South Korea blocks 14 cryptocurrency exchanges on Apple App Store

According to Cointelegraph, South Korea is expanding its ban on applications used by digital asset companies to serve its citizens. On April 11th, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) of South Korea announced that 14 cryptocurrency exchanges have been blocked on the Apple App Store. The affected exchanges include KuCoin and MEXC. The report released on April 14th stated that the banned exchanges were accused of operating as unregistered overseas virtual asset operators. The report also pointed out that the Financial Information Analysis Institute (FIU) will continue to promote the blocking of applications and websites of such operators to prevent money laundering and user damage. After Google Play Store blocked access to several unregistered exchanges on March 26th, Apple Play Store also received requests to block applications. During the period when Google Play Store applications were blocked, KuCoin and MEXC were also affected. FSC has released a list of 22 unregistered platforms operating in the country, of which 17 have been blocked by the Google Play Store. According to the FSC report, users will not be able to download these applications from the Apple App Store, and existing users will also be unable to update these applications. FSC stated that "unreported commercial activities are criminal penalties," with a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of up to 50 million Korean won ($35200).