South Korea’s financial watchdog has passed on the compliance of private cryptocurrency wallets to exchanges, as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) travel rule went into effect on Friday.

See related article: FATF updates regulatory guidance for crypto industry

Fast facts

  • “The travel rule only regulates transactions among individuals. There isn’t any rule pertaining to moving funds into a personal wallet. Each company is autonomous in applying [the travel rule],” Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) told Forkast.
  • The rule spurred concerns among local investors who feared limiting access in moving crypto to private wallets or foreign exchanges.
  • Local exchanges have introduced varying rules for users in transacting with e-wallets and foreign exchanges, which has led to confusion among users.
  • The FATF travel rule is a set of guidelines established by the FATF that mandates crypto service providers to collect and disclose the information of parties involved in a transactions worth over US$1,000.
  • South Korea has made the FATF guideline a requirement for all transactions over one million Korean won (US$820).

See related article: S. Korean exchanges set stage for Friday’s travel rule arrival