South Korea’s Monetary Supervisory Service (FSS) mentioned it’s going to step up scrutiny of suspected cryptocurrency value manipulation in 2026, outlining a slate of deliberate investigations that focus on high-risk buying and selling ways, together with “whale” exercise and schemes that exploit disruptions at native exchanges, native outlet Yonhap reported Monday.
In keeping with Yonhap Information Company, FSS Governor Lee Chang-jin mentioned that the company will goal high-risk buying and selling practices that undermine market order, together with coordinated manipulation and schemes exploiting disruptions in trade infrastructure.
The FSS mentioned the probes will deal with ways that contain large-scale buying and selling by whales, synthetic value swings throughout trade deposit or withdrawal suspensions and coordinated buying and selling mechanisms utilizing APIs or social media to unfold false info.
Below the plan, the regulator mentioned it intends to strengthen automated detection by analyzing irregular value actions at very quick intervals and growing instruments that may flag suspected manipulation “sections” and associated account teams, alongside textual content evaluation that may assist determine coordinated misinformation.
Deliberate probes goal crypto manipulation ways
The FSS mentioned it’s going to examine practices that distort value discovery, together with schemes that benefit from trade deposit or withdrawal suspensions, a follow referred to in South Korea as “gating.”
These conditions can entice provide on a platform, creating synthetic actions disconnected from the broader digital asset markets.
The monetary watchdog additionally talked about that it’s going to monitor manipulation utilizing market-order APIs and coordinated exercise aimed toward amplifying false narratives on social media.
On Feb. 2, the FSS expanded its use of synthetic intelligence-powered surveillance instruments to watch crypto markets, lowering reliance on guide identification of potential manipulation.
In parallel, the watchdog established a job pressure to organize for the introduction of the Digital Asset Fundamental Act, the second section of the nation’s crypto regulatory framework.
The unit will assist the implementation planning quite than enforcement, together with work on disclosures, trade oversight and licensing requirements.
Associated: South Korea tightens crypto licensing guidelines for exchanges and shareholders
Alternate incidents add urgency to oversight push
The harder tone arrives after a sequence of exchange-related incidents put operational danger again within the highlight.
On Sunday, crypto trade Bithumb mentioned it recovered 99.7% of extra Bitcoin (BTC) mistakenly credited to customers throughout a promotional error.
Whereas the trade mentioned no buyer property have been misplaced, the episode briefly triggered sharp value swings and prompted compensation measures for affected customers.
The incident triggered a response from regulators. In keeping with the Asia Enterprise Every day, the Monetary Providers Fee (FSC) held an emergency inspection assembly on Sunday with the FSS and the Korea Monetary Intelligence Unit (KoFIU), the place officers reportedly ordered a complete overview of inner controls throughout all home crypto exchanges.
On Feb. 3, the FSS mentioned it was reviewing sharp value actions within the ZKsync token throughout a system upkeep window on Upbit. The regulator mentioned it was analyzing the information and will escalate the overview into a proper investigation relying on the findings.
Upbit operator Dunamu beforehand instructed Cointelegraph that it has inner programs that additionally flag suspicious actions and a course of that entails cooperating with regulators.
“When regulators request info, we will present the related buying and selling knowledge at once,” the spokesperson instructed Cointelegraph.
Journal: South Korea will get wealthy from crypto… North Korea will get weapons
