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 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 reports that on-chain detective ZachXBT revealed that during his assistance in freezing Bybit hacker funds, he became acutely aware of the serious issues regarding security vulnerabilities and hacker attacks in the crypto industry. He stated that multiple "decentralized" protocols have recently derived almost 100% of their monthly trading volume and fees from the North Korean hacker group DPRK, yet these projects refuse to take any responsibility.Moreover, centralized exchanges (CEX) are slow to respond, allowing hackers to launder money in just a few minutes, while some CEXs take hours to take action. ZachXBT also criticized the KYT (Know Your Transaction) system for its serious flaws, which are easy to circumvent, and noted that the KYC (Know Your Customer) mechanism poses more of a data leak risk for ordinary users due to account leaks and insider issues, while being nearly ineffective in preventing the flow of illegal funds.He pointed out that North Korean hackers DPRK recently successfully laundered $1.4 billion, fully exposing the compliance and security system vulnerabilities within the industry, and expressed concern that only government-mandated regulations could lead to improvements in the industry.

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.

According to ChainCatcher news, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) of South Korea has requested that cryptocurrency exchanges pay a total of 7.9 billion won (approximately 5.54 million USD) in annual regulatory fees. This fee is set at 0.6%, higher than the initially expected 0.4%. These fees must be paid quarterly by the end of March, May, July, and October each year. The fee distribution is as follows, except for Korbit (whose operating revenue is below 3 billion won, approximately 2.08 million USD):Upbit operator Dunamu will pay 6.7 billion won (approximately 4.64 million USD);Bithumb will pay 900 million won (approximately 624,000 USD);Coinone will pay 150 million won (approximately 104,000 USD);Gopax will pay about 21.35 million won (approximately 14,800 USD).The total fees for the four major exchanges amount to approximately 7.9 billion won (around 5.54 million USD).

ChainCatcher news, Wemade's blockchain subsidiary Wemix Foundation has disclosed a loss of approximately 8.65 million WEMIX tokens (worth about 6.22 million USD) due to a hacker attack. Its CEO Kim Seok-hwan stated that the hacker is unlikely to be the North Korean organization Lazarus Group, but rather a professional who infiltrated the system by stealing the service monitoring authentication keys from the NFT platform Nile. It is reported that the hacker prepared for this attack for two months and then attempted 15 withdrawals through the creation of abnormal transactions, of which 13 were successful.Kim Seok-hwan also revealed plans to reopen all Wemix services on Friday and will upgrade security measures on the new blockchain infrastructure.

ChainCatcher news, according to South Korea's Economic TV, the Bank of Korea has clearly stated that it has "never considered including Bitcoin in its foreign exchange reserves." In response to written inquiries from National Assembly member and Planning and Finance Committee member Cha Gyu-geun on the 16th, the Bank of Korea stated, "We believe it is necessary to approach the issue of including Bitcoin in foreign exchange reserves with caution."This is the first time the Bank of Korea has expressed its position on the issue of Bitcoin reserves, and the primary reason for its negative stance is the high volatility of Bitcoin prices. In this regard, the Bank of Korea pointed out, "If the virtual asset market becomes unstable, there is a risk that the transaction costs of Bitcoin may increase sharply during the liquidation process. We believe that Bitcoin also does not meet the International Monetary Fund (IMF) standards for foreign exchange reserve calculations. To date, we have never discussed or considered including Bitcoin in our foreign exchange reserves." The Bank of Korea added, "As far as we know, some countries like the Czech Republic and Brazil hold a positive attitude towards this, but the European Central Bank (ECB), the Swiss National Bank, and the Japanese government have all expressed opposition."

According to ChainCatcher news, after the North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group attacked Bybit, they began to exchange some of the stolen assets for Bitcoin. Data shows that the group now holds 13,562 BTC, worth approximately $1.14 billion. This has led to a continuous increase in North Korea's Bitcoin holdings, which have now surpassed those of El Salvador (6,117 BTC) and Bhutan (10,635 BTC), making it the third largest government entity in terms of Bitcoin holdings globally, only behind the United States (198,109 BTC) and the United Kingdom (61,245 BTC).

ChainCatcher news, according to on-chain detective ZachXBT's post on his personal channel, a highly credible investigation into Tornado Cash asset theft shows that on March 11, 2025, after using Tornado Cash for mixing, North Korean hackers used part of the ETH funds to purchase 437.6 billion PEPE, worth 3.1 million dollars. A more detailed analysis reveals that the North Korean hackers encountered asset theft using a compromised Tornado Cash user interface.Previous news, according to Lookonchain monitoring, three wallets made large purchases of 689.79 billion PEPE (total value of approximately 4.3 million dollars), and their funds all came from Tornado Cash.

ChainCatcher news, according to TechCrunch, Aleksej Besciokov, co-founder of the Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex, was arrested by local police in Varkala, Kerala, India on March 12. The exchange had previously been sanctioned by the EU and the US government.Indian police confirmed that the arrest was based on a warrant issued by the Patiala House Court in New Delhi, executed at the request of the US government. A spokesperson for the US Department of Justice, Nicole Oxman, confirmed this news to TechCrunch but declined to comment further.Last week, the US Department of Justice charged Besciokov with personally approving transactions on Garantex related to North Korean government hackers and other cybercriminals, and filed criminal charges against him for assisting in money laundering through the cryptocurrency exchange. US authorities have frozen over $26 million in cryptocurrency assets and seized Garantex's website.

