What to know : South Korea's FIU fined Bithumb 36.8 billion won ($24.6M) for AML violations. The exchange received a six-month partial suspension, only affecting new users. The fine stems from approximately 6.65 million violations related to KYC and transaction restrictions.
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.
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
