Share this article
Banks in South Korea Instructed to Treat Crypto Exchanges as High-Risk Clients
Banks will have to deny services to clients that do not comply with ID verification requirements or fail to report suspicious activity to the FSC's anti-money laundering unit.
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 1:10 p.m. Published Jun 14, 2021, 10:23 a.m.
South Korea's banks have been instructed to treat crypto exchanges as high-risk clients by the country's financial regulator.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
- The Financial Services Commission (FSC) said crypto exchanges must be subject to strengthened transaction monitoring and ID verification, the Korea Times reported Sunday.
- Banks will be required to deny services to clients that do not comply with ID verification requirements or fail to report suspicious activity to the FSC's anti-money laundering unit, the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit.
- Exchanges will have to terminate transactions made by accounts that are not real-named based or have not been verified using the necessary identity checks.
- Of 60 exchanges in the country, only four are using real-name accounts that meet this standard, according to the Korea Times.
- This latest statement of intent by the FSC around stricter regulation of the crypto industry comes as exchanges have until Sept. 24 of this year to register as virtual-asset service providers (VASPs) for the regulator to then assess the legality of their operations.
Read more: South Korean Parliament Discusses Crypto Bills for First Time
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Galaxy Digital’s head of research explains why bitcoin’s outlook is so uncertain in 2026
Galaxy Digital’s Alex Thorn says options markets, falling volatility and macro risks make next year hard to forecast even as the firm keeps a bullish long-term view.
What to know:
- Galaxy Research, the research arm of Galaxy Digital (GLXY), says overlapping macroeconomic and market risks make bitcoin unusually difficult to forecast in 2026.
- The firm says that options pricing and volatility trends indicate that bitcoin is maturing into a more macro-like asset, rather than a high-growth trade.
- Galaxy maintains a long-term bullish outlook, projecting that bitcoin could reach $250,000 by the end of 2027.
Top Stories
