South Korea Tightens Cryptocurrency Withdrawal Delay Exemption Rules to Combat Telecom Fraud

Odaily News: The Financial Services Commission (FSC) of South Korea announced that it will tighten the exemption rules for the cryptocurrency exchange withdrawal delay system. The FSC pointed out that previously, exchanges set their own exemption standards without unified minimum requirements, allowing criminals to quickly transfer funds by meeting simple conditions such as account age or transaction history.

The FSC, in collaboration with the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) and the Digital Asset Exchange Alliance (DAXA), has established a unified framework. This framework requires exchanges to comprehensively consider factors such as transaction frequency, account history, and deposit/withdrawal amounts when assessing whether users qualify for exemptions. From June to September 2025, accounts granted withdrawal delay exemptions accounted for 59% of fraudulent accounts on cryptocurrency exchanges, with related losses reaching 75.5%. The FSC stated that simulation tests show the proportion of users meeting exemption conditions under the new rules will drop to approximately 1%.

The FSC will also strengthen supervision of users who have already obtained exemptions through regular checks, verification of fund sources, and monitoring of suspicious withdrawal activities. Furthermore, on Tuesday, the FSC required exchanges to reconcile their internal ledgers with actual asset holdings every five minutes. This directive is related to an internal control review following the Bithumb Bitcoin payment error incident.