South Korea’s Financial Services Commission has initiated an investigation into the fee structures of domestic cryptocurrency exchanges.
The move aligns with President Lee Jae-myung’s campaign pledge to reduce virtual asset transaction fees and forms part of a broader plan to support youth asset development through accessible digital investments.
FSC Aims to Lower Trading Fees for Crypto Investors
The commission’s current objective is to assess whether existing trading fees are excessive for retail investors. It is considering a significant reduction from the prevailing 0.05 percent rate to 0.015 percent. This proposed change reflects growing political pressure to create fairer access to digital asset markets, particularly for young South Koreans seeking alternative investment opportunities. The probe will include a full evaluation of the cost burden users face and whether intervention is justified.
Regulators intend to conduct comprehensive surveys within key crypto platforms to establish how the fees are imposed, which rates, or how transparent the fees are disclosed. Such results will be utilised to analyse whether new guidelines or caps should be created to be evidence-based or whether the international platforms should be compared.
Survey to Focus on South Korea’s Leading Exchanges
Key domestic exchanges, such as Upbit, Bithumb, and Coinone, will be under investigation. They prevail in the local market and will be the main frames of the analysis focusing on fee arrangements and the experience of the users. The commission also has not established fixed target rates but it aims to form benchmark policies following comparisons between the South Korean models of fees and foreign exchanges.
The officials also insisted on a fair pricing model that would incorporate a balance between operation cost and investor accessibility. The FSC, through the analysis of the disparity between home and foreign practice, hopes to get answers as regards whether Korean investors have been discriminated against and how the fee mechanisms could be at their best without interfering with the exchange activities.
Institutional Trading Ban Lifted Amid Regulatory Overhaul
Simultaneously, South Korea has also removed the prohibition of institutional cryptocurrency trading in a gradual manner with effect in 2025. Strict regulations allow professional investors and public corporations to make a move into digital asset markets. Such changes are the strict anti-money laundering and Know your customer standards imposed on banks and exchanges.
It is rolled out with the FATF Travel Rule, stipulating that service providers should share transaction data when carrying out transfers above KRW 1 million. Moreover, the proposed permits allow non-profits that are registered five years or more with audited experiences to sell given digital assets with day-to-day sales and AML provisions. These are evolutions that show a wide-ranging regulatory change towards the increase in market openness and investor confidence.