South Korea Imposes 5-Minute Ledger Requirement on Crypto Exchanges

The South Korea Financial Services Commission (FSC) has ordered crypto exchanges to reconcile their internal ledgers with actual asset balances every five minutes. This directive was announced at a meeting with major exchanges and the Digital Asset Exchange Association (DAXA) following internal control weaknesses identified in an emergency audit after Bithumb's erroneous payment incident. The audit found that three of the country's five major exchanges were reconciling balances only once a day, and their systems to halt trading in case of major discrepancies were inadequate.

In February, Bithumb accidentally distributed 620,000 Bitcoin (BTC) to 249 users during a promotion and recovered 99.7% of the funds on the same day; the remaining 1,788 BTC was covered from company reserves. Under the new rules, exchanges will establish five-minute automatic reconciliation systems, implement automatic trading halt criteria in case of significant discrepancies, and introduce third-party audits and multi-level approvals for high-risk payments. External audits will become monthly, and detailed balance disclosures on a wallet basis will be mandatory. The changes will be completed within April. Bithumb announced that it has postponed its IPO to after 2028.

Top Korean crypto exchanges. Source: CoinGecko

South Korea's Crypto Regulations' Impact on BTC

These strict regulations could increase confidence in the BTC detailed analysis market. BTC is currently at $68,510, 24h change -1.22%. RSI 49.20 neutral, overall trend downward and Supertrend giving bearish signal. EMA 20: $68,473.

• Supports: S1 $68,046 (Strong, 82% score, -0.72% distance)
• S2 $64,323 (65% score, -6.15% distance)
• Resistances: R1 $69,253 (76% score, +1.04% distance)
• R2 $83,437 (72% score, +21.74% distance)

Bithumb Incident and New Ledger Rules

Bithumb's error has put exchanges' internal controls under the microscope. Now, multi-approval is mandatory for high-volume transactions including BTC futures.

Frequently Asked Questions About South Korean Crypto Exchanges

How often will ledger reconciliation be performed?

Automatic every 5 minutes.

How much was Bithumb's BTC loss?

1,788 BTC covered from reserves.

When will the changes be completed?

Within April 2026.