A federal court has ordered the operator of KuCoin to pay a $500,000 civil penalty and to stop serving U.S. customers unless it registers with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The order targets Peken Global Limited, one of the entities behind the KuCoin exchange, and ends a civil case over alleged unregistered derivatives trading.
Peken Global agreed to the settlement without admitting or denying the CFTC’s claims. The consent order permanently bars the company from future violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC rules and requires it to keep U.S. residents off the platform unless it becomes a registered foreign board of trade or futures intermediary.
CFTC Said KuCoin Ran an Illegal Derivatives Platform
In a previous complaint, the CFTC accused KuCoin-affiliated companies of operating an unlicensed offshore exchange that allowed US clients to trade leveraged cryptocurrency products, futures, and swaps. In reality, KuCoin allowed Americans to trade with little oversight, including no effective IP or VPN controls throughout crucial years, despite the company’s claims to block Americans, according to regulators.
The CFTC also alleged that KuCoin’s know‑your‑customer procedures were “a sham” and failed to stop U.S. users from accessing derivatives products. According to enforcement summaries, U.S. customers generated at least $110 million in trading fees, or more than $184 million, over several years, showing how important the market was for the exchange.
In 2024, CFTC enforcement director Ian McGinley warned that “for too long, some offshore crypto exchanges have followed a now‑familiar playbook” of claiming to block Americans while actually letting “anyone in the U.S. with commonly used technology” trade without proper identification.
Earlier DOJ Case and Larger Penalties
The CFTC settlement follows a separate criminal case brought by the U.S. Department of Justice against KuCoin and related entities. In January 2025, KuCoin Exchange entities entered a guilty plea and agreed to nearly $297 million in penalties and forfeitures tied to anti‑money‑laundering and sanctions violations, according to court summaries cited by market reports.
Because of those earlier penalties and KuCoin’s cooperation, the CFTC said it would not seek disgorgement in the civil case and would limit the new punishment to a $500,000 fine and trading and registration bans.
The latest order also removes a previous time limit on KuCoin’s U.S. exit and effectively turns it into an indefinite bar unless the exchange goes through the full U.S. registration process.
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