Trading activity on exchanges is one of the drivers of the cryptocurrency market, if not the main one. The volumes of capital traded that move on these platforms are decisive for the price behavior of cryptocurrencies, starting with bitcoin (BTC).
Exchanges there are hundreds in the market. But at least the most important or large ones move more than 2,000 million dollars daily, combining the spot (cash) and futures markets.
During the first quarter of this year, a total volume of more than 1 billion dollars was traded through KuCoin alone. This includes spot trading and futures markets, as the trimester report of the exchange.
KuCoin grows and consolidates
In this period, the exchange had a flow of more than 11,000 million dollars daily on average. This figure is equivalent to an eighth of what at the time of writing this article is traded in 24 hours in the entire market, according to data from CoinGecko.
Those 11,000 million dollars of daily average represent an increase of more than 360% with respect to last year for KuCoin. And on the busiest days, the cash market topped $9 billion, while futures topped $15 billion in volume.
There was also an increase in users for the platform. And this seems logical as bitcoin and cryptocurrencies gain ground in the world, whether from retailers, companies and other institutional investors or even nations, as in the cases of El Salvador and the Central African Republic.
What is striking is not that users and capital continue to grow, while more actors are involved in the ecosystem. But yes the fact that has occurred at a time of bearish market, with a dramatic decrease in the capitalization not only of BTC but of the rest of cryptocurrencies. People continue to seek exposure to the cryptocurrency market, and KuCoin’s numbers reflect that.
“There is a definite chill in the air of the cryptocurrency market, but KuCoin continued to grow at a fast pace in the first quarter of 2022”, the company comments in its report.
More cryptocurrencies and trading pairs
In a constantly expanding market (there are already more than 13,000 cryptocurrencies in existence to date), exchanges regularly add new options for their users. More currencies, more trading pairs and more possibilities to trade them.
In the case of KuCoin, during the first months of this 2022 added more than 40 new currencies and a total of 59 trading pairs. This includes “19 crypto assets with world premiere trading on KuCoin [que] they achieved outstanding performance,” in the words of the exchange.
The platform, which has more than 1,000 workers around the world, also added isolated margin trading to its trading options, a derivatives tool that allows you to place positions in more than 60 assets with independent capital margins. In other words, the risk is associated with each position without affecting the funds of other positions in the event of eventual liquidation.
This modality, says the exchange in its report, “offers more manageable risk, which helps crypto beginners get a good start with margin trading.”
Among other launches, KuCoin reported the launch of its cloud mining model, through which users can earn income in bitcoin. This plan has two products and returns of more than 160% annualized, says the exchange.
Alliances and the future of KuCoin
Although the growth described above is remarkable for one of the top exchanges in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, the company is looking to further advance the market. Therefore, in addition to the new offers and the growth of its commercial volumes, KuCoin also made new alliances in the first quarter of this year.
These alliances are focused on research and dissemination through the firm Xangle and advances towards an “immersive user experience” through Meta Office, a metaverse built in alliance with Blocktopia. In addition, the exchange has partnered with more than 40 institutional funds and highly popular blockchain networks, such as Avalanche, Near or Cosmos, for example.
For the future, the exchange hopes to maintain a leading position among cryptocurrency exchange platforms. For this reason, “it is exploring more innovative products” among which tools for the launch and trading of non-fungible tokens (NFT) stand out, in addition to the future launch of KuCard, a card to pay with cryptocurrencies. All these developments are planned for the coming months.