KuCoin has ended services for customers in Russia and Belarus with immediate effect, extending restrictions across all of its products. The exchange told affected users they would be given individual deadlines to close open positions and withdraw funds.

The move makes KuCoin the third major crypto platform in roughly two weeks to restrict or leave the two markets, following similar steps by Bitget and MEXC. KuCoin said the decision was made to comply with “applicable legal and regulatory requirements,” but it did not identify a specific new rule or regulator behind the change.

Immediate halt across the platform

According to the report, the suspension applies to all KuCoin services for users in Russia and Belarus rather than a limited set of products. The change took effect immediately, indicating a full compliance response instead of a phased reduction in access.

Users affected by the policy are not being cut off without notice to their balances. KuCoin said they will receive deadlines for closing positions and withdrawing funds, although the exact timetable was not publicly detailed in the source material.

Pressure from a tougher sanctions backdrop

KuCoin did not publicly connect its decision to a single sanctions measure, but the broader backdrop is a tightening European sanctions regime. The source points to the European Union’s 21st sanctions package against Russia, which bans transactions with 14 foreign crypto platforms and gives authorities wider scope to target overseas providers allegedly used to evade sanctions.

That context has led to speculation that sanctions exposure may have influenced KuCoin’s withdrawal from Russia and Belarus. At the same time, the report noted that Brussels did not directly order KuCoin to shut down service in those countries, so any link remains an inference rather than a confirmed explanation from regulators or the exchange.

Part of a wider regional pullback

KuCoin’s announcement fits into a broader pattern developing across the crypto industry. Bitget and MEXC have also recently restricted or exited the Russian and Belarusian markets, making KuCoin the third major exchange to take similar action within a short period.

The clustering of these moves suggests that compliance risk in the region has become more difficult for international trading platforms to manage. Even so, the source does not say that all exchanges are following the same path, nor does it identify a single common trigger shared across the three companies.

Unknown user impact and next steps

The exact number of KuCoin customers affected has not been confirmed. The report cited an illustrative estimate of around 1.77 million Russian registrations on the platform, but described that figure only as an estimate rather than a verified count of active users who now need to close accounts or withdraw assets.

For now, the clearest confirmed next step is the operational offboarding process for existing users in Russia and Belarus. Those customers are expected to receive deadlines from KuCoin for position closure and fund withdrawals, while the market watches to see whether more exchanges adopt similar restrictions under the current sanctions environment.

Source: beincrypto.com