TechFlow news, November 24 — South Korea's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) will impose consecutive sanctions on virtual asset exchanges Upbit, Korbit, GOPAX, Bithumb, and Coinone for violations of anti-money laundering obligations.
The financial authorities will apply sanctions in a "first-in, first-out" manner, sequentially penalizing the exchanges and their personnel based on the order of on-site inspections. After imposing sanctions on Dunamu (operator of Upbit), the FIU plans to launch sanction measures against the remaining exchanges in the near term.
The market expects the severity of sanctions on each exchange to be similar to that imposed on Dunamu. Previously, the FIU issued a presidential warning, suspended new customer deposits and withdrawals for three months at the institutional level, and levied a 35.2 billion KRW fine on Dunamu. Industry insiders anticipate that the remaining exchanges will also face fines amounting to tens of billions of Korean won and significant penalties, with such sanctions expected to continue through the first half of next year.
