Danielle Sassoon, an attorney for the Southern District of New York, said that KuCoin, a global cryptocurrency exchange, pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed exchange after failing to implement required anti-money laundering and know-your-customer programs. The statement was issued in a press release on January 27.
"For years, KuCoin avoided implementing required anti-money laundering policies designed to identify criminal actors and prevent illicit transactions," said Danielle R. Sassoon, according to U.S. Department of Justice. "As a result, KuCoin was used to facilitate billions of dollars' worth of suspicious transactions and to transmit potentially criminal proceeds, including proceeds from darknet markets and malware, ransomware, and fraud schemes. Today's guilty plea and penalties show the cost of refusing to follow these laws and allowing unlawful activity to continue. Brief Key phrase."
According to the press release, between 2017 and 2024, KuCoin’s platform served approximately 1.5 million U.S. users, generating at least $184.5 million in fees from its U.S. customer base despite failing to register as a money transmitting business with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The exchange allowed users to trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other digital assets, as well as derivatives such as futures contracts, without enforcing proper compliance measures. Investigators found that KuCoin employees publicly said that KYC was not mandatory, even after the company had significant U.S. market exposure. As part of the guilty plea agreement, KuCoin’s co-founders, Chun Gan and Ke Tang, will no longer have any role in the company’s management or operations.
Other cryptocurrency exchanges have increased their investments in anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) compliance programs. In 2023, Binance increased its compliance spending to $213 million, a 35% rise from the previous year, which included hiring 170 new compliance staff and integrating AI-driven monitoring tools, according to the Wall Street Journal. Coinbase allocated $50 million toward compliance enhancements as part of a $100 million settlement with the New York Department of Financial Services, committing to improvements over two years.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Danielle R. Sassoon is the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, overseeing all federal prosecutions and civil litigation in the district. She leads a staff of approximately 450 legal professionals and has been involved in cases such as the prosecution of Samuel Bankman-Fried and the racketeering trial of Lawrence Ray. A graduate of Harvard College (2008) and Yale Law School (2011), Sassoon previously clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia and has received awards including the FBI Director’s Award for Outstanding Criminal Investigation (2024).
KuCoin is a cryptocurrency exchange based in Seychelles, founded in 2017. According to its website, the platform supports over 900 digital assets and offers services such as spot trading, margin trading, peer-to-peer fiat trading (P2P), futures trading, and staking. As of January 2025, KuCoin reports serving 38 million users across more than 200 countries and regions.