South Korea fines Bithumb $24 million, orders 6-month partial suspension over AML violations

Bithumb, one of South Korea’s leading crypto exchanges, has been fined by the country’s anti–money laundering and counter-terrorism financing agency.

South Korea’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has slapped a 36.8 billion won ($24.6 million) fine and ordered a six-month partial suspension after finding millions of violations of the country’s anti-money laundering rules.

The sanctions stem from violations of the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information, the Financial Services Commission said, according to local media.

According to the FIU, Bithumb committed about 6.65 million violations. Around 3.55 million involved failures to carry out required customer identity verification, while 3.04 million were related to cases where the exchange failed to properly block transactions that should have been blocked.

The suspension targets services for newly registered users. Existing customers will still be able to trade and move funds on the platform, according to initial reports on these sanctions.

Regulators also issued personnel penalties. Bithumb’s chief executive received a reprimand warning, while the exchange’s reporting officer was suspended for six months.

The violations surfaced during on-site inspections of South Korea’s five largest crypto exchanges, Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax, conducted between 2024 and 2025.

The case comes as South Korean regulators tighten oversight of the crypto market. Last year, the FIU handed Dunamu, the operator of the country’s largest exchange, Upbit, a three-month partial suspension and a 35.2 billion won fine for compliance gaps. Korbit, a rival platform, faced a smaller penalty of 2.73 billion won, along with institutional warnings.

Bithumb, founded in 2014, ranks among the largest exchanges in South Korea by trading volume, according to CoinGecko data. The partial suspension comes just a month after Bithumb mistakenly distributed billions of dollars worth of bitcoin to users.

CoinDesk has reached out to Bithumb for comment, but hasn’t heard back at the time of writing.