South Korea crypto exchanges face tighter rules

• South Korean crypto exchanges face tougher marketing rules than brokerages.
• The rules can slow promotions and customer reward campaigns.
• South Korea is considering wider crypto reforms that could narrow the gap.

South Korean crypto exchanges have faced tougher marketing rules than securities firms since July 2024.

The rules can force exchanges to review ads and disclose some customer rewards before launching promotions.

Securities firms can run promotions such as cash bonuses, lower fees and referral rewards under a more established framework.

The stricter crypto rules followed the Terra-Luna collapse, FTX failure, exchange hacks and insider trading cases.

The rules can make it harder for smaller exchanges to react quickly when rivals launch promotions or markets rally.

South Korea has since opened crypto investment to companies and moved towards tokenised securities and spot crypto ETFs.

The country’s delayed Digital Asset Basic Act could eventually bring crypto promotion rules closer to those used for traditional financial firms.