South Korea Crypto Exchanges Drew 83 Hacking, System-Failure Complaints; Regulators Handled 48 Unfair Trading Cases

South Korea’s five won-market virtual-asset exchanges received 83 complaints related to hacking and system failures over a little more than two years. Since the Virtual Asset User Protection Act took effect, financial authorities have processed 48 unfair trading cases.

Data from the Financial Supervisory Service obtained by Newdaily through the office of People Power Party lawmaker Park Sung-hoon showed 83 complaints involving hacking and system failures were filed from July 2024 to September 2026 against five domestic won-market exchanges.

Compensation for major hacking and system-failure incidents totaled 7.18 billion won ($5.2 million) over the same period. Bithumb paid about 2.6 billion won ($1.9 million) in compensation for an event payout error in February 2026, while Dunamu paid about 790 million won ($570,000) for a hacking incident involving Solana-related virtual assets in November 2025.

From July 19, 2024, when the Virtual Asset User Protection Act came into force, through the end of September 2026, financial authorities processed 48 unfair trading cases. Of those, 40 resulted in complaints to or notifications for investigative agencies. One case was handled in 2024, 30 in 2025 and 17 from January through September 2026.

The Financial Supervisory Service has been reviewing exchanges’ abnormal-trading monitoring systems and improving detection standards. But it has not disclosed details by exchange, including the number of suspicious-trading cases detected and reported, inspection findings or whether corrective measures were carried out.

From January 2024 through September 2026, reviews and on-site inspections were conducted on Dunamu, Bithumb, Coinone and Digital X. In that process, three cases were reported over allegations including breach of fiduciary duty.