summary: Kucoin is a cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2017. KuCoin is a full-featured spot trading platform for many digital assets
content: Kucoin is a cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2017. KuCoin is a full-featured spot trading platform for many digital assets and cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, NEO, EOS, Tether, KuCoin Shares, and many more. Kucoin has its own cryptocurrency - KuCoin Shares (KCS). On October 3, 2020, KuCoin announced that they had recovered $204 million and were ready to start taking deposits after being attacked by hackers. Overview The Kucoin team launched the KuCoin exchange app for iOS and Google Play for Android to keep users trading on the go. KuCoin charges a flat trading fee, meaning the fees for takers and makers do not differ. The exchange boasts a flat fee of 0.1%, which is lower than the global industry average of 0.25%. As for withdrawal fees, the exchange charges 0.0005 BTC. NEO and GAS are free to withdraw from KuCoin. The exchange supports several ways to buy cryptocurrencies with fiat via KuCoin, including direct bank card purchase via Simplex, Banxa, or PayMIR integrations, P2P desk, and fast buy feature. The fees on those transactions may vary according to the chosen payment method, but should not exceed 5 - 7% on any given day. For example, Simplex typically charges 3.5% per purchase, while Baxa is said to charge 4 - 6% on top of the total transaction amount. For P2P marketplace purchases, the fees depend entirely on the chosen payment method and processor rates. The exchange supports a referral program as well as other promotion programs. One of these includes a 30% discount that is applied to users’ fees if they use the exchange’s local cryptocurrency, KCS. Funds for KuCoin development were raised via an ICO, which lasted from August 13, 2017, to September 1, 2017. During that time, KuCoin issued its native KuCoin Shares (KCS) tokens, which are used to receive special offers, trading discounts, and a part of exchange profits. The crowdsale was a success, as KuCoin raised nearly USD 20,000,000 in BTC (at the time) for 100,000,000 KCS. The ICO price for a single KCS was 0.000055 BTC. KuCoin Account Verification On November 1, 2018, KuCoin implemented know your customer (KYC) verification. Nevertheless, account verification at KuCoin is entirely optional. It means that a user does not have to verify their identity to trade, however, verified users get benefits such as increased daily withdrawal limits or simplified account recovery in case of a lost password or two-factor authentication device. KuCoin has three verification levels: Unverified account. It requires email verification, lets a user withdraw up to 2 BTC per 24 hours. Verified Individual account. Requires a user to submit their identity details such as ID or passport, as well as their country of residence, and increases their withdrawal limit to 100 BTC per 24 hours. Verified institutional account. Increases a user's withdrawal limit to 500 BTC per 24 hours. In June 2020, KuCoin announced its partnership with crypto on-chain analytics and surveillance company Chainalysis in order to increase its compliance efforts further. KuCoin Futures KuCoin launched its Futures (previously known as KuMEX) platform in mid-2019. It allows users to trade Bitcoin (BTC) and Tether (USDT) margined contracts with up to 100x leverage. It means that a user can trade up to USD 10,000 worth of contracts with just USD 100 in their account. There are two versions of KuCoin Futures - one designated for beginners (lite version) and one oriented towards more experienced traders (pro version). The Lite interface lets a user trade USDT-Margined Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) contracts, as well as BTC-margined BTC futures contracts. The Pro interface is more advanced and lets a user switch between the following contracts: USDT-margined: BTC perpetual, ETH perpetual BTC-margined: BTC perpetual, BTC Quarterly 0925, and BTC Quarterly 1225 KuCoin Programs KuCoin also offers its users the ability to employ their digital assets in a variety of staking and lending programs. These include: KuCoin Lend. A user can earn interest on their digital assets by lending them out for the funding of margin accounts. The loans last for either 7, 14, or 28 days, and a user can earn up to 12% annualized interest rate from their holdings. The lending service accepts Tether (USDT), Bitcoin, Ethereum, EOS, Litecoin, Ripple, Cardano, Cosmos, TRON, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV, Ethereum Classic, Tezos, Dash, Zcash, and Stellar cryptocurrencies. Pool-X. Pool-X is a next-generation Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mining pool - an exchange designed to deliver liquidity services for staked tokens. It lets a user earn a high yield for PoS cryptocurrencies like EOS, TOMO, Zilliqa, Cosmos, KCS, Tezos, 