Updated Rules checked 2026-10-13
KuCoin’s public record can be read in three parts. Fees: regular users (VIP 0) pay 0.02% Maker and 0.06% Taker on futures, while spot is split into three classes by coin, A, B and C, at 0.1%, 0.2% and 0.3%, with a 20% discount when you pay spot fees in KCS. Security: on 2020-09-25 about USD 281 million was stolen from its hot wallets; 84% was recovered and the insurance fund covered the rest. From then through 2026-10-12, this site found no other record of platform wallet theft. Regulation: on 2025-01-27 its operating entity, Peken Global, pleaded guilty in the US, with fines and forfeiture totaling more than USD 297 million, and Canada also imposed a penalty in 2025.
On reserves, KuCoin’s latest period is the 2026-09-30 snapshot: BTC 109%, ETH 117%, USDT 110%. Taiwan is not among the restricted regions in the KuCoin terms of use (2026-09-29 version), and the app is available on the Taiwan App Store. However, as of the list updated by Taiwan’s Securities and Futures Bureau (SFB) on 2026-09-29, KuCoin is not on the anti-money laundering (AML) registration list of Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), and I found no New Taiwan dollar (TWD) listings on P2P. Below, following the questions people ask most, I go through each point with its source.
Key takeaways: KuCoin’s VIP 0 spot fees fall into three classes by coin: Class A 0.1%, Class B 0.2% and Class C 0.3%. In official data from 2026-10-11, 480 of 968 trading pairs were Class B or Class C. KuCoin’s VIP 0 futures fees are 0.02% Maker and 0.06% Taker, and the 20% KCS discount only applies to spot and margin. In the 2020-09-25 hot wallet theft, about USD 281 million was taken from KuCoin; 84% was recovered, and the insurance fund covered the remaining roughly USD 45.55 million. KuCoin’s operating entity, Peken Global, pleaded guilty in the US on 2025-01-27, with fines and forfeiture totaling more than USD 297 million, and agreed to exit the US market for at least two years. KuCoin’s 2026-09-30 proof of reserves snapshot shows BTC 109%, ETH 117% and USDT 110%.
The information below was compiled on 2026-10-13 (data check date) from official pages and this site’s verification records. The check date for each figure is given in the relevant section, and it is all provided for reference.
What are KuCoin’s fees?
| Market (VIP 0) | Maker | Taker | Paid in KCS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spot Class A (BTC, ETH, etc.) | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.08% |
| Spot Class B | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.16% |
| Spot Class C | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.24% |
| Stablecoin-margined futures (USDT, USDC) | 0.02% | 0.06% | Not applicable |
| Coin-margined futures | 0.02% | 0.06% | Not applicable |
The rates come from the KuCoin VIP fee structure, and the KCS discount follows KuCoin’s guide to paying fees with KCS, checked on 2026-10-11. A spot pair’s class depends on its base coin; for PEPE/USDT, for example, it’s PEPE that counts. Counting from official trading pair data on 2026-10-11, of 968 pairs, 488 were Class A, 230 Class B and 250 Class C; the USDT pairs for BTC, ETH, SOL and DOGE are all Class A.
In dollar terms: with 20,000 USDT a month in spot trades, buying only Class A coins costs 20 USDT, all Class C costs 60 USDT, and even with KCS turned on it’s still 48 USDT. On futures, opening a 10x position with 1,000 USDT of margin gives a 10,000 USDT position; one round trip at the Taker rate costs 12 USDT, or 1.2% of your margin. A leveraged position may be force-liquidated if the market moves against it. Among the 13 exchanges this site covers, KuCoin’s 0.06% futures Taker fee is on the same level as Bitget, HTX and XT, and higher than the 0.05% at Binance, OKX and BingX.
VIP levels don’t help most people much. VIP 1 requires holding 1,000 KCS or 5 million USDT in 30-day futures volume, but VIP 1 and VIP 2 only lower the Maker fee; the spot Taker fee only drops to 0.09% at VIP 3, and the futures Taker fee only drops to 0.053% at VIP 4 (KuCoin: how to become a VIP). The full VIP table and withdrawal fees are in the KuCoin fees guide, and you can estimate your own volume with the perpetual futures cost calculator.
How much does the KuCoin referral code rebate? Has the rebate changed?
