Radhika Parashar
- KuCoin is touted among the largest crypto exchanges internationally
- In 2022, Canada’s Ontario’s had also levied legal breach allegations against KuCoin
- The exchange has filed an appeal against the allegations before the Federal Court of Canada
KuCoin has announced that it has filed an appeal against Canada’s allegations of the exchange having breached its anti money laundering laws. On September 25, the Seychelles-based exchange said it has submitted an appeal before the Federal Court of Canada against the levied allegations as well as the penalty of $14 million (CAD 19.5 million).
In March this year, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) issued a notice of violation against KuCoin’s operating entity Peken Global Limited. Later in July, the authority imposed a penalty of CAD $19.5 million against KuCoin.
Filing the appeal against this step from FINTRAC KuCoin said that while it “respects the decision-making process and remains committed to regulatory compliance and transparency, it disagrees with both the finding that KuCoin is a Foreign Money Services Business and the penalty imposed, which KuCoin maintains is excessive and punitive in nature.”
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BC Wong, the CEO of KuCoin has also published his statement on X defending the exchange against FINTRAC’s allegations.
According to FINTRAC, Kucoin failed to register with the agency as a foreign money services business. Additionally, the agency said that the exchange failed to report single transactions exceeding CAD 10,000, and did not submit reports on suspicious transactions which may have been linked to money laundering or terror financing offences.
For now, details on the legal proceedings on the case remain awaited.
Meanwhile, FINTRAC has intensified oversight over crypto activities in Canada over the recent years.
It has claimed that between 2024 and 2025, the agency issued 23 notices of violation citing non-compliance to businesses — levying fines of upto CAD 25 million.
As far as KuCoin is concerned, this is not the first such case where its business practice has been called out for alleged non-compliance with regulations. The Ontario Securities Commission had logged a similar case against KuCoin in 2022. This year, the company settled for $300 million with the U.S. Department of Justice, pleading guilty of unlicensed operations. As a result, the exchange is not presently operational in the U.S.
