KuCoin EU Hires AML Chief After Austria MiCA Business Ban

KuCoin EU has appointed a new Anti-Money Laundering (AML) chief and expanded its compliance team in Vienna, weeks after Austrian regulators barred the exchange from taking on new business under Europe’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) regime.

The MiCA-licensed entity named Carmen Kleinhans as its Anti-Money Laundering officer, alongside two deputy AML officers drawn from former Austrian regulators and bank compliance chiefs. According to a Wednesday release, the team will oversee AML, Counter-Terrorist Financing (CTF) and sanctions controls, as well as enterprise-wide risk management and regulatory engagement.

The move follows a February decision by Austria’s Financial Market Authority (FMA) to prohibit KuCoin EU from onboarding new clients or signing new contracts after finding that key AML/CTF and sanctions compliance roles were not adequately staffed, breaching internal organizational requirements.

The hires mark an effort by the exchange to address those gaps and align more closely with traditional financial services compliance expectations, as regulators increasingly focus on governance and controls rather than solely technical breaches.

Related: Thailand crypto platforms freeze 10K accounts in AML crackdown: Report

Wider regulatory pressure on KuCoin

The new staffing push also comes against a broader backdrop of rising AML and sanctions scrutiny in crypto, with regulators increasingly willing to freeze or partially suspend business over governance and staffing failures rather than just technical breaches of securities or licensing rules.

A Tuesday report by blockchain security auditor CertiK showed that KuCoin and OKX were among the exchanges hit with some of the largest AML-related penalties in 2025, highlighting how enforcement has shifted toward financial crime and controls rather than solely securities law issues.

Notable AML-Related Penalties in 2025. Source: CertiK

At a group level, KuCoin has also faced regulatory action in other jurisdictions. In January 2025, it agreed to pay nearly $300 million and exit the US market for two years in a criminal resolution over unlicensed money-transmission and AML failures, the Wall Street Journal reported at the time.

On March 30, the parent company of KuCoin agreed to pay a $500,000 civil penalty to settle a case by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission alleging it operated an unregistered offshore commodities exchange. Earlier that same month, KuCoin received a warning from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority over allegedly offering virtual asset services in the emirate without the required local licence.

Whether the hires are enough to restore normal operations under KuCoin EU’s Austrian authorization now depends on the FMA’s assessment of whether the required control functions have been fully and suitably restored.

Cointelegraph reached out to KuCoin EU for comment, but had not received a response by publication.

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