat on its face, failing to satisfy the traders that were willing to experiment and use the new service. That initial hardship seems to still haunt the exchange, which is having trouble generating and maintaining a healthy userbase.

The company is located in Seychelles, which is a well-known offshore location for financial businesses. KuCoin’s owners are also known for running a multitude of successful projects related to finance. The two most prominent ones are iBox PAY and Art Financial. The experience, sadly, wasn’t enough to launch KuCoin into the top market competitor spots.

In this KuCoin Review we will have a detailed view of this crypto exchange.

What’s up with KuCoin?

The thing that caused the initial disappointment isn’t one catastrophic failure, but rather a series of underwhelming features. The company aimed to satisfy all skill levels, but its platform was too complex for newbies. At the same time, it lacked some sophisticated trading features that’d make it worth it for experts. Making things even worse was the lack of basic features, such as fiat funding options. The combination of the factors, as well as other small errors, meant the exchange failed in its goal of pleasing a diverse userbase.

Still, we aren’t here to judge 2017 KuCoin. We’re much more interested in its current state, which seems to have fixed many of the prior issues. However, where old problems got erased, new ones arose, as you’ll see further down the line.

Primary Features

As we already stated in the opening of our KuCoin review, the exchange has gone through a major overhaul. As such, its primary features list may not look at all as you may have assumed it would. Still, even with the improved series of features, the company’s customer number isn’t doing well. That’s causing other issues, such as a sub-par trading volume. Still, here are some of the features we found the most enjoyable at KuCoin:

• Low Charges
  

Security and fee levels are the things that most people primarily look at when choosing an exchange. Security ensures your funds won’t simply disappear one day, while low fees help them keep growing. KuCoin definitely has the latter handled, as its low commissions let it compete even with market giants. The relatively low charges even start at low investment levels, meaning it’s potentially a good choice for budget traders.

• Passive Crypto Earning

Another significant benefit that the exchanges have been introducing is passive crypto-earning methods. Naturally, we’re not talking about mining here, as you don’t need a separate rig, just your account. Namely, using features such as lending and staking, you can earn a bit of crypto free of any risk at all. Naturally, the gains won’t be nearly as big as with successful crypto trading, but it’s still quite a welcome bonus.

• Shifting Bonuses at KuCoin
  

Various bonus promotions have always been a selling point for online companies, especially targeting potential new users. Naturally, a chance to earn a few hundred dollars just by signing up sounds alluring, especially when you’re unaware of the baggage that comes with it. Promotion method or not, bonuses can at times provide a handy financial boost. At KuCoin, those extra earning chances often shift around, making the trading experience somewhat more dynamic. They are especially nice for traders that like to seek thrills from time to time instead of just chasing profits.

• Buying Crypto With Fiat

One of the primary features that were missing in KuCoin’s initial service was the lack of fiat funding options. The exchange was aware of the issue and managed to correct it in a somewhat timely manner. As it stands, the exchange offers multiple fiat deposit and withdrawal options, making it much more versatile and convenient.

Security

Until recently, KuCoin seemed like a perfectly safe exchange. On every front, it looked like it offered great personal security, without any malicious behavior. Encryption was present, with a load of authentication features that make sure you’re the one accessing your account. Even further than that, the website vouched for its users’ privacy, without forced KYC checks. One flaw is that the service was unregulated, but that’s nothing out of the usual for crypto exchanges.

However, all it took was one hack to harm KuCoin’s reputation severely. Naturally, a successful cyberattack against any crypto company does no wonders to impressions about it. Although, the issues with KuCoins went beyond the hack itself, with the reaction being thoroughly inappropriate. At the time, many users complained about the company’s silence and inactivity, and it seemed like they just wished to sweep the whole thing under the rug. Over time, that turned not to be true, and the website managed to recover somewhat.

Still, the hack was a significant one, taking $2.8 million worth of crypto from various users’ accounts. The culprits were eventually caught, and the situation resolved as well as it could. Still, since the event occurred earlier this year, it raised questions about the exchange’s safety that are yet to be answered.

Fees & Conditions

Earlier in our KuCoin review, we mentioned the exchange’s low fees as one of its primary advantages. Surely enough, the exchange’s trading fees follow a maker-taker structure and start as low as 0.1%. As you progress, they improve and reach levels where they’re barely noticeable at 0.015-0.03%. The rest of the fees also follow quite a standard structure, with no charges on crypto deposits.

On withdrawals, there are specific charges depending on what sort of currency you’re pulling back. For crypto, the pricing according to type is listed on the website, but for fiat, it’s a bit more expensive.  It’s also worth noting that the fees on fiat deposits are quite high, ranging from 5-7% normally. That makes it significantly more difficult to maintain an account that way, with your investment-profit ratio being skewed heavily.

As for the conditions, they’re a bit bare-bones. While there are both simple and sophisticated trading options, they’re quite limited.

Funding Methods at KuCoin

As we mentioned before, the exchange offers both prominent methods of funding your account. Crypto funding is free and is by far the preferred method for both users and the firm, judging by how heavily it disincentivizes fiat funding. Speaking of, everyday currency funding is quite heavily limited, with only five options and no direct bank transfers. On top of that, the fees make it much harder to earn money if you decide to deposit that way constantly.

Currencies

KuCoin has a healthy variety of both mainstream and exotic coin options available for trading. The total number comes in at over 200, which while above average, can’t compete with more competent firms. As such, the company had to find a different way to stand out, and it decided to go with a proprietary coin.

The firm’s proprietary cryptocurrency KuCoin Shares (KCS) has a multitude of advantages that serve to urge customers to trade on it. That includes bonuses and fee collection programs, which can serve as passive income. The currency itself, however, is mostly stagnant, failing to replicate the success of other coins.

KuCoin Review: Conclusion

KuCoin is a prime example of a wasted opportunity, which is unfortunate. We tried our best to like the exchange, as it does have specific qualities that are quite commendable. However, the glaring issues erase any advantage there might be to using the firm’s services. The security has proven to be lackluster, and user impressions have been turning towards negative. As for the trading itself, it does have some bright spots but is overall underwhelming.

There are many better alternatives to KuCoin, as the company seems to be trying to emulate bigger firms. However, in its emulation, it simply ends up as a lesser version. And of course, why’d you go with a lesser version when you can simply go for the main prize.