ChainCatcher message, the South Korean finance minister stated, "I will manage the economy as stably as possible before the new president is elected."

ChainCatcher news, according to the official announcement, the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit will launch the Filecoin (FIL) KRW trading pair, with trading expected to start on April 4th at 16:30 (UTC+9).

ChainCatcher news, according to Bloter, Kim Sung-jin, head of the Virtual Assets Division of the Financial Services Commission of South Korea, stated in Congress on April 2 that if domestic cryptocurrency exchanges have sufficient anti-money laundering capabilities, it may be possible to allow foreign investment in domestic cryptocurrency assets in the future. Current laws still prohibit foreign corporations and individuals from participating in such investments.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, South Korea's 7-Eleven convenience stores will participate in a central bank digital currency (CBDC) payment test from April 1 to June 30, during which payments made with CBDC will enjoy a 10% discount on all products.This national pilot program is led by the Bank of Korea and financial regulatory agencies, with a limit of 100,000 participants, covering multiple banks and retail channels. Users can convert their bank deposits into equivalent CBDC for consumption. The project aims to promote the prototype construction of future monetary systems.

ChainCatcher news, the South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges Upbit and Bithumb have both announced that they will soon terminate trading of Loom Network (LOOM). The official statement indicates that Loom Network (LOOM) has been removed from the DAXA (Korea Digital Asset Exchange Association) members.After a comprehensive review of the foundation's public disclosures and the authenticity and sustainability of the business, it was decided to terminate trading support because LOOM does not meet the standards for maintaining trading support.The termination date and time for trading (buy/sell) is temporarily set for May 7, 2025 (Wednesday) at 15:00.

ChainCatcher news, Citigroup analysts Jin-Wook Kim and Jiuk Choi wrote in a report that due to sluggish economic activity in the first quarter and the new tariffs effective in the U.S. in April, South Korea's GDP growth this year may be weaker than expected.Analysts said that the delay in fiscal stimulus measures could also weigh on the country's GDP growth. They lowered South Korea's GDP growth forecast for 2025 from 1.2% to 1.0%. The government is likely to prepare an additional budget of 20 trillion won in the third quarter after compiling an additional budget of 10 trillion won in the second quarter to support the economy. They added that the central bank may cut interest rates three more times this year—possibly in May, August, and November.

According to ChainCatcher, as reported by Cryptopolitan, the Busan District Court in South Korea sentenced three cryptocurrency investment fraudsters to prison for violating the Specific Economic Crimes Aggravated Punishment Act. The main perpetrator was sentenced to four and a half years in prison, while the two accomplices received sentences of three and a half years and two and a half years, respectively. The three conducted illegal cryptocurrency investment activities in a building in Busan in June 2019, claiming to possess an algorithm capable of trading from approximately 1,000 high-quality cryptocurrencies worldwide, promising investors a 30% monthly return on investment. In reality, they had no trading algorithm, and the funds raised, approximately 610 million won (about $416,000), were used for personal consumption.

According to ChainCatcher news, as reported by SBS, by the end of February 2025, the total number of users on South Korea's virtual asset trading platforms reached 16.29 million, accounting for about 32% of the national population, surpassing the number of stock investors (14.1 million).It is worth noting that this data is based on the total number of account holders from South Korea's five major trading platforms—Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax. If the same person opens accounts on multiple exchanges, they will be counted multiple times.

ChainCatcher news, according to a research report by local Korean agencies DeSpread and CoinNess on 3,108 Korean crypto investors, after the cryptocurrency market heats up in 2024, new investors entering the Korean cryptocurrency market account for about 33%. Among them, investors who have been investing for less than six months are mainly influenced by the news of Trump's election, while those who have been investing for six months to a year are primarily attracted by the approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs.Although Korean investors are not familiar with DEX, the investment proportion in meme coins has already exceeded half. This is largely attributed to CEX actively listing such coins. As of February 2025, Bithumb has listed 16 types of meme coins, including DOGE, TRUMP, PENGU, etc., which is more active than Upbit's 6 types.About 75% of domestic crypto asset investors in Korea hold an optimistic view on Bitcoin prices in 2025, generally expecting it to surpass 150 million won (approximately 102,000 USD).

ChainCatcher news, the Seoul Administrative Court in South Korea has temporarily suspended the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU)'s "three-month partial business suspension" penalty against Dunamu, the parent company of the cryptocurrency exchange Upbit. The court has approved Dunamu's administrative lawsuit and emergency suspension application, and the penalty will only be reinstated 30 days after the main case judgment takes effect. This move means that new users of Upbit can continue to recharge and withdraw cryptocurrency assets.Previously, the FIU accused Upbit of trading with unregistered overseas exchanges without real-name verification, violating the "Special Financial Transactions Information Act."

