A Swiss investor stated KuCoin has but to pay a Seychelles Supreme Courtroom award of greater than $2 million after the trade declared his tokens “deserted.”
In a Dec. 11, 2025, ruling, the Supreme Courtroom of Seychelles declared that Didier Rabl is the “sole proprietor and proprietor” of roughly 21 million CoinPoker (CHP) tokens beforehand held for him on KuCoin. The court docket additionally ordered three Seychelles-incorporated KuCoin entities to pay him over 2 million USDt (USDT) plus $10,000 in ethical damages, based on paperwork reviewed by Cointelegraph.
The ruling may have implications for the way cryptocurrency exchanges deal with delisted property, with the court docket discovering that KuCoin didn’t turn out to be the useful proprietor of Rabl’s tokens and remained obligated to safeguard the property and honor lawful withdrawal requests.
KuCoin’s Seychelles entities didn’t seem or defend the case.
Copies of emails reviewed by Cointelegraph present that KuCoin despatched Rabl a collection of delisting notices in 2021, warning that withdrawals of CHP would shut on July 28 of that 12 months. The emails acknowledged that any unwithdrawn funds can be deemed “deserted” with “no rights to assert again.”
Courtroom Order. Supply: Seychelles Supreme Courtroom
The court docket discovered that every one the emails “remained unread and unanswered” and that KuCoin delisted CHP “with out making any additional try and notify the Plaintiff by submit, phone, or any different means.”
Seychelles FSA confirms receipt of KuCoin judgment
The court docket held {that a} unilateral delisting electronic mail with “deemed to have deserted” wording was not ample to take away a buyer’s rights to tokens already of their account when no such forfeiture time period was within the authentic contract.
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KuCoin’s phrases of use on the time gave the platform broad powers to droop or terminate accounts and to restrict its legal responsibility, however didn’t explicitly state that unwithdrawn tokens after a delisting turn out to be KuCoin’s property.
A blockchain evaluation report shared with Cointelegraph traced actions of the legacy Ethereum CHP token and recognized an handle labeled “KuCoin 6” on Etherscan that holds 21,000,000.0509 CHP, or about 5.9% of the full provide.
The Supreme Courtroom directed its Registrar to serve the judgment on Seychelles’ Monetary Companies Authority (FSA).
In a written response to Cointelegraph, an FSA spokesperson confirmed it had obtained the judgment and stated Mek World Ltd, the KuCoin-linked firm that utilized for a digital asset service supplier (VASP) licence, had its software rejected on June 4, 2025, and was required to stop all enterprise carried out in or from Seychelles.
The FSA additionally printed a public assertion noting that Peken World Restricted, one of many defendants within the case, opted emigrate its providers exterior Seychelles following the rejection of the appliance.
Beneath Seychelles’ Digital Asset Service Suppliers Act, licensed exchanges are required to segregate shopper property and keep them at a 100% reserve, the spokesperson stated.
Supply: Seychelles Ministry of Finance
Authorized skilled highlights limits of ex parte judgment
Joshua Chu, co-chair of the Hong Kong Web3 Affiliation, and a lawyer who has dealt with Seychelles-related arbitration, instructed Cointelegraph, “It needs to be famous from the outset that this judgment was determined completely ex parte,” declaring that KuCoin’s entities “by no means appeared, by no means defended, and by no means submitted to jurisdiction.” Justice N. Burian’s determination is “first occasion solely,” he stated, with “no binding power exterior Seychelles.”
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Chu stated the court docket proceeded on the idea that the exchange-customer relationship was “at minimal contractual, obliging the trade to safeguard the property and to honor lawful withdrawal directions.”
In precept, a VASP’s unexplained failure to adjust to a ultimate Supreme Courtroom order regarding buyer property would sit uneasily with requirements of integrity, cooperation with courts and regulators, and respect for shopper property, Chu stated. He added that “a defendant in future contested proceedings may argue that its factual assumptions are incomplete,” and that the results would rely upon any appellate course of.
Rabl instructed Cointelegraph he has not obtained any fee from the Seychelles entities named within the judgment and is getting ready extra authorized motion in Seychelles aimed toward implementing the award and doubtlessly in search of extra damages.
KuCoin didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark from Cointelegraph.
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