South Korea Resumes Review of Binance’s Gopax Acquisition After Two-Year Pause

South Korean regulators have reopened their review of Binance’s long-delayed acquisition of local crypto exchange Gopax, suggesting that the world’s largest crypto exchange could soon re-enter the ￰0￱ Takeaways: South Korea’s FIU has resumed reviewing Binance’s acquisition of Gopax, with approval possible by late ￰1￱ review of Gopax’s executive changes effectively serves as a test of Binance’s qualification as a controlling shareholder. Binance’s $4.3 billion US settlement appears to have eased South Korean regulators’ earlier AML-related ￰2￱ to a Tuesday report from Newsis , the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) is now reviewing Gopax’s formal report on changes to its key executives, a move tied directly to Binance’s ownership stake, and the review is reportedly progressing ￰3￱ could come as early as the end of 2025.

Binance’s Fate in Korea Hinges on Executive Review Under South Korean law, there is no separate system for assessing the suitability of major shareholders in crypto ￰4￱ a result, the FIU’s review of Gopax’s executive changes effectively serves as a vetting process for Binance’s qualification as a controlling ￰5￱ first acquired a 67% stake in Gopax in February 2023, becoming its largest ￰6￱ exchange and Gopax jointly filed the executive change report in March 2023, but local regulators froze the approval process over anti-money laundering (AML) ￰7￱ delay coincided with Binance’s legal troubles in the US , where the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) accused the company of unregistered operations and AML ￰8￱ later reached a $4.3 billion settlement with US authorities, which appears to have eased South Korean regulators’ concerns , Newsis said. 4/ Whereas Gopax is one of the central exchanges severely damaged by @FTX_Official 's collapse, @Binance used IRI to invest in #Gopax.

With #Binance 's investment, @GOPAX_kr will resume the customer withdrawal of deposited assets, including ￰9￱ — ￰10￱ (@cryptoquant_com) February 7, 2023 Gopax is among the few South Korean exchanges authorized to handle cash-to-crypto transactions, a designation that requires strict compliance with KYC and AML ￰11￱ platform suffered a major liquidity crisis in early 2023 after its DeFi partner, Genesis Global Capital, froze withdrawals tied to Gopax’s GoFi ￰12￱ Genesis’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, roughly $47 million (₩56.6 billion) in user funds were left inaccessible. Binance’s acquisition of Gopax was initially framed as a rescue effort, aimed at restoring customer confidence and injecting funds to compensate affected users.

However, as regulatory hurdles dragged on, Binance reportedly explored selling part of its Gopax stake to local cloud provider Megazone to lower its ownership share, a deal that ultimately collapsed in late 2024, The Bell ￰13￱ Korea Orders Crypto Exchanges to Halt Lending Services In August, South Korea’s financial regulator moved to rein in risky lending practices in the digital asset sector, ordering local exchanges to suspend all crypto lending services until a proper regulatory framework is ￰14￱ crackdown came amid South Korea’s broader pivot toward regulated crypto ￰15￱ are lifting restrictions on institutional trading and preparing to approve the country’s first spot crypto ￰16￱ Lee Jae Myung’s administration is also working on a stablecoin framework pegged to the Korean won, signaling a more open approach to digital finance despite the latest ￰17￱ recently, Dunamu, the operator of South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, unveiled a new custody service aimed at corporate and institutional clients, as regulatory green lights for virtual asset investments spark growing demand for secure storage ￰18￱ service stores all deposited digital assets in cold wallets, entirely offline and insulated from internet-based threats, to shield holdings from cyberattacks and other external breaches.