Huobi vs Kucoin | Which Exchange Is Cheaper & Better?
Jack Moreau
Feb 2024
9 min read
Fact checked
Are you considering trading cryptocurrencies on Huobi vs Kucoin? Look no further! We have compared these two exchanges on multiple factors such as trading fees, available cryptocurrencies, deposit methods, and security measures. Read on to find out which exchange suits your crypto trading needs.
eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk.
eToro USA LLC: Investments are subject to market risk. Including the possible loss of principal. Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest.
eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk.
eToro USA LLC: Investments are subject to market risk. Including the possible loss of principal. Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest.
Huobi and Kucoin are both cryptocurrency exchanges that have gained notable popularity in the industry.
Huobi was founded in 2013 by Leon Li and is registered in Seychelles. The exchange offers a wide range of services including spot and margin trading, futures products settled in USDT and crypto, and a range of trading bots and copy trading.
Huobi is available in 184 countries but are prohibited in 11 jurisdictions such as China, US, Canada, Japan, and Singapore that can't use the platform. In terms of app downloads on Android and IOS, Huobi has over 20 million downloads with a 4.1-star rating and over 42,000 reviews.
Meanwhile, Kucoin was founded in 2017 by Michael Gan and is a subsidiary of the Seychelles registered MEK Global Limited.
They offer spot trading, margin trading, futures, staking, and lending services. The exchange supports 700 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and numerous altcoins such as its native token, KuCoin Shares (KCS).
Both exchanges have a sizeable user base with Huobi reporting over 10 million users and Kucoin with more than 20 million. Kucoin also has over 5 million downloads with a 4.3-star rating and over 120,000 reviews.
Huobi and Kucoin both cater to experienced traders by offering advanced trading options like futures, derivatives, and margin trading.
Both exchanges have developed their own trading bots and copy trading features, which allow users to automate their trades and follow the trades of experienced investors.
Huobi vs Kucoin Signup & KYC
When it comes to signup and KYC, both exchanges have their own unique requirements for signing up and verifying users identity. Huobi is known for not requiring KYC verification from all of its users.
This means that users can sign up and trade with a $1000 deposit limit and 0.06 BTC daily withdrawal limit without going through the verification process. However, for users that wish to increase their limits, KYC will be required.
Similar to Huobi, Kucoin also does not require KYC verification for basic buying and selling of cryptocurrencies.
This means that users can sign up with only their email and begin trading immediately. However, there are benefits to completing KYC verification such as increased withdrawal amounts, higher leverage and increased trading limits.
Basic verification can be approved in hours, while full KYC verification may take up to 2-3 business days.
Ultimately, which exchange you choose to use will depend on your personal preferences and needs. The good news is that neither Kucoin or Huobi is enforcing KYC for basic deposits and trading of cryptocurrencies.
Huobi vs Kucoin Products & Services
Moving on to products and services offered, Huobi offers a very large set of trading features such as spot trading, futures (settled in USDT & crypto), margin trading, trading bots, European & American style options sand copy trading.
The average spot trading volumes on Huobi tend to range between $250 and $500 million per day, which is decent. In terms of leverage, the max leverage on Huobi for futures is 200X while the max leverage for margin is 100X.
Huobi also offers additional financial products such as lend & borrow, staking opportunities and their own NFT marketplace.
In terms of the user experience, the interface on Huobi has gotten a facelift and is now more easy to use. The exchange offers a wide range of services targeting both beginners and more sophisticated traders.
Kucoin has evolved into a full-fledged crypto service provider now standing shoulder to shoulder with the biggest exchanges in the world.
The core of Kucoin's services is its spot trading where users have the opportunity to buy and sell a diverse range of over 700 cryptocurrencies and altcoins.
What makes Kucoin stand out is that it is regularly adding new and often hard-to-find altcoins, making it a go-to platform for those who want to invest in lesser known coins.
For traders looking to amplify their potential gains (or losses), Kucoin offers margin trading with up to 10X leverage. This means traders can borrow funds to increase their trading position, either going long or short on over 100 cryptocurrencies.
This feature includes the flexibility of choosing between cross or isolated margin, tailoring to different risk preferences. Further expanding its trading options, Kucoin provides futures trading with a selection of over 250 tradable futures contracts.
This includes diverse products like USDT and USDC margin contracts, as well as Coin-margin contracts and grid bots which are automated trading strategies that execute buy and sell orders at predefined price intervals.
For those with a high-risk appetite, aka the degens the crypto community, Kucoin offers the option to take up to 125X leverage.
Kucoin also caters to traders who prefer less risky leveraged positions through leveraged tokens. These tokens allow users to take long or short positions with smaller leverage ranging from 2-4X, without the complications of loans or the risks of liquidations.
Automation in trading is another area where Kucoin shines. The platform offers a variety of trading bots, including spot grid, futures grid, martingale, smart rebalance, infinity grid, and Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA).
These bots facilitate different trading strategies, catering to both novice and experienced traders.
