A judicial decision in South Korea on Thursday saw the lifting of a six-month partial suspension for Bithumb, as reported by Yonhap News. Judge Gong Hyeon-jin from the 2nd Administrative Division of the Seoul Administrative Court granted Bithumb’s request to stay the execution of its penalty immediately upon receipt.
However, it remains unclear if the accompanying fine of 36.8 billion won ($24.6 million) has also been suspended. This suspension and fine were initially levied by South Korea’s financial watchdog in March due to significant breaches of anti-money laundering regulations. Bithumb challenged these measures through a legal application to halt both the penalty and suspension imposed by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), which had accused the exchange of committing millions of infractions against the nation’s money laundering rules.
The penalties were based on violations of the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information, as stated by the Financial Services Commission in March. The FIU identified approximately 6.65 million infringements, with 3.55 million involving lapses in customer identity verification and 3.04 million regarding improper blocking of transactions.
This court ruling is a positive development for Bithumb, although it coincides with reports that South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission has launched investigations into Upbit, Bithumb, and other platforms over the sharing of order books with foreign entities.
The action against Bithumb is part of a broader regulatory scrutiny on South Korea’s cryptocurrency sector. In 2025, the FIU imposed a three-month partial suspension and fined Dunamu, which operates Upbit, 35.2 billion won for compliance issues. Korbit received a lesser fine of 2.73 billion won along with warnings.
Founded in 2014, Bithumb is one of South Korea’s leading exchanges by trading volume per CoinGecko data. The cessation of the suspension arrives two months after an incident where Bithumb erroneously distributed billions of dollars worth of bitcoin to its users.