A South Korean court overturned Bithumb’s six-month partial business suspension on Thursday, according to Yonhap News. The news agency cited legal sources saying Judge Gong Hyeon-jin of the 2nd Administrative Division of the Seoul Administrative Court accepted Bithumb’s application for a stay of execution on the same day it was presented.
There was no clarification on whether a 36.8 billion won ($24.6 million) fine was also suspended. South Korea’s financial watchdog imposed the fine and suspension in March, alleging massive violations of local anti-money laundering rules.
Background of the sanctions
The sanctions stemmed from violations of the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information, the Financial Services Commission said in March. The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) said Bithumb committed about 6.65 million violations. Of those, 3.55 million involved failures to carry out required customer identity verification. Another 3.04 million were related to cases where the exchange failed to properly block transactions that should have been blocked.
Bithumb, one of South Korea’s largest crypto exchanges, filed a request with the court to end the suspension and fine. The regulator had said it discovered the exchange committed millions of violations of the country’s anti-money laundering rules.
Broader regulatory context
While the court ruling is good news for Bithumb, it follows reports that South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission has initiated a probe into Upbit, Bithumb, and other platforms regarding the sharing of order books with overseas platforms. The case against Bithumb is part of South Korean regulators’ increased oversight of the cryptocurrency market.
In 2025, the FIU handed Dunamu, the operator of the country’s largest exchange, Upbit, a three-month partial suspension and a 35.2 billion won fine for compliance gaps. Korbit, a rival platform, faced a smaller penalty of 2.73 billion won along with institutional warnings.
Bithumb’s position
Bithumb was established in 2014 and currently ranks among the largest exchanges in South Korea by trading volume, according to CoinGecko data. The end of the suspension comes two months after Bithumb mistakenly distributed billions of dollars worth of bitcoin to users.
