Kucoin told to halt new EU business due to compliance staffing shortfalls

Austria's fiscal regulator said Kucoin EU indispensable name an anti-money-laundering serviceman and lawman officer, arsenic good arsenic a sanctions compliance serviceman and deputy.

Feb 23, 2026, 10:24 a.m.

Austria's fiscal regulator said it prohibited the European limb of KuCoin from conducting caller concern and onboarding customers aft the crypto speech mislaid cardinal compliance unit conscionable months aft gaining a Markets successful Crypto Assets (MiCA) licence to run crossed the European Union.

KuCoin EU nary longer has cardinal relation holders successful anti-money laundering (AML) and prevention of violent financing roles, according to a statement from the regulator, the FMA, which granted the licence in November. The frost volition past until the steadfast appoints the indispensable compliance reporting staff, it said.

“The effectual staffing of these cardinal functions is simply a prerequisite for the orderly behaviour of business," the FMA said. The speech is "prohibited with contiguous effect from concluding concern relationships of immoderate benignant with caller customers and from concluding caller contracts oregon caller products wrong the scope of existing concern relationships until these cardinal functions person been appropriately filled.”

Kucoin said the positions are being filled arsenic portion of an enlargement of the compliance squad successful Austria.

"Our precedence successful Austria is to found a governance model that reflects the expectations of European regulators and the work we transportation toward the EU market," said Sabina Liu, managing manager of KuCoin EU. "By investing successful experienced section compliance professionals, we are reinforcing a compliance-first operating exemplary designed for semipermanent stableness and transparency."

Austria has go a fashionable destination for crypto exchanges looking to passport into Europe via MiCA, with the companies including Bitpanda, Bybit and Bitget establishing bases successful Vienna.

When the licence was granted, the FMA said the cardinal functions of AML serviceman and sanctions compliance serviceman and their respective deputies were occupied successful accordance with MiCA and the Financial Markets Anti-Money Laundering Act (FM-GwG; Finanzmarkt-Geldwäschegesetz).

“According to the FMA’s knowledge, this is nary longer the case,” the FMA said.

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