South Korean Court Overturns Bithumb's Six-Month Suspension

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 ruling, handed down by Judge Gong Hyeon-jin of the Seoul Administrative Court's 2nd Administrative Division, granted Bithumb's request for a stay of execution on the same day it was filed. However, it remains unclear whether the accompanying $24.6 million fine has also been suspended. The suspension and fine were initially imposed by the Financial Intelligence Unit in March, citing widespread violations of South Korea's anti-money laundering regulations. Bithumb, one of the country's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, had petitioned the court to lift the suspension and fine, which were imposed after the regulator discovered millions of violations of the country's anti-money laundering rules. The sanctions were related to Bithumb's failure to comply with the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information, with the Financial Services Commission stating that the exchange had committed approximately 6.65 million violations. These violations included 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 decision to end the suspension is a positive development for Bithumb, it comes amidst reports that the Personal Information Protection Commission has launched an investigation into the exchange, along with other platforms such as Upbit, regarding the sharing of order books with overseas platforms. This case is part of a broader trend of increased regulatory scrutiny of the cryptocurrency market in South Korea. In 2025, the Financial Intelligence Unit imposed a three-month partial suspension and a $35.2 billion fine on Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, for compliance gaps. Korbit, a rival exchange, faced a smaller penalty of $2.73 billion and 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 accidentally distributed billions of dollars' worth of bitcoin to users.