KuCoin Exchange Review - A true competitor arises from the east (and pays you back your fees!!!)

Trading is funny business with small edges. A thing that the noobs ignore but the experts care a lot about are "THE FEES!".
Death and fees as the saying goes.

KuCoin tries to make it easier for you to make money ( or lose it a bit slower ) by paying back all about 90% of the fees to the users who hold KuCoin Shares. The concept is really cool but of course, we need to look further into this: is there A CATCH?

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It all starts with the TEAM for me and from what I read they are solid people with experience and enthusiasm in making this work ( prior experience with AliBaba and various other big companies ). For me, the team passes my filters and at least I signed in by believing that this is a good place to be that has a honest team with a good vision.

There are things we all want to see in a good exchange and KuCoin has it in spades but the most important things is, of course, security! Are our funds safe in that exchange? Do they pay back fast? Are they here to stay?!

Taking in consideration that this is a NEW exchange and with everything new there is a risk that it will go out of business, I say that so far I have not seen, read or experienced anything worrisome. What's more, all my questions were answered fast by support, their telegram group is lively and helpful and most importantly all the cash outs were sent fast with rather decent fees for a small exchange.
They offer the usual security features: 2fa, mail confirmation. Nothing sure on how do they protect their funds in the wallets but I think it's standard multi-sig stuff and I never heard yet of anyone not getting their money. I wouldn't put it as high as Bittrex in safeness but it is as close as we can come with no red flags so far.

They also seem to take their responsibility to the users very serious.
For example, one things that really impressed me is how they handled the CFD scam ( yes, it is a scam!). Basically when CFD closed all their dealings the token fell to the ground. They tried to get in touch with the team but then decided that this is it and stated this:

A decent and measured response and in no way expected from an exchange. It is certainly not their fault that CFD scammed people.

Add to that they are always improving their interface and already have iOS and Android apps almost ready I think it's clear that this is here to stay and not a quick moneygrab and run.

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How does this work?

You own KCS and you get a share of the total fees that were taken in the day prior. You will need to own A LOT of KCS to get significant amount though but every little bit helps imho and it compounds in time [ as you get more KCS as well ]. 1 KCS is about 55 cents currently.
What I really like is that they will pay in the coin the fee was taken so on a day you will get little amounts of every coin they trade on. I really like that though one could say that you are gonna be a multi-bag holder now. Could be but I think it's fun and fair.

Other than that, I like that their list a lot of coins fast, that you have lower fees when you hold KCS and that the volume seems to improve. They deal about 900-1000 BTC trades volume daily now and as this volume increases so does the fees that KCS will pay.

Finally but very important: THE UI!.
It's really one of the best UIs I've seen. Nice graph with many T.A options to help you figure stuff out if you swing that way, an intuitive and easy to use system of placing orders -Cool stuff here, 2fa on placing orders which is very useful imho - and a fast way to move from market to market, see your orders and your assets fast.
It's really smooth and pleasant and places no cognitive strain on the already weighted trader. It simply lets you do your bidding with no stress.

I want to add a little more that was pointed out in the comments and I think @danielwong made a great observations:

The monthly bonuses and prizes are pretty cool and a fun element to crypto exchanges.

This is the things that really drew me in, every month there is - so far - a new thing.
For example in November they had an iPhone giveaway race (top 30 volume traders got an iPhone X or 8 - the winner had a monthly volume of 1900BTC which seems high but I think it's so easy to be a whale on KuCoin vs bittrex ). They also had a few bonuses almost for everyone, if you did one trade per day you'd get a little boos in KCS bonus on that day.
This type of Gamification is really fun indeed and it can really work to boost volumes and bring in more casual traders that are maybe intimidated by bigger exchanges. You never forget your first...

CONS

Low volume! <--- It's difficult to trade high volumes on here as there aren't yet enough people. It will surely improve as the crypto market expands.

New exchange <---- As any new things it can be risky to join first. But can also pay dividends if you buy KCS cheap or you user a code to get referrals and get a part of their fees back as well.

Not a lot of coins yet <--- They have a lot of new coins but not a lot of the old various shitcoins you find on Bittrex or Polo. But they did a good job getting every new hyped coin fast there so I think in the future this will also improve!

All in all, I think KuCoin is worth your time and could be a contender for the top 5 exchanges sometimes in the future.

PS: Please use my referral link and I will maybe make a cent if you trade there :)