MEXC Opens Talks With FinCEN as 30-Day Blacklist Clock Ticks

MEXC is not waiting out the clock. Founder Vugar Usi said on X that the exchange has opened a line to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network with help from top-tier US law firms, and that FinCEN confirmed receipt of MEXC's written request yesterday morning, US time. His message: 'We are ready to fully cooperate,' with the platform 'continues to operate normally.'

The countdown began with FinCEN's November 6 order under Section 9714 of the Combating Russian Money Laundering Act. That rule lets the agency label foreign firms a 'primary money laundering concern in connection with Russian illicit finance.' The 30-day timer starts when the order hits the Federal Register. If it lands, US institutions can't send or receive funds from MEXC.

The exchange's corporate account struck the same note days earlier, saying legal and compliance teams were reviewing the order and that user assets stayed secure. MEXC also kicked off an independent review of its anti-money-laundering and sanctions controls.

FinCEN's order flagged more than $1 billion in daily transaction volume and about $5 billion in reserves as of June 2026. CoinMarketCap data showed near $810 million moving through in the last 24 hours. The case covers May 2021 to May 2026, with the agency alleging roughly $1.5 billion tied to Russian sanctions evasion inside a five-year stretch that processed about $16.7 billion in illicit activity, as Cryptopolitan reported.

MEXC's Russia ties run through A7, the state-backed payments network behind the ruble-pegged A7A5 stablecoin. Cryptopolitan reported in early October that the US Treasury slapped A7 with a transnational criminal organization designation. FinCEN has used Section 9714 sparingly — only Bitzlato in January 2023 and PM2BTC in September 2024 came before, and neither matched MEXC's scale.

The fallout is already spreading across exchanges. OKX founder Star Xu warned users not to send funds directly from MEXC to OKX after complaints that USDT deposits were flagged and frozen, and Binance said it will stop processing transfers involving MEXC. The order doesn't cover firms registered outside the US, so MEXC's non-US business isn't expected to take the hit.