KuCoin banned from NY operations, fined $5.3 million in settlement
Photo: Ted Shaffrey/AP
Attorney General Letitia James announced on Tuesday that her office has successfully obtained more than $22 million from the cryptocurrency trading platform, KuCoin, for illegal operations and failure to comply with state regulatory requirements.
This settlement includes over $16.7 million in refunds to more than 150,000 affected New York investors and a $5.3 million penalty paid to the state.
KuCoin, based in Seychelles, was found to have operated without registering as a securities and commodities broker-dealer and misrepresented itself as a crypto exchange, both of which are against New York law. The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) discovered that KuCoin was allowing New Yorkers to trade cryptocurrencies, including its own investment product “KuCoin Earn,” without the necessary state registration.