A U.S. federal court has approved a $500,000 settlement between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Peken Global Limited, the parent company of KuCoin. This settlement addresses claims regarding unregistered trading access for American users.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a consent order that permanently prohibits Peken Global from allowing U.S. participants to trade on KuCoin unless it registers as a foreign board of trade. The $500,000 civil penalty reflects the company’s cooperation with investigators, allowing it to avoid additional penalties.
The CFTC noted that the penalty considers KuCoin’s earlier $300 million payment to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, which was made in January 2025. Regulators allege that approximately 1.5 million U.S. customers utilized the exchange, generating around $184.5 million in fees from these users.
This month, Dubai’s crypto regulator also issued a warning about KuCoin, stating it may have provided services to Dubai residents without proper approval. The regulatory body has previously taken action against unlicensed firms, including a 2025 fine against 19 companies ranging from AED 100,000 to AED 600,000 for unauthorized activities.
The actions taken against BitMEX in 2020, Binance in 2023, and now KuCoin reflect a trend in U.S. regulators’ ongoing efforts to confront unregistered crypto exchanges serving U.S. customers. Other major offshore exchanges have faced similar scrutiny as regulators enhance oversight.
In 2023, Binance and its CEO reached a guilty plea agreement in the U.S., committing to penalties and compliance measures due to ineffective anti-money laundering (AML) controls while catering to U.S. users without proper registration. BitMEX also confronted CFTC and DOJ actions in October 2020 for allegedly operating unregistered platforms soliciting American traders from offshore.
Peken Global Limited is based in the Turks and Caicos Islands and resolved the case without admitting or denying the allegations.
