• KuCoin CEO said that the most important feature of Bitcoin is a unit of exchange and not privacy.
• He further added that the crypto industry has been increasingly interacting with the physical world, and thus compliance becomes essential.

Bitcoin (BTC) is undoubtedly the most popular cryptocurrency currently in the market having nearly 1 billion users across the world. However, one thing with Bitcoin is that it’s a public cryptocurrency, meaning all transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain are visible to everyone on the ledger.

That’s where privacy coins like Monero, Dash, and ZCash come into the picture. But the thing with privacy coins is that they are the most disliked by regulators who think that privacy coins facilitate illicit transactions. While privacy coins have a separate fanbase in the crypto world, some of the top market players have an interesting take on Bitcoin.

KuCoin CEO Johnny Lyu recently said that privacy is as such not the most important feature of Bitcoin. According to Lyu, the primary advantage of Bitcoin is not privacy but its function as a means of exchange. Bitcoin enables holders to safeguard themselves against recessions, as it was developed in response to the 2008 financial crisis caused by the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis. Lyu emphasized that these events played a significant role in the creation of Bitcoin.

“When it comes to the purpose of Bitcoin creation, I think privacy is just one of its features,” he told in an interview with CoinTelegraph. Lyu’s comments come when KuCoin has been working to implement mandatory Know Your Customer (KYC) checks.

KYC In Crypto

While some people think that strict KYC (Know Your Customer) practices can be intrusive and affect privacy, the CEO of KuCoin believes that these policies are beneficial. According to the CEO, these practices enhance the security of users’ funds, making them more reliable and secure for them. Lyu said:

KYC is aimed to protect the assets of the public and to ensure that assets are protected on two different levels. The first level is ownership, so you know that the money is yours. And the second level is that you can actually track your assets in the case of theft. So if you lost your assets, we’ll be able to track the source and make sure the source is clean.

He further added that the crypto industry has been increasingly interacting with the physical world, and thus compliance becomes essential. In late June, KuCoin made an official announcement stating that starting from July 15, 2023, all new users would be required to undergo KYC checks. Without completing the KYC process, new users won’t be able to access KuCoin’s products and services.

Existing users who haven’t completed KYC will still be able to trade but won’t be able to deposit new funds. The CEO of KuCoin mentioned that these new KYC restrictions may have a short-term impact on the platform’s trading volumes.

KuCoin reported that it currently has 27 million users, marking a 35% increase compared to the previous year. Since the announcement of the KYC upgrade, KuCoin’s trading volumes have noticeably risen from approximately $540 million to over $660 million, as per data from CoinGecko.