KuCoin calculates rebates on the trading fees the invitee actually pays and pays them out in the same coin. Spot, margin and futures use the same rate, and rebates are credited automatically to the main account on T+1. According to the KuCoin Affiliate Program 2025 guide, invitees who signed up after 2022-09-22 count for life; API trades and zero-fee trades are excluded. The KuCoin referral program states that once an invitee reaches VIP 3 or above, their trades no longer generate commission. A referral code is meant to be entered at sign-up; afterwards you can only submit a “Link Referrer” or “Unlink Referrer” request in the Help Center, which KuCoin reviews under conditions it doesn’t state (checked 2026-10-22); registering accounts in bulk to farm rebates is prohibited, and KuCoin can claw them back.
The automatic exchange rebate on this site’s KuCoin referral code is currently 60%. The chart and log below show how this rate has changed over time.
- 60% (tracking started)
Rates sync with the exchange daily; every change is recorded automatically.
For how to sign up, see the KuCoin referral code page; what you can do if you’ve already signed up is covered in how to switch your KuCoin referral code. KuCoin doesn’t state whether the rebate on fees paid with the KCS discount is calculated on the amount before or after the discount.
Does KuCoin have proof of reserves?
Yes. KuCoin publishes proof of reserves regularly and provides a Merkle tree so users can confirm their account was included.
| Item | KuCoin |
|---|---|
| Latest snapshot | 2026-09-30 23:59:59 (UTC+8) |
| BTC/ETH/USDT reserve ratios | 109%/117%/110% |
| User BTC assets | 7,358.67 BTC |
| Platform BTC assets | 7,994.37 BTC |
| Surplus BTC | About 635.70 BTC |
| Third party | Page says it is verified by an independent third party, without naming it |
| Assets covered | BTC, ETH, USDT, USDC |
The figures come from the KuCoin PoR page. The surplus of 635.70 BTC is about 8.6% of user BTC. In terms of scale, KuCoin’s user BTC assets are about 1.07% of Binance’s 688,572.68 BTC for the same period, so exchanges with similar reserve ratios can have very different amounts of assets behind them.
Proof of reserves only reflects the moment of the snapshot and shows nothing about the company’s own borrowing and other liabilities. As for a protection fund, KuCoin used its insurance fund in 2020, but this site couldn’t find its current size. For a comparison of all 13 exchanges, see exchange proof of reserves compared.
Has KuCoin had any security or withdrawal incidents?
- 2020-09-25: private keys to several hot wallets were obtained, with losses of about USD 281 million; deposits and withdrawals were suspended and then restored in stages. On 2020-11-11 the CEO announced that 84% had been recovered (The Block), and the remaining 16% or so, about USD 45.55 million, was covered by the insurance fund (Decrypt).
- 2025-01-27: the operating entity, Peken Global, pleaded guilty in the US to one count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, with a USD 112.9 million fine plus USD 184.5 million in forfeiture, more than USD 297 million in total, and agreed to exit the US market for at least two years (US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York).
- 2025-07-28: the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) imposed a CAD 19.552 million administrative penalty on Peken Global, announced on 2025-09-25; KuCoin has appealed to the Federal Court (FINTRAC).
- Other regions: India’s Financial Intelligence Unit issued a notice over non-registration on 2023-12-28; Japan’s Financial Services Agency issued a warning letter on 2024-11-28 and in February 2025 asked Apple and Google to remove KuCoin and other apps in Japan (The Defiant); the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission named it in August 2025 (Cointelegraph).
Of the 13 exchanges this site covers, three have operating entities that pleaded guilty in the US: Binance, KuCoin and OKX. For a comparison of hacks and regulatory records, see exchange safety records. To check customer support claiming to represent the exchange, start with the KuCoin official verification center; other tactics are covered in exchange scam types.
Which countries can’t use KuCoin?
The restricted regions in Article 17 of the KuCoin terms of use (updated 2026-09-29) are: the United States (including territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam), Singapore, mainland China and Hong Kong, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, the Canadian provinces of Ontario and British Columbia, France, the Netherlands, and the Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions of Ukraine.
| 16 regions this site compares | KuCoin terms |
|---|---|
| United States, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia | Listed as not served |
| Canada | Only Ontario and British Columbia |
| European Union | Only France and the Netherlands are listed |
| United Kingdom, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, India, South Korea, Mexico, Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia | Not listed in the terms |
Not being listed in the terms doesn’t mean a country allows it: Japan, the Philippines and India are all absent from KuCoin’s list, yet each has a record of regulators naming KuCoin or demanding app removals. Article 49A prohibits using proxy servers, VPNs or IP-masking tools to get around restrictions, and Article 51 states that the platform is not responsible for losses caused by regional restrictions or assets frozen by regulators. For a side-by-side of every exchange, see exchange restricted countries.
