Hong Kong KuCoin office is just a facade

On Friday, the crypto community saw a piece of information that puzzled many quickly rise to the top of Twitter as it claimed that KuCoin's Hong Kong office was a sham.

According to Jackson Wong, the author of the information, the Hong Kong KuCoin office was nothing more than a shell. Wong backed up his claims with evidence and photos of what KuCoin promoted as its Hong Kong location, advising users to exercise caution when using the popular Asian crypto platform. 

First, the author highlighted previous information he collected on KuCoin, namely that the exchange did not leave Hong Kong. KuCoin advertises that it is "home grown" in Hong Kong, so the fact that local news has never mentioned it and few people in Hong Kong have heard of it or seen its advertising seems suspicious to the author. In addition, none of KuCoin's executives have a work visa or Hong Kong citizenship, and therefore cannot work or reside here. Eventually, Wong's curiosity led him to look for the exchange's registered office.

When he arrived at the address listed on the legal documents, he saw no sign of KuCoin. Wong checked the directory that should be present in any respectable office building. To his surprise, there was nothing of interest in the directory, with no Chinese or English characters indicating that the building (or any companies) had any affiliation with KuCoin. Having gone up to the 20th floor of the Kiu Fu business center, where the office of the crypto exchange should be located, the journalist discovered two companies not related to crypto trading.

Trying to understand this situation, the author turned to the employees of a neighboring company and found out that they had never heard of KuCoin or any cryptocurrency company in the office building.

Remaining skeptical, the author writes about the risks of exit scam. In case of termination of its activities, stopping the withdrawal of funds or closing the site, investors will not even be able to make claims to the exchange. In April of this year, KuCoin was already experiencing difficulties with withdrawing funds from private Bitcoin wallets. 

After Wong's article was published, the official KuCoin Twitter account came under fire from users. As a result of this widespread reaction, KuCoin responded immediately by issuing a short statement.

According to a statement from KuCoin, the Hong Kong office is empty, but it is still used as a mailing address for one of the company's subsidiaries.. KuСoin noted that its headquarters is in Singapore and is supported by other branches in the Philippines, Thailand and China.