Kucoin vs Binance | Which Exchange Has More Strenghts?
Jack Moreau
Aug 2023
7 min to read
Fact checked
Introduction: When it comes to cryptocurrency exchanges, there are a few that stand out from the rest. Kucoin and Binance are two of the most well-known and respected exchanges in the industry. But when you pit them against each other, which one comes out on top? To figure this out, we've compared Kucoin and Binance across 10 key categories. Read on to see how they stack up against each other!
When it comes to comparing Kucoin and Binance, it’s hard to go wrong with either choice. Both exchanges offer a variety of features that are perfect for anyone looking to invest in cryptocurrencies.
For example, neither Kucoin nor Binance is available in the United States or China. This is likely due to the stricter regulations surrounding cryptocurrency exchanges in these two countries.
Besides this, Binance is also not available in Malaysia, Japan, UK, Thailand and Ontario (Canada). Overall, Kucoin has a slight advantage over Kucoin in terms of the number of countries it is available in.
Binance exchange
In terms of the number of cryptocurrencies, Kucoin finally gets to win one category. Kucoin offers 700 cryptocurrencies to Binance’s 350. While you will find the most popular cryptocurrencies on both exchanges, Kucoin is your go-to exchange for the more hard-to-find and exotic altcoins.
Kucoin app
Binance is the undisputed heavyweight champ of the world regarding the trading volume and no exchange comes close.
Binance 24-hour trading volume was over $6 billion compared to Kucoin’s $700 million. Why does liquidity and trading volume matter your ask? Higher liquidity translates to lower spreads which means better prices for users.
In terms of security, both Kucoin and Binance have implemented a number of measures to ensure the safety of user funds. Both exchanges keep the vast majority of funds in cold storage (offline) and only a small percentage is held in hot wallets for day-to-day trading.
And regarding platform security, both exchanges use all the latest security features such as Two-Factor Authentification (2FA), Phone & Email verification, Anti-Phisihing codes, Withdrawal whitelists and much more.
For users that wish to use either Binance or Kucoin on mobile, both exchanges are available on Android and IOS where they have been downloaded millions of times and have over 4-star ratings.
Binance app
Kucoin vs Binance: Signup & KYC
The signup process on KuCoin is also quick as users only need to provide an email and a password.
Unverified accounts can then buy and sell the same cryptocurrencies that verified accounts can which means that KYC is not mandatory on Kucoin. For those that wish to increase their trading limits and leverage on Kucoin, they will have to pass KYC.
Kucoin KYC
Basic verification can be approved by Kucoin in hours while a full KYC verification can take up to 2-3 business days.
On the other hand, creating a Binance account is equally quick and can take less than a minute.
However, in order to access all the features of Binance, users must verify their account through KYC. This process involves submitting personal information and documents such as country of residence, address and government ID.
Binance KYC
So while KYC is not obligatory on Kucoin for all users, that is not the case as no users can signup and begin trading without providing KYC information and getting their account verified.
Kucoin vs Binance: Products and Services
In terms of product range, Kucoin offers basic spot and margin trading for over 700 cryptocurrencies with additional products such as futures trading, leveraged tokens, copy trading and trading bots.
Kucoin spot trading
The max leverage that users can take on Kucoin is 100X, 10X in terms of margin leverage and daily spot trading volumes tend to range between $500 million to $1 billion per day.
Kucoin also offers financial services like lending, borrowing, and staking opportunities which enable users to earn interest on their digital assets.
Kucoin staking
Kucoin has also expanded its offering with an NFT marketplace called Windvane where users can buy and sell popular NFTs. The user experience on Kucoin is pretty good overall with a wide variety of coins and products that are easy to navigate.
Kucoin NFTs
Binance being the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world provides a wider variety of products than Kucoin.
This includes trading services like spot trading, futures trading, margin trading, perps and options trading. Binance also offers contracts that can be settled either perpetually or on a quarterly basis with USDT, BUSD and other cryptocurrencies.
Binance spot trading
For those that wish to take on leverage (more risk), Binance offers max leverage of up to 125X on futures and 5X on margin trading.
Binance also offers trading bots and copy trading which allows users to follow and copy the trades of successful traders. Lastly, Binance provides leveraged tokens and for users who want to earn on their assets, staking, lending and different types of vaults.
Binance levereged tokens
For those that wish to trade NFTs or store their digital assets in a non-custodial wallet, Binance can satisfy those needs with it's own NFT marketplace and acquired Web 3 wallet in Trust Wallet.
Binance NFT marketplace
The user experience on Binance is quite good considering the wide range of products on offer. It manages to offer this wide range without overwhelming the user. Liquidity on Binance is one of the best in the world with daily spot trading volumes frequently exceeding $10 billion.
When it comes to trading fees, Binance charges a spot maker fee of 0.1% and spot taker fee of 0.10%. And for those that wish to trade futures, Binance charges a maker fee of 0.02% and 0.04% for takers.
Similar to Binance, Kucoin also charges a spot trading fee of 0.1% for both makers and takers. For futures trading, the fees are 0.02% for makers and 0.06% for takers which is just slightly higher than Binance.
And once again, similar to Binance, Kucoin also offers discounts for high volume traders or for those that hold at least 1000 KCS tokens.
Both Kucoin and Binance provide support for a large variety of fiat deposit methods and fiat currencies. This includes fiat deposits via Bank Transfer, Credit Cards, P2P Trading, and Third-Party payment providers.
Binance fiat deposit
While both exchanges provide a wide range of options, in this category, Binance is the clear winner with free and seamless Bank Transfers and cheaper Card deposit fees. You can deposit USD with SWIFT free of charge and EUR with SEPA for only 1 EUR.
Binance offers multiple methods for people to withdraw their fiat currencies. USD can be withdrawn via SWIFT, EUR via SEPA, and GBP via Faster Payments (FSP).
Binance fiat withdrawals
They do charge a 1.8% withdrawal fee for fiat withdrawals with Visa and MasterCard, but offer a 1 EUR withdrawal fee with SEPA and free bank withdrawals with many other fiat currencies.
On the other hand, Kucoin allows for the withdrawal of fiat currencies like EUR using SEPA. To withdraw using this method, users will be charged a fee of 5 EUR.
Kucoin fiat withdrawals
When it comes to cryptocurrency withdrawals, the fees charged by Kucoin are 0.001 BTC for Bitcoin, 0.01 ETH for Ethereum, and 0.01 SOL for Solana.
While it was a close contest, Binance proved to be the clear winner across most the categories.
Binance offers more product and services than Kucoin while Kucoin offers over 700 cryptocurrenciecs which is twice as many offered by Binance.
On the other hand, Binance is the more liquid exchange with means that spreads are lower which leads to lower trading costs.
And speaking of trading costs, both Binance and Kucoin offer 0.1% for spot makers and takers with additional discounts being an option for high volume traders.
Now does this mean that you should never use Kucoin and only use Binance?
Of course not, no matter how big an exchange is or gets, there will always be discrepancies between the exchanges in terms of the cryptocurrencies and services that they offer.
In this case, as Kucoin offers more cryptocurrencies than Binance, it makes it a great choice when you want to buy some hard to find altcoins.
eToro USA LLC: Investments are subject to market risk. Including the possible loss of principal.
Author
Jack Moreau
Jack is a crypto writer and reviewer who has been active in the space since he caught the crypto bug in 2017. With a passion for trying out new shiny things, Jack is always eager to try the latest cryptocurrency exchanges, wallets or DeFi applications.
