Bullish for Shiba Inu? Whale Withdraws 2 Trillion SHIB From Troubled Exchange KuCoin

TL;DR

• An investor moved 2 trillion SHIB tokens from KuCoin to an unknown address following US legal action against the exchange.
• The company faces allegations of aiding in money laundering, leading to significant fund withdrawals amid the controversy.

According to Whale Alert, a mysterious investor  moved 2 trillion SHIB tokens (worth over $62 million) from the cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin to an unknown address yesterday (March 27), shortly after the company was targeted by US prosecutors. 

🚨 🚨 🚨 2,000,000,000,000 #SHIB (62,232,000 USD) transferred from #Kucoin to unknown wallet https://t.co/5mARFlvcou

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) March 27, 2024

As CryptoPotato  reported , American magistrates accused KuCoin of operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business and violating the Bank Secrecy Act. They also claimed the firm failed to implement anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) procedures.

Darren McCormack – HSI Acting Agent in Charge – claimed that KuCoin and its founders Chun Gan and Ke Tang were involved in an “alleged multi-billion dollar criminal conspiracy.” He went further arguing that the platform was employed by numerous criminals due to not complying with necessary rules:

“As a result of KuCoin’s willful failures to maintain the required AML and KYC programs, KuCoin has been used as a vehicle to launder large sums of criminal proceeds, including proceeds from darknet markets and malware, ransomware, and fraud schemes. Since its founding in 2017, KuCoin has received over $5 billion and sent over $4 billion of suspicious and criminal proceeds.”

The uncertainty surrounding the exchange could be one reason that led to the massive outflows. Data showed that the funds leaving the trading venue within the first 12 hours of the news spiked to $800 million.

This is not the first time KuCoin has faced problems with the US authorities. Last year, New York State Attorney General – Letitia James – accused the company of selling certain digital assets as securities and commodities without registering with the relevant regulators. KuCoin settled the issues by agreeing to pay $22 million and leaving the New York market.

The move to a potential cold storage could be seen as positive