South Korea requires cryptocurrency exchanges to reconcile assets every 5 minutes to strengthen internal controls.

South Korea's Financial Services Commission (FSC) announced on Monday that, in response to internal control vulnerabilities exposed by the recent Bithumb payment incident, it has mandated that all domestic cryptocurrency exchanges implement ledger-to-asset reconciliation every five minutes. An emergency inspection revealed that three of the country's five major exchanges only reconciled their accounts once a day, making it difficult to promptly detect and address discrepancies; some systems failed to automatically suspend trading in the event of significant mismatches, raising regulatory concerns. Under the new regulations: 1. Exchanges must establish automated ledger-wallet reconciliation systems with a five-minute cycle. 2. Set criteria for triggering automatic trading suspension due to significant discrepancies. 3. High-risk processes (such as promotional payments) must undergo enhanced review, including third-party verification and multi-level approval. 4. High-risk accounts must be managed independently, and payments must utilize automated verification tools. 5. External audit frequency has been changed from quarterly to monthly, and the scope of disclosure has been expanded to include detailed asset balances by wallet and ledger. The FSC stated that it will complete the relevant rule revisions by April 2026. This follows Bithumb's announcement that its IPO plans have been postponed to after 2028 to allow for strengthened internal controls and accounting policies by 2027; simultaneously, the equity swap between Naver Financial and Dunamu has also been postponed to the end of September. (Cointelegraph)