KuCoin EU appoints Hongyu Chen-Birkenbeul as Managing Director
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KuCoin EU, headquartered in Vienna, has appointed Hongyu Chen-Birkenbeul as Managing Director. The company announced the move on Monday. In her new role, Chen-Birkenbeul will be responsible for Technology, ICT Security & Compliance, and Product & Operations. She thus heads the Vienna-based entity together with Sabina Liu.
According to the announcement, Chen-Birkenbeul is to lead the further development of the technology platform, drive product development and strengthen the company’s digital operational resilience. The latter has been a regulatory requirement in its own right for licensed crypto service providers in the EU since the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) became applicable.
KuCoin is currently not available to European customers, after services for European clients were temporarily suspended on 4 February 2026. At the time, the supervisory authority, Austria’s Financial Market Authority (FMA), took issue with the company’s anti-money-laundering compliance.
Ten years at PwC Germany
According to the company, Chen-Birkenbeul brings nearly 20 years of international consulting and leadership experience in strategy and governance, business and IT transformation, cybersecurity, regulatory compliance and digital innovation.
Most recently, she spent ten years at PwC Germany, where she advised clients on cybersecurity and compliance matters and was responsible for the consultancy’s technology alliances strategy. Before that, she led the rollout of SAP transformation programmes and worked on building governance structures for international organisations as well as for technology start-ups.
Sabina Liu, also Managing Director at KuCoin EU, says the appointment reflects the fact that a trusted crypto platform requires not only regulatory compliance but also resilient technology and operational excellence; Chen-Birkenbeul, she says, brings the necessary combination of strategic leadership and technical expertise.
Chen-Birkenbeul herself points to the European rulebook: Europe is setting a new benchmark for regulated digital assets, the new Managing Director says. That, she adds, creates opportunities to build products on a foundation of trust, resilience and governance.
CASP licence from the FMA
KuCoin EU Exchange GmbH is the European entity of crypto exchange KuCoin and holds an authorisation as a Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) under the EU’s MiCAR regulation, granted by Austria’s Financial Market Authority (FMA). This allows the company to offer services across the entire European Economic Area – with the exception of Malta: custody and administration of crypto assets, the exchange of crypto for fiat and crypto for crypto, the placing of crypto assets, and transfer services on behalf of clients.
The EU entity says it does not operate a crypto-asset trading platform of its own, nor does it provide investment advice.
The appointment is part of a broader strategy: KuCoin EU intends to strengthen its leadership team with executives from international consulting, technology and financial services as it expands its regulated business in Europe.
