Kucoin vs Bittrex: A Neck and Neck Exchange Race
Today we compare Kucoin, a highly versatile platform placing seventh on our list of cryptocurrency exchanges. This highly versatile platform carries 265 cryptocurrencies combined to make 561 trading pairs. Sitting in ninth place, their competitor Bittrex starts this comparison piece with a small victory, boasting 321 coins and 624 trading pairs.
Fees
Kucoin’s Maker-Taker Fee System
Kucoin (alongside market leader Binance) offers just about the cheapest trading fees in the cryptocurrency industry at just 0.1% for both the maker fee and taker fee. By holding their native cryptocurrency, KCS (Kucoin Shares), traders can unlock further discounts.
Once monthly trades hit a certain point, percentages turn negative, paying out refunds to those trading in the hundreds of millions — as this table demonstrates:
See the full fee schedule here.
Bittrex Trading Fees
Bittrex’s 0.2% maker-taker fee deductions are double that of Kucoin, but they are still considered low in this emerging industry. With only five tiers of trade levels and no native Bittrex cryptocurrency, the simple fee schedule reduces confusion surrounding trades.
Cryptocurrency withdrawal fees are explained here.
Winner: Kucoin.
Sign Up and KYC Experience
Getting Started On Kucoin
The team at Kucoin has made it really easy for you to open and verify an account:
- Head to Kucoin’s website and click ‘Sign Up.’
- Provide your email and a secure password.
- Check your email account. Kucoin will send you an activation link.
- On your mobile phone, connect to Google Authenticator.
- Your account is opened, but you can’t do a lot with it until it’s verified, so find the ‘Individual Verification’ hyperlink in your user dashboard.
- Provide your name and country of residence.
- You’ll now be asked to submit an ID document, such as a passport or driver’s license and the ID number.
- Wait for verification as Kucoin makes their KYC1 and KYC2 checks.
- Once approved, you can trade and deposit funds with great levels of freedom.
Note: United States citizens must report their Kucoin trades once their account is worth over $10,000, in line with Foreign Bank Account Report regulations.
Opening Your New Bittrex Account
Bittrex is equally easy to sign up on:
- Go to Bittrex.com and click ‘Sign Up.’
- Choose a Personal Account and then give your email address where asked.
- Click ‘Create Account’ and then go to your email inbox to find a verification email. Go ahead and click the link inside.
- Accept Bittrex’s T&Cs and continue.
- Provide your country of residence, address, and date of birth.
- For the fastest verification route, upload a clear photo or scan of your passport.
- Now, a short wait of 15 minutes (on average) takes place. Once verified, you can deposit funds and start trading.
Winner: Bittrex is slightly quicker and easier.
Ease of Use and Feel of Website/App
Kucoin’s Aesthetics
From the moment you land on their website, you can tell Kucoin is legitimate and user-friendly. Those feelings continue thanks to their app, rivaled only by Coinbase and Gemini for quality and ease of use. Web and mobile users are all pleased with the design.
Kucoin also wins bonus points for their KCS coin and its dividends, as well as a soft staking program, a crypto-mining scheme, and a referral bonus opportunity for their valued crypto community.
Bittrex’s Supportive Nature
Bittrex offers an impressive Zendesk customer support system that answers just about any question you could imagine about the platform. On top of this guidance, users are also easily guided around the intuitive website and app, which allow you to jump from your wallet straight to the order form, making trades more logical for beginners.
In the past, we’ve found their cryptocurrency exchange interface buggy, prone to crashes, and really slow to load up, but in 2021 it appears they’ve resolved those issues and updated the interface.
Winner: Kucoin grabs this category.
Deposit Methods
Making Deposits On Kucoin… Or Not.
The information you are searching for could not be found. Uh oh, Kucoin doesn’t allow for fiat deposits.
See ‘Instant Buy Options’ to get your fiat money onto Kucoin.
Bittrex Deposit System
Bittrex operates a three-tier deposit system.
New/Unverified Users
- No access to any services
- Must provide information to continue
Basic Users
- Daily deposit and trade limit of 4 BTC
- Must provide name, date of birth, residential address, and country of residence
Enhanced Users
Must provide basic information, plus:
- A photo or scan of government-issued ID (a passport is ideal)
- A selfie holding the aforementioned ID
and
- United States residents must also provide banking details and proof of residence (like a bank statement) to comply with regulations.
Enhanced users in the United States will have fewer tokens and projects to buy, trade, or sell, but they will be able to deposit via:
- Debit card (3% deposit fee)
- Wire Transfers ($50 min and third party charges)
Non-US Enhanced Users have more deposit options:
- SEPA Credit Transfer (Europe)
- International Wire Transfer
- Credit and Debit Card Deposits (3% fee)
Winner: Bittrex.
Instant Buy Options (Buying with Credit or Debit Card)
Kucoin Is Great For International Customers
Thanks to their Kucoin Fast Buy store, individuals with the following currencies can make instant purchases of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether:
- Australian Dollar
- Bangladeshi Taka
- Indonesian Rupiah
- Canadian Dollar
- US Dollar
- Philippine Peso
- Indian Rupee
- Vietnamese Dong
Kucoin has partnered will all of these payment gateways too, so there should be a method for you:
- Bank transfer
- Sepa
- Paypal
- Interac
- POLi
- iDEAL
- Credit card transactions through Simplex (3.5% fee)
- Banxa
- WeChat Pay
- Alipay
- PayMIR
They also offer an over-the-counter service and P2P fiat gateway, which you can see here.
Buying On Bittrex
Bittrex has no broker service.
You’ll need to make a fiat deposit and then trade in a crypto-fiat market pairing, like USD/BTC or EUR/ETH.
Winner: Kucoin wins this round.
Trading Experience
Kucoin For Traders
There are over 500 market pairs, the trading fees are super low, the trading volume and liquidity are high, deposit methods are international-friendly, the trading interfaces are easy to use, and there’s little that can go wrong on this delightful cryptocurrency exchange. There’s also 100x leverage when margin trading for more advanced users. Kudos Kucoin.
Trading On Bittrex
The whole user experience of trading on Bittrex is not complicated, allowing you to move seamlessly from your dashboard to your trade; plus, with 600 market pairings, it really is a great place to start your cryptocurrency exchange journey. The interface needs work, but it will help you do what you need to do.
Winner: Kucoin, but Bittrex isn’t far behind.
Reputation & Security
Kucoin: Is The Treasure Lost Forever?
If you’ve been impressed so far with Kucoin’s reviews and comparison against Bittrex, this might be where the ship hits choppy waters. Kucoin has been hacked, and it wasn’t a small hack either. Pirates escaped with $30m of Bitcoin, $86m of Stellar, and altcoins totaling an eye-watering $150m plus. Fortunately, thanks to excellent emergency actions, a total of $235m (around 84%) was back in their accounts after a few months. What about the other tens of millions that went missing? $25m has not been accounted for, and $13m is long gone, filtered through DeFi protocols with identity masking.
Kucoin survived and is working on its reputation, but this hack lost many users and gained them many enemies. The stolen altcoin projects implemented their own emergency measures, which created a domino effect of problems in the decentralized world. Kucoin is largely to blame.
Bittrex: The Undefeated
Seven years in business and no major hacks; this is the stuff of dreams.
We suspect that their excellent security performance is likely to be directly related to their company’s founding members, a group of cybersecurity engineers who had previously worked at Microsoft, Amazon, and Blackberry.
Winner: Bittrex is a fortress.
Bittrex vs Kucoin: Who Wins This Comparison?
Congratulations, Kucoin!
