Swiss investor claims KuCoin hasn't honored $2M court judgment over delisted cryptocurrency
Following a ruling from a Seychelles court stating KuCoin cannot designate unwithdrawable tokens as "abandoned," a Swiss investor was granted more than $2 million. The investor reports the exchange has failed to pay and intends to pursue further legal action.
An investor from Switzerland claims that KuCoin has failed to honor a Seychelles Supreme Court judgment exceeding $2 million following the exchange's declaration that his digital assets were "abandoned."
According to a ruling dated Dec. 11, 2025, the Supreme Court of Seychelles determined that Didier Rabl holds exclusive ownership rights to roughly 21 million CoinPoker (CHP) tokens that were previously stored on his behalf at KuCoin. Additionally, the court mandated three KuCoin entities registered in Seychelles to compensate him with more than 2 million USDt (USDT) along with $10,000 for moral damages, based on documentation examined by Cointelegraph.
This judicial decision may carry significant ramifications for cryptocurrency exchange practices regarding delisted digital assets, as the court determined that KuCoin failed to acquire beneficial ownership of Rabl's tokens and continued to bear responsibility for protecting the assets and fulfilling legitimate withdrawal requests.
The Seychelles-based KuCoin entities failed to make an appearance or mount a defense in the proceedings.
Email correspondence examined by Cointelegraph reveals that KuCoin transmitted multiple delisting notifications to Rabl during 2021, indicating that CHP withdrawal capabilities would terminate on July 28 of that year. These communications specified that any funds not withdrawn would be considered "abandoned" with "no rights to claim back."
The court determined that these email messages "remained unread and unanswered" and that KuCoin proceeded with the CHP delisting "without making any further attempt to notify the Plaintiff by post, telephone, or any alternative means."
Seychelles FSA confirms receipt of KuCoin judgment
The court ruled that a one-sided delisting email containing "deemed to have abandoned" language proved insufficient to eliminate a customer's entitlement to tokens already present in their account, particularly when no such forfeiture provision existed in the initial agreement.
The terms of use governing KuCoin at the time granted the platform extensive authority to suspend or close accounts and to restrict its liability, however, they did not expressly indicate that tokens remaining unwithdrawn following a delisting would become KuCoin's property.
A blockchain forensics report provided to Cointelegraph tracked the movements of the legacy Ethereum CHP token and pinpointed an address designated "KuCoin 6" on Etherscan that contains 21,000,000.0509 CHP, representing approximately 5.9% of the total supply.
The Supreme Court instructed its Registrar to deliver the judgment to Seychelles' Financial Services Authority (FSA).
In written correspondence with Cointelegraph, a representative from the FSA verified receipt of the judgment and disclosed that Mek Global Ltd, the KuCoin-affiliated entity that submitted an application for a virtual asset service provider (VASP) licence, had its application denied on June 4, 2025, and was mandated to discontinue all business operations conducted in or from Seychelles.
The FSA additionally issued a public notice indicating that Peken Global Limited, among the defendants in the legal matter, chose to relocate its services beyond Seychelles after the application was rejected.
According to Seychelles' Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, licensed exchanges must segregate client assets and preserve them at a 100% reserve, the spokesperson stated.
Legal expert highlights limits of ex parte judgment
Joshua Chu, co-chair of the Hong Kong Web3 Association, and a lawyer who has handled Seychelles-related arbitration, told Cointelegraph, "It should be noted from the outset that this judgment was decided entirely ex parte," emphasizing that KuCoin's entities "never appeared, never defended, and never submitted to jurisdiction." Justice N. Burian's decision is "first instance only," he said, with "no binding force outside Seychelles."
Chu explained that the court advanced on the premise that the relationship between the exchange and customer was "at minimum contractual, obliging the exchange to safeguard the assets and to honor lawful withdrawal instructions."
In theory, a VASP's unexplained refusal to comply with a final Supreme Court order regarding customer assets would conflict with standards of integrity, cooperation with courts and regulators, and respect for client property, Chu said. He further noted that "a defendant in future contested proceedings could argue that its factual assumptions are incomplete," and that the ramifications would be contingent on any appellate process.
Rabl informed Cointelegraph he has not been paid any amount from the Seychelles entities identified in the judgment and is preparing further legal proceedings in Seychelles directed at enforcing the award and potentially pursuing additional damages.
KuCoin did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Cointelegraph.