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KuCoin Concludes 2023 with 106% Surge in Spot Volumes and User Base of 31 Million

2024/01/09 09:30:00

As we bid farewell to 2023 and welcome the exciting 2024, KuCoin reflects on a transformative year marked by resilience, innovation, and growth in the crypto industry. The past 12 months have been a dynamic journey, and we are thrilled to share the highlights of our annual achievements and developments.

In a year that saw both challenges and triumphs, KuCoin remained steadfast in the face of market fluctuations. While early optimism in the crypto market gave way to regulatory concerns, our commitment to innovation emerged as a guiding light. The crypto industry continued its evolutionary journey, presenting opportunities for growth and adaptation.

As the ‘People's Exchange’, KuCoin has consistently worked towards fostering a thriving global crypto community. Let's delve into the key milestones that defined our journey through the entirety of 2023.

Quantifying Our Growth: Key Figures

KuCoin has experienced substantial growth in 2023, and we are poised to maintain this momentum in the coming year. KuCoin's commitment to excellence is evident in our growth figures:

  • 16% YOY increase in the user base, approaching 31 million
  • Q4 2023 marks a 106% jump in spot trading volume
  • 1.5 million queries successfully resolved by KuCoin 24/7 customer service, and an additional 800K users assisted by AI-driven chatbot

Registered Users and Trading Volume

As one of the leading global cryptocurrency exchanges, KuCoin has witnessed a 16% year-over-year increase in its user base, with the total number of registered users approaching 31 million as of December 2023. Our expanding user community underscores the quality of our services and diverse product offerings, catering to a wide spectrum of cryptocurrency investors, ranging from novices to seasoned professionals.

The most significant user base growth in the past year came from the Latin America region, which saw a 34% increase. Additionally, we observed substantial user base growth in other key regions, including the Middle East and Africa (27%) and Europe (25%), compared to 2022.

Significant growth in spot trading volume was witnessed in the last quarter of 2023, showing a 106% growth compared to Q3 2023. Similar trends are observed with most significant growth in Europe (+169%), Latin America (+111%), and Middle East and Africa (+124%) regions.

Global Communities

In 2023, KuCoin achieved notable milestones in terms of social media presence. Our Twitter/X and Instagram following grew by over 14%, reaching a total of 2.9 million. Throughout the year, we hosted 123 Twitter Spaces with our crypto ecosystem partners, underscoring KuCoin's dedication to fostering a robust and supportive community, thereby reinforcing its position as a leading industry player.

Customer Support

Our customer support has been instrumental in both attracting and retaining users, contributing significantly to our current position. Our round-the-clock, 24/7 customer service has successfully resolved over 1.5 million queries in 2023. Additionally, our AI-driven chatbot has played a pivotal role in automating customer support ensuring swift resolution of user inquiries. Since its launch in April 2022, the chatbot has addressed queries and assisted more than 800,000 users up to December 2023. This initiative is just one of our many efforts aimed at providing the best possible trading and investment experience on the KuCoin platform.

Trust and Transparency to Enhance Security: Key Features

As the ‘People's Exchange’, the security of users’ assets has always been our top priority. In 2023, we implemented a series of key features to safeguard security.

  • Over 100% reserve ratio of BTC, ETH, USDT, and USDC of our monthly PoR reports for 12 consecutive months.
  • Know Your Customer (KYC) upgrade to create a more secure trading environment.
  • Multiple security measures, diverse security education, and a $1 million bug bounty program to enhance a safe trading experience:

In early 2023, KuCoin introduced an extensive array of anti-fraud measures to enhance security and mitigate business scams. In addition to official contact verification, the newly integrated measures encompass advanced anti-phishing verification and business wallet address verification, significantly reducing the risk of fraud.

The majority of KuCoin's business wallet addresses can undergo verification via the Official Media and Wallet Verification Portal. In cases where scammers impersonate KuCoin officials to present business proposals, the official wallet address verifier can be effectively utilized at the final transfer stage to avert potential scams.

