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By Anna J. Park
The Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (KoFIU) has urged caution on the part of local clients of overseas cryptocurrency exchanges to verify whether they have been registered under the Korean financial authority.
The KoFIU announced a total of 16 virtual asset service providers (VASPs) on Thursday, which had failed to register themselves with the financial authority, and are thus considered illegal business operators in Korea. The cryptocurrency exchanges include KuCoin, MEXC, Phemex, XT.com, Bitrue, ZB.com, Bitglobal, CoinW, CoinEX, AAX, ZoomEX, Poloniex, BTCEX, BTCC, DigiFinex and Pionex.
The KoFIU said it had notified the investigative authority about the crypto exchanges' illegal business activities targeting Korean users by offering Korean-language services. The financial regulator added that it requested the Korea Communications Commission and the Korea Communications Standards Commission to block the firms' website access to local users to prevent their unregistered business activities in Korea.
Back in July of last year, the KoFIU notified foreign-headquartered VASPs, which are attracting Korean clients to register themselves with the financial authority, according to the country's Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information. However, the 16 entities have failed to carry out the required registration obligation within a given period.
"Virtual asset users should check whether the VASPs that they are dealing with are legitimately registered with the authority according to the law," the KoFIU statement reads.
The agency said it will continue to closely monitor illegal business activities by unregistered entities.
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