{"id":8196,"date":"2025-01-17T09:32:06","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T09:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=8196"},"modified":"2025-01-17T09:32:06","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T09:32:06","slug":"crypto-exchange-upbit-hit-with-suspension-notice-in-south-korea-over-kyc-violations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=8196","title":{"rendered":"Crypto Exchange Upbit Hit With Suspension Notice In South Korea Over KYC Violations"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">South Korea\u2019s largest crypto exchange, Upbit, has reportedly received a suspension notice from the Financial Services Commission (FSC) for allegedly violating anti-money laundering (AML) and Know-your-client (KYC) requirements.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Upbit Faces Suspension Of Up To 6 Months<\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On Thursday, the Maeil Business Newspaper <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mk.co.kr\/news\/economy\/11219802\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">reported<\/a> that South Korea\u2019s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) notified the crypto exchange Upbit of possible sanctions over alleged violations of the Financial Transaction Information Act.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the report, Upbit failed \u201cto fulfill its anti-money laundering obligations, including violating the KYC system,\u201d which could result in a business suspension of up to six months.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The measure would restrict Upbit from registering new users while the suspension lasts. However, existing customers would not be affected. \u201cThe sanction is designed to restrict new customers from transferring cryptocurrency outside of the exchange for a certain period,\u201d the exchange explained in a statement cited by the report.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Upbit has until January 20 to submit an appeal to the FIU, as the regulatory agency will hold a hearing the following day to finalize the decision and establish the penalty\u2019s duration.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Maeil Business also noted that the sanctions on Upbit could \u201ccause other crypto exchanges to reel\u201d since it could be \u201cinterpreted as a reflection of the financial authorities\u2019 will to correct the illegal and unfair market order that has been pointed out as a problem in the virtual asset industry since the enforcement of the Virtual Asset User Protection Act in July last year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The country is <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinist.com\/south-korea-delays-corporate-crypto-accounts-what\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener \">entering<\/a> the second phase of South Korea\u2019s new crypto investor protection laws. Phase one focused on safeguarding customer deposits and tackling unfair trading practices. Meanwhile, the second phase will focus on closing regulatory gaps related to crypto asset issuance and distribution.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"font-weight: 400;\">South Korea\u2019s Crypto Industry Awaiting The Sanctions<\/h2>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The crypto industry is reportedly interested in how the sanctions could affect Upbit\u2019s business license renewal. Under the Special Money Act, virtual asset service providers (VASPs) must renew their licenses every three years.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Upbit\u2019s license renewal process, which started in August, raised questions among the financial community about its extended timeline. According to previous <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinist.com\/crypto-exchange-upbit-faces-south-korean-probe-over-600000-kyc-violations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener \">reports<\/a>, authorities\u2019 extensive investigation has affected the license renewal, which expired in October.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While reviewing the exchange\u2019s license renewal, the FIU found large-scale cases suspected of violating customer identification procedures. The financial authority identified around 600,000 cases where the KYC process was not properly followed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The crypto exchange allegedly opened thousands of accounts without proper verification, failing to comply with anti-money laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) requirements.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the reports, Upbit could face fines of up to 100 million won per case, worth around $68,000, which could cost $40 billion if all 600,000 cases were confirmed and fined.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Moreover, the report shared that the FIU allegedly imposed sanctions after determining the crypto exchange offered its service to unverified businesses overseas. South Korean <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinist.com\/south-korea-to-ease-institutional-crypto-investment-restrictions-this-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener \">regulations<\/a> stipulate that local exchanges can only conduct transactions with registered service providers.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-370256 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/bitcoinist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/TOTAL_2025-01-16_09-24-56.png?w=980&amp;resize=980%2C524\" alt=\"crypto, TOTAL\" width=\"980\" height=\"524\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bitcoinist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/TOTAL_2025-01-16_09-24-56.png?w=1102 1102w, https:\/\/bitcoinist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/TOTAL_2025-01-16_09-24-56.png?w=640 640w, https:\/\/bitcoinist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/TOTAL_2025-01-16_09-24-56.png?w=768 768w, https:\/\/bitcoinist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/TOTAL_2025-01-16_09-24-56.png?w=980 980w, https:\/\/bitcoinist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/TOTAL_2025-01-16_09-24-56.png?w=750 750w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 980px) 100vw, 980px\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Korea\u2019s largest crypto exchange, Upbit, has reportedly received a suspension notice from the Financial Services Commission (FSC) for allegedly violating anti-money laundering (AML) and Know-your-client (KYC) requirements. Upbit Faces Suspension Of Up To 6 Months On Thursday, the Maeil Business Newspaper reported that South Korea\u2019s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) notified the crypto exchange Upbit [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-8196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8196\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}