Proof of Reserves (PoR)

Dedicated to our community and self-regulation, KuCoin emerged as one of the pioneering global crypto exchanges to release its Proof of Reserves (PoR) data in late 2022, maintaining monthly updates ever since. Subsequently, we have consistently refreshed our PoR information, providing assurance to our users regarding the security of their funds on KuCoin and the full backing of their assets. We are proud to have released our monthly PoR reports for 12 consecutive months as of December 2023. Our most recent snapshot, captured on 31 December 2023, discloses a BTC reserve ratio of 110%, ETH reserve ratio of 107%, USDT reserve ratio of 108%, and USDC reserve ratio of 104%. The user deposits are supported by a collateralization ratio exceeding 1:1.

KYC (Know-Your-Customer) Upgrade

In August 2023, KuCoin announced an upgraded standard user identity verification procedure. The decision to enhance KuCoin's Know Your Customer (KYC) measures represents a strategic initiative aligned with global compliance standards. This proactive step is aimed at creating a more secure trading environment and elevating the overall security posture of user accounts. By embracing these stringent measures, KuCoin not only prioritizes user safety but also contributes to setting a precedent for other institutions. As the industry continuously adopts similar practices, it signifies a collective movement towards a more sustainable and secure direction, reinforcing trust and integrity within the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Security at KuCoin

The platform has implemented multiple security measures, extensive security education, and a $1 million bug bounty program, all reinforcing a secure trading experience. These security measures include the use of industry-standard encryption algorithms to safeguard all sensitive data and assets, the implementation of multi-factor authentication for all user accounts, adding an extra layer of security, regular proactive assessment on the security measures to manage the risks on the platform. Additionally, the majority of clients' funds are held in cold wallets to ensure their security. Regular audits and penetration tests are also conducted. We adhere to the highest risk management standards and implement world-class security practices to keep users account safe. Our account verification system and risk identification system constitute Multi-Layer User Authentication, along with secure login, safe withdrawal, and user security configuration features, have been implemented to protect users assets and account security in all usage scenarios.

Innovation at KuCoin: Key Updates

The cryptocurrency market evolves swiftly, outpacing traditional technology and financial services sectors. As a prominent figure in the crypto industry, it's imperative for us to innovate rapidly to remain pertinent to our users and the broader crypto community. Here is a glimpse at a few of the new products, projects, tokens, and services we've introduced on KuCoin in 2023:

  • 149 new assets, expanding the total tradable digital assets to 830 and supporting 1,246 trading pairs as of December 2023.
  • 1.9 million KCS holders, reflecting an 11% YoY growth
  • 10000+ KuCard holders one month after launch

Assets and New Listings

In 2023, KuCoin introduced 149 new assets, expanding the total tradable digital assets to 830 and supporting 1,246 trading pairs as of December 2023. KuCoin Spotlight has backed 2 projects, and KuCoin BurningDrop supported 19 projects, with 29 projects making their global debut on KuCoin.

April 2023 marked the return of KuCoin Spotlight, our token sale platform, featuring upgraded rules for fairness and an improved user experience. Excitement soared with dynamic promotions, including teasers, flash airdrops, Instagram mini-games, and quizzes, engaging a vast social media audience of over a million followers and generating active participation in the 25th token sale of SUI.

KuCoin Pre-Market Trading

KuCoin introduced Pre-Market trading in October 2023, reflecting its commitment to innovation and the responses to the evolving needs of its user base in the dynamic world of cryptocurrency trading. Pre-Market is the one and the only over-the-counter (OTC) trading platform in the crypto exchange landscape exclusively for trading new tokens before their official launch. Buyers and sellers can set price quotes and match trades to secure their desired prices and liquidity in advance.

As of December 2023, three projects have been launched on Pre-Market: Celestia (TIA), Pyth Network (PYTH), and Xai Blockchain (XAI).

