KuCoin topped a field of major cryptocurrency exchanges with a proof-of-reserves transparency score of 96.7 out of 100 in CryptoQuant's annual Exchange Leader report, outranking larger rivals including Binance and Coinbase in a metric that has become a key measure of exchange solvency since the collapse of FTX.
What Happened: Reserve Transparency Ranked
CryptoQuant's report evaluated exchange performance across trading volume, reserve disclosures, and derivatives activity during 2025.
The Seychelles-based KuCoin earned its top score through a monthly proof-of-reserves framework that lets users verify balances via Merkle-tree inclusion tools, published wallet addresses, and third-party attestations from security firm Hacken.
The exchange has issued more than 39 consecutive monthly reserve reports, with the most recent dated Feb. 6, 2026. All publicly disclosed reserve ratios exceeded 100%.
Bybit placed second with a score of 93.2, also backed by regular disclosures and Hacken attestations. Kraken landed in the A tier but scored lower due to its quarterly reporting cycle.
Binance received 75.2, reflecting broad wallet disclosures but no full independent audit of its entire balance sheet.
Coinbase ranked far behind at 44.3, largely because it does not publish comprehensive wallet address mappings or offer on-chain verification for customer balances.
In the overall Exchange Leader Index — which combines six pillars including trading volume, reserves, and volume growth — MEXC, Binance, and Bybit held the top three positions for 2025. Separately, the report found that derivatives trading now dominates most major platforms, with MEXC, Bybit, Bitget, Binance, Gate, and Coinbase generating 70% to 90% of their volume from perpetual futures contracts.
Binance remained the largest exchange by volume, processing roughly $32.4 Trillion in annual trading during 2025, with about $25 Trillion from derivatives and $7 Trillion from spot. Gate recorded the fastest derivatives growth, with perpetual futures volumes up more than 400% year over year.
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Why It Matters: Trust After FTX
The rankings arrive as proof-of-reserves has shifted from an optional disclosure to what many traders consider a baseline requirement. The gap between KuCoin's 96.7 and Coinbase's 44.3 illustrates how unevenly the industry has adopted reserve verification standards, even among platforms with billions of dollars in customer deposits.
CryptoQuant's methodology penalizes exchanges that rely on quarterly rather than monthly reporting or that lack independent audits covering full balance sheets.
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