South Korea to sanction trade over AML compliance breaches

South Korea takes its anti-money laundering laws seriously, and as such, the Korean Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) is ready to sanction crypto exchanges that do not follow T protocols.

According to the regulator, failing to crack down on companies that fail to follow protocols harms the integrity of the country’s growing crypto market, which has gained political momentum in recent times. Currently, the FIU has already taken action against Dunamu, the parent company behind Upbit, Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, which was recently acquired by Naver.

Additionally, he has inspected other big names including Bithumb, Coinone, Korbitand GOPAX, to see if they were following proper customer identity verification protocols and reporting suspicious transactions to authorities in a timely manner.

According to a local report published on November 24, 2025, authorities in the country are currently preparing fines and sanctions not only against these companies, but also against individuals violating anti-money laundering laws. The Korean FIU processes cases in the same order in which it first inspected the exchanges.

The Korean Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) is expected to impose institutional and personnel sanctions on Korbit, Gopax, Bithumb and Coinone in order, following Dunamu. Industry insiders expect violations to be similar across exchanges, with penalties comparable to…

-Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) November 24, 2025

For now, most inspections have been completed. Legal reviews and sanctions committees are looking into the situation. Since the FIU follows the order of its examinations, according to the report, industry experts expect the sanctions to be applied in the same order, i.e.: Upflow first, then KorbitGOPAX, Bithumb and Coinone.

Bithumb could face more delays, however. Regulators are scrutinizing Bithumb’s order book operations.

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Dunamu sanction will serve as model for other South Korean exchanges

Korean experts expect the FIU to impose sanctions on the rest of the crypto exchanges in the same way as it did for Dunamu. In the case of Dunamu, the FIU first issued warnings and sanctions against the company and its CEO, and then only decided on the fine the company had to pay.

Dunamu’s CEO received a disciplinary warning in February this year and the exchange was unable to receive new deposits or withdrawals for three months. Fast forward to November 6, 2025, the FIU charged the company 35.2 billion won (about $25.7 million) for violating the rules.

@Official_Upbit faces billions in fines for more than 700,000 KYC violations as South Korea tightens its crypto regulations.#Upbit #FSC

– Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews) February 18, 2025

Since inspectors have examined similar anti-money laundering protocols on other major exchanges in the country, industry insiders expect other platforms to face similar sanctions.

Financial hawks in the Korean crypto landscape estimate that the total fine spread across platforms could reach hundreds of billions of won. The exact number, however, depends on the severity of their violations.

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FIU expands oversight as new tax regime faces delays

Currently, the FIU still has four exchanges to sanction, and it does not appear that the regulator will manage to complete the process before the end of the year. Judging by the pace of examinations and sanctions, it appears that the remaining cases will be resolved by the middle of next year.

Meanwhile, the country is struggling to implement its new cryptocurrency tax regime. Officials admitted they are not ready to start taxing digital assets by January 2027 and highlighted insufficient infrastructure and lack of clarity in guidelines.

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The post South Korea Sanctions Exchanges Over AML Compliance Failures appeared first on 99Bitcoins.

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