KuCoin Expands European Compliance Team in Austria
Crypto exchange KuCoin announced an expansion of its local compliance and governance team in Austria. The company stated the move is part of a long-term commitment to responsible and regulated growth within the European market. The expansion aims to ensure the exchange adheres to regional regulatory frameworks.
- This compliance expansion follows a recent order from Austria's Financial Market Authority (FMA) that prohibited KuCoin's EU entity from taking on new customers or concluding new contracts. - The FMA's enforcement action was a direct result of KuCoin failing to properly staff key roles required by law, including its money laundering and sanctions officers. - The hiring push is a necessary step for KuCoin to restore its operations after the regulator's intervention, which occurred just months after the exchange first received its Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) license in Austria in November 2025. - This European regulatory challenge coincides with major legal pressure in the United States, where the Department of Justice has charged KuCoin and its founders with conspiring to violate the Bank Secrecy Act. - The U.S. indictment alleged that KuCoin processed over $9 billion in suspicious and criminally-derived funds by failing to maintain an adequate anti-money laundering (AML) program. - In a separate case in December 2023, KuCoin paid over $22 million to settle a lawsuit from the New York Attorney General for operating illegally, which included a refund of $16.7 million to New York investors. - The exchange has faced prior issues in Europe, including a warning from the Dutch central bank in December 2022 for offering services without being legally registered in the Netherlands.
