Key Takeaways:
- Seoul’s court halted Bithumb’s 6-month FIU suspension on April 30, allowing the exchange to continue full operations.
- The FIU fined Bithumb 36.8 billion won ($24.6M) for 6.65 million AML and KYC violations in March 2026.
- Upbit, Coinone, and Korbit face similar FIU sanctions, with Coinone’s first court hearing set for May 12.
Court Steps In as Bithumb Fights Record Penalty
On April 30, 2026, Judge Gong Hyeon-jin of the Seoul Administrative Court accepted Bithumb’s request for a stay of execution, temporarily blocking a six-month partial business suspension that South Korea’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) – an anti-money laundering (AML) body under the Financial Services Commission – had imposed in March.
The FIU also levied a 36.8 billion won ($24.6 million) fine against the exchange for approximately 6.65 million compliance violations.
The violations fell into two categories. One pertained to roughly 3.55 million cases of failed customer identity verification, and the other to 3.04 million instances where Bithumb failed to block transactions with unregistered virtual asset operators.
The six-month suspension, described as the harshest sanction ever handed to a Korean won-based crypto exchange, would have barred new customers from transferring external virtual assets on the platform, with Bithumb warning during an April 23 hearing that the measure would block new customer acquisition and damage operations, particularly if South Korea’s institutional investor market opens.
Bithumb filed an administrative lawsuit and sought an injunction on March 23, days before the suspension was due to take effect on March 27. Thursday’s ruling keeps the exchange fully operational while proceedings continue. The company stated it plans to “faithfully present our position throughout the remaining legal proceedings.” Notably, Bithumb has not yet paid its fine, despite the FIU offering a 20% discount for timely settlement more than four weeks ago.
A Pattern of Legal Challenges Across Korean Exchanges
Bithumb is not fighting alone as the ruling closely follows a favorable first-instance judgment for Upbit operator Dunamu on April 9, a case where the court noted exchanges’ self-initiated compliance efforts in the absence of clear regulatory guidelines. The FIU has since appealed that decision.
Coinone faces a 5.2 billion won fine and a partial suspension for Know Your Customer (KYC) violations, with its first court hearing scheduled for May 12. Of the four major won-based exchanges targeted by the FIU’s enforcement wave (Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit), only Korbit has not filed a legal challenge.
This string of court stays is exposing deeper questions about the legal foundation of the FIU’s sanctions framework. Courts have consistently factored in whether exchanges made self-directed compliance efforts despite the absence of clear regulatory guidance, a standard the FIU’s penalty calculations do not appear to have accounted for.
The regulator argued during the Bithumb hearing that the suspension would affect only part of trading activities with limited revenue impact. The court remained unconvinced.
