South Korea’s financial watchdog is preparing a fresh round of sanctions against domestic crypto exchanges, intensifying its scrutiny of anti-money-laundering controls at a time when local trading volumes remain among the highest in Asia.
Fiu moves toward sanctions as inspection cycle closes
A report published Monday said the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has completed most of its on-site inspections at major platforms and is now moving cases through legal review. The agency examined Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and GOPAX to assess whether they met core requirements such as customer verification and the reporting of suspicious activity.
These checks are part of the country’s enforcement of the Special Financial Transactions Act, which sets AML standards for virtual asset operators.
The FIU has been processing cases in the order its teams visited each exchange, and markets expect the sanction announcements to follow the same sequence. Dunamu, the company behind Upbit, was reviewed first in August of last year, with Korbit, GOPAX, Bithumb and Coinone inspected in the months that followed.
Fieldwork is largely over, and sanctions committees are now weighing the findings. Earlier this year, Dunamu received a disciplinary warning for its chief executive and a three-month restriction on new deposits and withdrawals. The FIU later imposed a 35.2 billion won fine after completing its review of the case.
The Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) is expected to impose institutional and personal penalties on Korbit, Gopax, Bithumb, and Coinone in sequence, following Dunamu. Industry insiders expect the violations to be similar across exchanges, with penalties comparable to…
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) November 24, 2025
Wu Blockchain Announcement.
People familiar with the process expect the remaining exchanges to face comparable outcomes, since inspectors assessed similar compliance systems across all firms.
Penalties likely to echo the dunamu decision
Regulators are preparing a mix of institutional and individual sanctions. Monetary penalties are also on the table, with estimates suggesting the combined total for all exchanges could reach into the hundreds of billions of won. The exact amounts will depend on the seriousness and frequency of the breaches identified during each inspection.
The Dunamu case offers a blueprint for what comes next: officials first decide on personnel and institutional disciplinary actions, then finalize the size of the fine once legal assessments are complete. The same structure is expected to apply to the next exchanges in line.
Regulatory pressure builds as tax uncertainty lingers
The FIU is not expected to finish its sanction schedule this year. Decisions for the remaining four exchanges will likely stretch into the first half of next year, keeping compliance pressure high during a period when global markets are already adapting to tougher oversight.
This enforcement cycle comes as South Korea reassesses its long-delayed virtual asset tax regime. Officials have acknowledged that the infrastructure needed to start taxing crypto by the planned January 2027 date is not yet ready. The debate, which has already stretched across five years and several postponements, has now reopened the possibility of another delay.
At the same time, policymakers are trying to balance enforcement with support for the industry. The ruling Democratic Party recently formed a crypto policy task force aimed at encouraging the growth of digital-asset businesses and blockchain development, signalling that regulatory tightening will be paired with efforts to maintain the country’s role as a significant crypto hub.
Kristian Koch
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