South Korea Weighs Stricter Crypto Custody Rules After Binance Loss

South Korean financial regulators have called on cryptocurrency exchanges to tighten their security arrangements, placing greater use of cold wallets and stricter limits on internal access among the central recommendations. Bitcoin.com reports that the intervention followed the loss of $6.3 billion in digital assets from Binance, while Crypto.news separately describes an FBI allegation involving a $6 billion Binance hack.

TronWeekly says policymakers are considering an increase in the minimum proportion of customer assets that domestic exchanges must keep in cold wallets. The reported proposal would lift that requirement from 80% to around 99%. The figure is also associated with CryptoPotato’s coverage, but the change remains a proposal under discussion rather than an adopted rule.

The regulatory agenda extends beyond storage. CryptoSlate reports that the Financial Services Commission also requested stronger monitoring of transfers, adequate response staffing and larger reserves. It says the FSC did not specify how exchanges should implement the changes or provide a final custody threshold, creating a clear distinction between the broader security request and the still-unsettled 99% figure.

CryptoPotato highlights an operational issue that could accompany stricter storage requirements: exchanges retaining more customer assets offline may have less liquidity immediately available for withdrawals. The same coverage presents cold storage as a potential protection against hackers, while noting that smaller platforms could face greater difficulty processing withdrawals quickly. No outlet supplied evidence that the proposed threshold has already affected domestic platforms.

Market conditions were broadly positive during the reported period, with total crypto market capitalization at $2.69 trillion and Bitcoin up 1.85% over 24 hours. The Fear & Greed index stood at 34, placing sentiment in the “Fear” category despite the broader rise. Among the supplied live assets, JUST traded at $0.140556, down 0.49% over 24 hours but up 0.73% over seven days, with a market capitalization of $1.13 billion; the reported regulatory development did not identify JST as directly involved.

The next points to watch are whether regulators finalize the cold-wallet threshold, define implementation requirements and clarify the requested monitoring, staffing and reserve standards. Exchanges would also face scrutiny over how they preserve rapid customer withdrawals while moving most assets into offline storage. The reported $6.3 billion loss in Bitcoin.com’s account and the $6 billion figure referenced by Crypto.news indicate some variation in how the hack’s scale is presented, even as all five outlets connect the regulatory response with the broader security and geopolitical consequences of the incident.