KuCoin Review 2026: Is It Safe? Proof of Reserves, the 2020 Hack, the US Guilty Plea and Regulatory Record, Fees and Sign-up

I have a KuCoin account. This article brings together KuCoin’s official information, regulators’ notices and public reporting.

The short version: KuCoin launched in 2017 and says it has 45 million users. It publishes a proof of reserves using a Merkle tree, and the snapshot of 30 September 2026 showed BTC 109%, ETH 117%, USDT 110%. About US$281 million was stolen in September 2020; about 84% was recovered and its insurance fund covered the rest. The part that deserves real attention is the regulatory record: it pleaded guilty in the US in 2025 and paid more than US$297 million, was then fined in Canada and ordered by Dubai’s regulator to stop serving residents, and its EU subsidiary’s MiCA authorisation still could not start operations as of May 2026. Regular users pay 0.1% on spot.

This article is a summary of research. It is not investment, tax or legal advice. Fees, rates, licences and service regions can change; every figure here is dated, so check KuCoin’s official pages before you act. Crypto prices are volatile, and keeping assets on an exchange carries the risk of the exchange itself.

KuCoin key factsData checked: 2026-10-08

As of 2026-10-08, KuCoin's general-user spot taker fee is 0.1% and its futures taker fee is 0.06%; signing up with the invitation code gives a 60% trading fee discount. Its 2026-09-30 proof of reserves showed BTC 109%, ETH 117%, USDT 110%.

Item	Details	Source
Jason Finance rating	47 / 100	rating method
Highlights	EU MiCA authorisation (new business halted from Feb 2026) 2025 US guilty plea
General-user fees (taker)	Spot 0.1%, futures 0.06%	2026-10-08
Invitation code fee discount	60% trading fee discount	2026-10-07
Proof of reserves	2026-09-30 (irregular): BTC 109%, ETH 117%, USDT 110%	2026-10-08
Main licences and registrations	EU MiCA (Austria FMA), Australia AUSTRAC registration	source 1 source 2
USDT withdrawals	Cheapest TON 0.5 USDT; 7 common networks supported	2026-10-08
Order book depth (±2%)	BTC/USDT about 5.8M USD, ETH/USDT about 2.2M USD	2026-10-08

What kind of exchange KuCoin is

The launch date, user count and CEO come from KuCoin’s About Us page, the operating entity from the US Department of Justice press release, and the scale figures are a same-day snapshot from CoinGecko. The CoinGecko page gives 41 million users, which does not match the official page.

Is KuCoin safe?

Proof of reserves: Merkle tree, snapshot of 30 September 2026

A proof of reserves compares what an exchange holds in its wallets with the total of all user balances. KuCoin builds a Merkle tree from user asset data, and on its proof of reserves page you can use “Verify Now” to confirm that your own balance was included.

The snapshot at 15:59:59 (UTC+8) on 30 September 2026:

In July 2025 KuCoin announced that its 30 June report had been verified by Hacken, which made it the 32nd consecutive month of publication. The current proof of reserves page does not say who verified the latest report, and unlike OKX it does not use zero-knowledge proofs to check for negative balances.

Compared with other large exchanges, KuCoin holds far fewer user assets: under 8,000 BTC in the table above, against more than 130,000 BTC in OKX’s report for the same month. A proof of reserves is a snapshot at one point in time, not a full financial audit. What it can and cannot prove is covered in the proof of reserves guide.

About US$281 million stolen from hot wallets in 2020

On 26 September 2020, hackers used an advanced persistent threat (APT) attack to obtain the private keys of several KuCoin hot wallets and stole about US$281 million. According to then CEO Johnny Lyu, about 78% (US$222 million) was recovered by working with other exchanges and projects, law enforcement helped recover about another 6%, and the remaining 16% or so (US$45.55 million) was covered by KuCoin’s insurance fund (Decrypt).

The loss was not passed on to users, but it also shows how large the damage can be once hot wallet private keys leak. The “incidents” item of the CoinGecko trust score currently says there have been no security incidents.

