I've known of Kucoin exchange for a while but didn't really take much notice of it until last week. That's when I heard of their trading fee sharing scheme. It's called the "Kucoin Bonus". So I bought some Kucoins to test how it works.
Quick Background
Kucoin has their own token "Kucoin Shares (KCS)". Kucoin shares 50% of the trading fee they collect with KCS holders daily, and if you hold KCS you get an amount proportionate to the number of KCS you own. Since they charge trading fee in the token traded, you will amass bits of different coins over time. For specifics, refer to Kucoin's youtube video (linked below).
Calculation
I had bought ~300 KCS over Christmas and this is a snapshot of the Kucoin Bonus page on 30 Dec. Note: KCS has gone up 3x since I bought them but I will be using prices as of 30 Dec.
So with 364 KCS worth about 1280 USD, the daily bonus is coins worth 0.18 USD. That's about 0.014% per day, or 5.13% p.a. This is imo not a bad return, given that this is on top of the potential price increases of KCS and the other coins.
The downside is that since the "dividends" are given in a variety of coins rather than in KCS, it may be difficult to impossible to cash them out, unless you own quite a lot of KCS.
Side note: For NEO, Kucoin helps you claim GAS so that will indirectly increase the returns too
Another side note: KCS holders also get to participate in giveaways that Kucoin conducts time to time (an example below). So that indirectly adds to your returns
Caveats
Of course, the bonus depends on the trading volume. On 30 Dec the 24h volume was in the range of 60M USD. When I first bought it on Christmas it was 17M USD. As Kucoin lists more coins and as more folks know of this exchange it is safe to assume volume will go up. Just for reference, Binance, another HK based exchange that started around the same time as Kucoin, has a daily 3B USD volume.
This is also assuming the Kucoin Bonus stays unchanged. Kucoin may change the % of trading fee given back, or require a min quantity (currently there is none enforced, except that if the quantity is too low you may not get certain low-traded coins)
References
Hey there, if this post has helped you, please consider using/sharing my Kucoin referral!
https://www.kucoin.com/#/?r=1M5Ps