The citizens of South Korea conducted 4.3 billion USD worth of transactions through illegal cryptocurrency exchanges in 2022. The country's government has been closely monitoring such transactions due to the stricter licensing regulations.

On 7th of March, the Korea Customs Service revealed that the overall amount of funds involved in economic crimes increased significantly from 2.5 billion USD in 2021 to 6.2 billion USD in 2022. Nearly 70% of all the illicit money traffic seized by the officers was related to crypto transactions, but the total amount of digital assets intercepted only accounted for 15 transactions.

These transactions were made to buy foreign virtual assets with the aim of selling them in the country later, as the South Korean regulatory system isolates the local market and raises the prices of foreign cryptocurrencies for customers.

Korean customs detained 16 individuals in August 2022 due to their involvement in illegal foreign exchange transactions connected to crypto assets, which were estimated to be worth around 2 billion USD.

In the same month, the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit took action against 16 foreign-based crypto firms, such as KuCoin, Poloniex, and Phemex, for allegedly engaging in business activities targeting domestic consumers, including offering Korean-language websites, running promotional events targeting Korean consumers, and providing credit card payment options for cryptocurrency purchases. All these activities fall under the Financial Transactions Report Act.

Sources:

https://www.investing.com/news/cryptocurrency-news/south-korea-saw-over-4b-unregistered-crypto-transactions-in-2022-3024041

https://cointelegraph.com/news/south-korea-saw-over-4b-in-unregistered-crypto-transactions-in-2022

https://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/Business+&+Finance/Cryptocurrencies

https://cryptoslate.com/