(Reuters) – Federal prosecutors in Manhattan on Tuesday accused KuCoin, one of many world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, of failing to vet its prospects and enabling the switch of billions of {dollars} in illicit funds since its founding in 2017. , was charged with violating U.S. anti-money laundering legal guidelines. .

Prosecutors mentioned the Seychelles-based change solicited trades from U.S. prospects with out registering with the Treasury Division or implementing buyer identification procedures required by U.S. legislation. .

KuCoin posted on social media web site X that buyer property are protected and that its legal professionals are investigating the allegations.

“KuCoin respects the legal guidelines and laws of every nation and strictly adheres to compliance requirements.”

Prosecutors additionally charged the change's founders, Chinese language nationals Chung Gang, 34, and Ke Tan, 39, with conspiracy. They continue to be at massive, prosecutors mentioned.

Individually, the U.S. Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee filed a civil lawsuit towards KuCoin, alleging that KuCoin didn’t register its futures and swaps exercise with regulators.

In December, KuCoin agreed to pay $22 million to settle a lawsuit introduced by the state for blocking New York customers from its platform and failing to register them.

In line with information agency CoinMarketCap, KuCoin underperforms Binance, Coinbase (NASDAQ:), and Kraken amongst crypto spot exchanges on elements resembling site visitors, liquidity, and buying and selling quantity.