The LSE Directory / Crypto exchanges
KuCoin is a centralized cryptocurrency exchange, headquartered in Seychelles, that lets users trade spot and derivatives markets across more than 1,000 digital assets. Beyond spot trading, the platform offers futures and options contracts, margin and leveraged trading, staking and lending products, a built in trading bot and copy trading suite, and consumer facing tools such as the KuCard Visa debit card and KuCoin Pay merchant payments. It also runs its own EVM compatible blockchain, KuCoin Community Chain (KCC), and a Web3 wallet product. The exchange has built its identity around breadth of listing rather than a narrow institutional focus. It markets itself as "the People's Exchange" and has positioned wide altcoin coverage, low listing barriers and derivatives liquidity as its main draw against larger rivals such as Binance and OKX. Its user base skews retail and international, with the company citing more than 45 million registered users across upwards of 200 countries and territories, and it has historically served markets, including parts of Asia and other emerging economies, that some competitors were slower to prioritise. KuCoin was founded in China in 2017 by Chun "Michael" Gan and Ke "Eric" Tang, alongside Johnny Lyu, who went on to serve as CEO; the company relocated its base first to Hong Kong, then Singapore, before settling its headquarters in Seychelles. It raised roughly 20 million dollars in a Series A round in November 2018 (IDG Capital, Matrix Partners, Neo Global Capital) and a 150 million dollar Series B in May 2022 led by Jump Crypto at a reported 10 billion dollar valuation, with a further 10 million dollars invested by Susquehanna International Group later that year. In September 2020, KuCoin suffered a 281 million dollar security breach attributed to North Korea's Lazarus Group; the company has said roughly 78 percent of the stolen funds were recovered directly, with a further 6 percent clawed back by law enforcement and the remainder covered by insurance. In January 2025, KuCoin pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, agreeing to pay penalties of nearly 300 million dollars and to exit the U.S. market for at least two years; founders Gan and Tang stepped down and each forfeited 2.7 million dollars, and BC Wong, formerly the company's Chief Legal Officer, was named CEO that same month. KuCoin's U.S. exit was made permanent in March 2026, when its operating entity, Peken Global Limited, settled a related CFTC civil case for 500,000 dollars and accepted an injunction barring it from offering derivatives to U.S. residents without registration. In Europe, KuCoin's EU unit obtained a MiCA license in late 2025 but was barred by Austria's Financial Market Authority in February 2026 from taking on new customers after losing key anti-money-laundering compliance staff; the new-business ban was lifted in May 2026 once those roles were refilled, though full commencement of EU operations remained restricted as of that update. Separately, in 2025 KuCoin began listing USD1, the stablecoin issued by World Liberty Financial, the Trump family linked DeFi venture.
