Financial Intelligence Unit Imposes Three-Month Partial Suspension and 5.2 Billion Won Fine on Coinone

[The Financial News] Financial authorities have decided on a tough sanction against virtual asset exchange Coinone for violating its anti-money laundering (AML) obligations. The exchange has been hit with a three-month partial business suspension and an administrative fine of 5.2 billion won. Repeated breaches of the obligation to refrain from dealing with unregistered overseas virtual asset service providers were a decisive factor behind the heavy penalty.
The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under the Financial Services Commission announced on the 13th that it had decided to impose a three-month partial business suspension on Coinone and levy a 5.2 billion won fine. The FIU also held management accountable, issuing a reprimand warning to the chief executive officer.
According to the FIU, the sanctions are a follow-up to an on-site inspection conducted from April to May 2025. The inspection found roughly 90,000 violations of the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information by Coinone, revealing systemic flaws across its anti-money laundering framework.
In particular, Coinone violated its obligation to refrain from transactions with unregistered service providers. The exchange supported a total of 10,113 virtual asset transfer transactions involving 16 overseas virtual asset service providers that had not fulfilled domestic registration requirements. The FIU noted, "Despite having sent multiple official cooperation requests calling for the suspension of transactions with unregistered service providers, Coinone failed to exercise the due care required under the law, resulting in numerous violations."
There were also about 70,000 cases of violations related to Know Your Customer (KYC) and transaction restriction obligations. Specific issues included manual approval of identity documents that were out of focus or partially obscured, approving account openings based on copies of IDs or photographs of such copies instead of original documents, and marking customer verification as complete even when detailed address fields were left blank.
The FIU further identified poor system-wide controls, such as allowing transactions without additional checks for customers whose risk ratings had been raised due to money laundering concerns, and failing to block transactions even after the deadline for periodic customer re-verification had passed.
As a result of the partial business suspension, from April 29 for a period of three months, new Coinone customers will be restricted from depositing or withdrawing virtual assets to and from external wallets. However, trading by existing customers, as well as deposits and withdrawals in won and trading or exchanges within the platform by new customers, will continue as normal.
In a statement, Coinone said it "takes the FIU's disciplinary decision very seriously and is closely reviewing shortcomings while implementing remedial measures." Regarding the possibility of filing an administrative lawsuit or other responses, the company added that it will carefully review various options through its board of directors.

elikim@fnnews.com Kim Mi-hee Reporter