On-chain investigator ZachXBT claims KuCoin sent a legal warning to a victim whose stolen $250,000 in crypto was allegedly laundered through KuCoin deposit addresses tied to purchased KYC accounts. The incident involves a August 2025 Atomic Stealer theft and raises concerns over KuCoin's AML controls and cooperation with victims.
The theft victim attempted to recover funds laundered through KuCoin, but instead received a legal threat from the exchange, prompting ZachXBT to publicize the matter. KuCoin has not publicly confirmed the allegations.
ZachXBTon-chain investigator / whistleblowerZachXBT is a crypto detective and Council members at Polygon Labs.
KuCoinTrade, earn, and grow with KuCoin.KuCoin is an international cryptocurrency exchange based out of Seychelle that currently supports the trading of 250 digital assets. What’s unique about KuCoin is that they share 50% of their overall trading fee revenue with users holding their exchange-based token. In a similar fashion to Binance, KuCoin offers relatively low tradings fees and incentives for holding (or trading) its native cryptocurrency. Back in 2011, the founders started researching blockchain tech and went further to build the technical architecture for KuCoin in 2013. 4 years later, the exchange launched with the ultimate goal of “becoming one of the top 10 worldwide hottest exchange platform[s]” by 2019. As stated on their official website which lists 12 core members, “Kucoin aims at providing users digital asset transaction and exchange services which are even more safe and convenient, integrating premium assets worldwide, and constructing state of the art transaction platform”. CEO and founder, Michael Gam, is a former technical expert at Ant Financial, an affiliate company of the Chinese Alibaba Group. He was also a senior partner at Internet giants like MikeCRM and KF5.COM. OO, Eric Don, is referred to as a “senior Internet researcher, systems architect, and Internet industry star”. He is also stated to be the CTO and senior partner of IT companies including YOULIN.COM, KITEME, and REINOT. However, it’s unclear if these websites actually exist as they did not show in a Google search or when entering the website domains. According to his LinkedIn, he is currently CTO at Youlin Network Technologies, yet there is no mention of KITEME or REINOT. With its growing user base and increasing number of cryptocurrencies being offered, KuCoin may be set up for a strong run in the markets. KuCoin Shares volume is expected to grow as the daily trading volume on KuCoin, hence, trading fees collection grows & thus, the size of dividend payout grows. This can lure investors to hold KCS token which m
Chain detective ZachXBT disclosed that KuCoin sent a legal threat to a victim of a $250K Atomic Stealer theft, alleging stolen funds were laundered through KuCoin accounts with purchased KYC.