South Korea to tighten crypto oversight targeting market manipulation: report

South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) announced plans to enhance cryptocurrency market oversight and impose stricter penalties on financial firms for IT-related accidents. This move follows high-profile incidents that highlighted risks to market integrity and consumer protection. The FSS will conduct targeted probes into market manipulation, including actions by large traders, artificial price inflation of tokens with suspended deposits/withdrawals, rapid price-pumping schemes, API order manipulation, and spreading false information via social media. This regulatory push comes after Bithumb mistakenly sent 620,000 BTC to users during a promotion. Additionally, the FSS has formed a task force to prepare for the upcoming Digital Asset Basic Act, focusing on disclosure frameworks, listing support, and licensing manuals for service providers and stablecoin issuers, with the legislation expected in the first quarter of this year.

(Source：The Block)