ChainCatcher news, according to South Korea's "Cultural Daily," the report on the property changes of public officials released by the Korean government's Ethics Committee for Public Servants shows that among 2,047 declarants, 411 (20.1%) hold virtual assets, totaling 14.4 billion won (approximately 9.82 million USD), with an average of about 35.07 million won per person.Among them, Seoul city councilor Kim Hye-young tops the list with a declaration amount of 1.7 billion won, holding 16 types of cryptocurrencies including BTC, ETH, DOGE, and XRP.

ChainCatcher news, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of South Korea announced that starting from March 25, it will implement domestic access restrictions on the Google Play platform applications of 17 overseas virtual asset service providers (VASP) that are not registered in South Korea, including KuCoin, MEXC, etc. This means that users will not be able to install the relevant applications anew, and existing users will also be unable to update.

ChainCatcher news, according to the Korea Daily News, the South Korean Ministry of Science and ICT announced plans to raise a metaverse fund of approximately 40 billion won this year for investment management companies. This year's fund will include 23 billion won from the government (reinvested fund recovery) and 17 billion won from private contributions, with a minimum scale of 40 billion won. The selected management companies will focus on investing in small and medium-sized enterprises related to key foundational technologies such as XR, AI, digital twins, and blockchain that realize metaverse products and services, with an investment ratio exceeding 60%.In addition, to promote the AI integration of promising metaverse enterprises, the selected management companies must also invest more than 50% in AI integration or overseas companies to continuously support active overseas expansion and exports.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, South Korean financial authorities are planning to impose sanctions on cryptocurrency exchanges such as BitMEX, KuCoin, CoinW, Bitunix, and KCEX, which provide services in Korean but are not registered with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).The FIU stated that the aforementioned exchanges have not registered as Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) as required, and are therefore considered to be operating illegally.Relevant officials said they are negotiating with the Korea Communications Standards Commission to review plans to block access to these unregistered overseas exchanges, with specific measures expected to be announced within the year.

ChainCatcher news, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under the Financial Services Commission (FSC) of South Korea has taken enforcement action against overseas cryptocurrency exchanges that provide services to Korean users without registration, based on the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information. It is reported that the FIU is considering blocking website access as a primary enforcement measure, targeting exchanges including BitMEX, KuCoin, CoinW, Bitunix, and KCEX.

ChainCatcher news, according to official news, the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb has added Pax Gold (PAXG), supporting KRW trading pairs.

ChainCatcher news, according to South Korean media reports, the South Korean prosecution has launched a forced search against the cryptocurrency trading platform Bithumb, which is suspected of providing company funds to purchase an apartment for its former representative director.The Southern District Prosecutors' Office of Seoul conducted a seizure search today at Bithumb's headquarters located in the Yaksu-dong area of Seoul. It is reported that Bithumb provided a rental deposit of 3 billion won for an apartment in Seongdong-gu to its former representative director and current advisor Kim Dae-sik, part of which is suspected to have been used by Advisor Kim for personal apartment purchases.The Financial Supervisory Service has initiated an investigation into the related allegations and has recently transferred the case to the prosecution.

ChainCatcher news, the South Korean prosecution has requested the court to sentence a man to 10 years in prison for stabbing the CEO of the South Korean cryptocurrency custody company HaruInvest during a court hearing in August 2024. The Southern District Prosecutor's Office in Seoul confirmed to The Block that they made the sentencing request during the final hearing of the court attack case on Wednesday, considering the severity of the crime.The attacker, identified as Mr. Kang (phonetic), 51, repeatedly stabbed Haru Invest CEO Lee Hyung-soo in the neck with a fruit knife. Lee Hyung-soo was quickly taken to the hospital, but his injuries were not life-threatening.This incident occurred while Lee Hyung-soo was appearing in court due to multiple fraud-related charges. According to the prosecution, from March 2020 to June 2023, Haru Invest attracted about 16,000 domestic and foreign investors by promising to return the principal and pay interest of up to 16%, despite the company being in a state of capital impairment since 2019. On June 13, 2023, Haru Invest suddenly suspended deposits and withdrawals and announced bankruptcy last November.

ChainCatcher news, the Bank of Korea (BOK) plans to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot called "Hangang." The program aims to facilitate daily transactions from April to June. Once the Bank of Korea issues digital currency to seven participating banks, these institutions will distribute deposit tokens for use in local supermarkets, online shopping malls, and convenience stores. The pilot is expected to involve 100,000 local citizens.