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Crypto exchange Upbit could face sanctions from South Korean authorities for not complying with money laundering obligations.
Jan 16, 2025, 1:28 p.m. UTC
Crypto exchange Upbit may face possible sanctions in South Korea for not complying with the country's money laundering and know your customer (KYC) obligations, according to a report from local news site Maeil.
Upbit which is one of South Korea's largest exchanges was reportedly notified by the Financial Information Analysis Institute (FIU) under the Financial Services Commission last week of the sanctions. If the decision is confirmed Upbit could be prevented from new customer related business for up to six months.
The decision would “essentially restrict new customers from transferring virtual assets outside the exchange for a certain period of time,” Upbit told Maeil.
CoinDesk reached out to Upbit and Financial Services Commission for comment.
The exchange will submit an opinion regarding the sanctions to Upbit to the FIU by the 20th and the FIU will then review the sanctions.
South Korean authorities vowed to look more closely at exchanges in 2022 following the collapse of stablecoin issuer Terra, calling regulators to supervise them thoroughly.
Camomile Shumba
Camomile Shumba is a CoinDesk regulatory reporter based in the UK. Previously, Shumba interned at Business Insider and Bloomberg. Camomile has featured in Harpers Bazaar, Red, the BBC, Black Ballad, Journalism.co.uk, Cryptopolitan.com and South West Londoner. Shumba studied politics, philosophy and economics as a combined degree at the University of East Anglia before doing a postgraduate degree in multimedia journalism. While she did her undergraduate degree she had an award-winning radio show on making a difference. She does not currently hold value in any digital currencies or projects.
