KuCoin ends all services in Russia and Belarus

KuCoin published a notice on 29 October 2026 saying it will discontinue services for users in Russia and Belarus “effective immediately”. The notice says the cut covers access to all KuCoin products, services and features, and it gives one reason: compliance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements. It names no sanction, regulator or law.

What the notice says

KuCoin promises an orderly termination process that lets affected users close positions and withdraw their assets. It does not publish the deadlines. Users whose accounts are affected will instead receive a notification with their own deadlines and instructions, and users who receive nothing need take no action, though their accounts stay subject to KuCoin’s terms and restrictions. KuCoin did not say how many users are affected.

What changed in the terms

The same day, KuCoin updated its terms of use. We read Article 17(5), the clause in which a user confirms they are not resident in or registered in a restricted location, in its version last updated on 29 October 2026. Russia and Belarus now appear in the list, after Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The rest of the list is as before: the United States and its territories, Singapore, mainland China and Hong Kong, Malaysia, Ontario and British Columbia, France, the Netherlands, and five Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine.

When we last read the clause, on 20 October 2026 in the version of 29 September, it named no sanctioned country. It barred only people on sanctions lists and the occupied Ukrainian regions. On that reading, and with no block in our geo-access test, we recorded KuCoin as available in both countries.

Why it matters

KuCoin follows two other tracked exchanges that cut off Russian users in October 2026. MEXC added Russia to the prohibited jurisdictions in its user agreement of 13 October, and Bitget added it to its prohibited countries on 16 October. Exchanges based inside the EU were already barred: since October 2022, EU sanctions on Russia have stopped EU crypto-asset service providers from offering wallet, account or custody services to Russian nationals and residents. Those rules bind KuCoin’s EU company, but not the global platform, which KuCoin runs from outside the EU.

The notice does not say whether KuCoin will also close accounts held by Russian or Belarusian nationals who live elsewhere. It refers only to users in the two countries.

What users in Russia and Belarus can do

Watch for KuCoin’s notification and act before its deadlines. It should set dates for closing positions and withdrawing. KuCoin’s terms let it enforce restrictions by IP address and treat using a VPN to get around them as a breach, so a VPN is not a way to keep an account open.

Of the other platforms we track, Coinbase, Bybit and Bitfinex remain available in both countries. The decentralised exchange Uniswap is also available in both. Binance, OKX, Gate and HTX differ between the two: each is restricted or limited in Russia and available in Belarus. Check each platform’s page for the exact rules.

What changes in our data

KuCoin is now restricted in Russia and in Belarus, at high confidence, from 29 October 2026, citing the notice and the updated terms. Both rows keep their earlier available status in their history. KuCoin’s page, its country table and our Russia guide have been updated to match.