On October 29 at 12:21 UTC, the crypto exchange KuCoin announced that it "will discontinue services for users in Russia and Belarus effective immediately". The notice covers all KuCoin products, services and features.
What the notice says
- The only reason given is "applicable legal and regulatory requirements". No specific law, regulator or sanction is named.
- There is no general withdrawal deadline. KuCoin says affected users will get a notification with deadlines and instructions, and that it will let them close positions and withdraw their assets.
- If you have not received a notification, no action is required, the exchange says, though your account remains subject to KuCoin's Terms of Use and applicable restrictions.
- KuCoin warns users to watch out for phishing and to contact it only through official channels.
On the same day, KuCoin updated its Terms of Use: Russia and Belarus are now on its list of restricted locations, along with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and others.
As of October 31, KuCoin had not published a public withdrawal deadline. It says deadlines will be given in notifications to individual users.
Not the first exchange this month
By RBC Crypto's count, KuCoin is the third major exchange to announce in October that it is cutting off users in Russia:
- On October 16, Bitget added Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan to its prohibited jurisdictions and began sending notices. On October 17 it publicly announced it was ending services for "certain users", without naming countries.
- On October 20, MEXC announced it was ending service for users in Russia and Belarus.
Kommersant and the Russian edition of BeInCrypto count KuCoin as the fourth, including HTX. HTX has made no official exit announcement, but its user agreement lists Russia among prohibited jurisdictions. On October 24, HTX's press office told kod.ru that deposits and withdrawals were working normally.
Sources: KuCoin, KuCoin Terms of Use, RBC Crypto, Kommersant, BeInCrypto, kod.ru.