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Photo courtesy of Yonhap News |
[Alpha Biz= Paul Lee] SEOUL, Sept. 3, 2024 – The Financial Services Commission (FSC) announced that it has referred multiple individuals to prosecutors for alleged unfair trading practices in the virtual asset market and, for the first time, imposed fines on violators.
The FSC, at its 12th regular meeting, approved measures against three major cases:
Large-scale price manipulation: A so-called “whale” investor used hundreds of billions of won to buy large amounts of multiple virtual assets, creating the false appearance of active trading. The individual later sold holdings, including assets transferred from overseas exchanges, securing tens of billions of won in illicit gains.
Spreading false information via SNS: In the FSC’s first-ever action against SNS-related misconduct, a trader pre-purchased assets, posted fabricated positive news online to induce buying, and then sold all holdings after the price spiked, reaping billions of won in unlawful profits.
Market-linked manipulation across coin markets: A trader engaged in wash trading in the Tether market to artificially boost Bitcoin prices, which in turn distorted the won-converted prices of other coins in the Bitcoin market. Victims, misled by inflated prices, sold assets at losses of tens of millions of won.
In the third case, the FSC imposed fines exceeding the amount of illicit profit, marking the first penalty of its kind under the Virtual Asset User Protection Act.
The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has also ordered coin exchanges to improve transparency by displaying both internal won-converted prices and the average prices from domestic exchanges.
The FSC urged investors to exercise caution, warning: “Avoid chasing sudden price or volume surges without reasonable cause. Be aware that some actors deliberately spread false information on SNS to mislead investors.”
알파경제 Paul Lee 특파원(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
