South Korean financial authorities will sanction a number of crypto exchanges in succession, with major penalties likely to be unavoidable

South Korean financial authorities are expected to impose sanctions on cryptocurrency exchanges in the country for violating anti-money laundering obligations in a row. After completing the penalty against Dunamu (the operator of Upbit), the FIU plans to take action against other exchanges such as Korbit, Gopax, Bithumb and Coinone in sequence. The Financial Supervisory Service has completed on-site inspections of the above-mentioned exchanges since last year and is currently in the stage of legal review and sanctions review. The FIU will be processed in the order in which the inspection is completed, but due to the need for review of Bithumb, its processing order may be postponed. The market expects that the sanctions imposed on each exchange will be closer.
Previously, the FIU had warned the head of Dunamu in February this year and imposed a three-month suspension of deposits and withdrawals for new customers, followed by a fine of 35.20 billion won on November 6. The rest of the exchanges are also expected to face tens of billions of won in fines, the specific amount will be determined according to the circumstances of the violation. Due to the huge workload of pending cases, the FIU expects that it will be difficult to complete all procedures within this year, and most sanctions may be postponed until the first half of next year.