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South Korea Sees Renewed Calls to Delay Crypto Tax, Related Bill Proposes Implementation in 2029
Senior officials from South Korea's finance ministry plan to hold consultations with major cryptocurrency exchanges on Tuesday, with participants including representatives from Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, DigitalX, Gopax, and the Digital Asset Exchange Alliance (DAXA). Yoo Young-jun, Director General of the Digital Finance Policy Bureau at South Korea's Financial Services Commission, will attend the meeting.South Korea has postponed the crypto tax three times, most recently pushing the implementation date to 2027. Exchanges say that applicable rules for different transaction types have not yet been determined and that infrastructure preparation time is limited, with the industry broadly supporting a further delay of the tax.South Korean Democratic Party lawmaker Park Min-gyu recently proposed a bill that would set the tax start date as January 1 of the second year after South Korea begins sharing data under the OECD Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF). If the first data exchange takes place in 2027, the tax would begin in 2029. (Cointelegraph)
Mastermind of $253M POD and ATT token fraud case Jonber Kim acquitted in first-instance verdict
Odaily News: The Seoul Southern District Court recently issued a first-instance verdict in a fraud case involving approximately $253 million in POD and ATT tokens, acquitting Park, known as Jonber Kim. The court found that the defendant did indeed make misleading claims regarding the project's actual progress, business prospects, and use of funds, but prosecutors failed to prove that any specific investors purchased tokens based on this false information, and therefore the fraud charge did not stand; the related breach of trust charge was also acquitted due to insufficient evidence.In addition, two co-defendants were sentenced to imprisonment with a suspended execution for submitting false materials during the maintenance review process for listing on Coinone. (DigitalassetWorks)
South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges, constrained to spot trading, saw Q2 trading volume decline by 33% while facing a dual dilemma of regulatory pressure and tax burdens.
据 Daum 报道，在全球加密货币交易所积极拓展永续合约、期权及传统股票等衍生品业务之际，韩国本土交易所因监管限制仍仅能提供现货交易。CoinGecko 数据显示，2026 年第二季度，Upbit、Bithumb、Coinone、DigitalX（原 Korbit）和 GOPAX 等韩国五大韩元交易所的现货交易总额约为 1467 亿美元，较一季度的 2188 亿美元减少 33.0%。
South Korea FSS Upgrades Anti-Fraud System, Crypto Assets Included in Voice Phishing Compensation Coverage
According to Cryptopolitan, South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has launched a three-month fraud refund system reconstruction project with a budget of approximately 119 million Korean won. This upgrade aims to align with the revised "Telecommunications Fraud Damage Compensation Act" amended on March 31 this year—the bill will officially take effect on October 1, formally incorporating virtual assets into the scope of "damaged property" and "refundable property." The new system will support calculating compensation amounts based on token type and quantity, using the Korean won value at the time funds were frozen as a reference benchmark, while also possessing the ability to disentangle mixed fraud funds across multiple accounts. Major exchanges such as Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and GOPAX will be required to assume anti-fraud and victim relief obligations equivalent to those of banks at that time, including verifying transaction purposes, monitoring suspicious funds, and freezing suspected accounts.
韩国加密交易市场洗牌：五大交易所上半年交易额同比下降54.6%，中小交易所寻求合作重组
TechFlow News, August 1, according to South Korean media NexBlock, South Korea's virtual asset market trading volume continues to shrink, and the competitive landscape among the five major KRW exchanges is changing. During the market downturn, funds are further concentrating on platforms with leading liquidity, while small and medium-sized exchanges are seeking breakthroughs through cooperation with securities companies, institutional market positioning, and business restructuring. The focus of future competition will no longer be just trading volume, but stablecoin liquidity, traditional financial cooperation, institutional market expansion, and regulatory compliance capabilities. Data shows that in the first half of this year, South Korea's five major KRW exchanges (Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, Gopax) accumulated trading volume of about $366.58 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 54.6%. From July 1 to 27, the five major exchanges accumulated trading volume of about 17.34 trillion KRW, a decrease of 16.9% compared to the same period last month. Among them, Upbit's trading volume was about 11.69 trillion KRW; although down 10%, its market share rose from 62.3% to 67.4%. Bithumb's trading volume dropped to 4.71 trillion KRW, with its share decreasing from 30.7% to 27.1%, expanding the gap between the two to 40.3 percentage points.
