Reports said that South Korean crypto exchanges have reached the government-mandated deadline to come into compliance with Travel Rule, but not all industry players are pleased with the measure.
It has been reported that Korean exchanges will flag any crypto transfers worth more than roughly $821. Transfers higher than that value will be restricted to user-verified wallets, with a select number of exchanges adopting their Anti-Money Laundering (AML) system. The Travel Rule is a set of guidelines issued by the international financial watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) designed to help authorities track the movement of virtual assets between virtual asset service providers (VASP) such as crypto exchanges or digital asset issuers.
A source said:
“The industry is now taking a step toward institutional acceptance and will work harder for mass adoption.”
However, there may be a problem for South Korea’s traders who racked up $45.9 billion in crypto market value in 2021, figuring out which exchanges they can transfer funds to and from. Among the big four exchanges Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit, there are two Travel Rule systems.
The report said that each system functions slightly differently and requires international exchanges to follow its guidelines. If those guidelines are not followed, transfers will not be allowed.
Simon Kim, the CEO of South Korea-based crypto venture capital Hashed, said that these differences are likely to cause confusion and frustration among domestic traders. He feels that the Korean crypto community sees the mandate as “clearly over-regulation.”
He added:
“In a state where the infrastructure was not prepared, a regulatory body with low understanding was forced to push forward. It is expected that revisions will follow to an appropriate level with criticism from the Korean community.”
Likewise, the Hashed crypto and Web3 portfolio includes blockchain ecosystems Klaytn and Ethereum, NFT game Axie Infinity, and decentralized exchange dYdX. Upbit is the largest exchange in the country with over 78.3% of the exchange market share, according to local analyst Jun Hyuk Ahn. It has adopted its home-grown Verify VASP program.
As of Friday, Upbit allows transfers to and from its affiliates in Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand, Bblock, GOPAX, Cashierest, Flat Thai Exchange, Aphrobit, Binance, Bybit, Okcoin, Crypto.com, Coinbase, BITFRONT, Bittrex, Bitbank, Gate.io, Kraken, BitMEX, FTX US and Haru Invest. Meanwhile, Bithumb, Korbit, and Coinone all have adopted the CODE system. This allows transfers between Coinbase, Kraken, Coincheck, bitFlyer, Bybit, Gemini, Coinlist Pro, Phemex, Bitbank, Line bitmax, Bitfront, FTX, and Binance. Domestic transfers are blocked until April 8.
Thus, the rules may hit decentralized finance (DeFi) traders hardest as they rely on personal wallets to make trades. Among all exchanges, no transfers to or from private wallets will be allowed unless the user verifies the address in person.
Source: Cointelegraph
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