[DigitalToday reporter Oh Sang-yeop] South Korea's financial authorities imposed a six-month partial suspension of business and an administrative fine of 36.8 billion won on digital asset exchange Bithumb for alleged violations of the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information, including breaches of anti-money laundering obligations. They also decided sanctions on executives' status, including a warning for the chief executive and a six-month suspension for the reporting officer.

The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under the Financial Services Commission said on Sunday it approved the measures at a sanctions review committee meeting. The partial suspension will run for six months from March 27 to Sept. 26.

The action stems from an on-site anti-money laundering inspection conducted by the FIU in March and April last year. The inspection found Bithumb violated obligations including banning transactions with unreported digital asset operators, customer due diligence, transaction restrictions and record-keeping, for a total of 6,650,000 cases. The on-site inspection covered five major exchanges, including Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax, in 2024 to 2025.

According to the FIU, Bithumb supported a total of 45,772 digital asset transfer transactions with 18 overseas digital asset operators that did not fulfill reporting obligations. Authorities also flagged that Bithumb failed to block such transactions for an extended period despite repeated requests to stop them.

Violations of customer due diligence and transaction restriction obligations totaled about 6,590,000 cases. Inspectors found many cases in which Bithumb marked customer verification as completed using identification documents that made identity verification impossible, or registered customers with inaccurate address information as normal accounts.

There were also cases in which it allowed trading by users whose customer verification procedures were not completed. Inspectors also confirmed about 16,000 cases of record-keeping violations, including failing to keep copies of real-name verification documents collected during customer verification.

The scope of the partial business suspension is limited to digital asset transfers to external wallets (deposits and withdrawals) by new subscribers. Existing customers can trade without any restrictions, and new customers can also use digital asset trading and won deposits and withdrawals normally.

Bithumb issued a statement saying, "We respect the financial authorities' sanctions decision and will improve the issues raised, doing our utmost to protect users."

The FIU said it plans to proceed step by step with follow-up measures after the remaining on-site inspections and respond strictly to money laundering risks arising from violations of the law.

An FIU official stressed, "There is a need to recognise that legal compliance is not a cost but an investment to secure market trust."