Kucoin vs Coinbase | Why We Suggest Using Both Exchanges

Moving on to product and services, Kucoin has emerged as a full-fledged provider comparable to some of the biggest exchanges in the world.

At the core of Kucoin's services is its spot trading platform where users can easily buy and sell a diverse array of over 700 cryptocurrencies and altcoins.

This includes not only the well-known major cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH and SOL but also a variety of less common altcoins, making Kucoin a great venue to explore rarer digital currencies.

For traders interested in taking on higher risk for potentially higher returns, Kucoin offers margin trading with up to 10X leverage.

When margin trading on Kucoin, users have the flexibility to go long (betting on a price increase) or short by either using cross margin, which pools the available balance in the account, or isolated margin, which limits risk to a single trading pair.

Kucoin also offers derivatives products with over 250 futures contracts available for trading. These contracts include options for trading with USDT and USDC margin contracts, as well as coin-margin contracts and grid bots.

For those looking for even higher leverage, Kucoin allows up to 125X leverage in futures trading, catering to traders who are comfortable with high-risk, high-reward scenarios.

In addition to traditional trading methods, Kucoin provides options for trading with leveraged tokens that enables traders to long or short with up to 4X leverage, but without the need for taking out loans or facing liquidations.

Traders who prefer using automated strategies will find Kucoin's range of trading bots useful. These include bots for spot and futures grid trading, martingale strategies, smart rebalancing, infinity grids, and Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA) strategies.

Kucoin's trading volumes are impressive, ranking in the top 20 for spot trading with $1 billion in 24-hour volume, and over $2 billion in futures trading.

For users interested in passive earnings, users can access products for earning savings, staking, dual investments and much more on Kucoin.

The staking options on Kucoin include a variety of popular blockchains like Ethereum, Solana, Cosmos, Polkadot, and Injective, offering rewards for participating in network security and consensus mechanisms.

Kucoin has also introduced its own launchpad called Kucoin Spotlight where users are provided with early access to new token launches depending on their asset holdings.

Expanding into the growing NFT market, Kucoin hosts its dedicated NFT marketplace named Wonderland so that investors can easily buy and sell NFTs on the KCC and Polygon blockchains.

For those who prefer decentralized, non-custodial trading, Kucoin recently launched the Halo Wallet. This web 3 wallet is available for download on mobile devices or as a Chrome extension.

The user experience on Kucoin is pretty good overall with a good variety of products and services and easy to navigate interface. The exchange satisfies the needs of both professional traders and more average beginners and offers more products than Coinbase.

Coinbase on the other hand  is one of the largest exchanges in the world has mostly developed products and services tailored to beginners and institutional clients. 

Due to strict US regulations, Coinbase has not been able to launch more risky products with 100X leverage as can be found on most offshore exchanges. 

While this has created fewer reasons for professional traders to use Coinbase, it has been beneficial for beginners as the website offers fewer products overall making it easier to navigate. 

Coinbase offers two different user interfaces which are labeled Coinbase and Advanced. The regular Coinbase version is more beginner-friendly while Advanced is more tailored to experienced traders.

Coinbase offers trading for over 240 cryptocurrencies that can be bought or sold either via the more UX-friendly buy-and-sell feature or via spot trading in the Advanced section.

For those that just want to Dollar Cost Average their way into positions, they can use the recurring buy feature in order to periodically buy their preferred asset.

Coinbase also recently introduced BTC and ETH futures in addition to perpetual contracts for BTC, ETH, LTC, SOL, XRP and AVAX with up to 5X leverage. 

In terms of trading volumes, Coinbase is frequently a top 3 exchange with billions in 24/7 spot trading volumes but is less competitive on the futures side.

And for those who want to earn interest on their USDC, Coinbase is currently offering a very lucrative 5% interest on USDC by just holding this stablecoin in your account. 

One of the most beginner-tailored products that Coinbase offers is the learn-and-earn program where users can learn about blockchain projects and earn tokens in rewards.

Coinbase has also developed its own NFT platform where users can easily mint, explore, buy and sell NFTs on blockchains like Ethereum, Base and Polygon. 

For users who want to spend their crypto in the real world and earn rewards, Coinbase has launched a Visa Card that allows for just that. With Coinbase’s card, users can easily spend cash (USD) or crypto (USDC) and earn rewards from everyday spending. 

For users who prefer to access the world of crypto in a non-custodial manner, Coinbase has also developed its own Web 3 Coinbase Wallet. 

This wallet enables users to store and manage thousands of cryptocurrencies while easily accessing DeFi across blockchains such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and a few other blockchains. 

Coinbase also recently launched the Coinbase One Membership which costs $29.99 per month and gives users access to zero-fee trades, boosted staking rewards and priority support. 

Another plus being a public company based in the United States is that Coinbase has to adhere to strict regulations and accountability standards. This makes Coinbase by far one of the safest exchanges to use. 

This is why Coinbase is also the home to the biggest institutions like BlackRock and Grayscale that want to trade or custody over 240 crypto assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana. 

And with Coinbase Prime, high-net-worth individuals and institutions can safely get access to advanced trading, financing solutions, cold storage access, staking services and much more.