Binance VS KuCoin Comparison

When choosing a cryptocurrency exchange, you have a handful of names instantly recommended to you through your social circle, experts, and everyday users over the web. Among these suggestions, the names of Binance and KuCoin often stand out as two of the best options for new as well as advanced crypto traders.

To help you make a comparison between both of these exchanges, here is a lowdown on Binance vs KuCoin.

⌛ Reputation and Time in Business

Founded in July 2017, Binance started its operations in China. But shortly after the rapid growth of the cryptocurrency industry, the exchange moved to the Cayman Islands. While Binance caters to a worldwide audience, Binance.US was launched in September 2019 to specifically entertain cryptocurrency users in the United States. Binance.US is established in California.

Since its inception, Binance has sped past significant milestones that many other cryptocurrency exchanges could not achieve despite having more time on their hands. This includes the accomplishment of becoming the world’s largest exchange by trading volume.

But despite these achievements, Binance does not run free of problems. This includes the controversy that led to the development of Binance.US, which included a lack of trust by U.S. regulatory authorities in Binance’s worldwide operations.

However, by laying the foundation of Binance.US, the platform’s management resolved the issue and acknowledged that its services are now up to par with regulatory standards in the U.S. But states namely Hawaii, New York, Texas, and Vermont still don’t allow Binance.US to operate within their jurisdictions.

Binance has also had its fair share of other problems that include the most recent instance of ignoring crucial anti money-laundering checks and balances in multiple territories, with users in Ontario being restricted from using its platform. However, the cryptocurrency exchange still maintains its status as one of the most popular platforms of its kind around the world.

Continuing the Binance vs KuCoin comparison, KuCoin was established in September 2017. Touted as the People’s Exchange at the time of its launch, the Seychelles-based platform focused on bringing cryptocurrency solutions to everyone. Since then, the cryptocurrency exchange has grown in terms of its popularity and user base alike. At the time of writing, it ranks as the 5th largest exchange in the world by trading volume.

Similar to Binance as well as other cryptocurrency exchanges, KuCoin has also faced some controversies during its years of operations. One of the most recent reports of this nature came in the form of KuCoin’s ouster from Ontario based on regulatory concerns.

But just like Binance, KuCoin’s base of customers as well as its team has taken the loss in stride and the exchange continues to operate without many negative effects on its reputation. This makes KuCoin one of the most resilient and popular platforms for cryptocurrency trading worldwide. Very recently, KuCoin denied any rumors of insolvency and continues to go big on its hiring as well as funding activities.

With that being said, KuCoin’s unavailability in the U.S. is one of the most significant points that harm the exchange’s overall reputation. That is where Binance with its Binance.US offering takes the cake and puts KuCoin behind in its overall value proposition.

This means that if you are in the U.S., you may only have the option to use Binance through Binance.US. Otherwise, if you are in any of the other territories where both Binance and KuCoin are available, you can pick either of these renowned exchanges.

🤖 Trading Bot Support via API

When comparing Binance vs KuCoin, one of your utmost priorities would be to know if these exchanges allow the use of automated cryptocurrency bots. To your delight, both of these platforms fully support trading bots through API keys.

Since API keys allow users to connect third-party applications and share necessary data without exposing their sensitive login information, it is not a surprise to see that both Binance and KuCoin permit their users to make use of this mechanism.

In fact, this is a widely-held practice in the cryptocurrency trading segment, where exchanges allow third-party developers and their respective applications to benefit from API keys.

However, it is important to remember that many of these third-party cryptocurrency trading bots require you to pay a monthly or yearly fee for using their services.

This is separate from the amount that you spend at your exchange in terms of trading fees, withdrawal fees, and other service charges. Keeping this in mind helps you steer clear of any surprises and lets you budget for your trading activities accordingly.

⚙️ Trading Modes and Features

The next step is to compare Binance and KuCoin’s offered trading modes and features. By getting an overview of these offerings, you are able to determine which of these options are the right fit for you.

Binance Trading Modes and Features

  • Spot Trading
  • Built-in Automated Spot Grid Trading
  • Margin Trading
  • Futures Trading
  • Options Trading
  • OTC Trading
  • Native Token for Discounted Trading (BNB)
  • Market Order
  • Limit Order
  • Staking
  • Trading Bot Support
  • Mobile Apps
  • Binance Academy (Knowledge Base)

It is important to note that the full slew of trading modes and features is available on Binance itself. If you are using Binance.US, you might not be able to access some offerings including select cryptocurrency pairings.

It is because both Binance and Binance.US operate separately. As a result, while some features would be available on the global platform, they wouldn’t be offered on the localized U.S. version of the exchange.

KuCoin Trading Modes and Features

  • Spot Trading
  • Built-in Automated Trading Bots
  • Margin Trading
  • Futures Trading
  • OTC Trading
  • Native Token for Discounted Trading (KCS)
  • Market Order
  • Limit Order
  • Staking
  • Trading Bot Support
  • Mobile Apps
  • KuCoin Academy (Knowledge Base)

In terms of overall features, both Binance and KuCoin offer similar perks to traders. As a result, making a comparison of Binance vs KuCoin in this regard makes both platforms stand right beside each other.

This means that selecting either of these exchanges by judging their trading modes and features becomes a matter of preference more than anything. This notion is mostly only challenged when your country only has one of the exchanges operating within its territory.

