'Bithumb Faces Six-Month Partial Business Suspension and 36.8 Billion Won Fine for Violating the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information'

Bithumb, which violated anti-money laundering obligations millions of times, will face a partial business suspension for six months and a fine of 36.8 billion won.

Bithumb Lounge located in Gangnam, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News

The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), under the Financial Services Commission, convened a disciplinary review committee on March 16 to address Bithumb's violations of the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information, and decided on these measures. In addition, the CEO received a reprimand warning, and the reporting officer was suspended for six months.

Starting from March 27 until September 26, under the partial business suspension, new Bithumb customers will not be able to transfer virtual assets in or out of the platform. However, trading and exchanging virtual assets and KRW deposits and withdrawals will still be possible, and existing customers will be able to continue trading on Bithumb without restriction.

This decision was based on an on-site anti-money laundering inspection conducted from March 17 to April 18, 2025. According to the FIU, Bithumb violated the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information approximately 6.65 million times. Of these, 45,772 cases involved supporting virtual asset transfers with 18 overseas virtual asset service providers that were not reported. The FIU sent Bithumb three official business cooperation requests to stop transactions with unregistered virtual asset service providers, but Bithumb failed to take any such action.

There were also 355 violations of customer due diligence obligations. For example, Bithumb marked cases as 'verified' even when customers' detailed addresses were entered incorrectly, or allowed transactions for customers whose risk ratings had increased due to potential money laundering risk without conducting further checks. This demonstrates that Bithumb failed to properly verify customer information.

The obligation to restrict transactions was breached 304 times, as Bithumb did not restrict transactions for customers whose identity verification was incomplete. There were also more than 16,000 cases of record-keeping violations, as Bithumb failed to retain copies of real-name verification documents obtained from customers during identity checks.

The FIU has issued a prior notice of the fine to Bithumb and will provide at least 10 days for the company to submit its opinion. After considering any submitted opinions, the FIU will finalize the fine amount.

An official from the Financial Services Commission stated, "For the virtual asset market to become a trusted market, it is essential to strictly comply with anti-money laundering obligations under the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information. The FIU will sequentially implement follow-up measures after the remaining on-site inspections and intends to impose strict sanctions for future violations to prevent money laundering risks associated with breaches of the Act."

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