Blockchain forensics firm CipherTrace has published a detailed analysis of how two Chinese nationals, linked to North Korea, laundered tens of millions of dollars worth of stolen cryptocurrency. The pair are believed to be associated with the shadowy Lazarus Group, which was behind the Sony breach in 2014, the WannaCry ransomware epidemic in 2017, and a $7 million attack on Bithumb (also in 2017). They used ‘peel chains’ to hide the size of deposits to avoid unwanted attention, and doctored photographs to fool KYC verification processes, among other tricks. On March 2, the United States Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets …

On March 10, major South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb announced it has partnered with crypto forensics firm Chainanylsis following the passing of new Korean crypto regulations. Bithumb will employ Chainalysis’s “Reactor” investigations tool to examine suspicious activity on its platform in a bid to comply with Korea’s recently amended Special Financial Transactions Information Act. South Korean crypto exchanges must comply with new regulations by 2021 Certain provisions in the act will take 12 months to come into effect, with the new apparatus expected to be fully implemented after a further six months. As such, all South Korean crypto exchanges must …

On March 5, South Korea’s National Assembly passed a revised bill on the reporting and use of special financial transaction information, focusing on the introduction of a permit system for cryptocurrency exchanges. Accordingly, virtual asset operators such as cryptocurrency exchanges would have to report their operations to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under the Financial Services Commission after obtaining "real name-confirmed accounts" from commercial banks. Failure to report operations could result in up to five years in prison or 50 million won ($42,000) in fines. The bill, to be implemented in March next year, calls for existing crypto exchanges to …

On Feb. 28, the Litecoin Foundation announced a partnership with MeconCash to roll-out Litecoin (LTC) to Korean won withdrawals and remittances from 13,000 ATMs in South Korea. The partnership will see LTC integrated onto MeconCash’s M.Pay payments platform. Litecoin will also be accepted as payment on MeconCash’s retail platform MeconMall, and to pay for games that accept M.Pay rewards. According to CryptoCompare, 24-hour trade between Litcoin and won produced nearly $4.3 million in trade — comprising 0.82 percent of total trade at press time. Charlie Lee, the managing director of the Litecoin Foundation, described the partnership as “a big step …

A major blockchain identification project backed by South Korean tech giant Samsung is being rolled out for first commercial use. South Korea’s NongHyup (NH) Bank has introduced a blockchain-based mobile ID system developed within a tech consortium established by major local firms including Samsung Electronics and LG Uplus. According to a Feb. 25 report by South Korea’s news agency JoongAng Ilbo, NH Bank is jointly implementing the new ID system with South Korea's largest wireless carrier, SK Telecom. NH Bank held a blockchain ID card demo with 20 executives According to local reports, NH Bank president and CEO Lee Dae-hoon …

A group of South Korean money transfer and remittance companies has joined Ripple’s blockchain-based financial services network RippleNet to bolster the remittance market in the country. In a Feb. 25 announcement, Ripple revealed that South Korea-based money transfer service providers Sentbe and Hanpass, and mobile and online based cross-border remittance services firm WireBarley have begun using the RippleNet platform. The collaboration is geared to improve remittances in Korea. According to the World Bank, workers’ remittances, receipts in South Korea amounted to over $6.2 billion, in 2018. The top destination country for emigration-related remittances by South Koreans was reportedly the United …

South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Bithumb, has announced it will take another step towards global expansion by strengthening integration with its international arm. On Feb. 26, Bithumb launched a new digital asset transfer service between the South Korean exchange and Bithumb Global, an new international digital asset exchange released by Bithumb in October 2019. Meanwhile, South Korean authorities are considering imposing a 20% tax on income from cryptocurrency, evidently pushing the biggest local exchanges to reinforce their foreign operations. KYC tier 2 verification is required to use the new service In order to use the new asset transfer service, Bithumb …

South Korean tax experts have advised the Korean government to apply a low-level trading tax on cryptocurrency profits before subjecting citizens to a transfer income tax, according to a Business Korea report. The Korean government is expected to announce its tax reform plan in late 2020. The low-level trading tax was recommended because there is a lack of legal infrastructure to enact transfer taxation. During a seminar on Feb. 21, members of the Korean Tax Policy Association advised the South Korean government to enact this two-step plan, arguing that taking a deliberative approach to implementing a cryptocurrency income tax will …

A Jinse report said that many Chinese Upbit users are finding it difficult to withdraw Korean Won ever since December. Upbit has announced to its foreign users the reasons their withdrawals are still restricted on Feb. 19 in an announcement. Upbit said in the announcement that (Know Your Customer) KYC and Korean taxation on cryptocurrency among crypto exchanges are the two main reasons behind the restriction. Long wait for the KYC process Since mid-December in 2019, Upbit has enhanced its KYC process and had turned in all the required documentation and lifted the restriction on the foreign members who have …

The South Korean initial coin offering project Contents Protocol will return 26,877 Ether (ETH) ($7.5 million at press time) to holders of its CPT token. Both legal obstacles and business challenges were cited as reasons for the shutdown. The details are visible on the project’s modified homepage, first recorded on Feb. 19. Its public ICO ended in December 2018 and collected almost 7,000 ETH, which was its funding goal. The remaining 22,000 ETH came from private token sales. The project was combined with a content platform developed by Watcha, the company behind the token. The idea was to reward platform …

Global central banks are increasingly looking at blockchain technology as a tool to make interbanking processes more efficient and transparent. Following the World Bank’s exemplary experience of blockchain bond transactions, South Korea’s central bank is working on its own blockchain-based bonds, Cointelegraph Korea reports Feb. 18. Bank of Korea started the project in late 2019 According to a report by local publication Yonhap Infomax, the Bank of Korea has been seeking a blockchain services provider in order to build a blockchain bond system that would allow distribution of the bond records among all participants. The Bank of Korea reportedly launched …

As not a day goes by without another cryptocurrency partnership, one of the biggest crypto exchanges in South Korea has begun new cooperation. Major South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb has partnered with Singaporean crypto trading platform BitMax to jointly develop new services and products. BitMax’s staff includes former experts from Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Gemini According to a Feb. 17 blog post by Bithumb Official, the two companies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to bring their forces together to build new services and strengthen their competitiveness in the global market. As part of the MoU, Bithumb and …