- South Korea’s court has temporarily lifted a three-month suspension imposed on major cryptocurrency exchange Upbit.
- The regulatory order was issued by authorities in February.
South Korean crypto exchange Upbit has won a temporary reprieve from a court, allowing a previously imposed three-month ban on certain operations to be suspended for now. The injunction relates to an order that had prohibited the exchange from registering new customers. On March 27, 2025, the court granted an injunction against a freeze on the exchange’s parent company, Dunamu, permitting the platform to resume offering products and services to new clients. This relief comes even as Dunamu continues its legal battle with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), a division of the Financial Services Commission (FSC) in Korea.
Upbit and the Korean ban
Regulators accused Upbit of compliance violations, prompting the FIU to issue a partial suspension on February 25, 2025. Under that restriction, Upbit was barred for three months from processing deposits and withdrawals for newly registered customers. Authorities said the sanction was based on findings from an investigation carried out in 2024. Market surveillance identified serious shortcomings in Upbit’s customer identification (KYC) procedures. The FIU pointed to between 500,000 and 600,000 potential KYC breaches and alleged that Upbit had facilitated some 45,000 transactions with foreign crypto exchanges that were not registered. Regulators assert these breaches violated Korea’s strict financial laws, including the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information.
Refusing to accept the penalties without contest, Dunamu moved quickly to pursue legal remedies. On February 27, the company filed a suit against the FIU seeking to overturn the suspension order in full. Simultaneously, Dunamu requested an injunction to halt enforcement of the sanction while the case proceeds through the courts.
What happens next?
The Seoul Administrative Court sided with Dunamu on the injunction request, ruling that enforcement of the suspension would be stayed for 30 days after a final decision is issued in the matter. With this temporary lift, Upbit can once again accept new users and process their transactions. The decision brings relief to the exchange’s large user base and to Korea’s broader crypto community.
However, the ruling underscores growing friction between Korea’s cryptocurrency industry and its regulators. Upbit, which together with competitors such as Bithumb dominates the domestic market, faces increasing scrutiny as the FSC steps up efforts to strengthen compliance across the rapidly evolving digital-asset sector. For now, Upbit can breathe easier, but the suspension has been postponed, not cancelled, so the outcome will depend on the court’s final judgment.