Four of the biggest crypto exchanges in South Korea are teaming up to help fight money laundering. Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Upbit have created an alliance whereby they will share information between themselves of any unusual transactions to help catch people trying to launder money through their exchanges. By combining the data from four of the largest crypto exchanges in the country, it will help protect their brand images, as well as make laundering money through the crypto world tougher than ever before.
No Place Left to Hide
Sneaking a few transactions under the radar of one crypto exchange might work a handful of times, but when you’re sneaking illicit transactions past four exchanges at the same time, things quickly become problematic. This new alliance will help stamp out any traces of money laundering in the big four exchanges of South Korea. While this could simply mean that people looking to launder money will go to a smaller exchange, it inevitably won’t be long before all exchanges in the country are forced to join the alliance. This will leave no place left to hide for criminals in South Korea, as this will help to put an end to crypto money laundering activity.
Drug Cartels Using Crypto to Launder Money
Some of the biggest gangs and drug cartels in the world are using the cryptosphere to launder their money. Many gangs are opting to send their money to China and wash it through Chinese crypto activity, and then buy the precursors they need from China. It’s exactly this type of behavior that the top four exchanges in South Korea are looking to avoid, the last thing they need is more bad press.
South Korean Exchanges Failing Security Audit
Earlier this year, the South Korean government audited the security of all regulated crypto exchanges in the country. It found that 14 out of 21 were unsatisfactory and were prone to security breaches. Interestingly, the four crypto exchanges that have formed an anti-money laundering (AML) alliance all passed the audit with flying colors. This leaves 14 crypto exchanges that are vulnerable to hacks and could be a major reason that the AML alliance has chosen not to expand its group for the time being. The last thing the group needs is an exchange to get hacked and have all their data leaked.
This new AML alliance can be seen as both good and evil. On one side, it centralizes a decentralized universe. On the other hand, it makes the world a safer place where gangs have no place to launder money and continue illegal activity. However you choose to view it, this new alliance will certainly help clean up the image of crypto in South Korea.