What products does KuCoin offer?
- Spot and margin: official data on 2026-10-11 listed 968 spot trading pairs, and the KCS discount applies to spot and margin.
- Futures: stablecoin-margined (USDT, USDC) and coin-margined (BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP) futures; the official futures list on 2026-10-11 had 691 contracts in total, all at a standard rate of 0.02%/0.06%. Funding settles every 8 hours for major pairs and every 4 hours for most other pairs; on 2026-10-12 the official API showed 63% of 686 USDT perpetual futures settling every 4 hours (KuCoin funding fee guide). For the math, see how funding rates work.
- Copy trading: futures copy trading only. Since 2026-09-06, the lead trader’s profit share has been 10% to 32% depending on tier (KuCoin Elite+ announcement), calculated on realized profit and loss after trading fees and funding fees, and settled daily at 00:00 (UTC); you can copy each trader with 10 to 10,000 USDT (KuCoin copy trader guide).
- Trading bots: spot grid, infinity grid, smart rebalance, recurring buy (DCA), martingale, futures grid and DualFutures AI. Futures bots always charge 0.06%, with no Maker/Taker split, which is more than the 0.02% for manual Maker orders (KuCoin trading bot guide).
- Earn: flexible USDT (Simple Earn) pays a flat 1.30%, and fixed terms range from 1.80% for 7 days to 4.10% for 365 days (KuCoin Earn, snapshot of 2026-10-13).
- Convert and P2P: Convert charges no fee, but quotes include a spread that KuCoin sets itself; the P2P FAQ lists zero trading fees.
If you use futures bots, do the math: for the same 10,000 USDT trade, a bot pays 6 USDT, while a manual Maker order pays 2 USDT. The flexible rate is a flat 1.30%, so 10,000 USDT earns about 130 USDT a year; for a comparison of 13 exchanges, see USDT flexible savings rates compared. For how copy trading costs add up, see the cost of copy trading.
What should Taiwan users know about KuCoin?
- FSC registration: as of the 2026-09-29 update of the SFB’s “businesses and persons providing virtual asset services” list, KuCoin is not on the FSC’s AML registration list. When the FSC commented on the FTX collapse, it noted that offshore trading platforms fall outside the dispute mechanisms of the Securities and Futures Investors Protection Center (SFIPC) and the Financial Ombudsman Institution (FOI).
- TWD deposits and withdrawals: when I checked KuCoin P2P on 2026-10-13, there were 0 TWD ads for buying or selling USDT, and the KuCoin fiat deposit and withdrawal fee table only lists the euro and the Brazilian real. In practice, the route is to buy USDT with TWD on MAX or BitoPro and transfer it in; withdrawals go the other way.
- Transfer costs: the cheapest route from KuCoin to MAX is Aptos at 0.5 USDT, and the cheapest to BitoPro is Polygon at 0.8 USDT; TRC20 is 1.99 USDT, and ERC20 is 5.5 USDT with a 30 USDT minimum withdrawal (2026-10-12). Transfer back to MAX 24 times a year and Aptos costs 12 USDT; the same number of transfers from an exchange that charges only 0.01 USDT on BEP20 costs 0.24 USDT. For a fee comparison, see USDT withdrawal fees compared.
- Identity verification: since 2023-08-31, all new users must verify, and each person can verify only one account (KuCoin identity verification guide). In a 2026-05-11 announcement, KuCoin said it would charge dormancy fees on accounts that have received a notice, have been inactive for a long time and are not verified (KuCoin dormancy fee announcement).
- Official channels: the official domain is kucoin.com. When I checked on 2026-10-13, the KuCoin app was available on the Taiwan App Store, and on 2026-10-15 its page listed the provider as Kugame Global Limited; on Google Play the developer name is Kugame Global Limited, which you can check before downloading. Suspicious URLs, emails, Telegram or X accounts can be checked at the KuCoin official verification center. Impersonation tactics are covered in crypto exchange scam types.
Who is KuCoin a good fit for?
- People who only trade major coins like BTC and ETH on spot: Class A is 0.1%, or 0.08% with KCS, on par with most exchanges.
- People who often buy small-cap coins: KuCoin lists many pairs, but nearly half charge 0.2% or 0.3%, so if another exchange lists the same coin, compare fees first.
