KuCoin Barred From US Users Following CFTC Settlement Approval

Highlights:

• KuCoin agreed to pay a $500,000 fine and now cannot serve US users without registration.
• The court order turned its US exit into a long-term ban with no clear return timeline.
• Regulators acted across two cases to enforce rules and stop unregistered trading.

Peken Global Limited, the operator of the crypto exchange KuCoin, agreed to pay a $500,000 civil penalty to settle a case with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. A US District Court in the Southern District of New York approved the consent order and finalized the settlement. The order does not permit the company to provide trading services to US residents before registering with the CFTC as a foreign board of trade. This status has become a definite legal necessity for any further US operations.

CFTC permanently bans KuCoin from serving U.S. users, imposes $500K penalty after DOJ's $297M case. Exchange accused of illegal operations, non-compliance with AML/KYC. Impacts global crypto market sentiment.

— News Stream (@StreamNews_ank) March 31, 2026

Furthermore, this order substituted the previous two-year US ban on the exchange with a permanent ban. Before the ruling, the platform had scaled back US access under a temporary arrangement. The new ruling, however, eliminates that time frame and imposes an indefinite limit on market access.

The settlement was not an admission or a refusal of the charges made by the CFTC in its lawsuit against Peken Global under the Biden administration. The settlement settles all the claims related to that case. The regulators looked into the fact that the platform enabled US users to access trading services without adequate supervision.

KuCoin Faces Long-Term US Market Shutdown After Regulatory Action

The CFTC settlement follows a criminal case brought by the Department of Justice in January last year. In that case, the exchange pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business within the United States. The company agreed to pay nearly $300 million in fines and forfeitures to resolve those charges.

The CFTC did not seek additional disgorgement in the civil case because of that prior penalty. Regulators stated that the forfeiture order in the DOJ case already addressed financial gains. They also cited Peken Global’s cooperation during the investigation as a key factor in their decision. As a result, the agency imposed only a $500,000 fine and operational restrictions.

Federal Court Enters Permanent Injunction Against Peken Global Limited: https://t.co/ceUdshuxK5

— CFTC (@CFTC) March 30, 2026

At the same time, the CFTC detailed several violations linked to the KuCoin platform’s trading activity. The agency stated that the exchange offered commodity futures, swaps, and leveraged products without registering with the regulator. It also confirmed that the firm failed to register as a futures commission merchant.

Furthermore, regulators explained that the platform used weak know-your-customer procedures that failed to block US users. These failures allowed US customers to trade on the platform between July 2019 and June 2023. The agency stated that the company continued to accept orders from US users during this period.

User Base Revenue Impact And Affiliate Case Closure

The enforcement action also revealed the scale of the platform’s US user activity during the investigation period. The exchange had about 1.5 million registered users located in the United States. These users generated at least $184.5 million in trading fees, according to figures cited by the Department of Justice. A separate estimate from the CFTC placed US-related fees at about $110 million.

After years of operation without stringent verification measures, the KuCoin exchange implemented know-your-customer requirements in August 2023. The company did not, however, provide these checks to existing accounts already on the platform. Other claims against Mek Global Limited, PhoenixFin PTE Ltd., and Flashdot Limited that were part of the exchange activities were also dismissed by the court. The motion to dismiss left Peken Global as the sole defendant.