KuCoin Defies Legal Turmoil, Returns to Indian Play Store Amidst DOJ and CFTC Battles

The return of KuCoin to the Play Store in India despite recent legal issues marks a significant development for Indian crypto investors. Despite facing charges from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for violating anti-money laundering laws and a lawsuit from the U.S. CFTC over its ETH margin trading, KuCoin is making efforts to continue its operations.

However, data from Kaiko shows that the impact of these charges has been substantial. Following the lawsuit announcements on March 26, KuCoin experienced a significant decrease in daily volume and market share. Daily volume dropped from around $2 billion to $520 million, and market share halved from 6.5% to less than 3%.

Kaiko’s Wallet Data indicates that KuCoin users have been transferring their funds to other centralized exchanges like Coinbase, Binance, OKX, MEXC, and Gate.io, which they perceive as safer options. Some outflows can also be attributed to market makers leaving the exchange. In addition, users are sending funds directly to their on-chain wallets.

Outflows from wallets attributed to KuCoin amounted to more than $600 million on March 26, surpassing inflows by a significant margin. Most of the outflows consisted of USDT and ETH. It’s worth noting that these inflows and outflows exclude transactions made between KuCoin addresses and only include on-chain transactions between KuCoin and other exchanges or wallets.

Interestingly, despite the DOJ’s claims, there is no direct interaction between KuCoin and Tornado Cash on the Ethereum blockchain. However, all funds stolen from KuCoin’s hack in 2020 have been “privatized” using Tornado Cash, representing a substantial amount of ETH.