Court Halts Coinone's 'Partial Business Suspension' Sanction

With Sanctions Against Upbit and Bithumb Already Suspended,
Court Halts Enforcement of Coinone Sanctions as Well

The court has put a halt to the partial business suspension order imposed by financial authorities on the virtual asset exchange Coinone. With this court injunction, the effectiveness of sanctions against Coinone has now been suspended, following similar suspensions for Upbit and Bithumb.

According to legal sources on the 29th, the 10th Administrative Division of the Seoul Administrative Court (Presiding Judge: Jung Eun-young) accepted Coinone's request for an injunction to suspend the three-month partial business suspension imposed by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). As a result, the sanction will remain suspended until 30 days after the final ruling on the main lawsuit.

The court stated, "Listed companies are expected to be allowed to participate in the virtual asset trading market in the near future. If the (sanction) remains effective at that time, it is likely to have a negative impact on attracting new customers." The court added, "The applicant has posted operating losses for the past four years, and considering the market share relative to other virtual asset exchanges, it would be difficult to recover damages even if the sanction is later revoked following the main proceedings."

Previously, the FIU imposed a three-month partial business suspension and a 5.2 billion won fine on Coinone last month, citing 90,000 violations of obligations under the Specific Financial Information Act, including prohibitions on transactions with unregistered virtual asset service providers and customer due diligence requirements. The partial business suspension is a measure that halts external virtual asset deposits and withdrawals for new customers. The sanction was initially scheduled to take effect on April 29, but Coinone filed an administrative lawsuit and an injunction for suspension on April 27, before the sanction was implemented, resulting in the sanction being temporarily suspended up to this point.

Earlier, the court also accepted Bithumb's request for an injunction to halt the six-month partial business suspension imposed by the FIU last month. In March of last year, the court also granted an injunction suspending the three-month partial business suspension imposed by the FIU on Dunamu, the operator of Upbit. Dunamu also won the main lawsuit last month, although the FIU has appealed the ruling.

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