  • In the case of TIA, over 5 million USDT were locked during the Pre-Market trading. Post-launch, the price of TIA experienced a surge, reaching 8 times the initial Pre-Market trading price.
  • For PYTH, more than 14,000 orders were locked in Pre-Market. Consequently, the Pre-Market price escalated to approximately 10 times the market estimation for PYTH valuation.
  • As the current actively traded token in the Pre-Market, the average market price for XAI has surged to approximately 100 times the price from the last fundraising round in the market during its first week. This allowed the XAI community to secure prices and liquidity before the Token Generation Event (TGE).

KuCoin Trading Bot

Since its launch in early 2021, the KuCoin Trading Bot has experienced remarkable growth. In 2023, users had created 3 million KuCoin Trading Bots, which is a testament to their confidence in our platform. The trading volume surpassed 10 billion USDT in 2023, underscoring the bot's effectiveness. Our platform caters to diverse preferences, empowering users with advanced technology for profitable trading experiences.

In 2023, we launched 4 new trading bot strategies to make KuCoin Trading Bot more comprehensive, assisting users to make profits easily in the dynamic market:

KuCoin Token (KCS)

In December 2023, KuCoin executed its 42nd burn for KuCoin Token (KCS), reducing the circulating supply to 96,641,044 KCS. This strategic measure aims to enhance KCS value, benefiting holders and active platform users. In 2023, KCS adoption witnessed a steady growth of 1.9 million holders, reflecting an 11% YoY growth. Holders enjoyed access to diverse platform services like Staking, Liquidity Mining, and Lending, along with trading fee discounts.

KuCard

In December 2023, KuCoin introduced KuCard, a Visa crypto debit card, marking a significant advancement in the realm of payments. KuCard integrates digital assets with traditional banking, allowing users to spend cryptocurrencies on everyday purchases across millions of locations globally wherever a Visa debit card is accepted, simplifying the process of converting cryptocurrencies into local currencies. As of December 2023, the number of applicants for KuCard exceeded 10,000 within a month after it was launched, and the total spending using KuCard has reached 1 million. More features, such as integration with Apple Pay and the cashback program, are scheduled to be launched in early 2024.

Investment & Research

KuCoin Ventures

Embracing the transformative potential of blockchain technology, KuCoin has introduced KuCoin Ventures in 2021 to champion emerging crypto projects. KuCoin Ventures has provided essential funding and resources, supporting over 50 companies. Notably, in 2023, KuCoin Ventures made strategic investments in TON (Telegram Open Network) to support the development of the TON ecosystem.

KuCoin Labs

In partnership with KuCoin Ventures, our commitment extends to research and incubation through KuCoin Labs. The inaugural The Astro Selection Incubation Program featured 8 projects chosen from 500+ applications, embarking on a journey with industry leaders and top institutions. KuCoin Labs also joined the Sui Foundation as a co-organizer for the first official Hackathon on the Sui network, where over 150+ projects have signed up, and the final winners were announced during the ETHCC event. Recently, with the increasing popularity of inscriptions, KuCoin Labs has also partnered with several projects, such as Dovi, Biis, Zoopia, and OOFP, dedicated to the innovation of the Bitcoin ecosystem.

User Education & Industry Insights

Market Research Reports

Keeping with the ongoing AI trend worldwide, KuCoin released the AI & Blockchain Tango report in May 2023, based on our user survey. It explored critical facets of user perception of AI and blockchain technology, their integration, and how AI could potentially impact the broader crypto industry. The report highlighted crypto investors’ emerging trends and interest in blockchain-based AI projects, other use cases that merged AI and blockchain technology, and AI’s potential for enhancing crypto trading.

In 2023, KuCoin continued to deep dive into market insights and published 8 market reports of the "Into the Cryptoverse" series, featuring different regions and countries, including Germany, France, Pakistan, Japan, Russia, Turkey, Korea, and the UAE. These reports have been widely distributed and have served as valuable insights into the demographics in different regional markets. The reports provide valuable insights into the current state of the crypto markets, including investor outlook, key trends, user preferences, and emerging opportunities. These reports also signify KuCoin's ongoing effort to understand market dynamics, investment trends, and the perception of digital assets.