The insurance fund covers futures liquidations only

The insurance fund described in KuCoin’s help centre is a risk buffer for futures trading: when a liquidated position cannot be closed above its bankruptcy price, the insurance fund takes it over, which reduces losses beyond margin and auto-deleveraging (ADL). It is not insurance for when regular user assets are stolen.

In April 2025 KuCoin announced a US$2 billion “Trust Project”, a long-term commitment to security infrastructure, compliance and transparency. It is not an insurance or compensation scheme either. I found no published figure for a KuCoin user asset compensation fund.

Account security settings

KuCoin offers passkeys, Google 2FA, anti-phishing safety phrases (for email, login and withdrawal) and login IP restriction: once it is on, you are logged out automatically if your login IP changes (official security notice). KuCoin also warns that it has no phone support, so hang up on any call claiming to be KuCoin support.

KuCoin’s regulatory record and warnings

KuCoin has been sanctioned or put on warning lists in several countries. The table below is in date order. Sources are regulators, courts or KuCoin’s own pages where possible; items found only in press reports are marked.

Two further checks: on 9 October 2026 I searched the Hong Kong SFC’s list of suspicious virtual asset trading platforms and did not find KuCoin, and I found no record of the US, UK or EU naming KuCoin as a sanctions target. KuCoin’s own terms of use also list Hong Kong as a restricted region (see the next section).

Most of these actions were about serving local users without a local licence, or weak anti-money-laundering controls, not about stolen user assets. But according to CoinDesk’s coverage of the case, KuCoin only began requiring identity verification (KYC) in August 2023, and did not apply it retroactively to existing accounts. That is part of the record to weigh before handing a platform custody of your assets.

KuCoin licences and service regions

The EU authorisation was checked on the FMA’s page. For the Australian and Indian registrations I found only KuCoin’s own announcements and could not confirm them in the AUSTRAC and Indian FIU registers. I found no announcement after the 30 March 2026 deadline on whether the Thai subsidiary has resumed business.

Restricted regions: Article 17 of the terms of use (updated 29 September 2026) lists the United States and its territories, Singapore, mainland China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, the Canadian provinces of Ontario and British Columbia, France, the Netherlands, and the Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions of Ukraine. The terms state that the list may be updated at any time.

The UK is not on the restricted list in the terms, but according to press reports KuCoin was added to the UK FCA’s warning list in 2023 (not confirmed on the FCA’s own site); regulators in Japan and Dubai have named it publicly on their official pages. Whether you can use it depends on the law where you live.

How to sign up for KuCoin

Create an account with an email address or phone number, enter the invitation code in the invitation code field, then complete identity verification (KYC). KuCoin is an international exchange, and signing up with the invitation code gives a 60% fee discount.

KuCoin trading fees: 0.1% spot, 0.06% futures taker

VIP rates and upgrade thresholds

KuCoin splits spot coins into Classes A, B and C; Class B and Class C fees are 2 and 3 times the Class A rate. From the official VIP fee schedule (updated 7 May 2026) and the upgrade thresholds (updated 10 April 2026):

• You move up a tier by meeting any one of the thresholds: KCS held, 30-day spot volume, 30-day futures volume, 30-day average net borrowing or account assets. The futures volume threshold for VIP 1 is 5 million USDT.
• The top tier is VIP 12, with Class A spot at 0% maker and 0.025% taker.
• For general-user fees at other international exchanges, see the international exchange fee comparison.

Paying spot fees with KCS for 20% off

With “Pay fees with KCS” turned on, spot and margin fees that would be charged in USDT are deducted in KCS instead, at 20% off. The official page notes two limits: the deduction is converted at the KCS price, so when the price moves the actual discount may be below 20%; and if your KCS balance is not enough, there is no discount. Futures are not eligible.

In money terms: a regular user buying 1,000 USDT of a Class A coin at market pays 0.1% taker, or 1 USDT; with KCS deduction on, that is roughly 0.8 USDT worth of KCS. The same trade in a Class C coin costs 3 USDT in fees.

