KuCoin’s past and Pogacar’s present: a partnership under scrutiny

KuCoin presents itself as a trust first platform, and it is keen to say that this has been earned through years of investment in security, compliance, and governance. The exchange, founded in 2017, has grown into a major global marketplace where users can trade cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, alongside KuCoin’s own token.

But a closer look after the partnership announcement, based on road.cc’s reporting, points to a very different kind of track record, one shaped by repeated regulatory action. In the United States, the Department of Justice said KuCoin failed to implement effective anti money laundering and know your customer programmes, failed to report suspicious activity, and failed to register with FinCEN while serving thousands of customers. 

US authorities also alleged the platform processed more than 9 billion dollars in illicit and criminal transactions between 2017 and 2024, and the case ended with KuCoin agreeing to pay a 300 million dollar penalty and to withdraw from the US market for two years, while two founders paid fines and stepped away under deferred prosecution agreements.

Elsewhere, KuCoin has faced sanctions and restrictions in multiple jurisdictions. In 2023 it settled with New York authorities and was barred from operating in the state for serving residents without registration. In Canada, Ontario securities regulators fined the exchange for failing to register and offering unregistered securities, before permanently banning it from the province after concluding it had not complied with the investigation. 

Canada’s financial intelligence unit FINTRAC later issued a separate multi-million dollar penalty for breaches tied to anti-money laundering and terrorist financing rules. In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority placed KuCoin on its unauthorised firms list in 2023, warning that it lacked approval to provide services in the country.

KuCoin has repeatedly shifted where it is domiciled as regulatory regimes tightened, including a move in 2025 after the Seychelles introduced licensing requirements for virtual asset providers.

Beyond fines and filings, road.cc points to investigative reporting that describes KuCoin as “disgraced” and links the exchange to allegations involving a transnational money laundering network and scam operations in south east Asia, including claims of human trafficking and torture. 

The same investigation also alleged that KuCoin provided infrastructure that enabled Iran to evade sanctions through networks of front companies. These claims remain allegations, but their prominence in the public record underlines why the partnership has become controversial so quickly.

All of that sits awkwardly alongside KuCoin’s own partnership framing, which leans hard on language like “regulatory alignment” and “security, compliance, and governance.” 

The press release also attributes a quote to Pogačar about trust being earned through preparation and responsible decision making, a sentiment that reads differently when attached to an exchange that has repeatedly been fined or sanctioned for compliance failures.

Road.cc also points to investigative reporting that goes beyond fines and filings into darker allegations, including claims of links to a transnational money laundering network and to sanction evasion routes involving Iran. Those claims remain allegations, but their presence in the public record is precisely the point, because sponsorship reputations rarely wait for court verdicts.

The situation also evokes memories of the collapse of another high profile crypto operation, FTX. At its peak, FTX was widely marketed as a safe and responsible platform, bolstered by endorsements from some of the biggest names in global sport and entertainment. Figures such as NFL star Tom Brady and NBA star Steph Curry lent their credibility to the exchange, helping to normalise it for a mainstream audience.

When FTX unravelled in 2022, that carefully constructed image collapsed almost overnight. Millions of customers lost access to their funds, criminal charges followed, and the role of celebrity endorsements came under intense scrutiny. 

That context is what makes the silence around this latest partnership so notable. Both Pogačar’s agent Alex Carrera and UAE Team Emirates-XRG were approached for comment by road.cc, but responded with “no comment” or, in the team’s case, have so far declined to comment.

It will be interesting to see how this develops and what it means for Tadej Pogačar as a commercial figure. 

Few fans genuinely expect riders to vet the legal and regulatory history of every sponsor, but reputations are no longer shaped only by results. A single partnership can tilt the narrative from dominance on the road to questions about judgement off it.

If the scrutiny around KuCoin continues, it won’t change how Tadej Pogačar races. But it may shape the conversation around him. Instead of focusing only on results, attention shifts to the choice of partner.

That is the risk with deals like this: when a sponsor becomes the story, the athlete rarely stays out of it.