In December 2023, KuCoin Research, the research arm of KuCoin aiming to provide institutional-grade analysis, published its inaugural report, signaling a bullish sentiment in the cryptocurrency market, driven by historic inflows of stablecoins, providing a comprehensive overview of recent market trends. More reports are expected to be published in 2024.

KuCoin Learn

User education remained a paramount area of focus KuCoin continues to foster this year. To further enhance our users’ trading ability, we introduced KuCoin Learn, an academy that provides both practical guidance and concise courses on crypto and blockchain.

Leadership & Global Presence

Recognition: KuCoin’s Awards

KuCoin is currently one of the top 5 crypto exchanges according to CoinMarketCap. Forbes also named KuCoin one of the Best Crypto Exchanges and one of the Best Crypto Staking Platforms in 2023. Other feathers we added to our cap in 2023 include receiving an award from Finder’s as one of the best global crypto investment platforms in 2023. We also found ourselves among the top 50 on Hurun’s Global Unicorn List for 2023 and among the list of Top 100 Companies in Fintech in 2023.

Global Footprints

In 2023, KuCoin sponsored, hosted, and formed valuable partnerships with over 30 online and offline events across multiple continents, including TOKEN2049, Paris Blockchain Week, Blockchance, Blockchain Life Forum, Istanbul Fintech Week, and Future Fest 2023. This strategic approach allowed us to engage with our communities and partners effectively, leaving a lasting impression on Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

Demonstrating our commitment to thought leadership, our esteemed leaders actively engaged in 30 enlightening panels and keynotes, collaborating with industry experts to delve into cutting-edge topics. By openly sharing their insights with crypto communities, they sparked meaningful conversations and fostered an atmosphere of knowledge exchange. Moreover, through these impactful events, the KuCoin team has forged connections with over 150,000 crypto users, investors, partners, and institutions worldwide, cultivating a global network and positioning ourselves at the forefront of the crypto industry.

Corporate Social Responsibilities

Despite still being in its infancy, the industry has come to the stage where we are expected to shoulder more social responsibilities and embrace ESG. Adopting ESG not only aligns crypto firms with global sustainability objectives but also favorably positions them in a market that is increasingly valuing responsible and ethical business practices. This proactive approach towards ESG can play a pivotal role in shaping a more sustainable and ethically grounded future for the crypto industry.

In response to this, KuCoin, as the first in the industry, participated in the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, more commonly referred to as COP28, to advocate the importance of green blockchain and explore how we can leverage blockchain technology for a greener future. The Chief Sustainability Officer of KuCoin presented in front of the delegates and ambassadors from various countries to promote blockchain-related knowledge and showcase the significance the blockchain industry brings to the global climate change issue.

During the week of COP28, KuCoin also donated $100,000 to support meaningful causes, embracing sustainable development and charity through cryptocurrency, including the American Medical Women's Association (AMWA) and African Children’s Solar Lamp Project by Smiling Simon Greenbuild Foundation.

At KuCoin, it is our responsibility to support those in need during times of crisis. Earlier this year, we donated 1,000,000 Liras to Turkey's disaster relief through #AFAD to offer our hands to those who suffered from the devastating earthquake. We remain committed to providing disaster relief through various manners.

Looking Ahead: What’s Next for KuCoin?

Anticipating a promising 2024 marked by signs of a burgeoning bull market, KuCoin is poised for strategic advancements, gearing up to introduce a range of new products that facilitate user trading. As collaboration and merger activities surge in this optimistic market climate, KuCoin is well-positioned to seize emerging business opportunities.

For KuCoin, 2024 signifies a continued commitment to facilitating the free flow of digital value worldwide. The year will be characterized by active user engagement, keen market trend observation, increased participation in offline events for face-to-face interactions, enhanced security measures, and a steadfast commitment to championing the sustainable development of the industry. In the future, KuCoin will remain dedicated to serving users by enriching trading-related knowledge and enhancing risk mitigation capabilities. The focus extends to promoting the industry's sustainable development and fulfilling social responsibilities as a leader. With a forward-looking perspective, KuCoin is ready to transform today's challenges into tomorrow's achievements, ensuring the platform thrives alongside the dynamic industry in the upcoming year.