South Korea’s Top Financial Regulator Is Forming a Dedicated Crypto Bureau

South Korea’s Financial Service Commission (FSC), the country’s top financial regulator, announced Thursday that it is forming an independent, crypto-focused bureau to supervise digital assets in South Korea.

The new bureau will officially launch in September and fall under the authority of the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (KFIU), an arm of the FSC that handles anti-money laundering enforcement.
According to a report from the Korea Times, the new bureau will be called the Crypto Asset Monitoring Bureau and will be responsible for overseeing licenses for exchanges and other operators.
Licensing is a key role given that FSC officials said in April that exchanges that do not register with and receive a license from KFIU by late September will not be permitted to operate in Korea. The FSC’s licenses require exchanges to tighten their know-your-customer (KYC) standards and collect personal information about customers.
The bureau will also be responsible for monitoring for suspicious activity including fraud and money laundering, according to the Korea Times.
South Korea’s ongoing crypto crackdown is tied to the growing level of debt among young people, which the government’s top regulator – FSC Chief Koh Seung-beom – has blamed, at least in part, on digital asset speculation.

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Cheyenne Ligon

Cheyenne Ligon is a CoinDesk news reporter with a focus on crypto regulation and policy. She has no significant crypto holdings.

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