KuCoin just got absolutely demolished by Canadian regulators who handed them a brutal $14 million fine for completely ignoring anti-money laundering rules. This is the biggest penalty of its kind in Canada’s history, and it shows just how fed up authorities are getting with crypto exchanges that think they can play fast and loose with the law.
The stuff they found was pretty damning. From 2021 to 2024, KuCoin somehow “forgot” to report almost 3,000 large cryptocurrency transactions that were supposed to be flagged under Canadian regulations. On top of that, they completely missed 33 separate instances where suspicious activity might have been connected to money laundering or funding terrorism.
Canada’s FINTRAC agency didn’t pull any punches when they called some of these violations “severe.” The exchange’s parent company in the Seychelles apparently never even bothered registering as a foreign money services business, which is basically step one if you want to operate legally in Canada.
KuCoin is pushing back pretty aggressively, calling the whole thing “excessive and punitive” while filing an appeal in federal court. They’re claiming FINTRAC doesn’t even have the authority to classify them the way they did under Canadian law.
This is just the latest mess for KuCoin, though. They already got crushed by US regulators earlier this year, paying almost $300 million and agreeing to completely shut down their American operations. Ontario also went after them in 2023 for operating without registration.
Conclusion
Canadian regulators hit KuCoin with a record $14 million fine for failing to report thousands of large crypto transactions and missing suspicious money laundering activities.
Also Read: Canada Police Seize Millions From Crypto Exchange
