South Korean Exchange To Lower Withdrawal Limit

This week, Bithumb, known for being one of South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange recently announced to the general public that it will slowly reduce the withdrawal limit for any account that has not been converted to real-name ones, referring to risks of financial crimes.

This past Monday, Bithumb reportedly stated that it has decided to gradually reduce the withdrawal limit for customer accounts that have not converted to real-name confirmation accounts starting on June 4. This was reported by MTN. Not long the exchange announced that it will block trading in up to eleven countries including North Korea, Iran, and Iraq, as well as strengthening the account verification process for foreign users.

Back in January, regulators in South Korea launched the real-name system for crypto accounts as an attempt to end the anonymous trading of cryptocurrencies. Nevertheless, the conversion rate has been low. At the beginning of May, only around 30 percent had switched to real-name accounts. As we speak, you can still deal with cryptocurrencies in Korea operating an unregistered account.

MTN also reported that; according to Bithumb, about 60 percent of customers do not switch to real-name verification accounts. In addition to that, the exchange currently has a daily withdrawal limit of 50 million Won ($46,465) and a monthly limit of 300 million won ($278,753).

Originally, the news outlet noted that if the account is not confirmed by this measure (real-name), the daily withdrawal limit will be reduced to 45million won ($41,795) from next month. While the exchange has not revealed how low the withdrawal limit will eventually be.

An official from Bithumb stated that: “We have decided to gradually reduce the withdrawal amounts in the Korean won because it is raising concerns that bank accounts for unconverted withdrawals may become a target of various financial crimes.”

This past Monday, Bithumb also announced that it has built a first-class financial information security personnel and budget system. The company states that it is the first cryptocurrency exchange to have followed all of the 5-5-7 Regulation’s provisions within the electronic banking supervisory regulations. Found in chapter 32, section 8, and paragraph 2. The 5-5-7 Regulation recommends that 5 percent of a financial organization’s total workforce be IT specialists, 5 percent of which was dedicated to information security, and 7 percent of the company’s overall budget be used for privacy.

Bithumb finally stated that in May 2018, the current Bithumb’s total employees compared to IT staff ratio is about 21 percent and the proportion of IT staff who are responsible for information security is 10 percent. In addition, about 8 percent of the annual expenditure budget of Bithumb has used for data protection-related activities.