- A South Korean court has temporarily lifted a three-month ban that prevented the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Upbit, from onboarding new customers.
- Regulators originally imposed the suspension in February.
Upbit, the leading cryptocurrency trading platform in South Korea, has won a temporary reprieve: a court has suspended the three-month restriction that barred the exchange from accepting new users.
The ruling pertains to an administrative order that had stopped Upbit from registering or processing accounts for new clients.
On March 27, 2025, the Seoul Administrative Court granted an injunction against the order issued to Dunamu, Upbit’s parent company, allowing the platform to resume offering products and services to new customers while the legal dispute continues.
The decision enables the company to recommence onboarding and related operations even as it remains embroiled in litigation with South Korea’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), a division of the Financial Services Commission (FSC).
Background: Upbit’s suspension in South Korea
Regulators accused Upbit of a range of compliance failures, prompting the FIU to impose a partial suspension on February 25, 2025.
The measure temporarily blocked Upbit from processing deposits and withdrawals for newly registered customers for three months. According to the regulator, the sanction followed findings from an investigation carried out in 2024.
Authorities said the probe uncovered significant shortcomings in Upbit’s adherence to Know Your Customer (KYC) rules.
The FIU reported between 500,000 and 600,000 potential KYC violations and alleged that Upbit had facilitated roughly 45,000 transactions with unregistered overseas crypto exchanges.
Regulators argued these issues breached strict South Korean financial laws, including the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information. Dunamu promptly challenged the penalties in court rather than accept the sanctions without contest.
The company filed a lawsuit against the FIU on February 27 seeking to overturn the suspension and simultaneously requested an injunction to halt enforcement of the sanctions while the case proceeds.
What happens next
The Seoul Administrative Court sided with Dunamu in granting the interim injunction, ruling that enforcement of the suspension would be postponed until 30 days after a final judgment in the underlying litigation.
That temporary stay allows Upbit to welcome new users and process their transactions immediately, a development that has brought relief to the platform’s large user base and to South Korea’s cryptocurrency community.
The court’s decision highlights mounting friction between South Korea’s crypto industry and its regulators. Upbit, which leads the domestic market alongside competitors such as Bithumb, has faced increasing scrutiny as the FSC steps up enforcement to ensure compliance within the fast-evolving digital asset sector.
For now, Upbit can resume normal onboarding activities. However, because the suspension has been stayed rather than revoked, uncertainty remains about the ultimate outcome of the court case and whether the suspension will be reinstated or permanently overturned.