KuCoin Blocks Indirect Crypto Transfers to 17 Platforms Including HTX

KuCoin expanded sanctions screening to indirect crypto transfers across 17 platforms, including Justin Sun-linked HTX, under an Aug. 27 compliance notice.

The exchange listed Shelbit, Aban Tether, A7 Nigeria, A7 Africa, PilotFinance, Rapira, Aifory Pro, ABCeX, WhiteBird, NoOnecrypto, Tradex, Monease, BitPapa, Exnode, Exnode Pay, EXMO and HTX (Huobi Global SA) as covered entities. Users can have transactions held or rejected even when they do not send funds directly to one of those platforms, KuCoin said. The screening may examine the source of funds, originating and destination addresses, and intermediary service providers for connections to the affected entities.

Attempted transactions to these platforms may undergo enhanced review or trigger temporary wallet and account restrictions. Repeated or serious violations could lead to suspension or withdrawal of KuCoin's services from the user, it said.

The controls broadly track recent US and European sanctions, but their reach extends beyond direct counterparties. KuCoin has not disclosed how many transaction hops it traces or what level of on-chain attribution is sufficient to establish an indirect connection.

HTX is the most consequential name on the list by scale and is already facing similar restrictions elsewhere. Binance stopped processing transactions involving HTX and 10 other platforms from Aug. 23 as part of its own sanctions-compliance measures. That narrows the routes through which HTX-linked funds can move across major exchanges even as HTX itself remains operational.

HTX continues to dispute the sanctions-related allegations and the corporate identity behind the designation. The EU regulation names “HTX (Huobi Global SA),” a label also used by KuCoin. HTX said in May that Huobi Global S.A. is distinct from the online HTX exchange.

The Justin Sun-linked exchange said it is pursuing legal and compliance discussions with authorities in the UK and EU as some users report funds being frozen on third-party platforms, including Kraken. HTX said it has submitted materials relating to 17 Kraken user freeze cases to courts and is working to reduce disruptions affecting customers.

Molly, HTX’s head of markets, said the exchange processed more than 100,000 deposit and withdrawal transactions over two days without identifying new cases of indiscriminate freezes. She also said HTX recently upgraded its wallet infrastructure and introduced a withdrawal-address rotation mechanism. The exchange described the changes as a security measure intended to reduce disruption from third-party risk controls and on-chain labeling.

For users, the practical effect is that funds linked to HTX or another listed provider can face restrictions before they reach KuCoin, depending on the transaction path and intermediaries involved. The policy pushes sanctions enforcement beyond direct counterparties and deeper into transaction provenance, with exchanges assessing where funds originated, where they are headed, and which services they touched along the way.

KuCoin has not disclosed the number of transaction hops it screens or the on-chain attribution threshold required to flag an indirect connection.