Korean Exchange Halts Trading Over KYC Concerns

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinpia has announced it will suspend both trading and deposits after it was unable to implement a customer identification system in line with a recently enacted government mandate.

According to an announcement released Tuesday through its homepage, the exchange had suspended Korean won deposits on Jan. 30 in an effort to comply with the new regulation, enforced by South Korea's watchdog Finance Service Commission.

As reported by CoinDesk, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) announced on Jan. 23 that, starting from February, cryptocurrency investors in South Korea would have to use their real names and bank accounts to continue trading.

However, Coinpia reports it continues to struggle with the integration of identity verification into its existing exchange system. As such, exchange executives said the company has to halt trading to comply with anti-money laundry and know-your-customer rules.

The news comes just a week after the new regulation in South Korea came into effect, and as such, it perhaps marks the first trading suspension among Korean exchanges after the country required them to upgrade their trading systems.

Previously, Coinpia was one of eight cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea that received a fine of $131,000 by the Korea Communications Commission due to allegedly insufficient user privacy protection in its system.