cryptocurrency exchange KuCoinMore than $1 billion has flown out in the last 24 hours after US prosecutors filed criminal charges against the exchange and its two founders, Chun Gan and Ke Tang, for violating anti-money laundering laws. noted.
The US Department of Justice indictment stated that although the crypto exchange operated as a money transmitting business and served more than 30 million customers, it was not registered with any US government agency.
As Koinfinans.com reported, KuCoin also did not have any KYC (know your customer) or AML (anti-money laundering) program until 2023.
For the last 24 hours, #KuCoin has seen an outflow of $1.197B due to the news.
NEWS CONTINUES BELOWInclude:
274M $USDT
19866 $ETH ($72M)Users started to withdraw assets to avoid potential risks, for example, a whale withdrew 532B $PEPE ($4.35M) $PEPE 6 hours ago
NEWS CONTINUES BELOWData:https://t.co/PMnxW0etPY pic.twitter.com/hhXw0orG0f
— Scopescan (@0xScopescan) March 27, 2024
KuCoin Reserves Decline Following US Department of Justice Indictment
According to on-chain analytics platform Scopescan, over $1 billion has left the platform in the last 24 hours. While KuCoin’s current balance across all chains is $3.821 billion, a significant outflow was recorded from the previous level of $4.8 billion. In the last 24 hours, assets worth over $274 million in USDT, over $155 million in Ethereum, and $90 million in BTC have left the exchange.
After the DoJ announced its indictment against the exchange, several crypto whales began withdrawing their funds from KuCoin.
Due to the negative news of #KuCoinwhales are transferring assets from #KuCoin to other exchanges.
Whale”0x1abc” withdrew 54M $USDT from #KuCoin and transferred it to #OKX in the past 9 hours.
Whale”0x5212″ withdrew 32M $USDT from #KuCoin and transferred it to #bybit 50 mins… pic.twitter.com/7A74OrdtE7
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) March 27, 2024
In an investigation opened in the USA in 2023, it was announced that the stock exchange was on the verge of closing or that all its rights were planned to be sold directly due to the increasing pressure in China. At that time, rival sites such as Binance also followed this situation closely and took advantage of possible opportunities.
In the US, the CFTC classified many major digital assets as “commodities” in its complaint against KuCoin, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, as well as stablecoins such as USDC and USDT. This indictment sheds new light on the SEC’s ongoing investigation into the Ethereum Foundation, where Ethereum’s classification as a security is interpreted as one of its goals.
The CFTC also said it is seeking “damages, civil penalties, permanent trading and registration bans, and a permanent injunction against further violations of CEA and CFTC regulations as charged.”
