South Korea Plans to Allow Crypto Exchanges to Suspend Withdrawals During Suspected Hacks

Odaily Report: South Korea's Financial Services Commission (FSC) plans to allow cryptocurrency exchanges to suspend deposits and withdrawals when a hack is suspected, without waiting for confirmation of an attack. The FSC said Thursday that it will issue no-action letters permitting exchanges to precautionarily suspend related operations under specific conditions.

The FSC also requires exchanges to implement round-the-clock monitoring and incident response, increase the proportion of cold wallet holdings, and strengthen insurance coverage and reserve funds. Exchanges unable to maintain continuous monitoring may only process deposits and withdrawals when staff are on duty, and must notify users in advance.

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange GOPAX suspended trading, deposits, and regular withdrawals on Friday after receiving a hacking threat, though its representatives stated that no security breach occurred. Trading platform Prabang suspended services on October 24 after detecting abnormal withdrawals from its hot wallet, reporting losses of approximately $70,000.

The FSC found cybersecurity deficiencies in 130 of 555 financial companies inspected nationwide in October, and included GOPAX operator Streami and Prabang among 16 companies involved in previous security incidents. (Cointelegraph)