KuCoin Restricted Countries 2026 (Official List)
KuCoin’s Terms of Use, last updated 29 July 2026, list the Restricted Locations in Article 17(5): the United States and its territories, Singapore, mainland China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ontario and British Columbia, France, the Netherlands and five occupied regions of Ukraine. Sanctioned countries are not named at all — KuCoin screens for them instead.
The full KuCoin restricted-locations list (2026)
Article 17(5) of KuCoin’s Terms of Use, last updated 29 July 2026, is the only official list, and it is short: eleven named countries and sub-national regions plus five occupied regions of Ukraine. The clause binds you personally — you undertake that you are “not a resident of or registered in” any of them — and KuCoin reserves the right to update the list “from time to time at the Platform’s sole and absolute discretion”.
| Location | KuCoin status | Category (our read) |
|---|---|---|
| United States plus territories: Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa | ✗ Restricted | Criminal resolution — exit until at least 2027 |
| Singapore | ✗ Restricted | Licensing — no local authorisation |
| Mainland China | ✗ Restricted | Licensing — no local authorisation |
| Hong Kong | ✗ Restricted | Licensing — no local authorisation |
| Malaysia | ✗ Restricted | Licensing — no local authorisation |
| Kazakhstan | ✗ Restricted | Licensing — no local authorisation |
| Uzbekistan | ✗ Restricted | Licensing — no local authorisation |
| Ontario, Canada the rest of Canada is not named | ✗ Restricted | Licensing — no local authorisation |
| British Columbia, Canada | ✗ Restricted | Licensing — no local authorisation |
| France | ✗ Restricted | EU / MiCA — EU entity cannot start operating |
| Netherlands | ✗ Restricted | EU / MiCA — EU entity cannot start operating |
| Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions of Ukraine | ✗ Restricted | Occupied region — sanctions |
France and the Netherlands: the EU story behind the ban
KuCoin does have an EU licence — it just cannot use it yet. Austria’s Financial Market Authority granted KuCoin EU Exchange GmbH (Am Grünen Prater 2, 1020 Vienna) a MiCAR crypto-asset service provider authorisation on 27 November 2025, covering custody, crypto-to-funds and crypto-to-crypto exchange, placing and transfer services.
Then it went sideways. On 19 February 2026 the FMA found that the entity no longer had suitable holders of the Anti-Money-Laundering Officer and Sanctions Compliance Officer functions, and prohibited it from taking on new business of any kind — that notice has since been taken off the FMA’s live news list, so the link goes to the archived copy. The FMA lifted that ban on 18 May 2026 once those roles were filled again — but stated in the same notice that commencement of business operations remains inadmissible under a decision of 18 February 2026, because governance requirements and further senior key functions are still unmet. That was the position as of the FMA’s latest published notice; French and Dutch residents therefore have no KuCoin entity to sign up with.
Canada: only Ontario and British Columbia
Article 17(5) names “Ontario, and British Columbia of Canada” and stops there, so KuCoin’s own terms do not restrict Alberta, Quebec or any other province. That makes it the least restrictive of the big offshore exchanges in Canada — Bybit, MEXC, Bitget and BloFin all block the country outright. ⚠ Verify your provincial securities regulator’s position before you rely on that: a platform’s terms and a regulator’s registration requirements are two different things.
The United States: a guilty plea, not a policy choice
KuCoin is out of the US because a court says so. On 27 January 2025 the US Department of Justice announced that PEKEN Global Limited, the Seychelles entity that has operated KuCoin since at least September 2019, pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, agreed to pay penalties of more than $297 million, and agreed that KuCoin will exit the US market for at least two years. Two founders, Chun Gan and Ke Tang, left the management of the business.
The scale explains the size of the penalty: prosecutors put roughly 1.5 million US-registered users on the platform between 2017 and March 2024, generating at least $184.5 million in fees, while KuCoin ran no effective AML or know-your-customer programme. The two-year exit period means US access is closed into 2027 at the earliest, and the block covers Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa alongside the mainland.
Sanctioned countries are missing from the list, and that is deliberate
Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Syria are nowhere in Article 17(5) — KuCoin handles them through screening instead of a published list. Article 17(6) makes you undertake that you are not on “any sanctions lists maintained by competent authorities”, naming the sanctions lists of the Turks and Caicos Islands and the international conventions it is party to. Article 101 completes the picture: everything you do on the platform is deemed to take place in the Turks and Caicos Islands, under its law, regardless of where you actually are.
The practical consequence is that an absent country name is not a green light. If a sanctions screen flags the account, Article 19 lets KuCoin suspend it and refuse access to your digital assets, and it does not have to add your country to a list first.
Not restricted, but not the global platform either
Three markets sit outside both categories, and mixing them up is the most common mistake on competitor pages. Thailand and Turkey are absent from Article 17(5), yet neither is served by the global platform: KuCoin runs kucoin.th and kucoin.tr as separate local sites. Belgium is not restricted from trading at all, but it is barred from the referral programme.
- Thailand is not in Article 17(5). KuCoin serves Thai users through a separate local site, kucoin.th, rather than the global platform — check which entity the sign-up form belongs to before you deposit.
