Compare
BS Bitstamp VS KU KuCoin
Both exchanges offer Spot. The differences below come from our individual reviews of Bitstamp and KuCoin.
| Bitstamp | KuCoin | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2011 | 2017 |
| Regions | Available across the US, UK, and EU/EEA (MiCA-licensed since May 2025), plus a range of other regions; unavailable in a small number of jurisdictions with sanctions or licensing restrictions. Perpetual futures are limited to eligible EU and institutional users and not offered to US, Canadian, or Japanese customers. | Available in most regions outside the United States. A 2025 guilty plea to unlicensed money transmission and a March 2026 CFTC consent order permanently bar KuCoin's operator from allowing US-based traders onto its platform. Also restricted in mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and a handful of other jurisdictions: verify local availability before signing up. |
| Products | Spot, Staking, Perpetual futures (EU/institutional only), OTC / institutional block trading | Spot, Margin, Perpetual futures, Trading bots |
| Maker fee | 0.30% at the lowest 30-day-volume tier, stepping down to 0.00% at the highest tier (above roughly $1 billion in monthly volume) | Verify current tier: KuCoin uses a volume-based maker/taker schedule, with roughly a 20% discount for paying fees in its native KCS token |
| Taker fee | 0.40% at the lowest 30-day-volume tier, stepping down to roughly 0.03% at the highest tier | Verify current tier: KuCoin uses a volume-based maker/taker schedule, with roughly a 20% discount for paying fees in its native KCS token |
Bitstamp pros
- The longest continuously operating major exchange, trading since 2011 without ever losing customer funds to a hack, including through a 2015 breach that cold-storage reserves absorbed
- Deep, long-standing regulatory footprint: a Luxembourg payment institution license since 2016, UK FCA cryptoasset registration, and a MiCA CASP license (May 2025) covering the full EEA
- Now backed by Robinhood's balance sheet and infrastructure following a $200 million acquisition that closed in June 2025, without (so far) folding Bitstamp into Robinhood's own product
- Nasdaq-built matching engine and a dedicated OTC desk, giving it institutional-grade infrastructure most retail-first exchanges don't build themselves
KuCoin pros
- One of the widest altcoin listings among major exchanges, useful for traders looking for assets that haven't reached Binance or Coinbase yet
- A mature, free built-in trading-bot suite (grid and DCA bots) that many competitors charge for or don't offer at all
- Fully recovered from its 2020 hack, with no comparable incident since and a published monthly proof-of-reserves report
This table is generated from the same data behind our individual exchange reviews. See methodology for how it's put together. Fee figures marked "not yet verified" need confirming against live terms before this page is treated as launch-ready.