0x, IOST, TRON, and many others. Pool-X is fueled by Proof of Liquidity (POL), a decentralized zero-reservation credit issued on TRON’s TRC-20 protocol. Soft staking. As a part of Pool-X, soft staking lets a user earn rewards for holding coins and tokens. A user can get up to 15% annual yield, with low minimum deposits. KuCoin Spotlight IEO platform Aside from trading, staking, exchange, and swapping services, KuCoin also has its initial exchange offering (IEO) launchpad, aka KuCoin Spotlight. Here, a user can invest in new crypto projects vetted and supported by KuCoin. The launchpad has already funded several IEOs, namely, Tokoin, Lukso, Coti, Chromia, MultiVAC, Bitbns, Trias, and VELO. To participate in KuCoin’s IEOs, a user needs to have a verified account. Most of the offerings use KuCoin Shares (KCS) as the main currency of the crowdsale. KuCoin Shares (KCS) KuCoin Shares (KCS) were used to fund the creation of the exchange. In total, 200,000,000 KCS were issued and distributed to founders, private investors, and regular investors. Funds issued in the first and second phases are subject to four (September 2, 2021, for phase one) and two-year lock-up periods (September 2, 2019, for phase two). ICO Issuing Mode KCS holders have the following benefits: Receive daily cryptocurrency dividends, which account for 50% of the collected trading fees. To obtain the daily bonus, users would need to deposit their KCS into the Kucoin Platform. Then the platform will conduct accounting and award bonuses based on the KCS holdings in the user's account at 0:00 (UTC+8) that day and all the trading fees charged to the platform on the previous day. Then the bonus gained by users will directly put to their Kucoin accounts in the corresponding currency. For instance, If the ETH-BTC cryptocurrency pair rate is 0.063 on the platform and the daily exchange volume is 30,000 BTC; based on the 0.1% rate from each side, the platform shall charge 30 BTC and 476 ETH as trading fees. The bonus for every 10,000 holdings would be 10,000 by 100,000,000 (0.01%). So that the daily bonus from this very cryptocurrency pair is 0.003 BTC and 0.0476 ETH (1 BTC and 17 ETH annually). Get a trading fee discount (min. 1000 KCS for 1% discount; max 30,000 KCS for 30% discount). The system takes a snapshot of users' KCS holdings daily at 00:00 (UTC +8) to calculate the applicable discount rate. More trading pairs, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Tether, Ripple, NEO, EOS, Credits, Go. Experience exclusive KCS holder perks and offers. The total supply of KCS is 180 million, but only about half of those are currently in circulation. The initial supply of KCS was set at 200 million, but the number has been declining as roughly 10% of all the exchange profits each quarter is used to buy back KCS and burn them in order to support higher prices. This buyback and burn will continue until just 100 million KCS remain. KuCoin has named this the “buy-back” program. The initial distribution saw the founders of KuCoin receive 35% of the KCS coins, 15% went to angel investors in the exchange and the remaining 50% was sold to investors. According to the KCS whitepaper the 35%, or 70 million KCS, that was distributed to the founders is locked up until September 2, 2021. In addition to that, the 30 million coins given to angel investors were also locked up, but only until September 2, 2019. Lock-up Period The 70 million KCS issued by the founders in the first phase should be subject to a four-year lock-up period from Sep 2nd, 2017 to September 2nd, 2021. Founders are prohibited to assign or sell their KCS holdings in any way before September 2nd, 2018. Team members can only assign or sell 25% of their largest historical exchange volume in 365 natural days from Sep 3rd, 2018 to the end of the lock-up period. The 30 million KCS exchanged by the consultants and angel investors in the second phase were subject to a two-year lock-up period from Sep 2nd, 2017 to Sep 2nd, 2019. Holders were not allowed to assign or sell their KCS holdings in any way before September 2nd, 2018. They could only assign or sell 50% of their largest historical exchange volume in 365 natural days from September 3rd, 2018 to the end of the lock-up period. The 100 million KCS issued by public users suffered no lock-up period and opened for exchange from Sep 2nd, 2017. Buy-back Mechanism After the Kucoin platform opened for use, at least 10% of the net profit were applied to the buy-back of KCS every quarter. The KCS retrieved through buy-back will be destroyed immediately. The buy-back record will be released to the public at the first time, so that users can review it via blockchain explorer, to ensure the open and transparent nature of the whole process. The team will continue the process until 100 million KCS destroyed. Team Michael Gan - CEO Eric Don - COO Top Lan - CTO Kent Li - Operations & Maintenance Director John Lee - Presi