South Korea's FIU to Sanction Multiple Cryptocurrency Exchanges

On November 24th, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under the South Korean Financial Services Commission is likely to impose sanctions on Korean domestic cryptocurrency exchanges like Korbit, Gopax, Bithumb, Coinone following Dunamu. Sanctions against domestic virtual asset trading platforms for breaching anti-money laundering obligations in South Korea are expected to follow one after another. Currently, the sanction process is undergoing legal review and sanction deliberation committee meetings. The misdeeds of the exchanges, such as violations of KYC and suspected unreported transactions, are generally similar, so the sanctions are expected to be relatively consistent. In February of this year, the FIU issued a warning to the representative of Dunamu for violating the Special Financial Transactions Act, imposing moderate penalties such as a 3-month suspension of new customer deposits and withdrawals and a fine of 35.2 billion Korean won. It is difficult for the FIU to complete the sanctions within the year, and it is expected that the majority of the sanctions will be completed in the first half of next year.