South Korean financial regulators have imposed sanctions on several cryptocurrency exchanges.

The Financial Information Analysis Service (FIU) of Korea is expected to impose sanctions on several domestic virtual asset exchanges for violating anti-money laundering obligations. The financial authorities plan to impose institutional and personnel sanctions and fines on the exchanges according to the order of on-site inspections, following a "first-in, first-out" principle. After sanctioning Dunamu, the FIU plans to take sanction measures against the remaining virtual asset exchanges. Previously, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has conducted on-site inspections of Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and GOPAX since last year to examine their compliance with anti-money laundering obligations, including violations of Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures. The order of sanctions will follow the order of on-site inspections: Dunamu (August last year), Korbit (October), GOPAX (December), Bithumb (March this year), and Coinone (April). However, given that Bithumb recently underwent an additional on-site inspection due to order book issues, its sanction order may be delayed. The sanctions process will be similar to that of Dunamu, first identifying individuals and institutions to be sanctioned, followed by fines. Previously, in February of this year, the FIU, under the Specific Financial Information Act, issued a "warning of accountability" to Dunamu's CEO and imposed a heavy penalty on the institution, suspending new customer deposits and withdrawals for three months; and on the 6th, imposed a fine of 35.2 billion won. The market expects that, since the violations of other exchanges (such as KYC violations and failure to report suspicious transactions) are largely similar, the sanctions will also be similar in severity to those against Dunamu, making heavy penalties difficult to avoid, and the fines may reach tens of billions of won. It is anticipated that the FIU's sanctions against the remaining four exchanges may not be completed this year, with most sanctions expected to conclude in the first half of next year.