Since KuCoin merged its Earn products on August 1, 2026, Simple Earn has just two kinds: Flexible and Fixed. Alongside them are Hold to Earn, which pays interest on assets sitting in your spot or futures accounts without a subscription, and structured products such as Dual Investment, Shark Fin and Snowball. On the day we checked, the Earn page showed USDT Flexible at 1.2091% APR and USDT Fixed from 1.8% for 7 days to 4.1% for 365 days, plus a new-user 7-day product at 100%. KuCoin's announcements state that "KuCoin Earn is a risk investment channel", and the rates change (checked 2026-10-17).
This guide uses live data from the KuCoin Earn page, official announcements, the help center and KuCoin's official API documentation. It sets out how each product accrues, pays and redeems, then works through what 10,000 USDT actually earns. Earn page rates move with the market, so the numbers here are a snapshot from the day we checked; check the product page before you subscribe. Earn income does not generate a rebate; how the two relate is covered near the end.
Start with when you need the money
| Product | Can you take the money out any time? | USDT APR on the day we checked | Main conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple Earn (Flexible) | Yes, redeem any time | 1.2091% | Per product page; renamed from the old Savings product on 2026-08-01 |
| Simple Earn (Fixed) | Locked until maturity; some products allow early redemption with an interest penalty | 7 days 1.8%, 14 days 2.2%, 35 days 2.8%, 90 days 3%, 180 days 3.6%, 365 days 4.1% | Per product page |
| New-user Fixed | Locked until maturity | 7 days 100%; 30 days 6% (tagged new user and VIP only) | New users only; amount limits on the product page |
| Hold to Earn | Yes, no lock-up | Up to 3% (reference APR) | Enable manually; minimum 10 USDT, cap 5 million USDT |
| KCUSD | Yes, redemption requests 24/7 | No APR figure shown on the Earn page | Subscribe 1:1 with a supported stablecoin |
| Dual Investment, Shark Fin, Snowball and other structured products | Locked until maturity | Varies; you may be paid in a different coin | Per product page |
Sources: product data loaded by the KuCoin Earn page, the flexible product integration announcement, the Hold to Earn announcement and the KCUSD user guide, checked 2026-10-17.
Simple Earn: only Flexible and Fixed after the August 2026 merger
What the merger changed
- Three into one: KuCoin's 2026-07-29 announcement merged Simple Earn (Savings), Simple Earn (Flexible) and Crypto Lending Pro into a single Simple Earn (Flexible).
- Timing: the old Flexible product and Crypto Lending Pro stopped taking subscriptions at 18:00 on 2026-07-29 (UTC+8); the merger took effect at 18:00 on 2026-08-01 (UTC+8), when Savings was renamed Flexible.
- Existing holdings: migrated automatically with no action needed, and they kept accruing and paying until migration finished.
- Fixed products removed: from 10:00 UTC on 2026-07-30 the 10-day USDT Fixed product stopped taking subscriptions and left the product list; the 20- and 30-day products will follow on dates to be announced. Existing positions run to maturity at the original term and reference APR, then move automatically into USDT Flexible. On the day we checked, the Earn page listed USDT Fixed terms of 7, 14, 35, 90, 180 and 365 days (USDT Fixed delisting announcement).
Redemption and payout rules
KuCoin's Earn page does not set its rules out as one terms page, but the official API docs define each product's fields clearly, and they are a good guide to how the products work (Get Savings Products, Redeem, Get Redeem Preview):
- Redemption waiting period: each product has a "redeemPeriod" in days. After you redeem, the funds arrive after that period, and the redemption preview shows the expected time.
- Early redemption of Fixed products: each Fixed product states whether it supports early redemption. Where it does, early redemption incurs "penalty interest" and redeems the whole holding at once.
- When income is paid: either daily or once after the product ends, depending on the product.
- What happens at maturity: manual redemption, transfer into the matching Flexible product, or automatic redemption to the funding account.
Before buying a Fixed product, check its early-redemption and maturity settings on the product page. Two products both called Fixed can differ: one cannot be redeemed early, another can but charges a penalty.
How tiered APR works
KuCoin's 2022 announcement on APR Tiers splits the principal into bands, each earning its own rate, then adds them up. The official example: a USDC Flexible promotion pays 3% on 0 to 1,000 and 1.5% above 1,000, so with 10,000 deposited the daily interest is 1,000 ÷ 365 × 3% + 9,000 ÷ 365 × 1.5% (APR Tiers announcement). On products labelled "APR Tiers", the large part of your balance earns less than the headline rate.
