Regulation

Markets

South Korea Orders Crypto Exchanges to Verify Asset Holdings Every 5 Minutes. One Exchange Error Made It Happen.

The FSC's emergency inspection found three of South Korea's five major platforms reconciling balances only once every 24 hours. The trigger: Bithumb crediting 620,000 BTC — roughly $56 billion — to 249 users instead of 620,000 Korean won. Regulators have now mandated five-minute reconciliation cycles, automatic kill switches, monthly external audits, and daily public disclosure of results. The deadline is May 2026.

By Ramy Morton
News

Prosecutors Reject Tornado Cash Co-founder's Copyright Defense. The Retrial Is Still Coming.

SDNY US Attorney Jay Clayton has pushed back against Roman Storm's attempt to use a 2026 Supreme Court copyright ruling as a defense against the two charges a jury deadlocked on last year. The case is a live contradiction: the same DOJ that issued a memo ending 'regulation by prosecution' on crypto platforms is now pursuing a retrial that could send a developer to prison for 40 years for writing open-source code.

By Ramy Morton