Dutch Central Bank Says KuCoin Violates Anti-Money Laundering Act

• The Dutch Central Bank (DNB) warns that KuCoin is not registered with them.
• DNB stated that KuCoin is providing crypto services in violation of the Anti-money laundering and terrorist financing act.
• The bank also stated that they are illegally offering exchange services.

In one of their recent announcements, the central bank of the Netherlands, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), issued a warning for investors against KuCoin. DNB stated that KuCoin was not legally registered with the bank and was operating illegally.

The announcement that was made on December 15 stated that MEK Global Limited, which was running its business in the Netherlands as KuCoin, had failed to comply with the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Act.

DNB also mentioned that KuCoin is illegally operating by providing exchange services between virtual currencies and fiat currencies, as well as custodial wallets.

MGL customers are not in violation, but they may be at increased risk of becoming involved in money laundering or terrorist financing.

In September 2017, Johnny Lyu launched KuCoin, which operates in over 200 countries across the globe. The exchange began its services in the Netherlands in October 2019. DNB didn’t mention what actions to take against KuCoin for the violation.

DNB had previously accused Binance of illegal operations in 2021 for violating AML and CFT regulations. CZ’s exchange paid more than 3 million euros as a fine for the violations.

KuCoin is not new to regulatory scrutiny. The exchange was banned in Canada in June over regulatory violations. The Ontario Securities Commission stated that KuCoin failed to comply with the securities law. The securities commission asked KuCoin to pay a fine of $1.6 million as a penalty.