South Korea’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) announced on Tuesday that it will block domestic access to the websites of 27 unregistered offshore crypto exchange platforms. KuCoin, MEXC, Phemex, BingX, BitMart, XT.com, Bitrue, CoinW and BTCC are among the list of platforms.
The Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC), the country’s internet regulator, made the actual decision after two rounds of deliberations on October 6 and 7. Websites with servers or operators inside South Korea will be shut down while sites based overseas will be blocked from domestic access.
The FIU has also referred 44 unregistered operators to investigators. Users who have trouble withdrawing funds from the blocked platforms can get guidance through the Digital Asset Exchange Alliance (DAXA), the self-regulatory body formed by Korea’s major exchanges.
Most of These Exchanges Have Been on the Radar Since 2022
In August 2022, the FIU reported 16 foreign crypto exchanges to investigators and asked other agencies to block access to their websites. The names included KuCoin, MEXC, Phemex, Bitrue, CoinW and Poloneix. Six more exchanges were targeted the following year.
The pressure started to build up after this. In May 2024, the FIU began restricting the purchase of crypto assets with credit cards on unregistered platforms. By March 2025, 14 exchange apps were pulled from Apple’s App Store and 17 from Google Play. In January of this year, Google Play changed its policy so that exchanges and wallets must be registered with the FIU to stay listed in South Korea.
Upbit and Bithumb Stand to Pick Up the Volume
There are around 27 domestic platforms that have registered with the FIU, which means South Korea has now blocked the equivalent number of offshore exchanges as it has compliant ones operating in the country. In terms of trading volume and activity, most of this is concentrated between Upbit and Bithumb. Each route the FIU closes for offshore platforms pushes more Korean traders back toward these two exchanges.
Offshore exchanges offer perpetual futures with high leverage while the Korean registered exchanges offer only spot trading. This goes some way to explain why traders ended up offshore in the first place. For the FIU, this block is being seen as a measure to protect investors and traders.
The FIU Expects Mirror Sites to Keep Appearing
The FIU expects some of these operators to try their luck. It plans to track blocked exchanges that switch domains and resume business, and it will request new blocks whenever mirror sites appear.
VPNs are harder to deal with. Any Korean trader with a VPN can still reach all 27 sites in a few clicks. Nothing in this week’s decision touches accounts that already exist on those platforms either.
What the block does change is how much effort it takes. App store listings are gone and card payments are restricted, so reaching an offshore exchange from Korea is now a deliberate choice. Plenty of casual traders will likely decide Upbit is easier.
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