KuCoin vs MEXC 2026: Security, Proof of Reserves, Regulatory Record, Fees and Earn Compared

KuCoin and MEXC are often compared: both list a lot of coins, both have low fees, and neither can be used in the US, Hong Kong or Singapore. I have a KuCoin account. This article puts the two exchanges’ official information, regulators’ announcements and public reporting side by side; the MEXC parts are research, not my own experience using it.

The short version: comparing KuCoin and MEXC, the main differences are their regulatory records and fees. About US$281 million was stolen from KuCoin in 2020, but users did not bear the loss; its problems are regulatory. It pleaded guilty in the US in 2025 and paid more than US$297 million, faced further action in the US, Canada and Dubai in 2026, and its EU authorisation still does not let it start operating. I found no record of MEXC’s exchange wallets being hacked, its proof of reserves is verified monthly by Hacken, and its spot fees are lower than KuCoin’s, but I could not find any formal licence, and its operating entity is unclear; in 2025 it was also in a dispute over freezing a user’s funds for about 3 months. Another difference people often overlook is order book depth: KuCoin’s BTC order book is about 2.7 times as deep as MEXC’s, so the larger your market order, the more of MEXC’s low-fee advantage slippage eats up.

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 from the date shown (checked on 12 October 2026), so check both exchanges’ official pages before you act. The slippage figures are rough estimates based on simplified assumptions, not quotes. Before using either exchange, check whether the law where you live allows it.

KuCoin vs MEXC at a glance

Sources for the table are in the sections below and in the “KuCoin review” and the “MEXC review”. The figures for regular-user fees, reserve ratios, order book depth and USDT withdrawal fees are in the two boxes below, from the same data set as my rating table:

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	49.5 / 100	rating method
Highlights	EU MiCA authorisation (Austria FMA still bars commencement of business) 2025 US guilty plea
General-user fees (taker)	Spot 0.1%, futures 0.06%	2026-10-09
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

MEXC key factsData checked: 2026-10-08

As of 2026-10-08, MEXC's general-user spot taker fee is 0.05% and its futures taker fee is 0.01%; signing up with the invitation code gives a 20% trading fee discount. Its 2026-09-10 proof of reserves showed BTC 297%, ETH 111%, USDT 119%.

Item	Details	Source
Jason Finance rating	55.6 / 100	rating method
Highlights	0% spot maker fee Hacken-verified proof of reserves No verified licence
General-user fees (taker)	Spot 0.05%, futures 0.01%	2026-10-13
Invitation code fee discount	20% trading fee discount	2026-10-07
Proof of reserves	2026-09-10 (monthly): BTC 297%, ETH 111%, USDT 119%	2026-10-08
Main licences and registrations	None found
USDT withdrawals	Cheapest Polygon 0.0065 USDT; 7 common networks supported	2026-10-08
Order book depth (±2%)	BTC/USDT about 2.1M USD, ETH/USDT about n/a USD	2026-10-08

Security: proof of reserves, past incidents and account settings

Proof of reserves: MEXC is verified by Hacken every month, KuCoin’s latest report names no verifier

Both publish their proof of reserves with a Merkle tree, so users can check for themselves that their account balance was included, and both show ratios above 100% for their main assets (see the boxes above). They differ in verification and size:

• MEXC publishes monthly, and its reports are verified by Hacken, covering proof of liabilities, proof of wallet ownership and the reserve calculation (MEXC proof of reserves page). Its BTC reserve ratio is especially high: the exchange’s wallets hold about 3 times as much BTC as its users do, and the report does not explain what the excess is used for.
• KuCoin announced in July 2025 that its June report had been verified by Hacken; its current proof of reserves page does not say who verified the latest report.

In size, each has its own strength: according to both exchanges’ September 2026 reports, KuCoin holds more user BTC (about 7,359 versus about 4,107), and MEXC holds more user USDT (about 1.527 billion versus about 965 million). Both hold fewer than 10,000 BTC for users; OKX’s report for the same month showed more than 130,000 (see the “KuCoin review”). A proof of reserves is a snapshot at one point in time, not a financial audit. For what it can and cannot prove, see “How to check proof of reserves”.

