Michael Gan

Michael Gan is one of the co-founders of KuCoin, the cryptocurrency exchange launched in September 2017 alongside co-founders including Johnny Lyu, Top Lan, Eric Don, and Marcus Hughes — a founding team that came primarily from backgrounds in the Chinese tech and financial services sectors. KuCoin's founding coincided with the 2017 ICO boom, a period of extraordinary retail interest in altcoins and newly issued tokens that created demand for exchanges with broader token listings than the market leaders.

Gan and his co-founders positioned KuCoin from launch as the 'People's Exchange' — a branding decision that emphasised accessibility, broad token selection, and low barriers to entry for global retail traders. The exchange launched with more token pairs than most competitors, onboarded new projects quickly, and offered a user-friendly interface designed for traders across experience levels.

KuCoin Shares (KCS) — the exchange's native token — was one of the first exchange tokens to incorporate a profit-sharing mechanism. KCS holders receive a daily dividend proportional to their holdings, funded by 50% of the trading fees collected by KuCoin. This profit-sharing model distinguished KCS from simple fee-discount tokens and gave holders a direct financial stake in KuCoin's revenue, creating a strong incentive to hold and promote the token.

The KCS model influenced subsequent exchange token designs across the industry. Its combination of fee discounts, profit sharing, and access to KuCoin Spotlight (the exchange's token launchpad) created a comprehensive utility structure that kept holders engaged with the KuCoin ecosystem through multiple market cycles.

In September 2020, KuCoin was hacked for approximately $285 million — one of the largest cryptocurrency exchange hacks in history at that time. The attacker gained access to KuCoin's hot wallet private keys and siphoned assets across multiple blockchains. KuCoin's response to the hack was notable: the team immediately suspended withdrawals, identified the compromised wallets, and coordinated with dozens of blockchain projects to freeze or recover stolen tokens at the contract level.

Within two weeks, KuCoin had recovered over $200 million of the stolen assets through project team interventions, exchange cooperation, and law enforcement assistance. The remaining losses were covered by KuCoin's insurance fund — meaning all user funds were made whole. The hack and its recovery demonstrated both the vulnerability of hot wallet infrastructure and the potential for coordinated responses to theft in the blockchain ecosystem, where transactions are traceable even when difficult to reverse.

KuCoin grew to serve over 30 million registered users across more than 200 countries — a genuine global exchange rather than a primarily Asian platform. Its willingness to list tokens from projects in emerging markets, its support for multiple languages, and its relatively low listing requirements for new projects have made it the preferred exchange for traders seeking access to small-cap and newly launched tokens.

In 2023, KuCoin and its founders faced a US Department of Justice indictment on charges of operating an unlicensed money transmitter and failing to implement adequate anti-money laundering procedures. KuCoin reached a settlement with US authorities in 2024, agreeing to pay approximately $297 million in penalties and to exit the US market — a significant regulatory development that reflected the broader US crackdown on exchanges that had operated without adequate AML compliance.