KuCoin sees 356% surge in app downloads in May following FIU-IND registration

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Crypto exchange KuCoin on June 6 said that its app downloads in India surged 356 percent in the month of May, coming two months after the offshore exchange registered with Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND) following a regulatory crackdown.

Citing Sensor Tower data, KuCoin highlighted that it has crossed CoinDCX and CoinSwitch’s app download growth, which saw an increase of 26.3 percent and 15.1 percent respectively, to become the fastest growing.

Johnny Lyu, CEO of KuCoin, commented: "We are immensely proud to be the fastest growing compliant global CEX in India. This achievement underscores our commitment to providing secure, reliable and innovative financial solutions to our users. The Historic Prosperity Carnival is one way to celebrate this milestone with our community, and we look forward to building and creating more value in the Indian market."

KuCoin is launching Historic Prosperity Carnival in India to celebrate with its community. From May 14 to August 11, users can participate in campaigns such as Weekly Futures Trading Challenges and Margin Events, with opportunities to win rewards including Redmi Note 13 Pro 5G, cashback and airdrops.

To gain more users, the exchange is also giving out 2 USDT (tether) as bonus for new registrations starting from June 6, along with an additional 2 USDTs to complete first trade.

Also read: There is lack of support from Indian banking sector: KuCoin CEO Johnny Lyu

In December, around nine offshore exchanges including KuCoin, Binance, OKX, Houbi among others were found to be not registered under FIU-IND and weren’t aligned with the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. The URLs and apps of these exchanges were blocked in the country in January.

In March, KuCoin became the first among these exchanges to get registered in the country.

Last month, Vivek Aggarwal, Director, FIU-IND and Additional Secretary Department of Revenue Government of India, had shared KuCoin is fully registered and operational now after paying a penalty fee of Rs 34.5 lakh.

Meanwhile, rival Binance too has completed initial registration process with FIU-IND and its penalty and compliance procedures are still on.