Chinese Exchange Giant to halt expansion amid Crypto Crackdown in South Korea

As the South Korean crypto crackdown expands, China’s top exchange, OKEx announced halting any further business expansion in the nation to avoid regulators’ wrath. As reported on Twitter by the Chinese Journalist, Colin Wu, this halt has come as an effect of the strict South Korean regulatory policies.

Affected by South Korean regulatory policies, OKEx, one of China's largest exchanges, told the media that it will not expand any business in South Korea for the time being.

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) September 18, 2021

ByBit suspends services in South Korea

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The Korean Crypto Crackdown is expanding at a rapid pace. Cryptocurrency derivatives exchange, Bybit also announced the suspension of Korean language support from its platforms, along with its official South Korean community on social media from September 20 onwards, as licensing deadline approaches. The exchange further confirmed that it will not support any kind of Korean-won trading on its platform.

60 Crypto Exchanges face closure in South Korea

According to CoinGape’s coverage yesterday, South Korean Regulators demanded 60 crypto exchanges to suspend some or all their trading pairs and notify the customers about the same until, Friday. Furthermore, these exchanges need to register with Korea’s anti-money laundering agency, the Financial Intelligence Unit, as well as obtain partnerships with banks to facilitate real-name accounts.

The exchanges are standing in a blind alley, with the 24^{th of} September deadline closing in on them. If the crypto businesses fail to comply with mentioned guidelines, they face closure on account of the updated South Korean AML policy. While few exchanges have met with the government’s crypto regulations, yet the remaining majority, consisting of other small and medium crypto exchanges are dreading immediate shut down as the calendar hits 24 this month.

The chief regulatory body of the country Financial Services Commission (FSC) in a notification has said, “Should some or all services need to be closed, (exchanges) should notify customers of the expected closing date and procedures to withdraw money by at least seven days before the closure,”

Kimchi Token faces potential ban in South Korea

The impact of the crypto crackdown may extend to the $2.6 Billion “Kimchi coin” market, as the local token faces a potential ban. Kim Hyoung-Joong, a professor at and the head of the Cryptocurrency Research Center at Korea University, alerted that as majority exchanges’ face a possible shut down, it may impact the local tokens’ market and eliminate approximately 42 “kimchi coins”.

About Author

Palak Malhotra

Journalism & Mass Comm. ‘21 graduate, Palak is a GenZ journalist with background in Lifestyle journalism & PR. At CoinGape, Palak is a junior crypto journalist preparing for Web 3.0