Court Overturns Crypto Penalties Applied Under Opaque Standards

A court has canceled sanctions against Dunamu on the grounds that the regulatory standards applied by financial authorities to cryptocurrency exchanges were unclear, bringing the transparency of financial regulation to the forefront as a key issue going forward.

The core of current virtual asset market regulation is the Specific Financial Information Act (SFIA). While the law includes functions for tracking fund flows and filtering suspicious transactions, it lacks a basic framework specifying who can participate in the market, which transaction structures are permissible, and where liability lies when problems arise.

This absence of a regulatory framework is a result of political circles delaying discussions on a fundamental virtual asset law for years. Consequently, authorities have imposed sanctions based on unclear criteria, leading to regulatory gaps due to ambiguous accountability. In a market with ill-defined standards, businesses are exposed to unpredictable risks and face considerable costs even if they win lawsuits.

Along with amending the SFIA, the establishment of a fundamental virtual asset law is necessary to clearly define responsibilities and standards.