South Korea’s Top Financial Regulator Is Forming a Crypto Bureau

South Korea’s Financial Service Commission (FSC), the country’s top financial regulator, announced Thursday that it is forming an independent, crypto-focused bureau to supervise digital assets in South Korea.

• The new bureau will officially launch in September and fall under the authority of the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (KFIU), an arm of the FSC that handles anti-money laundering enforcement.
• The new bureau will be called the Crypto Asset Monitoring Bureau and will be responsible for overseeing licenses for exchanges and other operators, according to a report from the Korea Times.
• In April, FSC officials said that exchanges that don’t register with and receive a license from KFIU by late September won’t be permitted to operate in South Korea. The FSC’s licenses require exchanges to tighten their know-your-customer (KYC) standards and collect personal information about customers.
• The bureau will also be responsible for looking out for suspicious activity, including fraud and money laundering, according to the Korea Times.
• South Korea’s crypto crackdown is tied to the growing level of debt among young people, which FSC Chief Koh Seung-beom has blamed, at least in part, on digital asset speculation.