Crypto exchange operator Peken Global Limited, the Turks and Caicos-incorporated company behind KuCoin, was banned from allowing US clients to access its electronic trading and order-matching system unless it registers with the CFTC as a foreign board of trade.
The US District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a consent order that also requires Peken Global to pay a $500,000 civil monetary penalty, the CFTC said.
The agency said it did not seek disgorgement, citing Peken Global’s cooperation in the investigation and in related proceedings. In that parallel action, Peken Global pleaded guilty in January 2025 to one count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and agreed to roughly $297 million in fines and forfeiture, according to Reuters.
The court also dismissed with prejudice all CFTC claims against the other defendants in the case: Mek Global Limited, PhoenixFin PTE Ltd., and Flashdot Limited. Counts II through V of the CFTC complaint against Peken Global were also dismissed.
Origins of the case
The CFTC filed its civil complaint in March 2024, charging four KuCoin-linked entities with operating an unregistered digital asset derivatives exchange, failing to register as a futures commission merchant, and running what the agency called a “sham” customer identification programme that did not prevent US users from trading commodity interests on the platform.
Monday’s consent order and the parallel dismissals resolve all remaining claims from that complaint. The lasting consequence is a permanent injunction: Peken Global cannot reopen US access to KuCoin without first registering as a foreign board of trade with the CFTC.
