KuCoin vs. Binance

This article is our detailed comparison of KuCoin and Binance Crypto Exchange Platforms from 2022. 

The crypto market is very appealing for any investor and trader. There is a wide variety of strategies to profit from the long-lasting boom around cryptocurrencies. 

You can buy and hold, swing, or day trade; you can lend, stake, or provide liquidity with your crypto assets. Secure Exchanges like KuCoin and Binance are allowing you to implement your strategies. 

I had my first contact with Bitcoin in 2013. I am using different exchange platforms for many years now. In this review, I compare the major exchanges KuCoin and Binance in-depth for you. 

We will have a look at 

• the companies behind 
• features
• deposit and withdrawal options
• the fee structure
• supported currencies
• security
• customer service
• and the user interface

Let’s get started with the review!

At a Glance

What is KuCoin?

KuCoin started to operate in Hong Kong. Due to the regulation and the government crackdown on cryptocurrencies, they moved to Singapore. 

KuCoin got hacked once ($281 million were taken), every user was compensated, and has a good security record and a competitive fee structure.

The daily trading volume is around 2 Billion USD per day (Feb/2022). 

KuCoin is not regulated, which impacts compliance but also makes it easier to get started from a user perspective. 

What is Binance?

Binance was based in Hong Kong as well and moved to Malta later. They are not incorporated there. 

Binance is not regulated, which impacts compliance. 

The daily trading volume is around 14 Billion USD per day (Feb/2022). 

Binance claims to have 30 million users. 

You do not require an ID to signup and get started on Binance. 

KuCoin vs Binance: What is the difference?

Binance has around seven times more significant daily trading volume fewer coins than KuCoin but offers more trading pairs. They are both having similar business concepts.

Both offer hundreds of Altcoins that are otherwise hard to purchase (or with high fees) on decentralized exchanges with higher fees. 

The fee structure of Binance is more attractive if you are a small trader, while KuCoin is more interesting if you are trading larger amounts of money. 

KuCoin offers a free trading bot and a Peer-to-Peer crypto lending place, making it possible to make lending deals with other users. 

Binance vs KuCoin: Feature Comparison

Today, Binance has 363 Coins (1420 trading pairs) listed, and KuCoin has 592 Coins and 1137 trading pairs listed. 

The features are pretty similar. KuCoin, on top of everything, offers a free trading bot that allows you to copy other successful trading bots on the platform. 

Both offer an excellent experience.

Binance Features

Binance offers a lot of different services to their customers. Some of them are trading, P2P Trading, Derivates, Staking, Liquidity Farming, a Launchpad, Crypto Loans, and an NFT marketplace. We will go into greater detail in our Binance review that we are about to write. 

BNB is the Binance native Token and is available as ERC20 and BEP20 Token. It is used as a gas token on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). 

A cool feature of Binance is their own Visa credit card. 

Binance Debit Card

Binance offers their one Visa credit card, one of the best Crypto Cards. That is a great way to spend your crypto assets with 60 million merchants worldwide.

The card comes for free and offers up to 8 % cashback and zero fees. You only have to exchange your crypto when you need FIAT money, an excellent step for bringing cryptocurrencies to the mainstream. 

The credit card is available in the following countries. Unfortunately, it's not available in the US at the moment. 

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.

KuCoin Features

On KuCoin, you can trade your Cryptos and Derivates. You can also use their own trading bot for free and use their Crypto Lending, Earning, Token Launching Platform. The set of features is similar to the one of Binance. 

KuCoins native Token is KuCoin Shares (KCS). The total supply is 200 million. KuCoin is buying back till the supply will be constant 100 million KCS. Every quarter at least 10% of the net profits are used to buy back KSC. The buy-back supply will be destroyed. KCS is an ERC20 Coin and therefore compatible with all Ethereum wallets. Staking KCS gives an attractive daily dividend. 

A unique feature is the trading bot. 

KuCoin Trading Bot

You can configure your parameters, and the bot will trade for you. This also works for you while you sleep and your computer is not online. The trading bot runs in the clouds. 