- Turkey works the same way, through kucoin.tr — details in Is KuCoin available in Turkey?.
- Belgium is not restricted from trading, but KuCoin’s referral programme terms exclude residents of Belgium, France and the Netherlands from the referral programme entirely, so no referral code pays there.
If KuCoin blocks your country, who accepts you?
The answer differs sharply by market, because KuCoin’s map is the odd one out: it is the strictest of the five in Europe and the most permissive in Canada.
- France and the Netherlands: use a MiCA-authorised venue. Bybit EU GmbH holds a MiCAR licence granted by Austria’s FMA and passported across the EEA — see Bybit in France and Bybit in the Netherlands.
- United States: Bybit, MEXC, Bitget and BloFin block US users too — see US alternatives.
- Ontario and British Columbia: the rest of the offshore field blocks all of Canada, so a locally registered platform is the realistic route — see Canada alternatives.
- Singapore, mainland China, Hong Kong, Malaysia: Bybit, Bitget, MEXC and BloFin restrict Singapore, China and Hong Kong as well. A locally licensed platform is usually the only compliant option.
- Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan: Bitget also blocks Kazakhstan; Bybit and MEXC do not name either country. ⚠ Verify before depositing.
Where KuCoin does work: the big open markets
Four large markets are absent from Article 17(5) and worth a page of their own: Germany, the United Kingdom, Nigeria and Brazil. None of them is served by an EU or locally licensed KuCoin entity, so read each one before you register.
KuCoin against the other big exchanges, market by market
Every one of these four blocks the United States and Singapore. Beyond that, KuCoin is the only one that closes France and the Netherlands, and the only one that leaves most of Canada open.
| Market | KuCoin | Bybit | MEXC | BloFin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | ✗ No | ✗ No | ✗ No | ✗ No |
| Canada | ⚠ Ontario, BC only | ✗ No | ✗ No | ✗ No |
| France | ✗ No | ✓ Yes | ⚠ Uncertain | ⚠ Not named |
| Netherlands | ✗ No | ✓ Yes | ⚠ Uncertain | ⚠ Not named |
| Germany | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ⚠ Uncertain | ⚠ Not named |
| United Kingdom | ✓ Yes | ⚠ Limited | ✗ No | ✓ Yes |
| India | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✗ No |
| Singapore | ✗ No | ✗ No | ✗ No | ✗ No |
| Kazakhstan | ✗ No | ⚠ Verify | ⚠ Verify | ⚠ Not named |
| KYC to trade | Mandatory | Mandatory | Reduced⚠ tightening | Optional at Lv 0 |
Sources for the other columns are our own tracked lists: Bybit, MEXC, Bitget and BloFin restricted countries.
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- BlockedUS, Canada, Singapore, China, France, Netherlands +6
- Sourceofficial Terms
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Frequently asked questions
Which countries are restricted on KuCoin in 2026?
Article 17(5) of KuCoin’s Terms of Use, last updated 29 July 2026, names the United States and its territories, Singapore, mainland China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ontario and British Columbia in Canada, France, the Netherlands, and the Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions of Ukraine. KuCoin can add locations at its sole discretion.
Is KuCoin banned in the United States?
Yes, and by court order rather than by choice. On 27 January 2025 the US Department of Justice announced that PEKEN Global Limited, which operates KuCoin, pleaded guilty to running an unlicensed money transmitting business, agreed to penalties of more than $297 million and agreed that KuCoin will exit the US market for at least two years. The block covers Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa.
Is KuCoin available in France or the Netherlands?
No. Both are named in Article 17(5). KuCoin EU Exchange GmbH did receive a MiCAR authorisation from Austria’s FMA on 27 November 2025, but the FMA prohibited it from taking on new business on 19 February 2026 over unfilled anti-money-laundering and sanctions roles, and its notice of 18 May 2026 states that commencement of business operations remains inadmissible.
Is KuCoin banned in the whole of Canada?
No. Article 17(5) names only Ontario and British Columbia, so KuCoin’s own terms leave the other provinces open — which makes it less restrictive in Canada than Bybit, MEXC, Bitget and BloFin, all of which block the country outright. Provincial securities registration is a separate question worth checking with your own regulator.
Is KuCoin available in Thailand?
Thailand is not on the Restricted Locations list, but Thai users are not served by the global platform either. KuCoin runs a separate local site, kucoin.th, in the same way it runs kucoin.tr for Turkey. Check which entity the sign-up form belongs to before depositing, because the terms and the referral programme are not necessarily the same.
Does KuCoin block sanctioned countries such as Iran or Cuba?
Not by naming them. Article 17(6) instead requires you to confirm that you are not on any sanctions list maintained by a competent authority, including the sanctions lists of the Turks and Caicos Islands, whose law governs the agreement under Article 101. Screening does the work a published list would do, so an absent country name is not a green light.
Can I use a VPN to trade on KuCoin from a restricted location?
We do not recommend it. Article 17(5) is an undertaking you personally give at registration, and Article 19 lets KuCoin suspend the account and refuse the use of part or all of its services, including access to your digital assets, if the undertaking is broken. The breach usually surfaces at verification or withdrawal, when your funds are already on the platform.