Coinone Major Shareholder Change Approved: OKX Ventures and Korea Investment & Securities Complete New Shareholder Structure Filing
Odaily Planet Daily reported that South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinone announced on July 22 that it had received approval from the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to complete its major shareholder change declaration, formally establishing a new shareholder structure centered around Korea Investment & Securities, OKX Ventures, and Com2uS Holdings. Coinone stated that it will leverage the enhanced compliance and technical capabilities of its new shareholders to upgrade digital asset trading services and accelerate its transition into a comprehensive blockchain financial platform. (EDaily)
Core DAO Plans Emergency Hard Fork as Validators Receive Excess CORE Rewards
Odaily News: Blockchain project Core DAO has announced a coordinated emergency hard fork, caused by validators receiving CORE rewards exceeding the blockchain's originally scheduled issuance. Core DAO stated that the incident is under control, malicious validators can no longer continue to obtain excess rewards, and the upgrade will not roll back the network or revoke confirmed transactions.Core DAO previously stated that a small number of validators had accumulated rewards significantly higher than the protocol's set issuance, and that the incident only involved reward distribution, with user assets remaining secure. Coinbase, Bithumb, Coinone, Bitget, and LBank had restricted CORE deposits, withdrawals, or transfers.Core DAO has not yet disclosed the amount of excess CORE issued, the duration of the related activity, whether the extra tokens entered circulation, or the cause of the vulnerability, and stated that it will publish a technical post-mortem report. (Cointelegraph)
OKX Plans to Join Korea Investment & Securities in Acquiring Approximately 20% Stake in Coinone
Odaily sources have revealed that OKX and Korea Investment & Securities are in discussions to each acquire about a 20% stake in Coinone. The specific investment strategy is likely structured around issuing new shares rather than selling existing ones, aiming to maximize capital inflow. This equity participation appears to be primarily a financial investment and will not alter Coinone's management control.Currently, Coinone's major shareholders include The One Group (34.30% stake), Com2uS Holdings [063080] (21.95% stake), CEO Cha Myung-hoon (19.14% stake), and Com2uS Plus (16.47% stake).Industry observers believe OKX may not limit itself to a simple financial investment in the future and could also seek to participate in management or gain substantive influence. If the acquisition is successful, this transaction would be the second time in history that a major overseas exchange has attempted to gain management control of a Korean won-based exchange, following Binance's acquisition of a stake in Streami (Gopax).
Cold Wallet Storage Ratio Must Reach 80%: South Korea's Financial Services Commission Urgently Summons Crypto Trading Platforms for Security Inspection
Odaily reports: On the morning of November 2, South Korea's Financial Services Commission urgently summoned representatives from trading platforms including Upbit, Bithumb, and Coinone to convene a security inspection meeting, focusing on examining the platforms' preparedness for large-scale hacking attacks and their user asset protection systems. The meeting was held ahead of a security inspection meeting for the entire financial industry scheduled for November 5. It aimed to understand the South Korean crypto industry's response measures in light of the recent large-scale asset theft incident at Binance, and to discuss plans such as increasing the proportion of user assets stored in cold wallets. Under South Korea's current Virtual Asset User Protection Act, trading platforms must store at least 80% of users' virtual assets in cold wallets isolated from the internet. Upbit's cold wallet storage ratio exceeds 99%, Bithumb's is approximately 94%, Coinone's is approximately 85%, while Digital X and Gopax are in the low 80s.
