Jackson Wong, an independent Hong Kong-based journalist has raised the alarm on the safety and reliability of KuCoin as a crypto exchange. In a medium post, which he was strongly titled as “WARNING: KuCoin’s Hong Kong office is empty” he advised investors and users of the crypto exchange to be very cautious or risk losing their assets. He warned against the depositing of money into that exchange citing suspicions that KuCoin was planning to scam its users. His suspicion was based on the fact that their offices were empty, which is usually a red flag in business circles anywhere in the world.
In the medium post, Jackson Wong first recounts his long-held suspicions about the exchange. He revealed that he long held the belief that the exchange would become illiquid once the Chinese government did another crackdown. According to him, the exchange had only survived the previous crackdown by going on the down low and escaping the radar of the authorities. The fact that KuCoin always claimed to be based and developed in Hong Kong troubled Wong, who is a Hong Kong native himself and had never heard of them.
According to him, if the exchange was truly Hong Kong-based then the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong (SFC) would have taken action to suspend its activities. He further shared his bewilderment at the fact that he had never seen any promotions or local news reports that mentioned the exchange despite them claiming to be Hong Kong giants. He also called into question the credibility of KuCoin’s staff, stating that none of them had Hong Kong names and also the fact that none of them resided in the city. His suspicions were compounded by the fact that Chinese nationals needed a working Visa or Hong Kong citizenship before working or residing in Hong Kong which none of the staff seemed to have.
On his visit to their registered address, Wong was shocked when he only found “Rich Moral CPA” and “Smart Team international consultants” as the 20th floor listed companies in the directory list and no KuCoin in sight. Wong was quick to recall that KuCoin had been listed previously under a company known as “Smart Team Secretarial LTD” which is closely related to the “Smart Team International consultants”. On calling them in pursuit of answers, a Rich Moral CPA officer responded and revealed that the “Smart Team Secretarial LTD” had vacated the building years back. The Rich Moral CPA also revealed that no “KuCoin exchange” had ever been heard of in the building before.
Wong closed the post with his theories that could possibly explain all this. He suspected that they were working from a base somewhere in Sinchuan China. He ruled out the possibility of them working from any other location in Hong Kong since they did not have Hong Kong credentials. He closed the report by warning investors about putting money into an exchange whose physical address was not known. He advised people to steer clear of them until they had achieved a certain level of transparency
