South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) convened an emergency meeting on Monday to assess the impact of the recent $6.3 billion theft from Binance’s hot wallets. The meeting included the Financial Supervisory Service, the Financial Security Institute, the Digital Asset eXchange Alliance (DAXA) and major crypto service providers.
The FSC reiterated the legal requirement that exchanges keep at least 80 % of customer crypto in offline cold wallets. After reviewing exchange security practices—such as IT access controls, withdrawal approvals, signing procedures and administrator privileges—the regulator asked platforms to raise the proportion of assets stored offline, enhance monitoring of deposits and withdrawals, and increase incident‑response staffing.
Exchanges were also urged to set aside additional reserves and promptly report any unusual access attempts. The FSC said it would continue collaborating with other agencies and industry participants to mitigate further attacks.
Cold‑wallet ratios among South Korean exchanges
Data from the Financial Supervisory Service, reflecting end‑September balances, show varying compliance levels:
- Upbit: 99.17 % cold‑wallet ratio
- Bithumb: 94.76 %
- Coinone: 85 %
- Digital X (formerly Korbit): 82.79 %
- GOPAX: 80.54 % (just above the legal minimum)
Separately, the Bank of Korea is surveying 18 banks and 13 brokerages about their exposure to crypto‑related risks, including exchange hacks and prolonged market downturns. The central bank’s review began before the Binance incident.
