South Korea’s Monetary Intelligence Unit (FIU) has fined cryptocurrency change Bithumb 36.8 billion gained ($24.6 million) and ordered a six-month partial suspension of new-user providers after uncovering tens of millions of anti-money laundering (AML) violations, in keeping with native reporting.
The FIU’s investigation discovered roughly 6.65 million breaches of the nation’s AML and buyer verification guidelines. About 3.55 million concerned failures to confirm buyer identities, whereas 3.04 million circumstances involved transactions that ought to have been blocked however had been allowed.
Authorities additionally recognized 45,772 transactions with 18 unregistered abroad exchanges.
The sanctions, a part of ongoing regulatory oversight of South Korea’s high crypto platforms, embrace a reprimand for Bithumb’s CEO and a six-month suspension for the change’s reporting officer.
Present clients can proceed buying and selling, whereas the restrictions primarily have an effect on new person account exercise, together with deposits and withdrawals.
Bithumb, based in 2014, is one in all South Korea’s largest exchanges by buying and selling quantity. The positive is the nation’s largest imposed on a digital asset change, barely surpassing a 35.2 billion gained penalty handed to Upbit in 2025.
The violations had been uncovered throughout on-site inspections of South Korea’s 5 largest crypto exchanges between 2024 and 2025.
Regulators have emphasised that strict compliance with buyer verification and AML obligations is important to sustaining market belief.
Bithumb’s bitcoin blunder
The announcement comes simply weeks after Bithumb unintentionally despatched billions of {dollars} price of Bitcoin to customers throughout a promotional occasion.
The change had deliberate to distribute small money rewards by means of a “Random Field” occasion at round 6 p.m. native time. Winners had been alleged to obtain between 20,000 and 50,000 Korean gained.
As an alternative, employees reportedly entered the cost unit as Bitcoin slightly than gained.
In consequence, some customers obtained at the very least 2,000 BTC every, price roughly 196 billion gained per particular person primarily based on costs close to 98 million gained per Bitcoin on the time, in keeping with social media screenshots and accounts.
The operational error briefly precipitated Bitcoin costs on the platform to drop over 10% under broader market ranges. Bithumb said the incident didn’t lead to any buyer losses.
The FIU will finalize the positive after giving Bithumb at the very least 10 days to submit its opinion.
Authorities stated the enforcement motion alerts continued tightening of crypto market oversight in South Korea.
On the time of writing, Bitcoin is buying and selling close to $74,000.