As the variety of South Korean crypto traders surpasses the ten million milestone, a lawmaker from the nation’s ruling get together has requested countermeasures to handle the rising variety of suspicious transaction stories (STRs) involving digital property.
Suspicious Activity Reports Hit Record High
On Monday, Jin Sung-joon, a Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) lawmaker on the National Assembly’s Planning and Finance Committee, reportedly warned of the potential exploitation of digital property amid the crypto trade’s growing adoption.
“As stablecoins are more and more used as fee and settlement instruments in the true economic system, the potential for his or her misuse in international trade crimes like unlawful foreign money trade is rising,” Jin acknowledged.
The lawmaker shared information from the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), revealing that the variety of STRs obtained from native digital asset service suppliers (VASPs) has almost doubled this 12 months. STRs hit a complete of 36,684 circumstances between January and August, exceeding the mixed circumstances from the earlier two years.
The variety of circumstances from the primary eight months of 2025 represents an 86% enhance from 2024’s whole circumstances. Notably, the variety of circumstances obtained has surged considerably over the previous 5 years, leaping from 199 in 2021 to 10,797 in 2022. Meanwhile, the FIU recorded 16,076 and 19,658 STR circumstances in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
For context, home VASPs are required to report transactions suspected of cash laundering and illicit actions to the FIU below the present Specific Financial Information Act. Additionally, exchanges should formally register as a VASP with the FIU to acquire a license and be capable to conduct enterprise in South Korea, reminiscent of storage, brokerage, and administration of crypto property.
Earlier this 12 months, the monetary authority discovered that many well-known abroad crypto exchanges, together with BitMEX, KuCoin, CoinW, Bitunix, and KCEX, weren’t registered as VASPs, which led to 17 crypto apps being blocked in March.
According to Korea Customs Service (KCS) information highlighted by the lawmaker, the worth of crypto-related crimes referred to prosecutors hit 9.5 trillion gained, or $7.1 billion, between January 2021 and August 2025. 90% of those crimes concerned unlawful cross-border remittances facilitated by unlicensed channels.
South Korea’s Crypto Oversight
Authorities have additionally confirmed circumstances involving the usage of stablecoins in unlawful transactions. Jin affirmed that each one related businesses should work collectively to take efficient actions that deal with the rise of those new varieties of crimes and develop a system to forestall these illicit actions.
Relevant businesses, together with the Customs Service and the FIU, should implement efficient crackdowns—reminiscent of monitoring prison funds and blocking disguised transfers—whereas additionally creating systematic countermeasures towards these new varieties of international trade crimes.
It’s value noting that the Financial Services Commission (FSC) has been working to develop digital property laws and shift its regulatory strategy over the previous 12 months. The monetary authority is predicted to launch the long-awaited framework for the issuance and distribution of won-backed stablecoins subsequent month.
As the stablecoin sector good points momentum worldwide, South Korean lawmakers have pushed to ascertain the required laws, with a number of payments being launched within the National Assembly this 12 months, together with two rival payments in July by Korea’s ruling and opposition events.
The banking sector has reportedly been in talks with Tether and Circle to debate potential partnerships, because it has been exploring numerous legalization eventualities over the previous few months. Ahead of the extremely anticipated regulatory framework, digital asset custody agency BDACS formally launched the primary South Korean won-backed stablecoin, KRW1, on the Avalanche blockchain.
In collaboration with Woori Bank, one of many 4 largest home monetary establishments within the nation, the crypto custodian plans to make the most of the won-pegged stablecoin as a “low-cost fee and settlement system for public-sector packages” and construct the “spine of the digital asset market.”
Bitcoin (BTC) trades at $113,155 within the one-week chart. Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView
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