South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit will soon stop services for unverified users.
On Saturday, the company officially announced a set of changes to its customer verification system in accordance with South Korea’s mandatory anti-money laundering (AML) requirements.
According to the announcement, Upbit will gradually begin limiting services to unverified users this week, preventing unverified customers from transacting more than 1 million KRW ($850) at any one time, as of Wednesday, October 6.
“Once customer verification is complete, the limit of one million won will be raised; members who place an order with less than one million won can proceed with customer verification at any time.”
Within a week after the initial anti-money laundering restrictions, Upbit plans to place more restrictions on unverified users. As of October 13, Upbit will stop trading services as well as deposits and withdrawals for existing clients who have not completed client verification. “Once customer verification is complete, trading and deposit or withdrawal transactions will resume,” Upbit noted.
The announcement also states that new users who sign up after Wednesday will only be able to deposit and withdraw after completing verification. The exchange also advised checking the processing through K Bank, the official Upbit on-ramp provider. “Withdrawal procedures to other banks will be notified later by a separate notice,” the announcement read.
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Upbit is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea along with Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit, and makes up more than 80% of the local cryptocurrency market.
The company’s new customer verification policies comply with South Korea’s anti-money laundering regulations that require domestic and foreign exchanges to provide real-name accounts through a local bank. The Financial Services Commission has asked cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea to submit applications for an official operating license by September 24. Some major exchanges, including Binance, later discontinued KRW trading pairs and removed support for the Korean language from their platforms.