You also see the best performing bots and can copy the performance of those bots by copying their settings. 

Binance vs KuCoin: Deposit Payment Methods and Withdraws comparisons

How to deposit, how to withdraw money. 

Binance Deposit and Withdraw 

You can deposit Fiat Currencies via Visa or Mastercard for 1,8%, SEPA Wire Transfers for 2 Euros Fee, Advcash, P2P Express, Simplex, or Banxa.

You can withdraw your Crypto Assets and transfer them to a different wallet via BEP2, Binance Smart Chain BEP20, ETH (ERC20), Solana Network, TRX Tron (TRC20), AVAX (Avalance), AVAXC (Avax C-Chain), FTM Fantom Network, and many more. 

You can withdraw your Fiat Currencies like USD, EUR, etc. via Visa Bank Card for 1% Fee, via SEPA Bank Transfer for 2 Euros Fee, or via Advcash for €5 + 0.5% fee. Deposits of EURO via SEPA or Sofort are suspended at the moment. 

You can also spend your Cryptocurrency after transferring it to your Binance Visa Card. If you are holding BNB Binance Coin, there are attractive cashback options available. You also can set priorities for your card on which Cryptocurrency should be spent first. 

KuCoin Deposit and Withdraw

You can make Fiat Deposits to buy your favorite crypto assets via Visa or Mastercard for 1,8% Fees via a P2P marketplace with different payment methods or third party methods like simplex, Banxa, or Apple Pay. 

You can not withdraw your Fiat Currencies, but you can also withdraw your digital assets via different blockchains like ETH, FTM, AVAX, and many more to any other wallet. 

The winner here is Binance, just for the reason that you have more options when it comes to depositing, withdrawing, and using your digital currency and Fiat money. The Binance Visa Card is a clear advantage. 

Binance vs KuCoin: Fees Comparision

Binance and KuCoin vary in their fees, even if they have a similar business model. 

KuCoin offers a more aggressive fee structure depending on your trading tier. If you are trading larger volumes and level up through tiers, KuCoin is the winner. 

Deposit and withdrawal fees on Binance depend on the asset and payment method, but they are generally quite attractive. The trading fee structure is better than on KuCoin if you are a smaller trader. 

There are no deposit fees, and withdrawal fees depend on the asset. 

Let us have a look at the details. 

Deposit fees

To deposit cryptocurrencies on Binance or KuCoin are both for free. 

On Binance, Fiat deposits fees depend on the payment method and the currency you are depositing. The fees can get as high as 3,5%. Details you can find here. 

With KuCoin, you do not have a Fiat account; you only can directly deposit via buying a stable coin or another digital currency. The trading fees are higher than on Binance, depending on the payment method. The cheapest way to deposit to KuChoin is by transferring Cryptocurrencies there. 

Fees for Trading

Binance Trading Fees.

Withdrawal fees

Binance has reasonable withdrawal fees, with a max of 1,5 % at writing this article. Details you can find here. 

KuCoin does not offer Fiat Withdrawals. 

Future Market Fees

Binance has a maker/taker fee of 0.02%/0.04% in the futures market compared to KuCoin, which has a 0.02%/0.06% fee.

Kucoin vs Binance: Supported cryptocurrencies

As of today, Binance is offering 363 Coins and 1420 trading pairs. KuCoin 595 Coins and 1135 Trading Paris. 

Both offer altcoins that are otherwise hard to purchase. 

Binance wins this category because of the sheer volume they are trading and the liquidity advantage. 

Binance vs KuCoin: Security and Authentication Comparison

To start with, always try to use all security measures available. After signup, enable at least Two-Factor-Authentication (2FA) as soon as possible to secure your account. Do not forget when you operate on a central exchange; you usually do not own your private keys yourself. 

Binance and KuCoin offer very high-security standards. Both invest more and more in better security frameworks, which is one of the essential things in that industry trillion-dollar industry. Both exchanges hold cold and hot wallets to protect your assets, which is a standard procedure for any respected crypto exchange. 

Kucoin has multi-layered security to protect your account and has a bank-level disaster-proof setup. 