Past incidents: KuCoin was hacked, MEXC froze a user’s funds

KuCoin: on 26 September 2020, hackers obtained the private keys to several hot wallets and stole about US$281 million. According to the CEO at the time, about 84% was recovered, and the remaining roughly US$45.55 million was covered by KuCoin’s insurance fund, so the loss was not passed on to users (Decrypt). According to the reports compiled in the “Centralized exchange incident timeline”, BTC, ETH and USDT withdrawals resumed about 11 days later.

MEXC: I found no reports of its exchange wallets being hacked. In July 2025, a trader using the name The White Whale said MEXC had frozen about US$3.1 million of his funds; MEXC said the account had triggered its risk control rules. On 31 October an executive publicly apologized and released the funds (Decrypt), about 3 months after it started, and it was resolved only through public pressure.

The two cases involve different risks. KuCoin’s shows that losses can be large when hot wallet private keys leak, but that it was able to absorb them itself. MEXC’s had nothing to do with a hack: it shows that an exchange can freeze an account on risk control grounds, and with MEXC there is no regulator users can complain to.

Account security settings

Both offer passkeys, 2FA and an anti-phishing code. MEXC’s official help pages describe a withdrawal address whitelist; I did not see one in KuCoin’s official help pages. KuCoin, for its part, has login IP restrictions that log you out automatically when your IP changes. A comparison of each exchange’s settings:

Data checked: 2026-10-08

For the steps to turn these settings on, see “Exchange account security settings”.

Regulatory record and licences: one heavily fined, one with no licence found

KuCoin: US guilty plea, CFTC consent order and fines in several countries

KuCoin’s record involves a clearly identified legal entity being penalized:

The warnings from Japan and Malaysia and the full timeline are in the “KuCoin review”. Most of these penalties were for serving local users without a local licence or for weak anti-money-laundering controls, not for theft of user assets.

MEXC: no licence found, operating entity unclear

MEXC’s record has many warnings and few fines, but when something goes wrong, there is no regulator able to step in. I found no formal exchange licence for MEXC on any regulator’s register; what I found were warnings and enforcement actions: Japan’s Financial Services Agency (2023), Germany’s BaFin (2023), the Hong Kong SFC’s suspicious platforms list (2024), the Netherlands’ AFM (2025), Dubai’s VARA (2026), and on 26 May 2026 the Seychelles Financial Services Authority found that MX Global Ltd, which operates MEXC, was providing virtual asset services without authorisation (Seychelles FSA). The Dutch AFM said it was unclear from which country and through which legal entity MEXC provides its services (AFM).

I found no criminal convictions or fines against MEXC. The full timeline of warnings is in the “MEXC review”.

How to read the two records

This is my interpretation, not legal advice. KuCoin has been fined more partly because it has a legal entity that can be prosecuted and can sign settlements, and it has subsidiaries applying for or holding some authorisations. MEXC’s short list of fines does not mean it is more compliant; most regulators can only issue warnings about it. The Seychelles FSA’s notice states that because MX Global Ltd is not under its supervision, it cannot step in to help recover funds. If something goes wrong with assets held on the exchange, KuCoin at least has a clear legal entity and a record of penalties to follow; with MEXC, it is unclear which company to pursue or which country’s law applies.

Regions where they cannot be used

Both say the lists can change at any time, so check the current terms before signing up.

Fees: MEXC is cheaper, but zero fees come with conditions

KuCoin: Class A, B and C coins, 20% off with KCS

According to KuCoin’s official VIP fee schedule (updated 7 May 2026, checked 12 October), the regular-user fees in the box above are for Class A coins; Class B and Class C coins cost 2 and 3 times the Class A rate, so check which class a less popular coin is in first. Turning on KCS fee payment gives 20% off spot and margin fees, but not futures, and when the KCS price moves the actual discount may be below 20% (official help page).

