The rise and fall of KuCoin
Warrants are out for the arrest of the co-founders of KuCoin with the multi-count criminal indictment providing a spectacular bookend to the story of the world’s once-fourth largest crypto exchange. But where did it all go wrong and how did KuCoin even start in the first place? The story of KuCoin starts not at its September 2017 founding or its 50% pre-mined ICO, but where everyone knew it would end: the US Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York. Despite KuCoin’s repeated claims that it never served nor advertised to US residents, like all similar claims by numerous large crypto exchanges, that was a lie. Indeed, KuCoin has always served US customers, which would be fine if it had followed US laws. Unfortunately, it didn’t. According to the chief federal law enforcement officer of the world’s largest financial center, KuCoin’s expansive operations can be easily summarized in one sentence. KuCoin was “a multibillion-dollar criminal conspiracy .” ‘A multi...