Leading cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin is working to strengthen the Know Your Customer system (KYC) introducing new identity check requirements.
On June 28, KuCoin officially announced the upcoming KYC system upgrade aimed at improving compliance with global anti-money laundering regulations.
The KYC authentication upgrade brings mandatory KYC checks for all new KuCoin users from July 15, 2023. Without the KYC improvement, new registered users will not be able to access KuCoin’s suite of products and services.
Existing users who registered before July 15, 2023 will also need to complete the KYC process to access some of KuCoin’s features. As highlighted in the announcement, such users will not be able to make new deposits, while withdrawals will remain unaffected.
Existing users of KuCoin will be able to continue to use services such as sell orders for spot trading, leverage for futures and leverage for margin trading. Other services available to existing non-KYC users include redemption, KuCoin Earning and redemption of exchange-traded funds at the KuCoin hub for collection and funding.
“A full KYC process requires users to provide their name, ID number and photo ID and go through facial recognition”KuCoin CEO Johnny Lyu told Cointelegraph. The CEO emphasized that KuCoin has validated and validated customer identification and verification data required by the laws and regulations of applicable jurisdictions. He declared:

“Generally, we request customer identification information, including additional identifiers such as the customer’s name and residence address, date of birth, and national identification number.”

In accordance with the requirements of the laws and regulations of the relevant jurisdictions, KuCoin also collects additional information regarding the customer’s business and risk profile. Lyu added that the risk profile data includes the nature and volume of trading activity, the source of the virtual funds deposited.
The CEO later said that KYC is a principle. “KuCoin has always followed suit”adds that identification is an existing process. Lyu also pointed out that since there is no unified global KYC regulation, KuCoin has created its own KYC policy to comply with the regulations of applicable jurisdictions.
The new KYC update will impact a significant number of cryptocurrency users worldwide. KuCoin claims Having more than 20 million accounts registered on its platform as of July 2022.
KuCoin is also one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world in terms of trading volume. At the time of this writing, KuCoin’s daily trading volume totals approximately $540 million with over 8 million monthly visits. CoinGecko. For comparison, major US exchange Kraken has about 5 million visits per month and about $380 million worth of cryptocurrencies are traded every day.
Other cryptocurrency exchanges have also increased their KYC policies recently. In May, Bybit restricted withdrawals of more than 20,000 Tether (USDT) monthly by users who do not comply with KYC. Cybercriminals took advantage of KYC requirements and reportedly sold hacked and verified crypto accounts on the darknet for $30 from April 2023.