Number of Virtual Asset Service Providers Drops from 42 to 31 Due to "Stricter Reporting Requirements"

The number of domestic virtual asset service providers decreased from 42 to 31. This is interpreted as an increase in those who gave up renewal registration due to stricter reporting requirements following the enforcement of the Virtual Asset User Protection Act last year.

According to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) on the 8th, 10 virtual asset service providers, including Gidac (PeerTech) and Probit (Oceans), lost their business status due to the expiration of their registration validity period.

Virtual asset service providers such as virtual asset exchanges, custody companies, and wallet providers completed their initial registration under the amended Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information (Special Financial Transactions Act) in September 2021. Subsequently, registrations were approved in the order of completing the review from October 2021 to February 2022.

Renewal registration requirements became more stringent than the initial registration in 2021. This is because the enforcement of the User Protection Act last year added mandatory obligations for virtual asset service providers, such as establishing an abnormal transaction detection system and subscribing to insurance.

Among the 11 providers who lost their virtual asset service provider status this time, 10 were coin market exchanges that do not support KRW transactions (▲Gidac ▲Probit ▲Huobi Korea ▲Plet Exchange ▲Hanbitco ▲Bitrade ▲CoinNcoin ▲Cashierest ▲Ten and Ten ▲Aprobit). The remaining one is the virtual asset wallet provider MyKeyPin Wallet.