Vanishing KuCoin Office Worry Investors, Fate of Major Crypto Exchange 🚨 This article is 6 years old...
Vanishing KuCoin Office Worry Investors, Fate of Major Crypto Exchange
3 min read
Updated: Dec. 7, 2019 at 4:10 pm UTC
Photo by Wes Hicks on Unsplash
Investors of KuCoin, a major crypto exchange, are expressing their concerns regarding the mysterious disappearance of KuCoin headquarters in Hong Kong.
Where Did KuCoin Go?
Earlier this week, Jackson Wong, a cryptocurrency researcher and journalist based in Hong Kong, released an investigative report on the headquarters of KuCoin, which are supposed to be based in Wan Chai Hong Kong, at 300 Lockhart Road, Kiu Fu Commercial Building.
Over the past few years, KuCoin has supposedly occupied the 20th floor of Kiu Fu Commercial Building leased out by “Smart Team International Consultants Ltd” as its official headquarters indicated on its platform.
In the report, Wong stated that he personally visited the Kiu Fu Commercial Building in Wan Chai, Hong Kong to verify that the 20th floor remains the headquarters of KuCoin. Wong rang the bell, asked employees on the 20th floor and asked to meet the Smart Team International Consultants team, only to be told that Smart Team left the building years ago. Wong wrote,
“She told me that there isn’t even a single person from Smart Team in there. She told me they moved out years ago. I asked if she had ever heard of the KuCoin Exchange or any cryptocurrency related companies there. She said she had never heard of anything of such there. She said she worked at this place for couple years already.”
On August 12, KuCoin released an official announcement on its SubReddit /r/KuCoin and revealed that its headquarters in Hong Kong are in fact empty, and the actual headquarters of the company are in Singapore.
The KuCoin team claimed that the address listed on its website was merely a mailing address of one of KuCoin’s many subsidiary companies and that the company has been based in Singapore for awhile.
However, it still remains unclear why the company had to use the address of a building which it never was based in and the reasons behind the anonymity of its offices in Singapore. KuCoin team said,
“There have been rumors that KuCoin’s central office in Hong Kong is empty. In fact, KuCoin’s public address in Hong Kong is merely a mailing address of one of KuCoin’s many subsidiary companies. KuCoin Headquarters is in Singapore. KuCoin has always been a global firm, with over 300 employees and four major offices in China, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.”
As a large-scale cryptocurrency exchange with 24/7 customer support, KuCoin cannot possibly operate with less than a hundred employees, and as such, the claim that the company has over 300 employees is justifiable in itself, because the exchange has been offering such customer support for quite some time.
However, the concerns of investors towards the legitimacy of KuCoin as an established crypto exchange are also reasonable, given that KuCoin remains as the only major cryptocurrency exchange to operate covertly and maintain the location of its headquarters a secret to the public.
Wong, the author of the investigative report which forced KuCoin to offer clarification on its headquarters for the first time, said because KuCoin is in stealth, it is possible for the exchange to pull an exit scam and turn its back on its investors.
Evidently, given the sheer amount of profits crypto exchanges generate, the probability of KuCoin initiating an exit scam is very low.
As widely recognized cryptocurrency trader, Crypto Randy said in an exclusive interview with CryptoSlate:
“This kind of stuff happens all the time in crypto, but it looks like the exchange is still live. I wouldn’t go throwing the words exit scam around until we know for sure. Regardless I recommend not trusting any exchange. There’s really no reason to leave your money on there. Security is more important than convenience.”
What Happens Now to KuCoin?
As KuCoin is one of the biggest crypto exchanges in the global market, if it continues to maintain its operations in stealth, hidden from the public, investors may begin to lose confidence in the legitimacy of the exchange.
For its long-term growth and reputation, disclosing the address of its headquarters similar to how Coinbase, UPbit, Bitfinex, Bittrex, and Binance have done over the past few years may be beneficial to the exchange.
Posted In: Exchanges
