A U.S. federal court has approved a $500,000 settlement
between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and KuCoin’s parent
company, Peken Global Limited, ending a long-running case over unregistered
trading access for American users.
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U.S. regulators have pursued a similar path with other major
offshore exchanges in recent years, underscoring that KuCoin is not an isolated
case.
CFTC Case Resolves with Court Order
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New
York entered a consent order that permanently bars Peken Global from allowing
U.S. users to trade on KuCoin unless it registers as a foreign board of
trade.
The court also imposed a $500,000 civil penalty. Peken
Global, based in the Turks and Caicos Islands, settled the matter without
admitting or denying the allegations. The CFTC said the company cooperated with
investigators and therefore did not face additional disgorgement.
Federal Court Enters Permanent Injunction Against Peken Global Limited: https://t.co/ceUdshuxK5
— CFTC (@CFTC) March 30, 2026
The CFTC noted that its penalty took into account KuCoin’s
earlier $300 million payment following a Department of Justice case in January
2025. In that case, KuCoin pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money
transmitting business.
Previous DOJ Fine Considered in Settlement
Regulators alleged the exchange allowed roughly 1.5 million
U.S. customers to trade and earned about $184.5 million in fees from those
users.
Additionally, this month, Dubai’s crypto regulator issued a public warning about KuCoin, saying the exchange may have offered services to Dubai residents without approval. The watchdog has a record of acting against unlicensed firms. In 2025, it fined 19 companies between AED 100,000 and AED 600,000 and ordered them to halt unauthorized crypto activities.
Taken together, BitMEX’s 2020 charges, Binance’s high‑profile
2023 guilty pleas, and KuCoin’s latest
settlement in 2025–2026 chart a clear arc in
Washington’s years‑long campaign
against unregistered crypto exchanges that quietly catered to U.S. customers.
Binance reached a landmark resolution in 2023, when it and its CEO
pleaded guilty in the U.S. and agreed to sweeping penalties and compliance
obligations over failing to implement effective AML controls while serving U.S.
users without proper registration.
BitMEX was earlier hit by CFTC and DOJ actions announced in
October 2020, after it allegedly operated an unregistered crypto derivatives
platform and solicited American traders from offshore.
This article was written by Jared Kirui at www.financemagnates.com.
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