Exchanges barred from listing
South Korea
Korean exchanges must not handle coins built to hide their transfer records, a rule in force since 25 March 2021; individuals may still hold them.
The rule
- Exchange listing
- Barred
- Holding by individuals
- Allowed
- Mixers
- No specific rule
- Self-hosted wallets
- Registered addresses only
- In force from
- 25 Mar 2021
- Confidence
- Confirmed
Dates: the rule has been in force since 25 Mar 2021.
Article 28, item 2 of the Regulation on Reporting and Supervision of Specified Financial Transaction Information, made under Article 10-20, item 6 of the Enforcement Decree of the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information, requires virtual asset service providers to check whether a coin has built-in technology that stops its transfer records being identified between addresses and, once aware of it, not to handle that coin. The Financial Services Commission announced this bar on so-called dark coins on 17 February 2021, the clause is in the version of the regulation in force from 25 March 2021, when the virtual asset anti-money-laundering regime took effect, and the same wording is in the version in force from 2 October 2026. The rule binds virtual asset service providers only, and no provision was found that stops individuals holding such coins. The market lists of Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and GOPAX fetched on 13 October 2026 include no Monero, Zcash or Dash. No mixer-specific sanction, prosecution or ban was found.
Instrument: Regulation on Reporting and Supervision of Specified Financial Transaction Information, Article 28, item 2, made under Article 10-20, item 6 of the Enforcement Decree of the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information
Sources
- Regulation on Reporting and Supervision of Specified Financial Transaction Information (특정 금융거래정보 보고 및 감독규정), KoFIU Notice 2026-3, Article 28
- Regulation on Reporting and Supervision of Specified Financial Transaction Information (특정 금융거래정보 보고 및 감독규정), KoFIU Notice 2021-1, in force from 25 March 2021, Article 28
- 가상자산과 금전의 교환이 없는 경우 가상자산사업자는 실명확인 입출금 계정을 받지 않아도 됩니다 (press release on the draft supervisory regulation amendment)
- AML Requirements of Virtual Asset Service Providers to Take Effect from March 25
- Upbit Open API: market list (market/all)
- Bithumb public API: KRW ticker list (ticker/ALL_KRW)
- Coinone public API v2: KRW markets
- Korbit API v2: currency pairs
- GOPAX public API: trading pairs
Self-hosted wallets
Registered addresses only
Korea's travel rule requires exchanges to pass on sender and recipient details for transfers of KRW 1 million or more to other virtual asset service providers, and Upbit, the one exchange checked, allows withdrawals only to pre-registered addresses and registers a personal wallet only after an ownership check.
Article 10-10 of the Enforcement Decree of the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information requires the names and virtual asset addresses of sender and recipient to accompany transfers of KRW 1 million or more to another provider, with the sender's identity number on request within three business days; the rule took effect on 25 March 2022, as reported at the time, but when Upbit began requiring personal wallets to be registered was not established, so no start date is given. Upbit's documentation (updated 1 June and 14 July 2026) says withdrawal addresses must be registered in advance and that a personal wallet is registered only after two-channel authentication and a signature proving ownership of the wallet. On 11 August 2026 the Cabinet approved a Decree amendment that, from six months after promulgation, extends the travel rule to all transfers regardless of amount, allows transfers to foreign exchanges rated low risk, allows those with other foreign exchanges and with personal wallets only where sender and recipient are the same person, bars those rated high risk, and requires providers to run their own suspicious-transaction controls for such transfers of KRW 10 million or more.
Privacy coins and wallets: Virtual asset service providers are barred from handling so-called dark coins whose transaction records are hard to identify, under a Supervision Regulation amendment the FSC announced in draft on 17 February 2021 to apply from the amended Act's entry into force on 25 March 2021, which keeps privacy coins off Korean exchanges.
