KuCoin upgrades institutional lending with unified trading account support

• KuCoin adds UTA support to its institutional lending program.
• New API clients face a lower 30-day volume requirement of 10M USDT.
• Eligible institutions can borrow up to 3M USDT across key products.

KuCoin has upgraded its Institutional Interest-Free Lending Program by integrating support for its Unified Trading Account (UTA), as the crypto platform looks to streamline capital management for institutional clients.

The upgrade reduces the qualifying external 30-day trading-volume requirement for newly registered API clients from 30 million USDT to 10 million USDT.

Eligible clients can also access 0% interest for the first two months without a trading-volume requirement.

Under the upgraded program, eligible institutional clients can borrow up to 3 million USDT.

Borrowed funds can be used across Spot, Margin, and Futures trading, while borrowing is available in USDT, USDC, Bitcoin, and Ethereum.

KuCoin integrates lending with unified accounts

The integration is designed to reduce capital fragmentation between separate trading accounts.

KuCoin said institutions operating across multiple products and strategies can face higher costs and operational friction when capital is divided between accounts.

UTA provides eligible users with a single account structure for managing capital across supported trading products.

With institutional lending integrated into the framework, borrowed funds can be deployed across Spot, Margin and Futures without requiring transfers between separate trading accounts.

The setup is intended to bring financing closer to execution and allow professional trading teams to deploy collateral and capital more efficiently.

KuCoin said the upgraded infrastructure is focused on how institutions access, manage, and deploy digital assets across different trading strategies.

Lending program expands from targeted credit

KuCoin introduced targeted interest-free credit in 2024, initially offering eligible API traders and quantitative teams access to up to 500,000 USDT alongside benefits including fee support, enhanced connectivity, higher API limits and technical assistance.

In 2025, the borrowing limit increased to 3 million USDT.

The program also added support for multiple borrowing assets and allowed clients to combine funds from sub-accounts as margin across eligible products.

The 2026 upgrade represents the latest stage of the program’s development, moving beyond targeted credit support toward a more integrated institutional capital infrastructure, according to the company.

The latest changes also lower the entry requirement for newly registered API clients, potentially expanding access to the lending program.

KuCoin highlights capital efficiency for institutions

Alison Qin, Head of KuCoin Institutional & VIP, said professional market participants require flexible and capital-efficient access to liquidity.

She added that institutional lending infrastructure needs to combine financing at scale with tailored terms and competitive pricing to support sophisticated trading strategies.

Qin said integrating lending with UTA brings capital closer to the accounts and products used for those strategies, while helping clients maintain control over execution and risk.

The company said the upgrade forms part of its broader product development strategy, connecting financing, account infrastructure and execution for institutional users participating in the digital asset market.

Founded in 2017, KuCoin said it serves more than 45 million users across more than 200 countries and regions.

The platform provides access to more than 1,500 digital assets and said it has built a compliance framework that includes AUSTRAC registration in Australia, a MiCA license in Europe, and regulatory progress in other markets.