▲ Prices of cryptocurrencies are displayed on a screen inside the lounge of Bithumb, one of the crypto exchanges in South Korea, in southern Seoul, in this file photo taken March 18, 2026. (Yonhap)

crypto exchanges-asset-matching system

Crypto exchanges to face tighter asset-matching system following Bithumb's blunder

SEOUL, April 6 (Yonhap) -- All crypto exchanges in South Korea are asked to set up a system to check and verify their internal ledgers with actual crypto holdings every five minutes, the financial regulator said Monday.

According to the Financial Services Commission (FSC), three out of five major crypto exchanges here have been reconciling their asset matching every 24 hours, with the remaining two balancing their internal ledgers with actual holdings between every five minutes and ten minutes.

Also, their trade-halting systems, also known as kill switches, were found to have some flaws in cases where a massive asset mismatch occurs, according to the FSC.

The regulator said all crypto exchanges are asked to set up the asset-matching system by the end of May and disclose their asset-matching balance every day, which also requires external checks by accounting firms every month.

Related regulations will be drawn up into a bill aimed at regulating the overall virtual asset market. The government and the ruling Democratic Party have been working to fine-tune the bill.

The FSC's step came as Bithumb, one of South Korea's crypto exchanges, in February mistakenly sent 620,000 bitcoins to 249 users who participated in a promotional event, which briefly dragged down the bitcoin price.

The crypto exchange halted the transactions and withdrawals of the users' accounts. Most mistakenly sent bitcoins were later recovered, but the blunder exposed the crypto exchange's lax internal control system.

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