Canada levies a record penalty on KuCoin: timeline, key violations, and appeal response
📌 FINTRAC announced an administrative monetary penalty of C$19,552,000 (~US$14 million) against Peken Global Limited related to KuCoin. The decision took effect on July 28, 2025 and was made public on September 25, 2025, marking the largest penalty the agency has issued.
🔎 The findings center on 2021–2024 and include failure to register as a foreign money services business, roughly 3,000 large virtual-currency transactions at or above C$10,000 that went unreported, and 33 missing suspicious transaction reports, which collectively weakened financial-system oversight.
⚖️ KuCoin said it has filed an appeal with the Federal Court of Canada, challenging both the classification and the size of the penalty. The exchange states services remain available during the legal process while it steps up compliance measures.
⚠️ The action comes as Canada heads into a FATF evaluation in November 2025 and as global AML scrutiny of digital assets tightens, raising reporting expectations and operating standards for platforms active in the market.
#CryptoRegulation #AMLCompliance