South Korean Regulator Demands Tighter Cold-Wallet Controls for Crypto Firms

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission urged domestic crypto exchanges to raise the share of assets held in cold wallets and tighten internal access controls after hackers drained $6.3 billion in digital assets from Binance. The directive, issued as part of a broader security review, presses Korean exchanges to reduce hot-wallet exposure and formalize approval and monitoring procedures for wallet access. The move signals that regulators view custody architecture, not just exchange-level defenses, as a systemic risk following the Binance breach. Watch for Korean exchanges to disclose revised cold-storage ratios and access-control policies, and for other jurisdictions to adopt similar custody benchmarks.