MEXC: the zero-fee promotion’s conditions and the MX discount

MEXC’s official announcement of 22 December 2025 says all spot pairs are 0% maker and taker, with no volume cap and no end date set (checked 12 October 2026). There are three conditions:

• Excluded accounts: institutional accounts, market makers, project teams and API users. Algorithmic trading through the API is not covered.
• No stacking with other discounts: the announcement states that other fee discounts or offers do not apply to the promotion pairs. Going by that sentence, the MX discount and the invitation code fee discount may both be unusable on promotion pairs (this is my inference; the fee shown in your account is what counts).
• The order page is what counts: the announcement asks users to check the fee shown on each trading page. When I checked MEXC’s public API on 12 October 2026, BTC/USDT spot still showed 0% maker and 0.05% taker, which does not match “0% on all spot pairs”.

The MX discount follows MEXC’s August 2024 announcement: turning on MX deduction cuts spot and futures fees by 20%; holding at least 1,000 MX for 15 consecutive days (based on daily snapshots of the spot account) cuts them by 50%. The two do not stack, and market makers and project teams are excluded. I found no newer figures on MEXC’s official pages. Holding 1,000 MX exposes you to MX’s price swings, which you need to weigh against the fees you save.

Fee discounts with an invitation code

At both exchanges, signing up with an invitation code gets you an official fee discount; the percentages are in the invitation code boxes at the end of this article. KuCoin’s discount percentage is higher than MEXC’s, so after the discount the gap between their actual taker fees narrows. For each exchange’s actual fees after the discount, see the “international exchange fee comparison”; for how it is calculated, see “What is a crypto exchange fee discount”.

Order book depth: total cost of large market orders

Fees are only part of the cost of trading. When an order is big enough to eat through several price levels, the average fill price gets worse; that is slippage, and the thinner the order book, the bigger it is. MEXC’s BTC/USDT order book is the thinner of the two. The table below shows each exchange’s slippage, roughly estimated from ±2% depth:

Data checked: 2026-10-08

Rough slippage = order size ÷ ±2% order book depth × 1% (assumes orders are spread evenly within ±2%; an estimate, not a quote)

Worked example: BTC market orders of 10,000 and 100,000 USDT

I added fees and estimated slippage together to compare the total cost of the same BTC market buy at each exchange. The inputs are the 8 October 2026 data from the boxes above: BTC order book depth of about US$5.8 million at KuCoin and about US$2.14 million at MEXC; spot taker fees of 0.1% at KuCoin and 0.05% at MEXC. Estimated slippage ≈ order size ÷ depth × 1%; the method and its limits are in “Are zero-fee exchanges really cheaper?”.

The larger the order, the faster MEXC’s slippage grows. The total costs are equal when:

Break-even order size = difference in the two taker fees ÷ (1 ÷ MEXC depth − 1 ÷ KuCoin depth) ÷ 1%

Plugging in the figures above:

Below that size, MEXC’s total cost is lower; above it, KuCoin’s is. This is my estimate from simplified assumptions, not a quote, and it does not include the invitation code fee discount:

• Depth is a snapshot: in volatile markets orders get pulled, and depth figures compiled by third parties can also be off.
• This is BTC only: many smaller coins on MEXC have even thinner order books; check the actual slippage on that pair’s order page.
• Limit orders have no slippage: if you place a limit order instead, you pay the maker fee (see the boxes above for both), at the cost of the order not necessarily filling.

USDT deposits, withdrawals and earn

USDT withdrawal fees: MEXC is much cheaper

Both support TRC20, ERC20, BEP20, Solana, TON, Arbitrum and Polygon, so you do not need to switch networks to move USDT between them. Withdrawal fees differ a lot: on every network, KuCoin charges more than MEXC. USDT withdrawal fees by exchange and network:

Data checked: 2026-10-08

At both exchanges, deposits must use the same network the sender chose. KuCoin offers self-service recovery for deposits sent on the wrong network or of coins it does not list, but charges a service fee (the help page’s example is 80 USDT). For what to do if you pick the wrong network, see “USDT sent on the wrong network?”; for the steps to choose a network, see “How to choose a USDT withdrawal network”.

