South Korean cryotocurency exchange Bithumb announced its partnership with crypto forensics firm Chainanylsis after new Korean crypto regulations was established.
Bithumb will use Chainalysis’s “Reactor” investigations tool for examination of suspicious activity on its platform in order to comply with Korea’s recently revised Special Financial Transactions Information Act.
The new crypto exchange regulation is expected to be fully implemented by September 2021. Sungmi Lee, head of compliance at Bithumb, predicts lawmakers will strengthen the new legislative apparatus even further.
Sungmi Lee noted:
We anticipate further updates following last week’s vote making it even more important for us to have support available in our local language.
On 5 March South Korea’s National Assembly approved the revised bill, announcing a permit system for virtual asset service providers. Korean exchanges must now report to a Financial Intelligence Unit and are required to obtain “real name-confirmed accounts” from banks. Penalties may include up to five years in prison or $42,000 worth of fines for failing to report.
Exchanges must also get certified by the Korean Internet Security Agency (KISA). Four cryptocurrency providers have completed the process of certification – Bithumb, Upbit, Coinwon and Korbit.
Chainalysis’ chief revenue officer, Jason Bonds, commented:
As cryptocurrency use in South Korea continues to grow, new regulations such as this will make blockchain analysis solutions like Chainalysis vital for compliance.
South Korea is one of many jurisdictions to amend their domestic crypto regulations to meet compliance standards recently laid out by the G7’s Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
In the past month other countries have also updated their crypto guidelines to comply with FAFT’s directive including: United Kingdom, Ukraine, Hong Kong, Dubai, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Switzerland.