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South Korea's FSC urges crypto exchanges to hold more assets in cold wallets after Binance hack
The Financial Services Commission told DAXA and major Korean exchanges to exceed the 80% cold-wallet rule and tighten access controls after hackers took about $6.3bn from Binance on 30 Oct.
Why it matters: The directive shows Korean regulators tightening custody rules for exchanges after a $6.3bn hot-wallet breach at the world's largest crypto exchange.
Key points
- The FSC called for cold-wallet holdings above the 80% minimum set by South Korea's Virtual Asset User Protection Act.
- Binance lost about $6.3bn on 30 Oct in a hot-wallet exploit traced to compromised work laptops, fake job interviews and AI tooling.
- Regulator Yoo Young-jun will coordinate with the Financial Supervisory Service and international agencies on enforcement.
South Korea's Financial Services Commission has urged domestic crypto exchanges to hold more customer assets in cold wallets and tighten internal access controls, Bitcoin.com News reports. The call came at an emergency inspection meeting chaired by the FSC and attended by digital finance policy officer Yoo Young-jun, days after hackers took about $6.3bn from Binance on 30 Oct.
Officials reviewed IT access controls, administrator permissions and multisignature withdrawal checks. The FSC asked exchanges to go beyond the 80% cold-wallet rule, monitor suspicious deposits and withdrawals in real time, add emergency response staff and set up fast reporting channels.
Binance said the breach began with unauthorised access through an employee's work laptop, letting attackers bypass withdrawal approval and transaction-signing. On Tuesday the exchange said fake job interviews and compromised AI tools helped attackers gain access quietly. Hot wallets stay online for trading, while cold wallets keep funds off external networks.
Under the Virtual Asset User Protection Act, Korean exchanges must keep at least 80% of customer digital assets in cold storage and hold customer cash at commercial banks. Operators must also carry insurance, join mutual aid programmes or keep minimum reserves of $2.2m for won-denominated platforms. Authorities said they would coordinate with domestic exchanges and international regulators to limit market contagion.
What to watch: The FSC is to coordinate with the Financial Supervisory Service and global agencies on ongoing enforcement.
Live updates on NewsFeeds:RegulationDesk editor: Keshav Aggarwal (accountable for this page; this summary was not edited by hand)
How this was produced: an AI model wrote this summary of Bitcoin.com News’s report, which we credit and link above. Read our Editorial and AI policy. Spotted a mistake? See Corrections.
Not investment advice. Read the risk disclaimer.