‘Phantom Bitcoin’ checks, Drift hack linked to North Korea: Asia Express

Everything that happened in crypto news in Asia over the past seven days: Asia Express.

In this edition:

1. Bitcoin think tank recommends Taiwan hold BTC
2. Drift links $285M exploit to suspected North Korean operatives
3. Huione Group leader extradited to China
4. Hong Kong misses March target for stablecoin licenses 
5. South Korean brokerage seeks stake in crypto exchange Coinone
6. Bithumb’s fat thumb prompts five-minute reconciliation mandate
7. Japan’s stock exchange keeps Bitcoin treasuries out of key index
8. China pushes blockchain to link tax data and lending systems

Bithumb’s fat thumb prompts five-minute reconciliation mandate

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission will require crypto exchanges to reconcile internal ledgers with wallet balances every five minutes.

Inspections following a payout error at Bithumb found that most platforms relied on slower checks and lacked kill switches to halt transactions in the event of discrepancies.

Bithumb accidentally distributed 620,000 phantom Bitcoin in February it did not have, after an employee mistakenly selected Bitcoin instead of Korean Won.

Authorities will mandate automated shutdown triggers, stricter controls on high-risk manual payouts and monthly external audits.

The measures, backed by industry group DAXA, will be finalized in April, with system upgrades targeted for May.

Bitcoin think tank recommends Taiwan hold BTC

Taiwan could use Bitcoin as a hedge against geopolitical turmoil and the risk of war, according to the Bitcoin Policy Institute.

Bitcoin would be the only asset that would remain unfrozen or accessible for transfer in the event of a hypothetical blockade or invasion by China. 

“Uniquely for Taiwan, Bitcoin provides geopolitical resilience: in a PRC blockade or invasion, gold is stranded or seized and USD reserves face potential restrictions, but Bitcoin remains fully accessible without physical transport,” Jacob Langenkamp of the institute wrote in a report.

Drift links $285M exploit to suspected North Korean operatives

Drift Protocol said it had “medium-high confidence” that the recent exploit it suffered was carried out by North Korean hackers.

Drift traced the attack back to October 2025, when malicious actors posing as a quant trading firm approached Drift contributors at a conference.

Drift Protocol lost $285 million in user assets on April 1. Security company TRM Labs called it the largest DeFi hack of 2026 and the second-largest exploit in Solana’s history. 

Security researcher Taylor Monahan said North Korean IT workers have infiltrated the DeFi space for at least seven years.

Cambodian authorities have extradited Li Xiong, the leader of Huione Group, to China, where he will face money laundering charges. 

Huione Group has allegedly serviced scam centers in Cambodia by selling stolen personal data, technology and money laundering services. Many of these centers run “pig butchering” schemes, where trafficked victims are forced to defraud targets by posing as romantic or friendly contacts to steal funds and crypto.

According to Elliptic, the marketplace handled over $89 billion in cryptoassets as of January 2025.

Hong Kong misses March target for stablecoin licenses 

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is behind schedule in awarding its new stablecoin licenses after missing its March target.

An HKMA spokesperson told Cointelegraph that it is “actively taking forward the licensing matter and will announce further details in due course.”

In Hong Kong’s new stablecoin regulation, issuers must fully back tokens with high-quality liquid reserves, redemptions must be processed in one business day and issuers must also have a physical office in the city. There are also Know Your Customer and transaction monitoring rules.

South Korean brokerage firm seeks stake in crypto exchange

Korea Investment & Securities (KIS) is reportedly considering a stake in cryptocurrency exchange Coinone.

The Korea Herald reported that KIS began talks with regulators and politicians about the stake this month, but no final agreement has been reached.

This follows potential changes to South Korean law that would cap shareholders’ stakes in domestic crypto exchanges at 20%. Businesses would have three years to adjust their stakes.

Many local big-name investors exceed these limits. Song Chi-hyung holds 25% of the Upbit’s operator Dunamu; Bithumb Holdings owns 73% Bithumb; Coinone chairman Cha Myung-hoon controls over 50% of his exchange; Mirae Asset Consulting will own over 90% of Korbit following an acquisition, and Binance owns 67% of GOPAX.

Japan’s stock exchange keeps Bitcoin treasuries out of key index

Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) operator Japan Exchange Group said Friday that it will refrain from adding companies whose primary assets are crypto to the Tokyo Stock Price Index (TOPIX).

The Tokyo Stock Exchange is divided into three segments. The Prime Market is the top tier, consisting of large-cap, established companies with higher governance and liquidity standards.

TOPIX tracks companies listed on the Prime Market on a free-float-adjusted basis. Exclusion from the index would mean that Bitcoin treasury firms such as Metaplanet would not be included in one of Japan’s main benchmarks for large-cap equities.

“Metaplanet was founded on a simple conviction: Japanese investors deserve access to Bitcoin through a transparent, publicly listed company on the Tokyo Stock Exchange,” said Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich. “But we are building far more than a treasury.”

China pushes blockchain to link tax data and lending systems

China’s tax and financial regulators are pushing banks to lean on blockchain and privacy-preserving tools to revamp how tax data is used in lending, to unlock more credit for small businesses.

In a joint notice, the State Administration of Taxation and the National Financial Regulatory Administration called for standardized data pipelines between tax authorities, lenders and companies to close persistent information gaps.

The directive ties into Beijing’s longer-term push to digitize data infrastructure, building on a 2025 National Development and Reform Commission roadmap that sets a nationwide blockchain rollout target by 2029.