Seoul court blocks FIU six-month suspension of Bithumb

Seoul’s Administrative Court on April 30 accepted Bithumb’s request for a stay of execution, temporarily blocking a six-month partial business suspension imposed by the Financial Intelligence Unit. Judge Gong Hyeon-jin granted the injunction, keeping the exchange fully operational while the company pursues its administrative case.

The FIU imposed the suspension in March. The measure would have barred new customers from transferring external virtual assets into Bithumb’s platform. Bithumb said the restriction would limit its ability to sign up new users and harm business prospects if South Korea opens to institutional investors. The exchange filed an administrative lawsuit and sought an injunction on March 23, days before the penalty was due to take effect on March 27.

The regulator also fined Bithumb 36.8 billion won after identifying roughly 6.65 million alleged compliance violations. The FIU reported about 3.55 million instances of failed customer identity verification and about 3.04 million transactions that involved unregistered virtual asset operators and were not blocked. The agency described the action as a partial business suspension paired with the monetary penalty. The FIU offered Bithumb a 20% discount for timely settlement more than four weeks ago; the company has not paid the fine.

Bithumb said it will ‘faithfully present our position throughout the remaining legal proceedings.’

At the April hearing the FIU argued the suspension would affect only part of the exchange’s activities and have limited impact on revenue; the court did not accept that position when granting the stay.

The ruling follows a separate first-instance decision in early April that went in favor of Dunamu, the operator of Upbit. In that case the court noted exchanges’ self-directed compliance efforts where regulatory guidance was unclear; the FIU has appealed that judgment. Other won-based exchanges targeted by the FIU include Coinone, which faces a 5.2 billion won fine and a partial suspension and has a first hearing set for May 12, and Korbit, which has not filed a legal challenge.

The FIU is an anti-money-laundering unit under the Financial Services Commission. The agency said it issued sanctions to enforce know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering rules for won-based trading platforms. Courts have issued interim rulings that allow affected exchanges to continue operating while legal challenges proceed.