KuCoin review: altcoin depth, a US exit and what 900 tokens actually costs
We funded a KuCoin account, worked through its KYC tiers, traded a low-cap altcoin at the standard 0.1% fee and checked which countries KuCoin has shut out since its 2025 criminal case.
Our verdict
KuCoin still lists more small-cap altcoins than almost any competitor at a flat, cheap 0.1% fee, and that depth is real. It is also permanently closed to US residents after a 2025 guilty plea and a March 2026 CFTC order, and its KYC tiers cap an unverified account at 30,000 USDT lifetime. Anyone outside the excluded list who wants altcoin breadth gets solid value; anyone weighing whether the exchange is trustworthy has to weigh that against a $297 million criminal settlement.
Best for: Non-US traders who want early access to small-cap altcoins at a flat, low fee
KuCoin built its reputation on listing coins other exchanges will not touch, and that reputation is still mostly earned. We opened an account, moved through its identity checks, funded it and placed a small-cap trade at the standard fee before writing any of this down.
Nearly 900 tokens, and that is the whole pitch
The number that matters here is breadth. KuCoin carries roughly 900 tradable tokens, a figure few rivals come close to matching, and a large share of them are the kind of low-cap project that gets a KuCoin listing months before it shows up anywhere with real regulatory oversight. For a trader hunting early exposure to a narrow niche, that is the entire reason to hold an account here rather than somewhere safer.
That depth carries a cost most traders never price in. A coin small enough to list on KuCoin before anywhere else is also small enough to move 40 percent on thin volume, and KuCoin's own liquidity on the tail end of its listings is nowhere close to what Binance or Coinbase offer on the same names elsewhere. Depth of listing is not the same thing as depth of order book.
Fees stay flat and cheap unless you trade huge size
Spot trading costs a flat 0.1 percent on both sides of the book at the base tier, which undercuts Coinbase's retail pricing without needing any volume commitment. Paying fees in KCS, KuCoin's native token, cuts that to 0.08 percent immediately.
