South Korea’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) ordered the country’s largest crypto exchange, Upbit, to suspend operations due to alleged non-compliance with anti-money laundering regulations. This was reported by the local publication Maeil Business Newspaper.
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It is clarified that Upbit is obliged to provide the FIU with its comments on the decision by January 20. The next day, the agency will hold a hearing on the fine and sanctions, in which it will give its final approval. If this happens, the company will lose the opportunity to work with new clients for up to six months.
In November 2024, the agency conducted an inspection of the crypto exchange, which was necessary to renew the company’s license. During the audit, the FIU found around 700 thousand possible violations related to the Know Your Customer (KYC) system, necessary to combat money laundering.
According to the department, in hundreds of thousands of cases Upbit did not properly control the identification procedure: its names and registration numbers appeared blurred on customer documents.
Under local law, companies can be fined up to 100 million won (approximately $67,000) for each violation. Therefore, if Upbit is fined for 700 thousand violations, the total fine could reach $46 billion.
Upbit was founded in 2017. The exchange is the leader in the South Korean cryptocurrency market and controls approximately 70% of its volume, writes Maeil Business newspaper.
Author:
Bogdan Muzychenko
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