Hold to Earn: interest on your trading balances
According to the 2025-11-06 Hold to Earn announcement, once enabled it pays interest on eligible assets in the Funding, Spot, Margin and Futures accounts:
| Coin | Reference APR | Minimum | Cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| USDT | Up to 3% | 10 USDT | 5,000,000 USDT |
| USDC | Up to 3% | 10 USDC | 2,000,000 USDC |
| DOT | 1% | 50 DOT | 50,000 DOT |
| SOL | 0.8% | 0.1 SOL | 10,000 SOL |
| ETH | 0.5% | 0.01 ETH | 500 ETH |
- Turning it on: on the web, KuCoin Earn → Simple Earn → Hold to Earn, click Enable and accept the terms; in the app, More → Earn → Hold to Earn.
- Accrual: from 00:00 (UTC+8) the day after you enable it, credited automatically every day; the APR moves with the market.
- No effect on trading: the announcement says there is no lock-up and no impact on trading, open orders or margin use.
- Regions: the announcement says availability may vary by region because of local rules, without listing them.
On the day we checked, Hold to Earn was still in the Earn menu, but the page did not show a current APR; go by what the enable page shows.
KCUSD, staking and structured products
KCUSD
KuCoin's help center (updated 2026-09-17) describes KCUSD as a "principal-protected Flexible Earn product": you subscribe 1:1 with a supported stablecoin, returns come from KuCoin ecosystem revenue, accrual starts T+1, returns compound daily, and there is no subscription fee. You can request redemption 24/7, and USDT in means USDT out. Fast redemption usually arrives within 10 minutes with a daily fee-free quota and a fee shown on the page above it; standard redemption arrives within the processing time shown on the page (KCUSD user guide). "Principal-protected" is KuCoin's own description. The assets stay on the exchange, so the platform risk is still there.
Staking
On the day we checked, the Earn page showed ETH staking at 2.0092% APR, and KCS staking at 0.9499% flexible, 0.9974% for 30 days and 1.0164% for 60 days. Staking yields follow on-chain rewards, and KCS staking is also tied to the KCS price.
Structured products
The Earn page also lists Dual Investment, Snowball, Shark Fin, range and discount-buy products, with APRs running from double digits to tens of thousands of percent. Those are short terms annualised. KuCoin's API docs state that a Dual Investment product settles in the other currency if the strike price is met (Get Dual Investment Products). You can put in USDT and get BTC back, and if the price falls, that is a loss.
Worked example: what 10,000 USDT earns
Our own estimate uses principal × APR ÷ 365 × days, with the APRs shown on the Earn page on the day we checked, and ignores tiers, compounding and penalties:
| Product | APR | Period | Approx. earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| USDT Flexible | 1.2091% | 30 days | 9.94 USDT |
| USDT Fixed 90 days | 3% | 90 days | 73.97 USDT |
| USDT Fixed 365 days | 4.1% | 365 days | 410 USDT |
The 365-day product pays about three times the Flexible rate, and in exchange the money is out of reach for a year. The new-user 7-day 100% looks big, but 7 days is 2% of a year and it is limited to new users and the amount shown on the page, so don't use 100% to estimate a full year's return.
Where KuCoin is available
The KuCoin Terms of Use (updated 2026-09-29) list as restricted the United States and its territories, Singapore, mainland China and Hong Kong, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ontario and British Columbia in Canada, France, the Netherlands, and the Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions of Ukraine. The list can change at any time. The Hold to Earn announcement adds that some regions may not have access because of local rules. Licences by country: crypto exchange licences by country.
Risk: what KuCoin says
KuCoin's Earn announcements say: "KuCoin Earn is a risk investment channel. Investors should be sensible in their participation." Article 63 of the Terms of Use says part or all of an investment in digital asset trading may be lost, and Article 62 says users may face restrictions on freezing, withdrawing or transferring assets because of regulatory requirements. APRs are reference figures, structured products can pay you in another coin, and if the exchange runs into trouble, Earn assets are affected too. Only put in money you won't need soon and can afford to lose.
KuCoin's reserve ratio and how to verify it yourself are in KuCoin proof of reserves; for Earn side by side across exchanges see crypto exchange Earn comparison. In January 2025, KuCoin pleaded guilty in the US to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, agreed to pay more than 297 million US dollars and to leave the US market for at least two years (US Department of Justice).
Earn income is not rebated: rebates follow trading fees
Subscribing to and redeeming Earn products carries no trading fee, so it generates no rebate. Rebates apply to spot and futures trading fees only, not funding or liquidation. Sign up with our code FEEOTTER and KuCoin pays a 60% fee rebate (all paid back automatically by KuCoin), the same for spot and futures, with no withdrawal request needed on Fee Otter. KuCoin's referral rules say API trading is currently not eligible for commission, so orders your own scripts send through the API get no rebate.
Put next to the Earn figures above: 300,000 USDT a month of futures taker volume at KuCoin's 0.06% BTC perpetual taker fee is 180 USDT in fees and 108 USDT back, while 10,000 USDT in Flexible for 30 days earns about 9.94 USDT. If you trade, the rebate usually beats the interest. For fees and rebates see KuCoin fee rebate guide, for futures rules KuCoin futures guide, and for the rules that apply to large accounts KuCoin VIP levels.
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