Coinone’s chief government is dealing with an official reprimand after South Korean regulators moved in opposition to the crypto trade for a string of compliance failures, together with tens of hundreds of unverified person accounts and repeated dealings with unlicensed overseas platforms.
Regulator Cites Tens Of 1000’s Of Violations
South Korea’s Monetary Intelligence Unit, working below the Monetary Companies Fee, discovered that Coinone didn’t confirm the identities of customers in roughly 70,000 circumstances.
The trade was additionally accused of finishing buyer verification information even when key info was lacking — and of permitting transactions to proceed for purchasers whose id checks had by no means been completed.
In response to a number of South Korean media reviews, the FIU flagged greater than 10,000 transactions carried out with 16 overseas exchanges that had no registration with South Korean regulators. Regulators had warned Coinone about these dealings earlier than. The trade saved going anyway.
South Korea’s FIU fined Coinone $4M and hit the trade with a three-month partial suspension over AML violations.
New prospects are blocked from crypto deposits and withdrawals beginning April 29.
— Token Metrics (@tokenmetricsinc) April 13, 2026
The FIU fined Coinone 5.2 billion gained, equal to about $3.5 million. A 3-month partial enterprise suspension was additionally imposed, blocking new prospects from depositing or withdrawing funds all through the ban.
Chief government officer Cha Myung-hoon acquired a proper reprimand, although reviews notice it carries no prison weight — the motion is administrative in nature. Coinone has 10 days to problem the penalties earlier than they’re finalized.
Second Main Change Hit In A Month
This isn’t the primary time South Korean authorities have gone after a serious trade in latest weeks. In March, Bithumb — the nation’s second-largest crypto platform by buying and selling quantity — was fined $24 million and handed a six-month partial suspension over related anti-money laundering failures.
That motion got here after Bithumb made headlines for a expensive clerical error: the trade by accident despatched prospects 620,000 Bitcoin, valued at roughly $42 billion on the time, as an alternative of 620,000 Korean gained.
The blunder prompted the Financial institution of Korea to name on lawmakers to impose tighter controls on exchanges, together with buying and selling curbs that would kick in throughout uncommon market exercise or sharp worth swings.
The trade, ranked third in South Korea by dimension, now joins Bithumb as targets of what seems to be a widening regulatory push in opposition to crypto platforms within the nation.
Officers stated Monday that lawmakers ought to take into account buying and selling halt mechanisms tied to irregular exercise — a proposal that indicators authorities are structural fixes, not simply fines.
How Coinone responds to the FIU’s motion inside its 10-day window will doubtless form how the ultimate penalties are written.
Featured picture from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
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