Depositing and withdrawing USDT on-chain

On KuCoin’s deposit page, choose USDT and a network, copy the address, and withdraw from the sending side. Both sides must use the same network. If you deposit on a network KuCoin does not support or send a coin it has not listed, you can apply for self-service recovery when eligible, but a service fee applies (the help page’s example is 80 USDT); KuCoin cannot help with transfers to a wrong address (official guide).

Common USDT networks listed by KuCoin’s public API on 9 October 2026:

Data from the KuCoin API; “n/a” means the API lists no minimum deposit. Other networks include Avalanche C-Chain, KCC, NEAR, Kava EVM, Conflux, Tezos and Polkadot Asset Hub; Optimism deposits were suspended that day.

KuCoin’s USDT withdrawal fees are on the high side: Arbitrum and Polygon cost around 1 USDT each, while the same networks on OKX cost under 0.02 USDT on 7 October 2026. If you often move USDT out, count this fee as part of your cost.

If a transfer is confirmed on-chain but the receiving exchange has not credited it, see what to check in USDT deposit delayed: what to do.

KuCoin earn: flexible Savings

Savings, KuCoin Earn’s flexible product, lets you subscribe and redeem at any time, and redemptions arrive immediately:

• Yield source: the rate is set by the margin and lending market and updated daily.
• Interest: interest starts on T+1 after subscribing, is first paid on T+2, and is then paid daily and compounded automatically.
• Auto-subscribe: once on, the matching coin in your trading or funding account is moved into Savings automatically at 1:00 UTC every day. This differs from OKX’s Auto Earn: the assets leave the trading account, so you have to redeem before trading.

The official page gives no fixed rate, so check the page at the time before subscribing. For what extra risk idle USDT in exchange earn products carries compared with short-term Treasury ETFs, Aave and Bitfinex lending, see Where to park idle USD and USDT.

Pros and cons: who KuCoin suits

More exchange guides and comparisons are on the crypto topic page, and the scoring approach is explained in the exchange rating methodology.

FAQ

Is KuCoin safe?

KuCoin publishes a proof of reserves using a Merkle tree. The snapshot of 30 September 2026 showed BTC at 109%, ETH at 117%, USDT at 110% and USDC at 127%. About US$281 million was stolen from it in September 2020; about 84% was recovered and its insurance fund covered the rest. On the other hand, it pleaded guilty in the US in 2025 and has since been sanctioned in Canada, Dubai, Austria and elsewhere. A proof of reserves is a snapshot, not a financial audit.

What was KuCoin's US guilty plea about?

On 27 January 2025, Peken Global, which operates KuCoin, pleaded guilty in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. It paid more than US$297 million and agreed to leave the US market for at least two years. According to a CFTC announcement of 30 March 2026, the court approved a consent order from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC): KuCoin may not offer trading to US users until it registers.

Does KuCoin have an EU MiCA licence?

It has an authorisation but cannot operate normally for now. Austria's Financial Market Authority (FMA) approved the MiCA authorisation of KuCoin EU Exchange GmbH on 27 November 2025 and banned new business in February 2026. On 18 May the FMA lifted the ban on new business, but because requirements on governance and senior management positions were still not met, starting business operations remains prohibited.

What are KuCoin's trading fees?

According to the official VIP fee schedule (updated 7 May 2026), regular users (VIP 0) pay 0.1% maker and taker on Class A spot coins, 0.2% on Class B and 0.3% on Class C; on futures, 0.02% maker and 0.06% taker. Paying spot fees with KCS gives a further 20% off, but when the KCS price moves the actual discount may be below 20%.

Where can't KuCoin be used?

According to KuCoin's terms of use (version of 29 September 2026), restricted regions include the United States and its territories, Singapore, mainland China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, the Canadian provinces of Ontario and British Columbia, France, the Netherlands, and the five occupied regions of Ukraine. The list may be updated at any time.

How much does KuCoin charge to withdraw USDT?

According to KuCoin's public API on 9 October 2026, the minimum USDT withdrawal fee was 5.5 USDT on ERC20, 1.99 USDT on TRC20, 1.5 USDT on Solana, 1 USDT on BEP20, 0.8 USDT on Polygon and 0.5 USDT on TON. The withdrawal page shows the actual fee.