KuCoin Canada is a cryptocurrency exchange that has thousands of altcoins available. I personally use Kucoin just simply because of this reason + extremely low fees. The design is extremely similar to Binance, so if you used Binance in the past you won’t see much difference. Due to a recent Binance announcement about leaving the Canadian market, I moved my crypto funds over to Kucoin.
However, KuCoin is not beginner-friendly (well, same as Binance) and technically not allowed in Ontario. If you do not need all these altcoins and want a simple exchange that is fully legal in Canada, then use CoinSmart, which is probably the most reliable crypto exchange for Canadians.
Important Update (23 June, 2022): KuCoin has now been banned from operating in Ontario. The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) fined KuCoin $2,000,000 plus its investigation costs for continuing to operate in the province without complying with the OSC’s regulations. Jeff Kehoe, Director of Enforcement at the OSC said, “Foreign crypto asset trading platforms that want to operate in Ontario must play by the rules or face enforcement action." However, still, many Canadians people keep using it.
As an excellent alternative, we highly recommend considering Bitget. With a user-friendly interface resembling Kucoin, this reputable crypto exchange offers a seamless trading experience. Moreover, as a special promotion, they are generously providing a promo code that grants you 50 USDT upon a deposit of $500 USD or more if you sign up with our referral link.
We wanted to see if KuCoin is worth using for Canadians and yet, many Canadians still use them. Here’s our KuCoin Canada review.
I conducted extensive research on Kucoin and included a referral link for signing up in the article. If you'd like to support OCryptoCanada and choose to use Kucoin for your cryptocurrency trading, we would greatly appreciate it if you could use our referral link during the sign-up process.
Kucoin Canada Summary
KuCoin has more than 8 million global users. It offers several features including futures trading, lending, and advanced order types. KuCoin is mostly suited to advanced traders who want charting and order book data as well as advanced order types. There are 500+ cryptocurrencies available on KuCoin but there are no fiat pairs. This means that you cannot buy crypto directly with fiat. Instead, you have to buy USDT or another crypto first, then trade it for the coin you want. You can buy USDT directly using a third-party bank transfer, or a credit card on KuCoin or buy it from another exchange and transfer it. Trading fees on KuCoin are low at just 0.1%. While KuCoin and Binance appear similar with mostly the same features, look and layout, they are unrelated.
Pros & Cons Fees Coins Over 500+ crypto coins available (one of the best selections in the industry)
Kucoin Canada Features
KuCoin has lots of features for Canadians such as margin trading, lending, futures trading and more.
You can also deposit coins into liquidity pools to earn high interest yields. Try your luck with the raffle where you can win crypto or create a trading bot to trade for you. Many of KuCoin’s features are advanced and unsuitable for beginners.
Despite this, KuCoin is a good place to buy altcoins because it has very low trading fees. There are hundreds available and lots of them are not found elsewhere. KuCoin is good for trading, but not so much for buying crypto directly with fiat.
Registration & Verification with KuCoin For Canadians
To sign up and start trading on KuCoin you only need to provide your email address. There is a daily limit to how much you can withdraw (1 BTC or 400 CAD) but you do not need to verify your account unless you want to get higher withdrawal and trading limits. There are three levels of verification. Unverified, level one, and level two. The KYC process is extremely simple and quick.
In your account profile, go to “KYC verification”.
Hit “start verification” and you can complete the process by entering your name and address. Choose your ID document and enter its ID number, then hit submit. After that you’ll enjoy higher withdrawal limits and a daily trading limit of 1400 USDT.
To complete the full verification process and get even higher daily trading limits of 70,000 USDT and 200 BTC withdrawal, you will need to upload pictures of your ID as well as a selfie with you holding a handwritten note. Again, the process is quick and simple.
Kucoin Fees for Canada
- Low maker/taker trading fees ( 0.005%/0.025% to 0.1%/0.1% for class A coins)
- Free crypto deposits
- Variable withdrawal fees
- KCS holders get 20% discount on trading fees
KuCoin has low trading fees making it one of the best places to buy altcoins. Crypto deposits are free and there are variable withdrawal fees depending on the crypto network. If you hold KuCoin’s native coin (KCS) you can get a discount of fees.
