South Korea Turns Up Heat on Four Crypto Platforms After Upbit Drama

• South Korea’s FIU is preparing to impose sequential penalties against Korbit, Gopax, Bithumb, and Coinone.
• Violations include repeated AML and KYC failures, with additional penalties likely across multiple exchanges.

The Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in South Korea is back in the spotlight, following the Upbit incident that previously fueled public conversation across the country’s crypto industry.

According to reports, the authority is now preparing to impose consecutive sanctions on four other major exchanges: Korbit, Gopax, Bithumb, and Coinone. The development comes on the heels of a roughly ₩35.2 billion penalty issued to Dunamu, Upbit’s operator, for shortcomings in AML and customer identification procedures.

This situation feels like a long-awaited sequel, as the investigations have been ongoing since 2024 and have yielded a nearly identical pattern of findings.

A Closer Look at FIU’s Step-by-Step Crackdown

The FIU conducted its investigation using a sequential sequence of field inspections, ensuring a consistent process: Dunamu in August 2024, Korbit in October, Gopax in December, then Bithumb and Coinone in early 2025. The process is simple, but the results have revealed a consistent picture.

In many cases, there was a lack of user identity verification, reporting of suspicious transactions that did not proceed as expected, and transactions that moved without restrictions that should have been under AML supervision.

With such consistent findings, industry players are beginning to suspect that fines for other exchanges may not be significantly different from what happened to Dunamu.

On the other hand, the FIU is expected to complete most of these sanctions in the first half of next year. There are review processes, clarifications, and follow-up investigations that sometimes take longer than initially expected.

Some observers even say that if there are technical developments internally within the exchange, the resolution could be delayed again. However, the sequence of actions is clear, and the public simply has to wait and see who will be announced first.

South Korea’s Growing Push Toward a Regulated Digital Future

Interestingly, this situation occurs as the South Korean government is moving more seriously to regulate the digital asset ecosystem. Last June, the CNF reported that South Korea was preparing a phased launch of stablecoins.

The plan is to implement this through banks that are already under strict supervision, so that financial risks can be controlled from the outset. Furthermore, the Bank of Korea continues to pilot a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in response to the growing adoption of stablecoins in East Asia.

The situation experienced by these exchanges also coincides with another story from the South Korean crypto market. In early November, we highlighted KWeather’s latest move.

The company signed a preliminary agreement with VivoPower International PLC, under which VivoPower will invest approximately $5 million to acquire a 20% stake in KWeather.

KWeather will use the funds to purchase VivoPower shares, making it the first publicly traded Korean company to gain exposure to XRP and, potentially, Ripple Labs.