KuCoin is making know-your-customer verification mandatory to better comply with regulations.
The exchange will restrict users who don’t go through know-your-customer, or KYC, registration from accessing certain features. According to a press release, non-KYC users will only be able to use “spot trading sell orders, futures trading deleveraging, margin trading deleveraging, KuCoin Earn redemption, and ETF redemption.”
Withdrawals will still be available, but deposit services will not.
“With the development of the cryptocurrency industry, crypto has gradually moved from a geek towards mass adoption. However, this process has also brought about certain security issues concerning on-chain assets,” KuCoin CEO Johnny Lyu said in a statement.
The new KYC registration goes into effect on July 15.
Binance, in 2021, made a similar move. It announced that new users had to go through an “intermediate verification” process to access Binance’s services and products. Through the process, users had to verify their country of residence and nationality and provide a government-issued ID.
KuCoin’s move comes after it faced legal action from multiple countries.
In March of this year, New York Attorney General Letitia James sued KuCoin, claiming that the Seychelles-based company operated in New York without registering as a securities and commodities broker-dealer.
KuCoin, however, was not the only crypto company targeted by James as the NYAG cracks down on crypto.
In June 2022, Canada’s Ontario Securities Commission banned KuCoin from operating in the Ontario province and fined the company 2.1 million Canadian dollars, or roughly $1.6 million.
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