The crypto industry worldwide is moving through a far stricter regulatory phase than anything you saw, say, even a couple of years ago. Compliance now sits right at the center of global market expectations instead of being a secondary priority. And if you have been tracking these changes, you have likely seen KuCoin push toward tighter verification standards, regulatory registrations, and clearer compliance structures across several key markets. These steps place it inside a small group of peers that prioritize compliance as a structural requirement.
Over the past month, KuCoin has announced two major compliance milestones — obtaining the MiCAR license and registering with AUSTRAC. In this quick explainer, we take a look at KuCoin’s ongoing transition, its global regulatory progress, and how its approach fits into the wider compliance direction of the industry.
From “People’s Exchange” to a platform built on trust
KuCoin first grew under the label “People’s Exchange” with a focus on broad access, product variety, and competitive fees. That phase suited an industry in rapid expansion, where innovation more often than not moved faster than formal oversight.
Expectedly, as volumes, user numbers, and institutional interest increased, pure growth no longer served as the main goal. Especially considering that with time, major exchanges started facing tighter user verification rules, fund segregation, market surveillance, and incident response.
Any weakness in these areas could trigger legal and compliance risks, not to mention reputational damage and systemic spillover.
KuCoin’s “Trust First” direction is a response to those changing industry dynamics. The next phase of the platform’s security and compliance-centric approach is built on:
- Mandatory KYC across the platform, an earlier shift that started in 2023;
- Broader licensing drive in key jurisdictions; and
- External security certifications such as SOC 2 and ISO standards.
Global compliance footprint: Jurisdictions and regulatory progress
This evolution in strategy only makes sense when you look at the scale of KuCoin’s regulatory activity since around 2023-2024. The company now appears to pursue a clearer, more structured relationship with supervisors across several regions, each with its own reporting standards, internal controls, and conduct requirements.
This recent compliance phase took clearer shape with the formal registration in India under the Financial Intelligence Unit in March 2024. That step placed KuCoin inside an AML and CFT framework in one of the world’s largest digital asset markets.
From there, the company either secured or pursued regulatory status across the European Union, Poland, the Czech Republic, and El Salvador. Each jurisdiction introduced its own set of disclosures, internal control expectations, and user-protection rules, which pushed KuCoin toward a more consistent approach across regions.
The most recent milestone came in Australia. KuCoin securонed AUSTRAC registration as a Digital Currency Exchange, which places its Australian entity under direct oversight for digital asset services.
All factors considered, these actions show a clear move toward a more predictable and transparent compliance footprint. The exchange now interacts with regulators across markets that aim to tighten rules rather than relax them. And that initiative places its operational model under sustained external review.
The industry impact: Higher expectations for global crypto standards
This broader regulatory footprint does more than place KuCoin inside multiple compliance frameworks. It also reflects a wider move that affects every major exchange.
Once authorities in regions such as the EU, India, Australia, and Hong Kong started enforcing stricter identity rules and clearer operational requirements, the bar for the entire sector moved upward.
Platforms now face closer scrutiny of custody models, liquidity controls, internal audits, and disclosures to supervisory bodies. Any exchange that operates across several regions must show that its rules match the strictest market in its footprint, not the most flexible one.
This creates a natural push toward stronger verification standards, clearer reporting structures, and more predictable oversight.
KuCoin’s approach so far sits inside that trend rather than outside it. Its registrations and certifications show how major exchanges should ideally adjust when regulators expect consistency across jurisdictions.
The company’s realignment also highlights the direction the industry now moves toward:
- Fewer optional rules
- More mandatory checks
- A clearer separation between compliant operations and high-risk models.
This change does not reshape user access alone. It shapes how liquidity flows across markets, how institutional players assess counterparties, and how exchanges prepare for future rulebooks that may resemble traditional finance more closely.
KuCoin’s current phase gives one example of that transition, and the next section examines where its regulatory pathway may lead from here.
KuCoin’s regulatory roadmap
This multi-region approach now sets the base for KuCoin’s next phase, which depends on deeper coordination with regulators in markets that aim to tighten oversight.
The AUSTRAC milestone, for instance, signals that direction clearly. At the same time, it also raises expectations for the company’s future steps across Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
In practical terms, the next stage revolves around three areas.
- First, the company is expected to expand its licensing work in jurisdictions where rulebooks now demand stricter disclosure, clearer custody models, and stronger segregation of client assets.
- Second, regions with new digital asset frameworks. These may include the European Union under MiCA and Hong Kong under its licensing regime considering they now require exchanges to update internal controls on a continuous basis (not only at the time of registration).
- Third, KuCoin faces the task of keeping its verification, monitoring, and reporting systems consistent across all markets. This is so that users and regulators do not see a different standard in each region.
Note that these expectations do not necessarily apply to KuCoin alone. Rather, they reflect a wider direction for major exchanges that now operate across several regulatory environments with different levels of maturity.
Platforms with global reach must show that their compliance model works under the strictest rules in their footprint, which creates a more uniform standard for the industry.
The path ahead for KuCoin
KuCoin’s next steps sit inside those changing dynamics. Its current structure already includes AUSTRAC oversight, FIU registration in India, engagement with European and Hong Kong regulators, and external security certifications.
The next phase will likely involve deeper consolidation of these frameworks, with a focus on transparency, auditability, and consistent rule application across markets that continue to refine their digital asset regulations.