Core DAO Plans Emergency Hard Fork as Validators Receive Excess CORE Rewards
Odaily News: Blockchain project Core DAO has announced a coordinated emergency hard fork, caused by validators receiving CORE rewards exceeding the blockchain's originally scheduled issuance. Core DAO stated that the incident is under control, malicious validators can no longer continue to obtain excess rewards, and the upgrade will not roll back the network or revoke confirmed transactions.Core DAO previously stated that a small number of validators had accumulated rewards significantly higher than the protocol's set issuance, and that the incident only involved reward distribution, with user assets remaining secure. Coinbase, Bithumb, Coinone, Bitget, and LBank had restricted CORE deposits, withdrawals, or transfers.Core DAO has not yet disclosed the amount of excess CORE issued, the duration of the related activity, whether the extra tokens entered circulation, or the cause of the vulnerability, and stated that it will publish a technical post-mortem report. (Cointelegraph)
South Korea Sees Renewed Calls to Delay Crypto Tax, Related Bill Proposes Implementation in 2029
Senior officials from South Korea's finance ministry plan to hold consultations with major cryptocurrency exchanges on Tuesday, with participants including representatives from Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, DigitalX, Gopax, and the Digital Asset Exchange Alliance (DAXA). Yoo Young-jun, Director General of the Digital Finance Policy Bureau at South Korea's Financial Services Commission, will attend the meeting.South Korea has postponed the crypto tax three times, most recently pushing the implementation date to 2027. Exchanges say that applicable rules for different transaction types have not yet been determined and that infrastructure preparation time is limited, with the industry broadly supporting a further delay of the tax.South Korean Democratic Party lawmaker Park Min-gyu recently proposed a bill that would set the tax start date as January 1 of the second year after South Korea begins sharing data under the OECD Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF). If the first data exchange takes place in 2027, the tax would begin in 2029. (Cointelegraph)
Core DAO Plans Emergency Hard Fork as Validators Receive Excess CORE Rewards
Odaily News: Blockchain project Core DAO has announced a coordinated emergency hard fork, caused by validators receiving CORE rewards exceeding the blockchain's originally scheduled issuance. Core DAO stated that the incident is under control, malicious validators can no longer continue to obtain excess rewards, and the upgrade will not roll back the network or revoke confirmed transactions.Core DAO previously stated that a small number of validators had accumulated rewards significantly higher than the protocol's set issuance, and that the incident only involved reward distribution, with user assets remaining secure. Coinbase, Bithumb, Coinone, Bitget, and LBank had restricted CORE deposits, withdrawals, or transfers.Core DAO has not yet disclosed the amount of excess CORE issued, the duration of the related activity, whether the extra tokens entered circulation, or the cause of the vulnerability, and stated that it will publish a technical post-mortem report. (Cointelegraph)
Korean Crypto Market Faces Emerging "Hard-to-Exit" Risk: Nearly 30% of Assets Tradable on Only One of Five Major Exchanges
According to South Korean media outlet Daum, an analysis of the public APIs of South Korea's top five KRW exchanges, Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and GOPAX, as well as CoinGecko, reveals that after eliminating duplicate assets, the five exchanges collectively support approximately 606 crypto assets, of which 164 (27.1%) are listed on only one exchange, and another 324 (53.5%) are traded on two or fewer exchanges.
South Korea FSS Upgrades Anti-Fraud System, Crypto Assets Included in Voice Phishing Compensation Coverage
According to Cryptopolitan, South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has launched a three-month fraud refund system reconstruction project with a budget of approximately 119 million Korean won. This upgrade aims to align with the revised "Telecommunications Fraud Damage Compensation Act" amended on March 31 this year—the bill will officially take effect on October 1, formally incorporating virtual assets into the scope of "damaged property" and "refundable property." The new system will support calculating compensation amounts based on token type and quantity, using the Korean won value at the time funds were frozen as a reference benchmark, while also possessing the ability to disentangle mixed fraud funds across multiple accounts. Major exchanges such as Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and GOPAX will be required to assume anti-fraud and victim relief obligations equivalent to those of banks at that time, including verifying transaction purposes, monitoring suspicious funds, and freezing suspected accounts.
Coinone Major Shareholder Change Approved: OKX Ventures and Korea Investment & Securities Complete New Shareholder Structure Filing
Odaily Planet Daily reported that South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinone announced on July 22 that it had received approval from the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to complete its major shareholder change declaration, formally establishing a new shareholder structure centered around Korea Investment & Securities, OKX Ventures, and Com2uS Holdings. Coinone stated that it will leverage the enhanced compliance and technical capabilities of its new shareholders to upgrade digital asset trading services and accelerate its transition into a comprehensive blockchain financial platform. (EDaily)
South Korean Virtual Asset Exchanges See Sharp Decline in New Listings, Trading Volume Halved
According to EToday, South Korea's top five virtual asset exchanges (Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, Gopax) added only 117 new trading listings in the first half of the year, a 44% decrease from 210 in the same period last year; the net increase plummeted from 191 to 49, a year-on-year decline of 74%. Meanwhile, the number of delistings surged from 19 to 68, an increase of 258%. Global virtual asset trading volume recorded $46.07 billion in June, down 34% from $70 billion in the same period last year. The shrinkage in trading volume directly compressed fee income; Dunamu (Upbit's parent company) and Bithumb's first-quarter fee income accounted for 97.49% and 99.99% of operating revenue respectively, highlighting the issue of high dependency on retail spot trading.
