South Korea’s financial authorities officially roll out an enhanced version of the virtual-asset withdrawal delay regime, with unified exception standards

Gate News message. On April 8, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) of South Korea announced that they will jointly consult with the Digital Asset eXchange Joint Consultation Organization (DAXA) and each virtual asset exchange to formally implement the “enhanced version of the withdrawal delay system.” The authorities tightened the exception criteria for withdrawal delays and also set unified internal regulations. Going forward, requirements will need to consider factors such as the number of trades, the trading period, and the deposit and withdrawal amounts. The purpose of this system is to restrict certain groups—such as new users—from withdrawing virtual assets within a specified time window in order to prevent proceeds from telecommunication fraud from flowing to external wallets. Previously, because exchanges had inconsistent standards and lacked clear benchmarks, the loophole was exploited by criminals. Data shows that between June and September last year, 59% of the scam accounts at virtual asset exchanges belonged to “exception accounts” under the withdrawal delay system.