Gate News Announcement: On March 9, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of South Korea issued a preliminary notice to a certain CEX for suspected violations of the "Specific Financial Transaction Information Act," engaging in transactions with unreported overseas virtual asset service providers, and inadequate KYC procedures. The exchange has been temporarily suspended for "6 months with partial operation." Responsible personnel will be held accountable. This restriction mainly affects the virtual asset withdrawal function for new users. Existing users' KRW and crypto asset deposits, withdrawals, and trading are temporarily unaffected.

The Goyang Branch of the District Court of the Government sentenced former police officer A to 6 years in prison and a fine of 10 billion Korean won for accepting a bribe of 120 million Korean won during a cryptocurrency scam investigation and for embezzling 7.88 million Korean won in false overtime allowances. Legal service personnel B involved in the case was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison, with a 4-year probation.

On February 17, 2026, from 17:30 to 17:45 (UTC), BTC experienced a sharp decline of -0.71% within just 15 minutes, with significant volatility attracting market attention. In terms of market performance, the price showed a rapid downward movement, reflecting short-term pressure and a temporary weakening of risk appetite. Trading volume also increased simultaneously, indicating intense disagreement between bullish and bearish funds during this window. The main driver of this anomaly was a sudden large-scale BTC sell-off event on a major mainstream trading platform. Due to a mistaken Bitcoin airdrop announcement by a leading platform in South Korea, the BTC/KRW trading pair on the platform briefly plummeted to a low of 17.

A seismic ruling has shaken South Korea's crypto industry. The Seoul Southern District Court sentenced Jong-hwan Lee, CEO of a domestic crypto asset management company, to three years in prison for manipulating token prices for profit, imposed a fine of 500 million KRW, and confiscated approximately 846 million KRW of illegal proceeds. The case involved illegal gains of about 7.1 billion KRW (approximately $48.8 million), marking the first conviction case since the implementation of South Korea's Virtual Asset User Protection Act. The court disclosed that between July 22, 2024, and October 25, 2024, Jong-hwan Lee used automated trading programs to create false trading volume and repeatedly issued wash trade instructions to manipulate the ACE token price. Data shows that before his operations, the token's average daily trading volume was only about 160,000 units, but it skyrocketed to 2.45 million units the day after the program was activated. Investigations found that approximately 89% of the trades were related to him.

The first violation case of the "Virtual Asset User Protection Act" in South Korea has been sentenced. The CEO of a certain crypto trading company was sentenced to 3 years in prison and fined 500 million KRW for manipulating coin prices. The court found that he used automated trading programs to artificially inflate trading volume, resulting in approximately 7.1 billion KRW in improper gains.

PANews January 28 News, according to South Korean media reports, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea has finalized the bill aimed at regulating the virtual asset market, titled the "Digital Asset Basic Act," and plans to submit it before the New Year holiday (Lunar New Year in Korea). They also agreed to set the minimum statutory capital requirement for stablecoin issuers at 5 billion KRW (approximately $3.5 million). However, sensitive issues such as the scope of the Bank of Korea's authority and restrictions on major shareholders' holdings will be finalized after further coordination with the policy committee.

The Korea Customs Service has uncovered a counterfeit luxury goods sales case, seizing 77,000 fake items with an estimated market value of approximately 120 billion KRW. The suspect profited 16.5 billion KRW through an online marketplace and converted part of the proceeds into crypto assets. Law enforcement has frozen assets worth 8 billion KRW.

Cryptocurrency venture capital firm Hashed's subsidiary Hashed Open Finance has launched Layer1 blockchain Maroo, based on the KRW stablecoin economy, emphasizing auditability and privacy protection. Through a "dual-track" architecture, it achieves compliance and free trading, while also possessing AI integration capabilities. The project aligns with South Korea's stablecoin regulation development and may be included in the "Basic Law on Digital Assets."

PANews January 19 News, according to Yonhap News Agency, the Seoul Customs Office recently uncovered a gang involved in illegal foreign exchange transactions using domestic and overseas cryptocurrency accounts, with a case amounting to 148.9 billion KRW (approximately $1.13 billion). The gang collected payments via WeChat Pay and Alipay, then purchased overseas cryptocurrencies to transfer into local wallets and cash out, allegedly violating the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act. Three suspects include a Chinese male in his 30s. Their business activities cover trade, studying abroad, medical aesthetics, and other fields, even recruiting clients by exchanging currency for surgical fees. The case has been handed over to prosecutors for processing.

Lee Hee-jin was transferred to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Financial Crime Investigation Unit for suspected virtual asset fraud. A partner accused him of not paying approximately 1.88 billion KRW and reported a loss of 28 billion KRW. He is also on trial for manipulating token market prices and was previously arrested in 2023.