A South Korean court has temporarily halted a regulatory suspension order imposed on cryptocurrency exchange Coinone. The move marks a significant development in the country’s ongoing tightening of crypto compliance rules.
According to legal disclosures cited by Yonhap News, the 10th Administrative Division of the Seoul Administrative Court approved Coinone’s application to block the enforcement of a three-month partial business suspension issued by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).
The court ruled that the suspension will remain on hold until 30 days after a final, binding judgment is delivered in the underlying main lawsuit, insulating Coinone from immediate operational disruption.
FIU imposed fine and trading restrictions
The legal showdown traces back to an aggressive on-site anti-money laundering (AML) audit conducted by the FIU. Following the review, the regulator slapped Coinone with a 5.2 billion won (~$3.8 million USD) administrative fine alongside a strict three-month partial freeze on business expansion.
The FIU stated that the exchange violated key compliance obligations under South Korea’s Special Financial Information Act, including transactions with unregistered virtual asset service providers, and failure to properly verify customer identities in around 90,000 cases.
The agency’s enforcement package specifically targeted Coinone’s top-line user acquisition channel, explicitly barring the venue from processing deposits, credit lines, and external digital asset withdrawals for all newly registered accounts.
Coinone challenges enforcement
Faced with a multi-month onboarding freeze, Coinone filed an administrative lawsuit on April 27, 2026, along with a request to stay execution of the suspension order. Because of this legal challenge, the enforcement had already been temporarily delayed until the court’s latest ruling.
With the new decision, Coinone is allowed to continue normal operations while the case proceeds through the courts.The case underscores growing regulatory pressure on crypto exchanges in South Korea, as authorities intensify enforcement under anti-money laundering and compliance frameworks.
Crucially, Coinone is not fighting this battle in a vacuum. The exchange’s defensive victory directly matches a wave of recent legal pushback from South Korea’s top-tier digital asset players:
- Upbit (Dunamu): Successfully had its own three-month suspension and a 35.2 billion won fine entirely vacated by the Seoul Administrative Court’s 5th Division in April 2026.
- Bithumb: Granted an identical “30 days post-verdict” stay of enforcement by the court’s 2nd Administrative Division on April 30, 2026, over its own compliance-related business ban.
The ongoing Coinone dispute is expected to set an important precedent for how far regulators can go in restricting exchange operations over compliance violations. As of publishing, a timeline for the initial hearings regarding the main cancellation lawsuit has not yet been announced by the Seoul Administrative Court.
Also read: South Korea Files First DEX Fraud Case After CATFI Rug Pull Scam