Kucoin introduced the Arwen Trading protocols, making it possible for centralized exchanges to trade cryptocurrencies securely. Arwen allows the movement of coins regardless of where your keys are held. It does not matter if you are in a custodial or non-custodial environment. Arwen supports all Bitcoin and Ethereum derived coins. You can take advantage of the liquidity of a centralized exchange without giving up custody of your keys. 

Binance offers 2FA, anti-Phishing Codes one email, a withdrawal whitelist, SMS authentication, device management more. On top of that, Binance is ISO/IEC 27001 certified, which is rare in the crypto space. 

💡ISO/IEC 27001 is an international standard on managing information security. 

Both exchanges have been hacked in the past. In the end, no user was affected since KuCoin and Binance were covered for the damages that occurred to their customers. 

Binance Security Incidents

Binance got hacked in 2019, and 40 million worth of cryptocurrencies got stolen. Binance covered the total amount that was lost, and no user was affected. 

KuCoin Security Incidents

KuCoin got hacked in 2020, and $275 million worth of Cryptocurrency was stolen. KuCoin covered the loss as well. 

Binance is a close winner in security because it has the additional ISO 27001 certification, which is hard to find in the cryptocurrency industry. Both are considered very secure.

Kucoin vs Binance - Customer Service Comparison

KuCoin has incredibly fast 24 hours customer support via telegram. 

Binance offers customer service through a ticketing system and does not respond fast. Compared to other more prominent exchanges, Binance is still relatively quick and doing a good job. 

You can contact Binance via chat, by submitting a request, via Twitter or Facebook. 

Kucoin vs Binance - User Interface & Beginner Friendliness

You can sign up and start using their services within minutes with both exchanges. 

Binance has multiple user interface options tailored to different trading styles. This cannot be very clear if you are just getting started. Binance also offers a simple trading style for beginners. 

The Verdict

I am using both exchanges, even if Binance is my favorite for now. KuCoin has potential, especially with their free trading bot and the use of the Arwen trading protocol. 

Both exchanges have a similar business strategy, targeting similar customers, and are offering hundreds of crypto assets you can trade. 

Binance and KuCoin are not regulated and have a straightforward verification process. 

KuCoin has a more robust crypto lending platform in the form of a marketplace that connects lenders and borrows who agree on an interest rate and a time. KuCoin ensures the marketplace adds reliability and some level of regulation to the process. With Binance, you only can lend from Binance itself. 

Binance offers a user interface for beginners and advanced users to use different areas of the cryptocurrency markets.

Binance is the biggest centralized exchange in daily trading volume and is also the most liquid exchange. 

Both have multi-layer security implementation and are investing significant amounts of money into constantly improving their security. 

I am using Binance more; even there is no clear winner. In the end, it comes to which user interface you like more. Sign and try both and continue with the one you like more. 

When Binance is the Better Choice

The fee structure makes Binance better for small volume traders. Binance has higher liquidity and is the biggest centralized exchange worldwide. 

When KuCoin is the Better Choice

KuCoin is better for more significant trading volumes advanced traders due to the fee structure. If you want to use the lending marketplace or the trading bot, then KuCoin is also a better option. 

There is no clear winner between the two exchanges. Both are good, secure, and reliable and offer a ton of features and crypto-assets. You can signup for both and just use the one you like more. 

FAQ

Which features are the most important in this Binance vs. Kucoin cryptocurrency exchange comparison?

Our detailed review focused on fees (deposit, withdrawal, and trading), the level of security,  supported cryptocurrencies, accepted payment methods, and beginner friendliness. Write us if you have any questions. 

How can I choose the best crypto exchange for me?

It depends on your needs, your knowledge, and your goals. There are many exchanges out there. I am personally using multiple of them for different purposes. 

Binance and KuCoin are two very respected and widely used exchanges you can start with. 

What is the difference between a crypto exchange and a brokerage?

A cryptocurrency exchange is where you meet and exchange cryptocurrencies with another person.

A brokerage is no other person; you are exchanging your coins or fiat money with the brokerage itself.