KuCoin announces a $10 million airdrop of KCS and BTC

What’s new? Crypto exchange KuCoin will hold an airdrop of KCS native tokens and bitcoins worth $10 million among users who have experienced long waits for withdrawal processing in the last two days. This was announced by the CEO of the exchange, Johnny Lyu. On March 26, the US Department of Justice filed criminal charges against KuCoin and its founders Chun Gan and Ke Tang, after which the platform experienced a significant outflow of funds.

Source: Twitter.com

What else is known? The co-founders of the exchange were accused of knowingly failing to register with the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), as well as to comply with customer identification procedures (KYC), which allowed the exchange to be used for money laundering.

Law enforcers alleged that the failure to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) regulations allowed KuCoin to gain significant market share in a short period of time, with a total of at least $5 billion flowing through it, linked to darknet marketplaces, ransomware, and fraudulent schemes, among other things.

They also noted that the exchange only introduced KYC procedures after the criminal investigation began in July 2023, and they only applied to new customers.

Later, analyst Colin Wu, citing sources, said that KuCoin’s management during this period began exploring the possibility of ceasing operations and selling the business.

Johnny Lyu promised to provide details about the airdrop in the next three days. Under the post from Lyu’s fake accounts, scammers have already started posting phishing links to link the crypto wallet purportedly to receive funds, the official airdrop page has not yet been presented.

Also in the discussion, participants asked whether users who did not withdraw funds against the background of recent events could count on something. Representatives of the exchange assured that customers “who’ve always been with” KuCoin will definitely be rewarded.

In his letter to users, Johnny Lyu also added that the exchange “will absolutely ensure the security of user assets as always and comply with regulations to fulfill our trust.”

At the time of writing the news, the KCS token ranks 105th in the cryptocurrency ranking by market capitalization with a figure of $1,15 billion and is trading at $11,95, having lost 4,6% overnight. The weekly drop amounted to 16,7%.