South Korean Court Lifts Six-Month Suspension on Bithumb

In a significant legal victory, a South Korean court has reversed the six-month partial business suspension of Bithumb, as reported by Yonhap News. The Seoul Administrative Court's Judge Gong Hyeon-jin approved Bithumb's request for a stay of execution on the same day it was filed. However, it remains unclear whether the 36.8 billion won ($24.6 million) fine imposed by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in March has also been suspended. The fine and suspension were imposed due to alleged massive violations of local anti-money laundering rules. Bithumb, one of South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, had appealed the decision, requesting that the court lift the suspension and fine. The sanctions were based on violations of the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information, according to the Financial Services Commission. The FIU had discovered that Bithumb committed approximately 6.65 million violations, including 3.55 million instances of failing to verify customer identities and 3.04 million cases of failing to block transactions that should have been blocked. Although the court's ruling is a positive development for Bithumb, it comes amid reports that the Personal Information Protection Commission has launched an investigation into Upbit, Bithumb, and other platforms regarding the sharing of order books with overseas platforms. The case against Bithumb is part of South Korea's increased regulatory scrutiny of the cryptocurrency market. In 2025, the FIU imposed a three-month partial suspension and a 35.2 billion won fine on Dunamu, the operator of the country's largest exchange, Upbit, for compliance gaps. Korbit, a rival platform, received a smaller penalty of 2.73 billion won along with institutional warnings. Founded in 2014, Bithumb is currently one of the largest exchanges in South Korea by trading volume, according to CoinGecko data. The lifting of the suspension comes two months after Bithumb mistakenly distributed billions of dollars worth of bitcoin to users.