Austrian FMA prohibits KuCoin EU from onboarding new customers
Last Updated on 21 February 2026 by CryptoTips.eu
The Austrian financial regulator FMA is immediately prohibiting KuCoin EU Exchange GmbH from onboarding new customers. The reason: the company no longer has the required officers for anti money laundering and counter terrorism financing in place. It is a painful setback for the crypto exchange, which only recently obtained a MiCAR license through Austria to serve the entire European market as a regulated platform.
MiCAR license through Austria as a springboard for Europe
KuCoin launched a separate European platform under a MiCA authorization granted by the Austrian FMA on November 27, 2025. That license as a crypto asset service provider (CASP) was intended as a regulated access route for users across the entire European Economic Area. Thanks to MiCAR’s passporting mechanism, a license from one EU member state can serve as a basis for offering services in all other EEA countries. Austria thus functioned as a springboard for KuCoin to gain a legal foothold in Europe after earlier issues with regulators.
The timing was relevant. Across Europe, MiCAR transitional periods are expiring and regulators are communicating their enforcement expectations more explicitly. The Austrian FMA publicly lists which services a license holder may deliver and passport. That is exactly where things are now going wrong.
FMA intervenes after departure of key officers
The FMA has determined that KuCoin EU no longer has an Anti Money Laundering Officer and a Sanctions Compliance Officer in place, including their deputies. These are critical functions that are legally required under both the MiCAR regulation and Austria’s Finanzmarkt Geldwaschegesetz. Without these officers, a crypto service provider simply cannot maintain client relationships.
Barely three months after obtaining the license, these key positions are no longer filled. The FMA demands that KuCoin EU restaffed these functions immediately and until then prohibits the onboarding of new customers, the conclusion of new contracts, and the offering of new products to existing customers. The decision is not yet legally final.
Services have been suspended for weeks
The problems appear to have been brewing for longer. On February 4, KuCoin EU suspended all trading and deposit services, officially to improve system stability. In light of the FMA decision, the question arises whether that suspension is more closely related to internal organizational problems than to technical maintenance.
The recent intervention also fits a broader pattern. In December 2022, De Nederlandsche Bank warned that KuCoin was offering crypto services in the Netherlands without legal registration. From September 30, 2024, the exchange blocked registrations for Dutch users. The Austrian MiCAR license appeared to be a clean restart, but that promise is now rapidly crumbling.
Can KuCoin EU make a comeback? Technically yes: once the required AML and sanctions officers are appointed and the FMA approves, the prohibition can be lifted. But a platform that fails to maintain basic requirements within three months of obtaining its European license will need to reconvince both regulators and customers. In a market where MiCAR enforcement is becoming increasingly serious, that is no simple task.
