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Connecting your Kucoin account

A step-by-step guide for connecting your Kucoin account to Recap

Daniel Howitt avatar
Written by Daniel Howitt
Updated over 4 months ago

Recap supports integration with Kucoin through a read-only API key. Once connected, we retrieve your transaction history and set up a real-time connection to your account.

Step 1 - Create a new read-only Kucoin API key

  1. Go to your Kucoin profile (top right) and select API Management

  2. Click Create API

  3. Enter an API Name "Recap" and API passphrase of your choice and confirm

  4. Choose "No IP restriction" *

  5. Choose an eligibility period (we recommend you choose "permanent")

  6. Go through Kucoin's security verification process

  7. You will receive an email from Kucoin containing a link to view your new API key and secret.

  8. Record your Key and Secret, (this is the only time your secret will be visible).

*Recap connects directly from your device so your IP address will change and therefore we can't set an IP restriction

Step 2 - Connect to Kucoin in your Recap account

  1. In Accounts, click the Add Account button, then select Exchange API, then Kucoin.

  2. Give your account a name.

  3. Confirm that this is your Main Account (or Sub Account)

  4. Enter the Kucoin API Key, API Secret and API Passphrase that you created in Step 1 and click Next.

  5. Your Kucoin account card will be created and your data will start to be fetched. Please allow some time for us to retrieve the data - if you have a very large account history, this could take up to 5 minutes.

⚠️ You may get a warning about incorrect balances. Read on to find out how these can be corrected.

Fixing Third-party crypto purchases

If you've made crypto purchases through one of Kucoin's third-party payment providers, such as Simplex or Banx, Kucoin will only log the deposit of cryptocurrency to your account. Ideally, you want to account for this transaction as a trade for your acquisition history.

You may need to recall some email records to attribute what your purchase amount was.

In Recap you can account for the trade of fiat for cryptocurrency by recording a "sent amount".

Fixing Kucoin V1 incorrect balances

Kucoin updated its exchange in 2019 to version 2, if you have been trading on Kucoin prior to version 2 then you may have missing transactions in your account history as a result of Kucoin delisting some cryptocurrencies.

Recap relies on the data provided by Kucoin's API to pull in your transaction history and calculate your account balances. In the event Kucoin has delisted currencies that you have been trading, your calculated balances in Recap will not refect the balances within your Kucoin account and you have missing taxable events.

To rectify your Kucoin balances, you should contact Kucoin support and ask them to provide you with every single transaction. You will then need to add some manual transactions.

Subtracting your balances on the Kucoin exchange from the Recap balances in the portfolio pages will give you an insight as to what transactions are missing.

Positive adjustment amounts

Adjustment amounts that are positive could mean you have missing disposals. You may want to create manual trades in Recap which accurately represents your missing transaction history.

If you have no records, and Kucoin can't provide you with additional information you should consult your accountant or tax advisor, who could create a manual transaction in Recap for each of the adjustment amounts.

As an example your Recap portfolio is 0.00500001 BTC, however on the Kucoin exchange your balance shows 0.00000001 BTC, this means you have an excess balance of 0.005 BTC in Recap. Given no other information, the only assumption is that you have sold 0.005 BTC for some other asset. In Recap you can represent this by creating a manual transaction which trades 0.005 BTC for the market value of the other asset on a specific day.

Negative adjustment amounts

Adjustment amounts that are negative could mean you have missing acquisitions. You may want to create a manual trade in Recap which represents your transaction history.

If you have no records, and Kucoin can't provide you with additional information you should consult your accountant or tax advisor, who could create a manual trade in Recap for each of the adjustment amounts.

As an example, your Recap portfolio balance is -0.00327100 GAS, however on the Kucoin exchange your balance shows 0.00355598 GAS, this means you have a missing allocation of 0.00682698 GAS. Given no other information, the only assumption that can be made is that you have acquired 0.00682698 GAS at a cost of 0. In Recap you can represent this by creating a manual transaction which trades the market value for some asset for 0.00682698 GAS on a specific day.

Negative adjustment amounts and zero balance in Recap

Adjustment amounts that are negative and have a no balance in Recap indicate that you have missing acquisitions as the result of an airdrop or fork. If the adjustment currency is an asset as a result of a fork, you will need to add a manual fork transaction to your Kucoin account. If the currency is not a fork, you will need to enter this as a manual airdrop transaction to your Kucoin account.

As an example, if Recap reports no balance of ONT in the portfolio view, but in your Kucoin account you have a balance of 0.07133859 ONT, you could assume the 0.07133859 ONT is the result of an airdrop or fork.

This support guide is intended as an informative piece to help address missing transactions from V1 of the Kucoin's exchange. This is not accounting or tax advice. Please speak to a qualified tax professional about your specific circumstances before acting upon any of the information in this article.

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