Bithumb's Administrative Lawsuit Holds First Hearing, Citing Regulatory Gap for Transfers Under 1 Million Won

According to reports by Korean media outlet Digital Asset, the Second Division of the Seoul Administrative Court held its first hearing on Oct. 22 regarding the administrative lawsuit between Bithumb and Korea's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). The FIU found that Bithumb conducted 45,772 transfers with 18 unregistered crypto asset operators between August 28, 2022, and April 3, 2025, and accordingly issued penalties, which included a partial suspension restricting new customers from transferring crypto assets externally for six months. Bithumb stated during the hearing that transfers of 1 million KRW or above are subject to the "travel rule," and since unregistered operators have been removed from the list of eligible exchanges, there were zero non-compliant outbound transfers in that tier. Transfers under 1 million KRW were not covered by the travel rule at the time; thus, the platform had no legal basis to demand that customers provide recipient exchange details, nor did regulators specify clear blocking protocols. Bithumb also noted that after implementing the Chainalysis API, only about 2% of initially unverifiable addresses were later identified as FIU-designated unregistered operators. Enforcing blanket blocks would disrupt the remaining 98% of legitimate transactions, potentially exposing the platform to customer compensation claims. Bithumb further argued that the six-month penalty is excessively severe and practically amounts to banning the platform from acquiring new customers. The company also challenged the FIU's criteria for classifying overseas operators and the grounds for the...