South Korean authorities scrutinize crypto market manipulation allegations

The FSC in South Korea has referred two cases of crypto market manipulation to local investigative ￰0￱ suspects pre-accumulated crypto worth tens of billions of Korean won, then repeatedly submitted high-priced orders, mobilizing hundreds of billions of Korean ￰1￱ Commission reportedly explained that suspects in the first case allegedly mobilized hundreds of billions of Korean won to artificially inflate crypto prices to target levels through high-priced ￰2￱ submitted sell orders at higher prices than their buying prices, then manipulated the trades to ensure the crypto prices reached the sell order ￰3￱ Financial Supervisory Services detected the case during a routine crypto monitoring ￰4￱ users assumed the price was increasing naturally and bought into the ruse, buying more of the coin as the price soared to reach the pre-submitted sell ￰5￱ reportedly gained tens of billions of Korean won in illicit profits through this ￰6￱ the second case, the suspects used APIs (automated trading programs) to inflate trading ￰7￱ repeatedly executed market-price buy and sell orders for specific cryptos several times per second over an undisclosed ￰8￱ suspects also submitted high-priced buy orders manually to create the illusion of rising ￰9￱ manipulated screen to mimic active trading The FSC pointed out that the suspects in the second case allegedly exploited the visual effect of the exchange’s screen, capitalizing on the typical user perception that the frequently flashing red line signifies active ￰10￱ current price border changes to a red line to indicate price increases whenever a specific crypto price ￰11￱ Financial Services Commission urged investors to exercise caution when the price of a low-liquidity cryptocurrency rises or trading volume surges, as a correction may cause the price to ￰12￱ also warned that anyone using unscrupulous means to artificially attract buying and selling interest, or manipulate prices through high-price sell and buy orders, will face fines and penalties under the Virtual Asset User Protection (VAUP) ￰13￱ FSC announced on November 4 that the government has approved a revision bill for the Enforcement Decree of the Special Act on the Refund for ￰14￱ revision aims to strengthen the responsibility of financial companies in preventing losses resulting from financial ￰15￱ freezes $61.4M worth of crypto in six years The FSC recently disclosed that it has frozen nearly $61.4 million worth of digital assets across several crypto trading platforms in its efforts to combat crypto fraud over the past six ￰16￱ cumulative amount was revealed in a report submitted to lawmaker Wi Seong-gon’s office, highlighting the commission’s ongoing efforts to combat crypto-related ￰17￱ of the freezes stem from suspected fraud and violations of the VAUP ￰18￱ submitted report confirmed that the frozen crypto assets include $37.4 million worth of crypto assets affected by Bithumb’s 2020 suspension of ￰19￱ suspension was connected to 8,666 fraud ￰20￱ FSC also froze crypto assets worth $18.9 million across 30,106 cases between 2020 and September this ￰21￱ regulator froze another $4.4 million worth of crypto, which was blocked on the Coinone exchange in connection with 755 ￰22￱ $296,000, involving 529 cases, was also frozen on Korbit, while a further $222,000, involving around 280 cases of non-compliance with the region’s regulations, was frozen on the Gopax ￰23￱ Korea recently updated its crypto regulations to cover stablecoins, investor protection, mining, interest rates and lending, and the travel rule, creating a robust regulatory framework for its domestic crypto industry.

Meanwhile, the Act on Reporting and Use of Specific Financial Transaction Information now mandates strict AML (anti-money laundering) measures, exchange registration, and a real-name crypto platform account linked to a verified bank ￰24￱ FSC’s records over the past six years reveal that South Korea’s government has intensified its efforts to sanitize its crypto ￰25￱ across Korbit, Bithumb, Coinone, and Gopax show the country’s sustained regulator ￰26￱ revised Enforcement Decree will take effect six months after ￰27￱ you're reading this, you’re already ￰28￱ there with our newsletter .