On the 8th, people pass by in front of the Bithumb Lounge Samsung branch in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Yonhap News
Financial authorities have formed an emergency response team in connection with the erroneous payment incident at the virtual asset exchange ‘Bithumb’ and announced a high-intensity inspection. The authorities will also examine the internal control systems of virtual asset exchanges other than Bithumb and plan to reflect the problems revealed by this incident in the second-stage virtual asset law. There are also projections that a ‘major shareholder stake cap’ for virtual asset exchanges may gain momentum.
According to officials on the 8th, the Financial Services Commission, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), and the Financial Supervisory Service held an emergency inspection meeting the previous day regarding erroneous Bitcoin payments at Bithumb to review the situation, including user losses, and to discuss next steps. Bithumb Chief Executive Lee Jae-won also attended.
Vice Chairman Kwon Dae-young of the Financial Services Commission said at the meeting, “(This incident) is a case where the vulnerabilities and risks of virtual assets have been exposed, and we view it gravely,” and added, “I asked the Financial Supervisory Service to closely determine the status of user harm caused by this accident and to continuously monitor so that Bithumb promptly takes compensation measures for users.”
The authorities formed an emergency response team for follow-up measures to this incident that includes the Digital Asset Exchange joint council (DAXA). The emergency response team will first conduct an inspection of Bithumb, and if any violations are found during the review, it will immediately shift to an on-site examination by the Financial Supervisory Service.
The emergency response team stated that, prompted by this situation, it will also examine the status of virtual asset holdings and operations, and the internal control systems, of other exchanges such as Upbit in addition to Bithumb. If necessary, it will also pursue system improvements to enable close monitoring of the status of virtual asset holdings at exchanges.
The authorities plan to reflect the problems revealed by this accident in the second-stage virtual asset law now being finalized.
The Financial Services Commission stated, “To ensure market confidence and user protection, we plan to require virtual asset service providers to receive periodic checks of their virtual asset holdings by external institutions, and we will also push measures that stipulate strict liability for virtual asset service providers when user harm occurs due to system failures.”
Some observers say this situation could give momentum to the government push for a ‘major shareholder stake cap’ at exchanges. In the second-stage virtual asset law, the government is pursuing a plan to limit the voting stake of major shareholders in virtual asset exchanges to 15~20%. The view is that excessive control by major shareholders can lead to profit-first management and undermine the public role of exchanges. However, the Digital Asset Task Force (TF) of the Democratic Party opposes this, causing friction.
However, as the Bithumb incident has once again exposed problems among major shareholders of exchanges, opinion within the Democratic Party has reached an inflection point. In particular, within the party policy committee, there is a current acknowledging the need to disperse exchange ownership, raising the possibility of a compromise. In a statement the previous day, the Democratic Party said, “We support innovation in the virtual asset market, but the premise is investor protection and market stability,” adding, “We will use this incident as an opportunity to strengthen the accountability of exchanges and to refine the supervisory framework of the financial authorities.”
한글기사 원본(Original Korean Story)
