Kucoin Has Not Paid $2M Award Tied to Delisted Token Dispute, Investor Says

A Swiss investor said KuCoin has yet to pay a Seychelles Supreme Court award of more than $2 million after the exchange declared his tokens “abandoned.”

In a Dec. 11, 2025, ruling, the Supreme Court of Seychelles declared that Didier Rabl is the “sole proprietor and owner” of approximately 21 million CoinPoker (CHP) tokens previously held for him on KuCoin. The court also ordered three Seychelles-incorporated KuCoin entities to pay him over 2 million USDt (USDT) plus $10,000 in moral damages, according to documents reviewed by Cointelegraph.

The ruling could have implications for how cryptocurrency exchanges handle delisted assets, with the court finding that KuCoin did not become the beneficial owner of Rabl’s tokens and remained obligated to safeguard the assets and honor lawful withdrawal requests.

KuCoin’s Seychelles entities did not appear or defend the case.

Copies of emails reviewed by Cointelegraph show that KuCoin sent Rabl a series of delisting notices in 2021, warning that withdrawals of CHP would close on July 28 of that year. The emails stated that any unwithdrawn funds would be deemed “abandoned” with “no rights to claim back.”

Court Order. Source: Seychelles Supreme Court

The court found that all the emails “remained unread and unanswered” and that KuCoin delisted CHP “without making any further attempt to notify the Plaintiff by post, telephone, or any alternative means.”

Seychelles FSA confirms receipt of KuCoin judgment

The court held that a unilateral delisting email with “deemed to have abandoned” wording was not sufficient to remove a customer’s rights to tokens already in their account when no such forfeiture term was in the original contract.

Related: Dubai regulator orders KuCoin entities to stop unlicensed operations

KuCoin’s terms of use at the time gave the platform broad powers to suspend or terminate accounts and to limit its liability, but did not explicitly state that unwithdrawn tokens after a delisting become KuCoin’s property.

A blockchain analysis report shared with Cointelegraph traced movements of the legacy Ethereum CHP token and identified an address labeled “KuCoin 6” on Etherscan that holds 21,000,000.0509 CHP, or about 5.9% of the total supply.

The Supreme Court directed its Registrar to serve the judgment on Seychelles’ Financial Services Authority (FSA).

In a written response to Cointelegraph, an FSA spokesperson confirmed it had received the judgment and said Mek Global Ltd, the KuCoin-linked company that applied for a virtual asset service provider (VASP) licence, had its application rejected on June 4, 2025, and was required to cease all business conducted in or from Seychelles.

The FSA also published a public statement noting that Peken Global Limited, one of the defendants in the case, opted to migrate its services outside Seychelles following the rejection of the application.

Under Seychelles’ Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, licensed exchanges are required to segregate client assets and maintain them at a 100% reserve, the spokesperson said.

Source: Seychelles Ministry of Finance

Legal expert highlights limits of ex parte judgment

Joshua Chu, co-chair of the Hong Kong Web3 Association, and a lawyer who has handled Seychelles-related arbitration, told Cointelegraph, “It should be noted from the outset that this judgment was decided entirely ex parte,” pointing out that KuCoin’s entities “never appeared, never defended, and never submitted to jurisdiction.” Justice N. Burian’s decision is “first instance only,” he said, with “no binding force outside Seychelles.”

Related: KuCoin fully rolls out KIA, a crypto-native AI built to simplify the crypto experience

Chu said the court proceeded on the basis that the exchange-customer relationship was “at minimum contractual, obliging the exchange to safeguard the assets and to honor lawful withdrawal instructions.”

In principle, a VASP’s unexplained failure to comply with a final Supreme Court order concerning customer assets would sit uneasily with standards of integrity, cooperation with courts and regulators, and respect for client property, Chu said. He added that “a defendant in future contested proceedings could argue that its factual assumptions are incomplete,” and that the consequences would depend on any appellate process.

Rabl told Cointelegraph he has not received any payment from the Seychelles entities named in the judgment and is preparing additional legal action in Seychelles aimed at enforcing the award and potentially seeking additional damages.

KuCoin did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Cointelegraph.

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