ChainCatcher news, according to Decrypt, the Socket research team has discovered in a new attack that the North Korean hacker group Lazarus is associated with six new malicious npm packages that attempt to deploy backdoors to steal user credentials.Additionally, this malware can extract cryptocurrency data and steal sensitive information from Solana and Exodus crypto wallets. The attacks primarily target files from Google Chrome, Brave, and Firefox browsers, as well as keychain data on macOS, specifically tricking developers into inadvertently installing these malicious packages.The six discovered malicious packages include: is-buffer-validator, yoojae-validator, event-handle-package, array-empty-validator, react-event-dependency, and auth-validator. They lure developers into installation through "typosquatting" (exploiting misspelled names). The APT group has created and maintained GitHub repositories for five of these packages, disguising them as legitimate open-source projects, increasing the risk of developers using the malicious code. These packages have been downloaded over 330 times. Currently, the Socket team has requested the removal of these packages and reported the related GitHub repositories and user accounts.Lazarus is a notorious North Korean hacker group, linked to the recent $1.4 billion Bybit hack, the $41 million Stake hack, the $27 million CoinEx hack, and countless other attacks in the crypto industry.

According to ChainCatcher, citing Yonhap News, the latest investigation by the Korean Audit and Inspection Agency (BAI) shows that a public servant in Cheongju, South Korea, embezzled 497 million won (approximately 342,000 USD) of public funds for personal cryptocurrency investments and debt repayment. The official forged documents and misused the mayor's seal to open bank accounts, transferring funds to personal accounts. The embezzled funds included disaster relief donations urgently needed after the flood in July last year.The public servant, referred to as "Mr. A," was sentenced to 5 years in prison last December, and the case is currently under review by the high court. The investigation revealed that his embezzlement activities lasted nearly 6 years (from November 2018 to May 2023). The audit report pointed out that the official was able to forge project expenditures and approve electronic transactions without proper oversight. The Cheongju City Hall has been requested to dismiss the official and take disciplinary action against other related personnel.

According to ChainCatcher, The Block reported that South Korea's financial regulatory agency announced on Wednesday plans to release comprehensive guidelines for institutional cryptocurrency investment in the third quarter. The Financial Services Commission made this announcement during a meeting with local cryptocurrency industry experts. While the investment guidelines for listed companies and professional investors are expected to be issued in the third quarter, the Financial Services Commission stated that its goal is to launch investment guidelines for non-profit organizations and cryptocurrency exchanges in April.The Financial Services Commission first announced in January that it would gradually lift the de facto ban on institutional investors investing in cryptocurrencies. Last month, the regulator revealed that it intends to first allow charities and universities to sell their cryptocurrency assets in the second quarter. The upcoming detailed guidelines further solidify South Korea's shift in stance towards cryptocurrencies, no longer strictly opposing the entry of crypto assets into traditional financial markets.Meanwhile, the Financial Services Commission has also begun developing a second set of rules for a two-part cryptocurrency regulatory framework, with the first set of rules launched last year. The second part of the cryptocurrency law will focus on stablecoins and regulating cryptocurrency business owners.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cryptonews citing BusinessKorea, the Bank of Korea plans to collaborate with the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service to launch a pilot program involving actual transactions of central bank digital currency (CBDC) with 100,000 consumers.The pilot will involve seven major commercial banks, including Kookmin Bank, Shinhan Bank, Hana Bank, Woori Bank, NongHyup Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea, and Busan Bank. These banks will issue deposit tokens backed by CBDC for retail transactions at specific merchants, including 7-Eleven convenience stores, Kyobo Bookstore, and the delivery platform Ddaenggyeoyo.Participants will use electronic wallets to generate QR codes for transactions, with a spending limit of 1 million won (approximately 688 USD).This pilot will test the effectiveness of CBDC-backed deposit tokens in a retail environment, and its results will provide important references for other economies exploring digital currencies globally.

ChainCatcher news, the first batch of 3,000 "XR7 AI Dual Gateway" units delivered by EdgeX Labs to the South Korean market is officially online and in use. This marks the formal integration of edge computing resources into the EdgeX Labs distributed infrastructure network in the South Korean market, which will provide more stable, efficient, and low-cost computing support for EdgeX Labs AI accelerators.The "XR7 AI Dual Gateway" is an edge computing network endpoint device from EdgeX Labs. It effectively provides basic computing services for AI Agents, distributed memory storage, and broadband resources, and is equipped with the unique EdgeX OS operating system. It not only offers efficient and secure edge-side AI computing capabilities but also ensures network security and stability.In addition, the intelligent central scheduling system built by EdgeX Labs can reasonably and efficiently allocate AI Agent tasks, enhancing the concurrent processing capabilities of Agents, significantly reducing business latency, and strengthening real-time performance to meet the needs of various AI Agent application developments and complex task innovations.

ChainCatcher news, South Korean financial regulators stated that they will continue to take market stabilization measures.