- People who want trading bots: there are many kinds, but futures bots always charge 0.06%, and at a 0.1% fee rate a spot grid needs a spacing above about 0.20% per step just to cover fees (see grid bot fees).
- People who mainly trade futures: the Taker fee is 0.06%, so 300,000 USDT a month costs 30 USDT more than at an exchange charging 0.05%; copy trading is futures-only, with a lead trader profit share of up to 32%.
- People who often move between TWD and USDT: each transfer back to a Taiwan platform costs at least 0.5 USDT, which adds up if you do it often.
FAQ
Is KuCoin safe?
No exchange can guarantee safety; what you can look at is the record. About USD 281 million was stolen from KuCoin on 2020-09-25; 84% was recovered and the insurance fund covered the rest, and from then through 2026-10-12 this site found no other record of platform wallet theft. On regulation, its operating entity pleaded guilty in the US in 2025. In the 2026-09-30 reserve snapshot, the BTC, ETH and USDT reserve ratios were all above 100%.
Is KuCoin a scam?
KuCoin itself is not a scam; it is an exchange in actual operation: the official site is kucoin.com, the app is available on Taiwan’s App Store, and it publishes proof of reserves regularly; when it was hacked in 2020, 84% of the funds were recovered and the insurance fund covered the rest. What people online call a “KuCoin scam” is usually a fake website, fake app, fake customer support or fake investment group using KuCoin’s name. The usual demands are to add someone on LINE, to transfer USDT to a “platform” outside the exchange, or to pay an “unfreezing fee” or “security deposit” before you can withdraw. Suspicious URLs, emails or social media accounts can be checked at the KuCoin official verification center. Not being a scam doesn’t mean there’s no risk: the company operating KuCoin pleaded guilty in the US in 2025, and KuCoin is not on the FSC’s AML registration list either, so any dispute can only be handled under the platform’s terms. Impersonation tactics are covered in crypto exchange scam types, and rebate-related scams in rebate scam warning signs.
Which company operates KuCoin?
According to US Department of Justice documents, KuCoin’s operating entity is Peken Global, the company that pleaded guilty in the US on 2025-01-27. The developer of the KuCoin app on Google Play is Kugame Global Limited; the official sources this site cites don’t state where the company is registered.
Could KuCoin go bust?
There’s no way to tell from public data whether an exchange will collapse. Proof of reserves only shows that, at the moment of 2026-09-30, the user assets included in the calculation were matched by at least the same amount of coins; it doesn’t include the company’s liabilities, and KuCoin’s current insurance fund size can’t be found either. To lower your risk, spread your holdings across places and move coins you won’t trade for a long time to a wallet you control yourself.
Can people in Taiwan use KuCoin?
Taiwan is not among the restricted regions in the KuCoin terms of use (2026-09-29 version), and the app is available on the Taiwan App Store. However, as of the 2026-09-29 list, KuCoin is not on the FSC’s AML registration list, and disputes are not covered by Taiwan’s SFIPC or FOI.
Can I withdraw from KuCoin to a bank account in Taiwan?
Not directly to a Taiwanese bank: KuCoin’s fiat fee table has no TWD, and P2P had no TWD listings on 2026-10-13. The way to do it is to transfer USDT to MAX or BitoPro, sell it for TWD and then withdraw; from KuCoin to MAX, Aptos costs 0.5 USDT (2026-10-12).
Why are my KuCoin spot fees 0.2% or 0.3%?
Because that coin is in Class B or Class C. KuCoin splits spot into three classes by the pair’s base coin, at 0.1%, 0.2% and 0.3% for VIP 0; a coin’s class can be changed by announcement, so check it on the trading page before placing an order.
Can I add a KuCoin referral code after signing up?
You can submit a request. KuCoin’s Help Center Self-Service section now has a “Link Referrer” request, and if you already have a referrer you can request “Unlink Referrer”; KuCoin reviews both and doesn’t state a deadline, conditions or review time (checked 2026-10-22). Old accounts registered before 2023-08-31 that were never verified also have a narrow new-account workaround, covered in how to switch your KuCoin referral code. For each exchange’s rules, see can you add a referral code after signing up.
To sign up directly, see the KuCoin referral code page; fee details are in the KuCoin fees guide. To compare with other exchanges, see KuCoin vs Bitget and exchanges with the lowest fees; referral codes and rebates for all 13 exchanges are collected in crypto exchange referral codes.