Kucoin vs Binance | Which Exchange Is Better & Cheaper?
Jack Moreau
Feb 2024
7 min to read
Fact checked
Kucoin vs Binance are two of the most well-known 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 key categories like product range, trading fees, user experience and more!
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.
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.
However, there are some small differences between the two exchanges in terms of which countries they are available in.
For example, neither Kucoin nor Binance is available in the United States, Canada, the UK or China. This is likely due to the stricter regulations surrounding cryptocurrency exchanges in these countries. Overall, Kucoin has a slight advantage over Kucoin in terms of the number of countries it is available in.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Kucoin has rapidly developed into a full-service cryptocurrency exchange, now comparable to some of the largest exchanges in the world like Binance.
At the heart of Kucoin's services is spot trading where its users can easily buy and sell over 700 cryptocurrencies and altcoins.
This vast selection is continually growing as Kucoin frequently adds new coins and tokens, making it an ideal platform for those looking to explore less common altcoins.
For traders interested in leveraging their positions, Kucoin offers margin trading with the possibility to leverage up to 10X.
This feature allows users to either go long or short on over 100 cryptocurrencies, using either cross or isolated margin.
In addition to margin trading, Kucoin provides a substantial futures trading market, featuring over 250 tradable futures contracts.
These contracts include various futures products such as USDT and USDC margin contracts, coin-margin contracts, and even the use of automated trading strategies through grid bots.
For those who are more risk-inclined, Kucoin offers the option to trade with up to 125X leverage on these contracts, appealing to traders comfortable with high-risk, high-reward trading.
Kucoin also caters to users who prefer to engage in leveraged trading without the complexities of managing loans or facing liquidations.
This is possible through leveraged tokens, which allow users to take long or short positions with smaller leverage ranges, typically between 2-4X.
For those interested in automated trading, Kucoin provides a range of trading bots, including spot grid, futures grid, martingale, smart rebalance, infinity grid, and Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA) strategies.
In terms of trading volume, Kucoin ranks in the top 20 for spot trading with over $1 billion in 24-hour trading volume, and more than $2 billion in futures trading volume.
Beyond trading, Kucoin offers various opportunities for users to earn yield on their digital assets. This includes an extensive earn section where users can find products such as savings, staking, and dual investments.
Kucoin also offers a launchpad called Kucoin Spotlight for users interested in early-stage investments in newly launched tokens. This feature often allocates investment opportunities based on the number of assets a user holds on Kucoin.
Additionally, Kucoin has ventured into the NFT marketplace with Wonderland, where users can buy and sell NFTs on the KCC blockchain and Polygon, with plans to support more blockchains like Ethereum, BSC, and SLP in the future.
For users who prefer a non-custodial approach to trading, Kucoin recently introduced the Halo Wallet. This Web3 wallet is available as a mobile app and a Chrome extension, providing a decentralized way to manage digital assets.
As the leading global cryptocurrency exchange, Binance commands an impressive user base of more than 150 million, providing a broad spectrum of products to beginners, seasoned traders and large institutional clients.
Its primary feature is a comprehensive spot trading platform that facilitates the trading of a vast array of over 350 cryptocurrencies, including major ones like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Solana (SOL), as well as stablecoins like USDT, USDC and BUSD.
Catering to traders who prefer to amplify their trading capacity, Binance offers margin trading with leverage options ranging from 3X to 10X, depending on the specific cryptocurrency.
For beginners keen on leveraging automated trading strategies, Binance features a vast selection of trading bots that provide thousands of strategies, covering a range of approaches from spot trading to Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA), auto-investing, and rebalancing.
Expanding into more advanced trading arenas, Binance offers an extensive range of futures trading products, including perpetual contracts and options.
The platform boasts hundreds of USD-Margined futures contracts, ideal for traders who prefer to hedge against the volatility of cryptocurrencies by opting for settlements in stablecoins such as USDT or BUSD.
Additionally, Binance provides an extensive selection of coin-margined futures contracts, available in both perpetual and delivery formats which are settled in cryptocurrencies.
The options trading platform on Binance which incorporates built-in leverage, is a strategic tool for traders to hedge their portfolios. This platform features options on five key assets such asBTC, ETH, BNB, XRP, and DOGE, with an offering of over 700 contracts in total.
Binance's trading platform is also known for its feature-rich system complete with advanced charting tools for in-depth technical analysis and a variety of order types to aid in effective risk management.
The platform is notable for its high liquidity, ensuring that large trades can be executed efficiently without significantly affecting market prices.
As of the latest data, Binance has achieved the highest liquidity in the market, boasting over $60 billion in 24-hour trading volume across its spot and futures trading segments.
For users interested in generating earnings from their digital assets, Binance's Earn platform offers a wide range of options, including staking, savings, and liquidity farming.
This allows users to accrue interest on various cryptocurrencies, such as BTC, ETH, USDT, and USDC, with choices between flexible and fixed-term durations.
The Binance Launchpad presents opportunities for those inclined towards riskier investments, providing early access to emerging token projects.
The platform also caters to the growing NFT market with a dedicated section for the trading of NFTs on leading blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and BNB.
Binance also accommodates larger private transactions through its OTC Trading service, tailored for both individuals and institutions looking to execute larger trades without market disruption.
Moreover, Binance has innovated within the blockchain space with the development of the Binance Smart Chain, a platform empowering developers to build DeFi applications and users to interact with non-custodial wallets.
Complementing this is the acquisition of Trust Wallet, a versatile Web 3 wallet, further enhanced to support a variety of features, including in-wallet trading and earning capabilities.
Recognizing the importance of robust security, Binance has implemented significant measures, such as the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), which serves as an emergency insurance fund.
Additionally, Binance employs a proof of reserves system, ensuring clients can confidently verify the complete accounting of their assets.
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.
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).
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.
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 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.