Bithumb Faces $24M Fine and Six-Month Partial Ban

South Korea’s Financial Intelligence Unit has handed Bithumb one of the country’s stiffest crypto penalties yet. The FIU confirmed a fine of 36.8 billion won, roughly $24 million, and a partial operating suspension running six months. The violations, numbering approximately 6.65 million, span failures in customer identity checks and blocked-transaction handling.

The regulator traced the breaches back to on-site inspections conducted between 2024 and 2025. Those reviews covered the country’s five major exchanges: Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax. Bithumb’s exposure turned out to be the largest found.

Millions of KYC Failures Drove the Penalty

Of the 6.65 million violations, around 3.55 million relate to failures in customer verification. Another 3.04 million involve transactions that should have been blocked but weren’t, according to FIU findings. The regulator also confirmed Bithumb had processed transactions for 18 unregistered foreign virtual asset operators, a direct breach of the country’s financial transaction reporting law.

The partial suspension kicks in March 27 and runs through September 26. Existing users keep full trading and withdrawal access. Only new customers transferring crypto from external wallets face restrictions during the period, the FIU said.

Personnel penalties came alongside the financial ones. Bithumb’s chief executive received a formal warning. The exchange’s compliance reporting officer was handed a six-month suspension from duties, the regulator confirmed.

Bithumb Not the First Exchange Caught in Sweep

This isn’t the first time Seoul’s regulators have moved against a major exchange. Last year, the FIU ordered Upbit operator Dunamu into a three-month partial suspension and a fine of 35.2 billion won over compliance gaps. Korbit came away with a comparatively lighter institutional warning and a fine of 2.73 billion won.

Bithumb, founded in 2014, ranks among the largest exchanges in South Korea by trading volume, per CoinGecko data. The timing of this suspension is notable. It arrives roughly a month after the exchange accidentally distributed what amounted to billions of dollars in Bitcoin value to users in an erroneous airdrop.

The FIU noted it will finalize the exact penalty figure after completing a formal opinion submission process. CoinDesk contacted Bithumb for comment but had received no response at time of publication.