Greed

Bitcoin

when

The Seychelles-based crypto exchange KuCoin has been declared “fine” by Ki Young Ju, founder and CEO of crypto analytics service CryptoQuant, despite criminal allegations and mounting concerns over its reserves among its users.&nbsp;
“BTC and ETH withdrawals surged, driven mainly by retail users, with a small impact on the overall reserve,” Ju <a href="https://x.com/ki_young_ju/status/1772820598198313298?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">stated</a> in a post on X.
“They appear to not commingle customers’ funds and have sufficient reserves to process user withdrawals,” Ju stated, claiming that from an on-chain perspective, the exchange appears to be “fine.”
<figure data-ct-non-breakable="true">
 <img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-03/57700ff1-924f-4c6a-96c9-c570cba15622.png" alt="" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 Cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin reserves. Source: Ki Young Ju on X
 </figcaption>
</figure>
KuCoin’s total portfolio balance across multiple chains&nbsp;stands at $4.889 billion, according to&nbsp;Scopescan <a href="https://scan.0xscope.com/report/kucoin?network=eth&amp;pp=KRinweb3" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">data</a>.
On March 26, the United States Department of Justice alleged that KuCoin founders Chun Gan and Ke Tang had willfully failed to maintain an <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/justice-department-charges-kucoin-money-laundering">Anti-Money Laundering program at the exchange</a>&nbsp;and claimed&nbsp;the platform was being used for “money laundering and terrorist financing.”
Ju contrasted KuCoin’s reserves with those of the now-defunct crypto exchange FTX, noting that KuCoin appears to have not mixed customer funds with its own reserves.
<figure data-ct-non-breakable="true">
 <img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-03/01f28ed6-fe4e-4a6d-8d77-84be61f01f68.png" alt="" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 Cryptocurrency exchange FTX reserves. Source: Ki Young Ju on X
 </figcaption>
</figure>
Crypto investors typically withdraw their funds from crypto exchanges when they become aware of legal concerns or issues with an exchange’s reserve status.&nbsp;
Users rushed to <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/changpeng-zhao-tweet-ftx-collapse-caroline-ellison">withdraw billions of dollars of funds</a> from FTX, when the former CEO of Binance, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, tweeted that Binance would be disposing of all their entire holdings of FTX’s native FTT token. 
Related: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-miner-reserves-held-steady-february-despite-40-billion-dollar-flows-exchanges">Bitcoin miner reserves held steady in February, despite $40B flows to exchanges</a>
Concerns with KuCoin’s or another large exchange’s reserves are not limited to its users alone, as these worries can often snowball into a wider market exodus. When news of FTX’s collapse emerged, the price of Bitcoin fell more than 20% within the week.
Yet despite legal action against KuCoin’s founders, the market doesn’t appear to be overly concerned by the news, with the Crypto Fear &amp; Greed Index still&nbsp;<a href="https://alternative.me/crypto/fear-and-greed-index/" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">indicating</a>&nbsp;an extreme level of greed, currently at a score of 83.
<figure data-ct-non-breakable="true">
 <img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-03/efb6e7a4-c159-405f-8175-65711a41f1f8.png" alt="" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 Crypto Fear &amp; Greed Index. Source: Alternative.me
 </figcaption>
</figure>
Magazine: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/can-you-trust-crypto-exchanges-after-the-collapse-of-ftx/">Can you trust crypto exchanges after the collapse of FTX?</a>

KuCoin deemed ‘fine’ by analyst, despite criminal allegations

Cointelegraph

Other articles published on Mar 27, 2024

Coinbase to store more corporate, customer USDC holdings on Base

EU AI Act: Balancing Regulation and Innovation

Bitcoin Targets $75,000 Milestone as Analysts Predict Upward Surge

US Sanctioned 13 Crypto Firms For Alleged Involvement With Russian Banks

Exploring the Layers and Security of Runes Protocol

Whales Eye BlockDAG’s Revolutionary Mining, Outshining WBTC & PolyHedra Network

Join our free newsletter for daily crypto updates!