Earn: both offer flexible savings; check the current page for rates

• KuCoin flexible savings (Savings): subscribe and redeem at any time; the rate is updated daily based on the margin and lending market. With auto-subscribe on, the matching coin in your trading or funding account is moved into flexible savings every day at 1:00 UTC, and you have to redeem before trading (official help page). The official page gives no fixed rate.
• MEXC Earn: flexible savings have no lock-up, and interest is calculated daily. Flexible USDT has used time-limited, amount-capped tiered rates; for example, a February 2026 promotion paid 20% APR on 0 to 300 USDT and 10% APR on 300 to 100,000 USDT (Invezz). Rates may change after a promotion ends.

Neither exchange guarantees its earn rates. For what extra risks you take by putting USDT into exchange earn products, compared with short-term Treasury ETFs, Aave and Bitfinex lending, see “Where to park idle USD and USDT”.

Who KuCoin and MEXC each suit

What the two have in common is that neither has a clean regulatory record: KuCoin has been heavily fined, and MEXC has no licence I could find. Whichever you choose, only keep on it what you can afford to lose, and keep long-term holdings in a cold wallet where you hold the private keys yourself.

For how to weigh licences, reserves and fees together when choosing an exchange, see “How to choose a crypto exchange”; for where the two sit in my rating table and why, see the “exchange rating methodology”.

KuCoin and MEXC invitation codes

More articles are on the crypto topic page.

FAQ

Which is safer, KuCoin or MEXC?

They carry different kinds of risk. About US$281 million was stolen from KuCoin's hot wallets in 2020, and the loss was not passed on to users, but in 2025 it pleaded guilty in the US and paid more than US$297 million, and it was later fined in Canada and Dubai. I found no reports of MEXC's exchange wallets being hacked, and its proof of reserves is verified monthly by Hacken, but I could not find any formal licence, its operating entity is unclear, and in 2025 it froze about US$3.1 million of one trader's funds for about 3 months.

Which has lower fees, KuCoin or MEXC?

For regular users on spot, MEXC is cheaper. KuCoin charges 0.1% maker and taker on Class A coins, with Class B and Class C at 2 and 3 times that; MEXC's public API on 12 October 2026 showed 0% maker and 0.05% taker for BTC/USDT spot. At KuCoin, paying spot fees with KCS gives 20% off; at MEXC, according to a 2024 announcement, paying with MX gives 20% off, or 50% off if you hold at least 1,000 MX for 15 consecutive days.

Is MEXC's zero-fee trading real?

MEXC's announcement of 22 December 2025 says all spot pairs are 0% maker and taker with no end date set; institutional accounts, market makers, project teams and API users are excluded, and other fee discounts do not apply to the promotion pairs. But MEXC's public API on 12 October 2026 showed a 0.05% taker fee for BTC/USDT spot, which does not match the announcement, so check the order page for the actual fee.

Can I still use KuCoin after its US fines?

It depends on where you are. In January 2025 KuCoin pleaded guilty in the US and agreed to exit the US for at least two years; on 30 March 2026 a US court approved the CFTC's consent order, under which KuCoin may not let US users trade until it registers with the CFTC. Its terms of service also list Singapore, mainland China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Canadian provinces of Ontario and British Columbia, France, the Netherlands and other places as restricted.

Do MEXC and KuCoin have licences?

KuCoin's EU subsidiary obtained MiCA authorisation approved by Austria's FMA in November 2025, but as of May 2026 the FMA still did not allow it to start operating; for its registration with Australia's AUSTRAC, I found only KuCoin's own announcement. For MEXC, I found no formal licence on any regulator's register, and regulators in Japan, Hong Kong, Germany, the Netherlands, Dubai, Seychelles and elsewhere have publicly warned about it or taken action against it.

For large trades, KuCoin or MEXC?

KuCoin's BTC order book is about 2.7 times as deep as MEXC's, so a market order of the same size slips more at MEXC. Using this article's rough method, with MEXC charging 0.05% and KuCoin 0.1%, a BTC market order has to reach about 170,000 USDT before MEXC's extra slippage catches up with the fees it saves. This is an estimate from a depth snapshot on 8 October 2026, not a quote.