Currencies & Deposit Methods for Canadians
KuCoin doesn’t accept fiat deposits directly because you can’t buy crypto with fiat. You’ll need to buy USDT to be able to buy most coins on KuCoin. You can buy USDT on KuCoin using a third party such as Simplex, but we don’t recommend this as they have high fees. You can also use a credit card, but this might be difficult if you have a Canadian bank. Most Canadian banks won’t allow crypto transactions. Your best way to buy USDT is to use another crypto exchange with your preferred payment method, and then send the USDT to KuCoin. Once your USDT is on KuCoin, you can trade it for hundreds of altcoins, cheaply.
Kucoin Canada Security and Safety
Is KuCoin safe for Canadians to use? We think so, but use caution. While KuCoin is generally a secure and safe crypto exchange to use, it did suffer a hack in 2020 in which $275 million of crypto was stolen by North Korean hackers. $200 million was recovered. There is little information on KuCoin’s website about security, so trade with caution and move large amounts of crypto to a private crypto wallet. I usually buy altcoins and transfer them to my wallet right away. In this case, you are almost 100% safe while saving on fees.
To secure your account, KuCoin has two-factor authentication and will send you emails every time it detects a login. You’ll also be asked to set a trading password, which is a six-digit password you must enter before you can trade.
In June, 2021, the Ontario Securities Commission stated that KuCoin was illegally offering its residents securities and derivatives trading, but KuCoin did not respond to this.
Kucoin Mobile and Desktop App Review
The KuCoin platform can be confusing for beginners.
How to Use KuCoin in Canada?
There is advanced charting and order book data as well as advanced order types available.
Once you have bought your USDT or sent it to your KuCoin wallet from another exchange, you’ll need to transfer it from your main account to your trading account in order to trade. KuCoin offered a simple “transfer” option for this.
Then, you can trade your USDT on KuCoin. Go to “spot trading”, then select the trading pair e.g. USDT/BTC and choose your order type e.g. market order.
As for KuCoin’s mobile app, it is a little more simple than the desktop version but has all the same features. It is still a relatively confusing app and not suitable for beginners.
The KuCoin app has a 3.7-star rating from over 2,000 reviews on the Apple App Store and a 2.7-star rating from over 12,000 reviews on Google Play. Many people complain that the app crashes or that there are certain features lacking such as the ability to filter order history by trading pair. 
KuCoin Customer support
KuCoin has 24/7 customer support available by email or their website ticketing service. It also has a helpful FAQ section on its website. Generally though, KuCoin has many poor customer service reviews saying responses are too slow or unhelpful as if they are chatting with a bot not a real person.
Conclusion
Is KuCoin legit? Yes (well, it’s technically banned in Ontario, but Ontarians can still use it). While you may not be able to buy crypto on KuCoin directly with Canadian dollars (at least easily or cheaply) KuCoin is still a great crypto exchange that Canadians can use. KuCoin is a platform that offers hundreds of altcoins. It’s not beginner-friendly though, if you just start your crypto journey, we would recommend CoinSmart because they also have many coins and they have the proper tool for both, beginners and pros.
As an excellent alternative to Kucoin, we highly recommend considering Bitget. With a user-friendly interface resembling Kucoin, this reputable crypto exchange offers a seamless trading experience. Moreover, as a special promotion, they are generously providing a promo code that grants you 50 USDT upon a deposit of $500 USD or more if you sign up with our referral link.
All you need to do is buy USDT from another exchange and then send it to KuCoin for extremely cheap trades. While we’re unsure how secure and compliant KuCoin is, we think it’s the perfect place to trade obscure altcoins. We recommend moving your crypto off KuCoin to a private wallet for safety. Rather than that, KuCoin is a great crypto platform for buying altcoins. Sign up for KuCoin here.
