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 latestsettlement 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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