South Korea Shuts Down Access to 27 Offshore Crypto Platforms

South Korean regulators are stepping up their fight against illegal virtual asset operators. The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has cleared the way to restrict local access to 27 websites belonging to exchanges that never signed up under national law. Big names like KuCoin and MEXC are on the chopping block, along with Phemex, Bitrue, CoinW, BTCC, BitMart, BingX and DigiFinex.

Website Blocking Measures Explained

The decision came after the Korea Media and Communications Standards Commission gave its approval during sessions on October 6 and 7. The affected firms ignored registration rules set out in the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information, South Korea’s key anti-money laundering framework.

Officials will either shut down locally hosted services or block overseas sites from reaching Korean users. This extends a campaign that began in April 2025, when app stores were told to stop downloads and updates for unregistered exchange apps.

The FIU checks whether platforms court Korean customers through language options, local advertising, or won-denominated trading.

Authorities accept that the blocks may leave users struggling to pull out their money. To ease this, withdrawal help will be arranged through the Digital Asset eXchange Alliance (DAXA) in cooperation with the platforms involved.