South Korean Crypto Exchange Coinpia Suspends Fiat Deposits

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinpia has announced that it is suspending fiat deposits and also its trading services. This decision comes as the exchange cannot adhere to the new rules imposed by the South Korean government regarding user identification and KYC processes.

Coinpia put up a notice on its website stating that the exchange is no longer taking deposits in fiat currency as of the 30th of January, so as not to violate the requirements of the Financial Services Commission (FSC).

On the 23rd of January, the FSC announced that, starting from February, all cryptocurrency traders will have to use their real names and associated bank accounts if they want to continue to participate in the industry – all anonymous accounts will be banned.

According to Coinpia, the exchange is finding it difficult to integrate the user identification system, which forces the exchange to make decisions which impose limitations on its operation.

Coinpia was one of the eight exchanges recently fined by the South Korean Communications Commission for using inefficient data protection measures for protecting user information.

According to ttrcoin.com, only three of the six banks working with South Korean stock exchanges have decided to provide cryptocurrency trading platforms with facilities that are compliant with the new requirements of the FSC. Thus, out of 25 exchanges, only four were able to successfully move to accounts linked with real traders’ names. The situation with rest of the exchanges is not clear at this point.

South Korean news portal Yonhap noted: “New accounts are issued only to those exchanges that meet certain requirements. If they do not correspond to them, they may be denied installation of the user identification system.”

Shinhan Bank, which serves Bithumb, the largest exchange of the country, also decided not to issue the new accounts yet, taking into account the fact that Bithumb is currently investigating last year’s hack.