Earlier this year, the South Korean Financial Services Commission had made it mandatory for all digital asset platforms and crypto exchanges to register with the country’s anti-money laundering arm known as the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). The last date to register for the same was decided to be Sept. 24, 2021.
While registering, the exchanges are required to provide security certification and partnerships with the banks to get the real-name verification accounts. As the deadline came closer, more and more of them came forward to submit their files to get verified. However, only 10 crypto exchanges were able to register for the same successfully.
Many crypto exchanges tried
Crypto exchanges Graybridge, OK-BIT, Flat Thai X, Gdac, and Praban, submitted their documents on Thursday. However, only the biggest ones were able to complete the registration with real-name verification accounts with banks. The count of exchanges who completed the registration is four, including the well-known ones – Coinone, Upbit, Bithumb, and Korbit.
Real-name verification is crucial for exchanges to offer Korean won (KRW) trading pairs and payment options.
Despite Gopax, Houbi Korea, and Gdac trying to settle with banks till the last, they failed to grab the partnership. They will stop KRW trading from tomorrow. The same happened with ProBit and Problegate yesterday, and hence, they have also halted KRW in their service.
No information from other crypto service providers
According to Yonhap, a news agency of the country, along with the mentioned Korean crypto exchanges, another 18 had to submit filings by Friday. The report also said that another 40 exchanges had provided no information on their intentions, and therefore, they have to stop operating on Friday.
Coming to the global crypto exchanges, Binance, BitMEX, and Bybit have already reduced their offerings to South Korea.
BitMEX and Bybit followed the actions of Binance, who limited the services in August. The two stopped displaying content in the Korean language on their platforms. The FIU has clarified previously that the Korean language availability in the platform will decide which of the crypto exchanges can offer services to the nation.