🦾 In-house Automated Trading

Both Binance and KuCoin offer their own built-in automated cryptocurrency trading mechanisms. This sets them apart from many other platforms that do not offer this feature as a value-added service.

In order to benefit from automated cryptocurrency trading at Binance and KuCoin, you need to hold an account in either exchange. From there, you can configure automated trading through the respective offerings of these platforms.

You can utilize Spot Grid Trading at Binance to set up the bot for your intended buying and selling activities. This is the direct automated trading option that is offered by Binance.

But the KuCoin trading bots surpass Binance in this regard by offering multiple options for you to set up your automated trading activities. This includes Spot Grid, DCA, Futures Grid, Smart Rebalance, and Infinity Grid bots.

These in-house automated trading options are available without any extra charges. This means that you don’t have to pay any type of fee that you otherwise would by choosing a third-party bot.

💸 Trading and Withdrawal Fees

As you compare Binance vs KuCoin, their trading fee plays a big part in helping you choose a cryptocurrency exchange for your needs.

Both of these platforms have their trading fee and withdrawal fees outlined on their website. These fees can change from time to time, which is why it is important that you check them directly through the exchange’s website.

Both of these exchanges also have their native tokens. For Binance, it’s BNB; for KuCoun, it’s KCS. These tokens are available for purchase on their respective platforms. If you pay the trading fee by using these tokens, you get significant discounts on your trades.

In order to give you a quick overview, here is an outline of both Binance and KuCoin’s trading and withdrawal fees.

Binance Fees

Spot Trading Fee – According to 30-Day Trading Volume:

  • Maker fee: 0.1%-0.02%
  • Taker fee: 0.1%-0.04%

Deposit and Withdrawal Fee

  • No Deposit Fee
  • Withdrawal Fee: Flat charge set by the respective blockchain network

The complete definition of pricing thresholds for trading volume and details for withdrawal fees are available through the Binance fee rate. If you are in the United States, you need to take a look at the Binance.US fee rate instead.

KuCoin Fees

Spot Trading Fee – According to 30-Day Trading Volume:

  • Maker Fee: 0.1% – -0.005%
  • Taker Fee: 0.1% – -0.025%

Deposit and Withdrawal Fee

  • No Deposit Fee
  • Withdrawal Fee: Flat charge set by the respective blockchain network

You can also browse the KuCoin Trading Fee Level Guide to determine trading volume thresholds as well as withdrawal fees. This allows you to assess how much fees you will need to pay for your trading activities on the platform.

When you compare these fees side by side, KuCoin has an edge over Binance for those with a high monthly trading volume. For the beginner or moderate-level traders, the fees for KuCoin and Binance largely stay the same.  

Once again, it is imperative to note that using Binance or KuCoin’s native tokens can earn you significant discounts on your trading fees. If you plan on using your exchange account for a noticeably high volume of trading, this could save you significant funds in the long run.

📊 Trading Pairs and Volumes

While comparing Binance vs KuCoin, learning about available trading pairs is highly important. This lets you know how much flexibility you have while devising or changing your trading strategy in the future.

By offering popular as well as comparatively obscure cryptocurrencies with pairings such as BNB, Bitcoin (BTC), and Ethereum (ETH), Binance offers over 1450 cryptocurrency trading pairs. On the other hand, with the use of pairings such as KCS, BTC, and ETH, KuCoin presents over 1230 cryptocurrency trading pairs. The trading pairs mentioned here are for spot trading.

When it comes to 24-hour trading volume, Binance easily wins as the exchange with the largest trading volume in the world. While Binance.US is a separate entity, it also ranks within the 7th largest exchanges in the world by 24-hour trading volume.

KuCoin, on the other hand, ranks as the 5th largest exchange by 24-hour trading volume. This makes it lag behind Binance’s global operations in this metric while helping it stay ahead of Binance.US.

👩‍💻 Customer Support

The customer support mechanisms at both Binance and KuCoin use the same methods. You can reach out to the support staff by creating support tickets or using the live chat interface. In addition to these communication mechanisms, you can also look into the help sections or Academy segments that are available on both exchanges.

Both Binance and KuCoin also actively operate various social media channels. This lets you reach out to expansive communities through platforms such as Telegram and Discord. In turn, you can get help from official support teams as well as users like yourself.

👍 Pros and Cons of Each Exchange

To do a quick comparison of Binance vs KuCoin, you can also take a look at the following list of pros and cons for each exchange.

Binance

Pros

  • Extensive range of trading pairs
  • Advanced trading features
  • Trading fee discounts through the BNB token
  • Built-in automated spot grid trading

Cons

  • Global and U.S. platforms have different features
  • Interface can demand a learning curve for new traders

KuCoin

Pros

  • Large list of trading pairs
  • Extensive trading features
  • Reduced trading fee by using the KCS token
  • Built-in trading bots

Cons

  • Not available in the U.S.
  • The interface may require fresh traders to go through a learning phase

📢 Conclusion

As you make your comparisons between Binance and KuCoin, you may find that both exchanges don’t have that much of a difference between them. This brings the matter down to your preference, comfort, as well as the exchange’s availability in your territory.

If you already have a preference for a third-party trading bot, learning about its compatibility with either exchange can also work as a decision-making factor. By going through these aspects, you can determine which of these platforms suits your needs the best.