Gate News reports that on March 22, South Korea’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, CEX, despite facing a series of controversies and regulatory penalties, continues to push for the reappointment of its current CEO, Lee Jae-won. Previously, on February 6, 2026, during a promotional event, the exchange experienced a serious operational error that resulted in the incorrect distribution of approximately 15 times the platform’s actual Bitcoin holdings, totaling about 620,000 BTC, exposing significant flaws in its internal verification, asset management, and ledger systems. The error was discovered and contained within 35 minutes, and the platform froze transactions and withdrawals for 695 affected accounts, claiming to have recovered 99.7% of the mistakenly issued assets. However, the incident still caused brief market panic.
The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under South Korea’s Financial Services Commission imposed multiple penalties on the exchange, including a six-month suspension of certain operations, a 36.8 billion won (approximately $24 million) anti-money laundering fine, a warning to CEO Lee Jae-won, and a six-month suspension for the reporting officer.
The CEO’s term will end this month, and the company plans to hold its regular shareholders’ meeting on March 31 to consider extending his term by another two years. Despite the major malfunction and regulatory pressure, the exchange has chosen to proceed with his reappointment to maintain operational continuity and stability rather than undergo management restructuring. In similar past cases, such as when a CEO received a warning from FIU and transitioned to an advisory role, management often faced greater accountability.
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