South Korean Regulator Extends Bithumb Inspection, Plans Coinone Probe

The South Korean Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has extended the period of its on-site inspection of the Bithumb crypto exchange, with a Coinone inspection set to start next week.

The media outlet Daehan Kyungjae reported that FIU, which answers to the Financial Services Commission (FSC), will wrap up its investigation on April 18.

The probe began on March 17, and was originally planned to conclude on March 28. The investigation is primarily aimed at checking exchanges’ compliance with anti-money laundering protocols.

After Bithumb, Coinone will be the last of South Korea’s five fiat KRW-trading exchanges to face the FIU probe.

The regulator has already wrapped up its on-site investigations of Korbit, GOPAX, and the market-leading Upbit exchange.

The Upbit probe unearthed a slew of Know-Your-Customer (KYC) verification violations, with the FSC later dishing out a three-month punishment.

In late March, a branch of the Seoul Administrative Court suspended the ban for 30 days.

The media outlet quoted an anonymous official from an unnamed domestic crypto exchange as saying that the FIU’s extension “may be due to the vast amount of data” it is now combing through.

However, the same individual claimed there was a “suspicion” that the delay was due to a specific transaction.

The individual claimed that Bithumb wallets had “transferred more than 60 million coins, worth approximately 22.4 billion won (over $15.8 million), to an exchange that is not registered with the financial authorities.”

The FIU plans to begin its on-site inspection at Coinone on April 21.

The Bank of Korea held its benchmark interest rate steady to foster stability after consumer inflation unexpectedly picked up and the won weakened to a 16-year-low https://t.co/qFAtQ7A7VU

Another regulator, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), has also recently wrapped up its investigations at Bithumb and Coinone.

This probe reportedly discovered that Bithumb had misused company funds for housing allowances.

The FSS claims that a former Bithumb CEO and a current advisor used company-provided apartment deposits to lease a property to a third party.

The regulator thinks that one of the executives used a KRW 1.1 billion ($778,000) deposit from Bithumb to pay for a home they then leased to a resident in exchange for rent payments worth around $2 million.

The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office’s crypto investigation team followed up with a raid of Bithumb’s headquarters last month.

Coinone, meanwhile, faced an FSS probe of its own late last year. The investigation followed a massive December 9 Movement (MOVE) token price spike on the Coinone platform.

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