'Korean Homepage Operations' Exposed at 16 Foreign Virtual Exchanges Including Mexi... Investigation Requested

FIU Notifies 16 Foreign Virtual Operators to Investigative Agencies
"Cease Transactions with Existing Operators, Virtual Asset Transfers Prohibited"

[Asia Economy Reporter Ji Yeon-jin] The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) announced on the 18th that it has notified investigative agencies of 16 foreign virtual asset service providers, including MEXC and KuCoin, for violating the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information (the Specified Financial Transaction Information Act, or Specified Financial Act) by operating without reporting to domestic customers.

The service providers identified this time include KuCoin, MEXC, Phemex, XT.com, Bitrue, ZB.com, Bitglobal, CoinW, CoinEX, AAX, ZoomEX, Poloniex, BTCEX, BTCC, DigiFinex, and Pionex.

These virtual asset service providers created Korean-language websites, conducted events to attract Korean customers, and supported the purchase of virtual assets using credit cards, confirming that they were operating targeting domestic customers.

Earlier, on July 22 of last year, the FIU informed foreign virtual asset service providers operating for domestic customers that they are subject to reporting under the Specified Financial Act, but they continued to operate without reporting.

Illegal operations without reporting are punishable by imprisonment of up to five years or a fine of up to 50 million KRW, and the reporting of domestic virtual asset service providers will be restricted for a certain period in the future.

Additionally, the FIU requested the Korea Communications Commission and the Korea Communications Standards Commission to block domestic access to these unreported service providers to prevent their use, and plans to block credit card companies from allowing the use of credit cards issued by foreign virtual asset service providers for purchasing and payment of virtual assets within Korea.

The FIU emphasized, "For virtual asset service providers that have already been reported, we are guiding them to stop transactions with unreported service providers, making virtual asset transfers with these 16 providers impossible," and added, "users must verify whether the virtual asset service provider they use is legally reported under the Specified Financial Act."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.