South Korea Crypto Complaints Surge More Than 1,000%, Making Up 30% of Investment Cases

Consumer complaints related to virtual assets surged more than tenfold from a year earlier, driving the increase in overall complaints in South Korea’s financial investment industry.

On April 21, the Financial Supervisory Service said in a release on 2025 trends in financial complaints and consultations that total financial complaints rose 10.4% last year to 128,419 cases. Complaints in the financial investment sector jumped 65.4% to 14,944 cases. Virtual-asset-related complaints surged more than tenfold and accounted for about 30% of all complaints in the sector.

The sharp increase was largely tied to cases involving unpaid benefits from “first trade support payment” promotions that used exchange APIs. Some users disputed whether they had met the conditions and how rewards were supposed to be paid.

Insurance accounted for the largest share of total complaints at 49.0%, followed by financing for small businesses and low-income borrowers at 22.5%, banks at 16.8% and financial investment at 11.6%. Financial investment recorded the biggest increase, while complaints in banking fell 10.2% and those in the small-business and retail finance segment declined 2.9%.

Non-life insurance complaints increased across all categories, including insurance payout calculations, payments and exemption determinations, reaching 48,281 cases. Life insurance complaints also rose, led by those related to claim payments and exemption decisions, to 14,656 cases. Bank complaints fell overall, but voice-phishing-related complaints jumped 125.7% to 2,423 cases.

The average complaint processing period lengthened by 5.1 days from a year earlier to 46.6 days. The complaint acceptance rate edged up to 41.3%. The acceptance rate for dispute complaints rose to 54.7%, while the rate for general complaints fell to 33.9%.

The FSS said it would strengthen its dispute mediation function and improve consumer protection systems at financial firms to raise complaint-handling efficiency. It also said continued demand for stronger consumer protection across the financial investment sector underscored the need for institutional improvements.