South Korea pushes crypto exchanges to park more assets in cold wallets after $6.3B Binance hack

South Korea's Financial Services Commission wants local crypto exchanges to keep more of their customers' coins offline. In a Monday statement, the regulator urged providers to raise the share of assets sitting in cold wallets, days after attackers looted about $6.3 billion from Binance's internet-connected hot wallets.

The FSC called an emergency meeting with the Financial Supervisory Service, the Financial Security Institute, the Digital Asset eXchange Alliance and major crypto service providers. On the table: the hit to South Korea's market, exchanges' IT access controls, wallet withdrawal approvals and signing procedures, and who holds administrator privileges.

The Binance breach was brutal in its speed. Attackers moved most of the funds in roughly 20 minutes, according to blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs. Binance has said the vast majority of user assets sit in cold storage. North Korea has denied any role in the theft and pointed the finger at the US.

South Korean law already sets the floor at 80% of user crypto in cold storage, but real-world numbers swing widely. At the end of September, Upbit reported 99.17%, Bithumb 94.76% and Coinone 85%, per Financial Supervisory Service data cited by local media. Digital X, formerly Korbit, came in at 82.79%, with GOPAX at 80.54%.

The FSC didn't stop at storage ratios. It told operators to keep watching deposits and withdrawals, staff up incident response teams, and report unusual access attempts fast. Exchanges were also asked to set aside extra reserves and roll out any other protections they can launch right away.

The pressure lands as the Bank of Korea runs its own separate survey of 18 banks and 13 brokerages on crypto exposure, weighing exchange hacks and prolonged market downturns. That review started before the Binance attack. Cointelegraph reached out to Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Digital X and GOPAX for comment.