KuCoin's "Abandoned" Tokens Still Belong to the Customer, Court Rules 🏛️

A Swiss investor secured a Seychelles Supreme Court ruling ordering three KuCoin-linked entities to pay more than $2 million after the exchange declared his tokens "abandoned," according to documents reviewed by Cointelegraph. The Dec. 11, 2025, ruling declared Didier Rabl the "sole proprietor and owner" of approximately 21 million CoinPoker (CHP) tokens previously held for him on KuCoin, directing the defendants to pay over 2 million USDt (USDT) plus $10,000 in moral damages.

The case stems from a series of 2021 delisting notices KuCoin sent Rabl, warning that withdrawals of CHP would close on July 28 of that year and that any unwithdrawn funds would be deemed "abandoned" with "no rights to claim back." The court found that the emails "remained unread and unanswered" and that KuCoin delisted CHP "without making any further attempt to notify the Plaintiff by post, telephone, or any alternative means." None of the three Seychelles-incorporated KuCoin entities appeared or defended the case.

The court held that a unilateral delisting email containing "deemed to have abandoned" wording was not sufficient to remove a customer's rights to tokens already held in their account when no such forfeiture term existed in the original contract. A blockchain analysis report shared with Cointelegraph traced movements of the legacy Ethereum CHP token and identified an address labeled "KuCoin 6" on Etherscan holding 21,000,000.0509 CHP, roughly 5.9% of the total supply.

The Supreme Court directed its Registrar to serve the judgment on Seychelles' Financial Services Authority (FSA), which confirmed receipt in writing to Cointelegraph. An FSA spokesperson said Mek Global Ltd, the KuCoin-linked company that applied for a virtual asset service provider (VASP) licence, had its application rejected on June 4, 2025, and was required to cease all business conducted in or from Seychelles. The FSA also noted that Peken Global Limited, one of the defendants, opted to migrate its services outside Seychelles following the rejection.

The ruling could carry implications for how cryptocurrency exchanges handle delisted assets, with the court finding that KuCoin did not become the beneficial owner of Rabl's tokens and remained obligated to safeguard the assets and honor lawful withdrawal requests. Under Seychelles' Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, licensed exchanges are required to segregate client assets and maintain related safeguards.