KuCoin has introduced a new leveraged perpetual contract tied to newly listed SHEIN shares, but its launch documentation contains an unusual error: one section identifies Tencent Holdings as the underlying company while attaching SHEIN’s Hong Kong stock code to the name.
The exchange announced the SHEINHKDUSDT stock-index perpetual on September 1 alongside a similar contract tracking Kuaishou Technology. KuCoin describes SHEINHKDUSDT as a synthetic leveraged derivative designed to track the real-time spot-price performance of SHEIN Global Holdings Limited, listed in Hong Kong under stock code 0625.
That description is correct.
However, further down the same announcement, in a section explaining how the contract’s “quanto” structure works, KuCoin states that “Tencent Holdings Limited (HKEX: 0625)” is the equity priced in Hong Kong dollars.
The company name and stock code do not match.
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing identifies stock code 625 as SHEIN Global Holdings Limited. Tencent Holdings is listed separately under stock code 700. HKEX’s current weekly stock-options list places SHEIN at 625 and Tencent at 700, while the exchange’s new-listing records also identify SHEIN as code 625.
The conflicting wording remained visible on KuCoin’s English-language announcement when checked on September 2.
Most of the document points consistently to SHEIN. The product is called SHEINHKDUSDT, the contract table names SHEIN Global Holdings Limited as the underlying equity, and the correct HKEX code 0625 is used throughout. The Tencent reference appears specifically in KuCoin’s explanation of the quanto mechanism.
There is currently no indication from the publicly available documentation that the contract itself is technically linked to Tencent rather than SHEIN. The available evidence instead points to a documentation or copy-and-paste error. KuCoin’s live trading page also uses the SHEINHKDUSDT contract identifier, although the publicly crawlable version of the trading interface does not expose enough pricing-source information to independently verify the underlying index configuration.
That distinction matters. A wrongly named company in explanatory text is different from a derivative actually tracking the wrong market feed.
KuCoin says the SHEIN product offers leverage of up to 20 times, settles in USDT and charges funding every eight hours. Unlike the Hong Kong-listed share, the synthetic perpetual can be traded around the clock.
The contract is structured as a quanto perpetual because the reference equity is priced in Hong Kong dollars while margin, profit and loss, and settlement are denominated in USDT. KuCoin says it uses a 1:1 calculation ratio between HKD and USDT for the product rather than performing an actual currency conversion.
That means a trader could, for example, take a leveraged position based on movements in SHEIN’s Hong Kong share price while maintaining the entire derivatives position in crypto-denominated collateral.
The launch came on the same day SHEIN itself began trading in Hong Kong.
HKEX said the fast-fashion company’s Class B shares would start trading on September 1 under stock code 625. The exchange simultaneously introduced weekly and monthly SHEIN options and made the shares eligible for short selling, creating a derivatives market around the stock from its first day as a public company.
SHEIN priced its IPO at HK$48.56 a share, raising roughly $1.7 billion and receiving a market valuation of about $26 billion. Its shares initially fell sharply during their first trading session before recovering much of the decline.
KuCoin has been steadily expanding this type of equity-linked crypto derivative.
The exchange launched its stock-index perpetual product line in March with contracts referencing companies including Tesla and Strategy. KuCoin promoted the products as a way for eligible crypto users to trade equity-price exposure 24 hours a day without owning the actual shares.
It has since added contracts linked to Apple, Microsoft, Alibaba, Broadcom, Netflix, AMD, Coca-Cola and several Asian-listed companies. Some newer listings have offered leverage as high as 20 times.
KuCoin’s general product documentation explains that the contracts use special pricing rules when the underlying equity market is closed. During normal trading hours, the index is intended to closely track the underlying stock, while smoothing and different mark-price parameters can apply during periods when the traditional exchange has little or no liquidity.
The documentation mistake therefore appears inside a rapidly expanding product category that connects traditional securities prices with crypto derivatives infrastructure.
A Small Typo With a Bigger Disclosure Problem
At first glance, calling SHEIN “Tencent” looks like an ordinary copy-editing mistake.
It probably is.
But there is a reason this kind of mistake deserves more attention in a derivatives document than it would in a blog post.
The product allows leverage of up to 20x. Traders are not simply reading an article about SHEIN; they are using the information to understand what determines the value of a contract that can liquidate a position when prices move against them.
The underlying asset is one of the most basic pieces of information a derivatives provider needs to get right.
In this case, the rest of KuCoin’s documentation makes the intended answer fairly obvious. The symbol says SHEIN. The main contract table says SHEIN. The HKEX code says 0625. HKEX confirms 0625 belongs to SHEIN.
Only the company name “Tencent” is wrong.
That makes a copy-and-paste error the most plausible explanation rather than some deeper product malfunction.
Still, it creates an avoidable question: if one of the most visible fields was copied incorrectly, how carefully were the other contract parameters checked before launch?
That question becomes more relevant because SHEINHKDUSDT is not a simple futures contract trading during the same hours as its reference share.
SHEIN itself trades during Hong Kong market hours. KuCoin’s derivative trades 24/7.
When the Hong Kong market is closed, traders are therefore relying on KuCoin’s index methodology, mark-price controls and smoothing mechanisms rather than a continuously trading underlying share. KuCoin explicitly warns that liquidity conditions and pricing behavior can differ substantially during those periods.
The quanto structure adds another layer. SHEIN is priced in HKD while the perpetual settles in USDT, and KuCoin applies a fixed 1:1 ratio for calculation purposes. That makes clear documentation particularly important because the product already behaves differently from simply buying a SHEIN share through a Hong Kong broker.
There is another reason the timing stands out.
KuCoin launched the perpetual essentially alongside SHEIN’s market debut, when the stock had almost no public trading history. Traditional derivatives venues were also launching their own SHEIN products at the same time, but HKEX’s options are attached directly to the listed security and operate inside the established securities-market framework. KuCoin is offering a separate synthetic instrument that can keep trading after the underlying exchange closes.
That can be attractive to crypto traders, but it makes clarity over exactly what the instrument represents more important, not less.
The most reasonable interpretation for now is narrow: KuCoin appears to have misnamed SHEIN as Tencent in one paragraph while using SHEIN’s correct stock code and contract identity elsewhere.
There is no public evidence at this stage that traders are actually being given Tencent exposure through the SHEIN contract.
But for a platform increasingly blending equities with high-leverage crypto derivatives, the error is a useful reminder that product documentation is part of the risk-control system too.
When the product can move 20 times faster than the capital behind the trade, getting the underlying company’s name right should be the easy part.