- Enforcement Decree of the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information, Article 10-10 (provision of information on virtual asset transfers)
- Cabinet approves amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Specified Financial Transaction Information Act to strengthen transparency of the virtual asset market (press release page)
- Cabinet approves amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Specified Financial Transaction Information Act (press release PDF)
- Registering a personal (non-custodial) wallet as a withdrawal-allowed address
- Digital asset withdrawal
- Virtual asset service providers that do not exchange virtual assets for money need not obtain real-name verified deposit and withdrawal accounts (press release on draft Enforcement Decree and Supervision Regulation amendments, including the bar on handling so-called dark coins)
- Travel rule takes effect; investors face confusion over differing deposit and withdrawal policies
Exchanges and their restrictions
The 14 exchanges on this site, with the 32 spot markets they list for the seven coins, as checked on 13 Oct 2026. The exchange data records where each listing is restricted as text, so this page quotes each passage that names South Korea, and marks the cells it comes from. An exchange with no such passage has no restriction for South Korea on record here, which does not mean that it is licensed there or open to its residents. A listing is not an endorsement.
Swipe the table sideways to see all seven coins.
| Exchange | ZECZcashSpot on 11, perp only on 1 | XMRMoneroSpot on 6, perp only on 3 | DCRDecredSpot on 6 | ZANOZanoSpot on 1 | ARRRPirate ChainSpot on 2 | XVGVergeSpot on 4, perp only on 3 | FIROFiroSpot on 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Binance | Restricted +perpApr 2025Shielded in: noShielded out: no | DelistedFeb 2024Perp only | RestrictedApr 2025 | Never listed | Never listed | Listed +perpWithdrawals frozen | DelistedApr 2025 |
| Coinbase | Listed +perpNov 2018Shielded in: yesShielded out: no | Never listed | Never listed | Never listed | Never listed | Never listed | Never listed |
| Kraken | Restricted +perpJun 2026Shielded in: unknownShielded out: no | Restricted +perpJun 2026 | RestrictedMay 2026 | Never listed | Never listed | Never listed | Never listed |
| OKX | Listed +perpNov 2025Shielded in: unknownShielded out: unknown | DelistedJan 2024 | DelistedJul 2024 | Never listed | Never listed | Never listed | Never listed |
| Bybit | DelistedFeb 2025Perp only | Never listedPerp only | DelistedNov 2024 | Never listed | Never listed | Never listedPerp only | Never listed |
| Bitget | Listed +perpDec 2025Shielded in: unknownShielded out: unknown | Never listedPerp only | Never listed | Never listed | Never listed | Never listedPerp only | Never listed |
| KuCoin | Listed +perpJul 2019Shielded in: unknownShielded out: no | Listed +perpMar 2019 | ListedSep 2018 | Never listed | DelistedSep 2023 | Never listedPerp only | Never listed |
| Gate | Listed +perpShielded in: unknownShielded out: unknown | Restricted +perp | Listed | Never listed | ListedWithdrawals frozen | Restricted | Restricted |
| HTX | Listed +perpDec 2022Shielded in: noShielded out: no | Listed +perpDec 2022 | ListedDec 2022 | Never listed | Never listed | ListedDec 2022 | DelistedSep 2025 |
| MEXC | Listed +perpShielded in: unknownShielded out: unknown | Listed +perp | Listed | ListedDec 2023 | ListedJan 2024 | Listed +perp | Listed |
| Gemini | RestrictedMay 2018Shielded in: yesShielded out: yes | Never listed | Never listed | Never listed | Never listed | Never listed | Never listed |
| Bitfinex | Listed +perpOct 2016Withdrawals frozenShielded in: unknownShielded out: unknown | ListedNov 2016 | DelistedMar 2022 | Never listed | Never listed | DelistedDec 2024 | Never listed |
| Crypto.com | Never listed | Never listed | Never listed | Never listed | Never listed | Never listed | Never listed |
| Upbit | DelistedSep 2019 | DelistedSep 2019 | DelistedDec 2020 | Never listed | Never listed | DelistedMay 2020 | DelistedMay 2020 |
Passages that name South Korea
- All coins: South Korean platform operated by Dunamu with KRW, BTC and USDT spot markets;
Self-hosted wallets for the seven coins
The nine wallets on the Wallets page that hold at least one of the seven coins, with the coins and platforms each supports. The wallet data does not record where each wallet is offered, so this list is the same on every country page, and South Korea's own rules, set out above, apply to their use. A listing is not an endorsement.