New York Attorney General Files Lawsuit Against KuCoin Seeking to Stop the Company from Operating in New York

New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against KuCoin, alleging that KuCoin failed to register as a securities and commodities broker-dealer, falsely represented itself as an exchange, and sought to prevent the company from operating in New York. Letitia James said that on KuCoin, investors can trade virtual currencies, including ETH, LUNA and TerraUSD (UST), which are securities and commodities. This is the first time regulators have claimed in court that ETH is a security. The petition argues that “ETH is a speculative asset like LUNA and UST, and that KuCoin requires registration before selling ETH, LUNA, or UST. KuCoin also sells unregistered securities in the form of its lending and staking product, KuCoin Earn. Additionally, KuCoin Claims to be an exchange, but is not registered with the SEC as required by New York law. KuCoin also failed to comply with a subpoena issued by OAG to provide more information about its digital asset trading activities in the state.”