4 South Korean Crypto Exchanges Team Up to Tackle Money Laundering

Four major cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea have partnered on an initiative to combat potential money laundering, as well as schemes that might harm users.

Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Upbit jointly announced Friday that they will create a hotline to share real-time wallet information on suspicious crypto trades. They aim to identify trades with suspected links to phishing, predatory lending, pyramid schemes and other illegal activities and share related information via the hotline, the exchanges said.

The exchanges will also operate a shared database of suspicious wallet addresses that would, for example, be able to help them identify and halt scammers looking to use different exchanges to move a large quantity of cryptocurrency to the same wallet.

The four firms are planning to encourage other crypto exchanges to join the initiative.

The news comes a month after CoinDesk Korea organized a forum with the country’s lawmakers on know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) initiatives. Seven crypto exchanges at the time signed an agreement to ensure user protection.

Back in November, the Korean Bar Association, the body governing South Korean lawyers, called on the government to hasten the introduction of blockchain regulations and “prevent side effects involving cryptocurrencies.”

And last June, South Korea’s financial regulator amended the anti-money laundering rules that apply to cryptocurrency exchanges in the country, requiring domestic banks to tighten up monitoring of related bank accounts.

Seoul image via Shutterstock