ByBit Discontinues Support for South Korean Language and Community

Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit announced on Friday that it is adjusting service provision in South Korea. In order to be in compliance with local regulatory changes, Bybit will discontinue Korean language support on its official platforms and its official Korean community on social media, effective from Sept. 20. The exchange doesn’t support any Korean won markets, KRW denominated trading pairs, payments, and transactions anyway. “All other services shall remain functional,” it added. “Bybit believes that regulations are necessary for the democratization of cryptocurrency,” said the exchange, adding it will actively cooperate “with regulations implemented by various jurisdictions to promote financial inclusion and develop the overall crypto industry.” This move has been taken as the new South Korean regulation comes into effect, according to which exchanges must register with the Financial Intelligence Unit by Sept. 24. For this, exchanges need a security certificate from the internet security agency and need to be partnered with banks to ensure real-name accounts. As we reported, the lack of registration means the shutdown of more than 60 crypto exchanges in the country, who are required to notify their customers of a partial or full suspension of trading by Friday midnight, a week before this new regulation comes into effect. Those who have registered with the agency but haven’t secured partnerships with banks will be prohibited from trading in KRW. While almost 40 are set to suspend all services, 28 have only security certificates but no bank partnerships with only four — Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit — fulfilling both the requirements. But that doesn’t matter because Upbit and Bithumb together account for the majority (about 85%) of the volume; as such only micro and isolated local coins will be impacted. However, the government’s position on foreign exchanges is a bit foggy. As DooWanNam, co-founder of StableNode and Asia BD at MakerDAO stated earlier this week, the Korea Association of Banks posted that the government will ban websites of foreign exchanges that haven't reported to the government. While no decision has been made regarding how strict these measures will be implemented, as users can bypass them by using VPN, the Association recommended users to withdraw from such exchanges beforehand quickly.