In terms of trading volumes, Kucoin has established a strong foothold, currently ranking in the top 20 for spot trading with a significant $1 billion in 24-hour trading volume, and over $2 billion in futures trading volume.
Beyond trading, Kucoin has developed multiple earn products for those interested in earning yield on their digital assets.
This section includes options like earn savings, staking, and dual investments, providing various ways to generate passive income from crypto holdings.
On the staking front, Kucoin offers rewards for a wide range of popular blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, Cosmos, Polkadot, Injective, and many others.
Embracing the trend of supporting new crypto projects, Kucoin has launched its own launchpad (Spotlight) where users can access new and exciting token launches.
For NFT enthusiasts, Kucoin has introduced its dedicated NFT marketplace called Wonderland. Here, users can buy and sell NFTs on the KCC blockchain and Polygon, with plans to expand support to other blockchains like Ethereum, BSC, and SLP.
Lastly, addressing the growing demand for non-custodial trading options, Kucoin has launched the Halo Wallet. This Web 3 wallet, available for mobile download or as a Chrome extension, offers a secure, decentralized way for users to manage their digital assets.
When it comes to trading fees, Huobi and Kucoin both offer competitive rates but who is the cheapest? Let's take a closer look at what each exchange has to offer.
Huobi charges a spot maker fee of 0.20% and a spot taker fee of 0.20%. For futures trading, the maker fee is 0.02% and the taker fee is 0.05%. These fees can be reduced for users who trade with volumes above $10,000 or who use Huobi's native HT token for trading.
On the other hand, Kucoin charges a spot maker fee of 0.10% and a spot taker fee of 0.10%. For futures trading, the maker fee is 0.02% and the taker fee is 0.06%. These fees can be lowered for users who trade with volumes above 50 Bitcoins or who hold at least 1000 KCS tokens.
While both Huobi and Kucoin offer competitive trading fees, Kucoin has the clear advantage over Huobi with the lower spot trading fees.
When it comes to depositing fiat currencies, Huobi and Kucoin differ in their methods and fees. Huobi supports 8 fiat currencies, including USD, EUR, GBP, TRY, and RUB.
In terms of fiat deposit options, the available options for EUR are SEPA (0.15% + 1EUR fee) and Skrill (2.9% + 0.1 EUR fee). Users who want to deposit GBP can to do via Faster Payments (FSP) (0.15% + 1 GBP) while Advcash is available for TRY deposits with zero fees.
On the other hand, Kucoin supports the deposit of fiat currencies for 28 fiat currencies, such as EUR, AUD, CHF, GBP, RUB, and SEK.
However, almost all fiat deposit options on Kucoin are with Visa and Mastercard, which come with a high deposit fee of 3.8%. There are however some exception such as EUR which can be deposit via bank transfer for a low 1 EUR fee.
Huobi and Kucoin are two popular cryptocurrency exchanges that offer different withdrawal methods for their users. Huobi allows fiat withdrawals via SEPA, FSP, Advcash, Skrill, and Bank Transfer.
However take note that there are different fees for each method. SEPA fees cost 0.15% + 1EUR fee, Skrill fees cost 2.9% + 0.1 EUR fee, FSP fees cost 0.15% + 1 GBP, while TRY via Advcash and BRL via bank transfer are free. For crypto withdrawals, the withdrawal fees for a range of cryptocurrencies can be found in the table below.
On the other hand, Kucoin only offers fiat withdrawals via SEPA for EUR withdrawals and the exchange charges a 5 EUR fee. For crypto withdrawals, Kucoin charges different fees depending on the blockchain.
For Bitcoin withdrawals, Kucoin charges a 0.001 BTC fee. For Ethereum the withdrawal fees are 0.01 ETH. When it comes to crypto withdrawal fees, Huobi in general offers lower fees than Kucoin.
Huobi and Kucoin are two popular cryptocurrency exchanges that quickly gained a large userbase by offering KYC-less trading, 100s of cryptocurrencies and futures products with 100X leverage.
Both Huobi and Kucoin offer trading services such as spot, margin trading and futures with max leverage of up to 100X. Kucoin offers more cryptocurrencies (700) than Huobi which still offers a solid range of 500 coins and tokens.
When it comes to the user experience, while we prefer Kucoin to Huobi, both exchanges can be challenging to use for total beginners.
The nice part about both exchanges is that users can quickly deposit cryptocurrencies and begin trading after signing up. This is without the need to complete KYC.
In terms of trading fees, while both exchanges are competitive, Kucoin offers lower fees than Huobi with it's competitive 0.1% spot fee for makers and takers.
Huobi however has the edge when it comes to supporting a wider range of fiat currencies and more fiat deposit methods.
eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk.
eToro USA LLC: Investments are subject to market risk. Including the possible loss of principal. Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest.
eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk.
eToro USA LLC: Investments are subject to market risk. Including the possible loss of principal. Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest.
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.