South Korea Pushes Crypto Exchanges to Keep More Funds Offline After Binance Breach

Following last week’s $6.3 billion theft at Binance, the Financial Services Commission held an emergency session on Monday with the Financial Supervisory Service, the Financial Security Institute, the exchange alliance DAXA and leading crypto providers. Officials went over how exchanges control IT access, approve and sign withdrawals, and manage administrator privileges. They also asked platforms to raise the share of customer assets stored in offline wallets, even though local law already demands at least 80%.

Cold Storage Ratios at Major Exchanges

Figures from the end of September show a wide gap between platforms. Upbit kept 99.17% offline, Bithumb 94.76% and Coinone 85%. Digital X, formerly Korbit, reported 82.79%, while GOPAX stood at 80.54%, only just above the legal floor.

Security Measures Regulators Want Immediately

Attackers drained Binance’s internet-connected hot wallets, moving most of the money in roughly 20 minutes, according to TRM Labs. Binance says most user assets sit in cold storage. The commission also wants exchanges to watch deposits and withdrawals around the clock, add incident response staff, report unusual access attempts quickly and set aside extra reserves.