Following the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) legal action against Kucoin and its founders, analysts from Nansen specializing in real-time onchain data revealed that Kucoin experienced a withdrawal of $99 million in Ethereum-based assets and $109 million in outflows from various EVM-compatible chains.
Ethereum and EVM Chains See $200 Million Outflow From Kucoin
On a Tuesday, Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced the indictment of Kucoin and its founders. U.S. authorities allege that Kucoin breached the Bank Secrecy Act and failed to implement requisite anti-money laundering measures. At 2:10 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on March 26, 2024, Nansen, the onchain intelligence company revealed that Kucoin had seen over $200 million in outflows from specific blockchains.
“Since the news broke about [Kucoin] and two of its founders being charged with violating anti-money laundering laws by U.S. federal prosecutors, there has been an increase in withdrawals. -$99m on Ethereum and -$109m across EVM chains,” Nansen posted to X.
Kucoin flows shared by Nansen on the social media platform X at 2:10 p.m. ET on March 26, 2024.
It’s not unusual for withdrawal activity to spike following such incidents, and Binance experienced a similar uptick in withdrawals after the DOJ brought charges against the world’s largest exchange by volume. Withdrawal transactions from Kucoin on Tuesday showcased a diverse range of tokens including sizable sums of ARB, TRX, USDT, and XAI.
According to Nansen’s exchange portfolio analytics, as of March 26 at 4:10 p.m. ET, Kucoin’s crypto holdings are valued at approximately $5.92 billion. Close to 52.49% of Kucoin’s portfolio comprises USDT, BTC, ETH, KCS, and SOL. The balance consists of an assortment of other crypto assets. Of this 52.49%, 3.97% comes from Kucoin’s proprietary exchange token, KCS.
Following the DOJ’s legal action, the value of the kucoin token, KCS, has decreased by 14%. Kucoin addressed the charges at 11:40 a.m. ET on Tuesday and noted that the exchange was “operating well” and user assets “are absolutely safe.” The exchange’s social media account has even posted a normal promotional X post following the update Tuesday morning.
What do you think about the outflows Kucoin has seen following the indictment? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.