South Korea Tightens Control Over Crypto Exchange APIs; DAXA Requires Blocking of Suspicious Shared Keys

The Korea Digital Asset Exchange Alliance (DAXA) has introduced new compliance standards requiring local cryptocurrency exchanges to invalidate API keys suspected of being improperly shared by users, thereby strengthening oversight of automated trading. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) stated that automated trading currently accounts for approximately 30% of trading volume in Korea’s cryptocurrency market. Under the new rules, exchanges including Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax will enhance API monitoring, issue warnings upon detecting suspicious sharing behavior, require users to re-authenticate, and implement an IP allowlist mechanism to restrict API access to authorized addresses only.