Related news
Cold Wallet Storage Ratio Must Reach 80%: South Korea's Financial Services Commission Urgently Summons Crypto Trading Platforms for Security Inspection
Odaily reports: On the morning of November 2, South Korea's Financial Services Commission urgently summoned representatives from trading platforms including Upbit, Bithumb, and Coinone to convene a security inspection meeting, focusing on examining the platforms' preparedness for large-scale hacking attacks and their user asset protection systems. The meeting was held ahead of a security inspection meeting for the entire financial industry scheduled for November 5. It aimed to understand the South Korean crypto industry's response measures in light of the recent large-scale asset theft incident at Binance, and to discuss plans such as increasing the proportion of user assets stored in cold wallets. Under South Korea's current Virtual Asset User Protection Act, trading platforms must store at least 80% of users' virtual assets in cold wallets isolated from the internet. Upbit's cold wallet storage ratio exceeds 99%, Bithumb's is approximately 94%, Coinone's is approximately 85%, while Digital X and Gopax are in the low 80s.
South Korea's Ministry of Economy and Finance Meets with Five Exchanges: No Clear Decision on Delaying or Abolishing Virtual Asset Tax
According to Yonhap, South Korea's Ministry of Economy and Finance has convened a symposium on virtual asset taxation with five exchange operators—Dunamu, Bithumb, DigitalX, Coinone, and Streami—and institutions including the Financial Services Commission to discuss current tax regulations, market conditions, tax preparation work, and the potential delay or abolition of the tax. However, no clear decisions were made regarding specific measures.
South Korea Sees Renewed Calls to Delay Crypto Tax, Related Bill Proposes Implementation in 2029
Senior officials from South Korea's finance ministry plan to hold consultations with major cryptocurrency exchanges on Tuesday, with participants including representatives from Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, DigitalX, Gopax, and the Digital Asset Exchange Alliance (DAXA). Yoo Young-jun, Director General of the Digital Finance Policy Bureau at South Korea's Financial Services Commission, will attend the meeting.South Korea has postponed the crypto tax three times, most recently pushing the implementation date to 2027. Exchanges say that applicable rules for different transaction types have not yet been determined and that infrastructure preparation time is limited, with the industry broadly supporting a further delay of the tax.South Korean Democratic Party lawmaker Park Min-gyu recently proposed a bill that would set the tax start date as January 1 of the second year after South Korea begins sharing data under the OECD Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF). If the first data exchange takes place in 2027, the tax would begin in 2029. (Cointelegraph)
South Korean Government to Hear Opinions From Five Major Crypto Exchanges on Oct. 20; Virtual Asset Taxation May Be Postponed Again
According to Yonhap, the South Korean government will convene representatives from five major virtual asset exchanges—Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Digital X, and GOPAX—alongside DAXA executives on October 20 to seek industry input on the virtual asset tax set to take effect in January 2027. Under the current proposal, income generated from the transfer and lending of virtual assets would be subject to national and local income taxes at a 22% rate after applying a basic exemption of 2.5 million won.
Mastermind of $253M POD and ATT token fraud case Jonber Kim acquitted in first-instance verdict
Odaily News: The Seoul Southern District Court recently issued a first-instance verdict in a fraud case involving approximately $253 million in POD and ATT tokens, acquitting Park, known as Jonber Kim. The court found that the defendant did indeed make misleading claims regarding the project's actual progress, business prospects, and use of funds, but prosecutors failed to prove that any specific investors purchased tokens based on this false information, and therefore the fraud charge did not stand; the related breach of trust charge was also acquitted due to insufficient evidence.In addition, two co-defendants were sentenced to imprisonment with a suspended execution for submitting false materials during the maintenance review process for listing on Coinone. (DigitalassetWorks)
South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges, constrained to spot trading, saw Q2 trading volume decline by 33% while facing a dual dilemma of regulatory pressure and tax burdens.
据 Daum 报道，在全球加密货币交易所积极拓展永续合约、期权及传统股票等衍生品业务之际，韩国本土交易所因监管限制仍仅能提供现货交易。CoinGecko 数据显示，2026 年第二季度，Upbit、Bithumb、Coinone、DigitalX（原 Korbit）和 GOPAX 等韩国五大韩元交易所的现货交易总额约为 1467 亿美元，较一季度的 2188 亿美元减少 33.0%。