Seoul Auction Blue seeks to register security tokens with the FSS for Andy Warhol’s artwork

A Cambodia-headquartered financial group recently cut off from the U.S. financial system is suspected of having operated in South Korea, raising fresh questions about cross-border crypto and currency flows tied to the group. According to the Dong-A Ilbo, which cited data from the Korea Customs Service (KCS), Huione Group—now sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)—appears to have run a currency exchange in Seoul from 2018 to July 2024. The outlet reported that a banner on the premises displayed a logo identical to Huione’s, prompting suspicions about its ownership and control.Photo by Aleksandar Pasaric on PexelsTies to North Korean hackersThe exchange reported conducting roughly $20,000 in annual currency conversions during that period, excluding cryptocurrency transactions. The timeline overlaps with a period in which Huione Group reportedly received $150,000 in cryptocurrency from the North Korean hacking group Lazarus.  Connections also extend to Cambodia. Panda Bank—a local lender that shares a building with Huione subsidiaries—supports USDT transactions originating from South Korea. Panda Bank director He Yanming is listed as the owner of Huione Crypto, a virtual asset service provider (VASP), suggesting potential links between operations in Seoul and Phnom Penh. These developments come against the backdrop of a U.S. investigation disclosed in May, in which FinCEN said Huione’s business networks, including payments arm Huione Pay, collectively laundered at least $4 billion in illicit proceeds between August 2021 and January 2025. Crypto used in $2.6B illegal conversionsMeanwhile, recent KCS data also shows a rise in illegal currency conversions involving cryptocurrency by foreign nationals. The Korea Economic Daily reported conversions totaling 432 billion won ($302 million) in 2021, climbing to 836 billion won ($584.5 million) in 2023 and 956 billion won ($668.4 million) last year. Over the past eight years, the total amount involved in such cases reached 3.7 trillion won ($2.59 billion) across 28 instances. By value, Chinese nationals accounted for 84.1% of the total, followed by Australians (11.1%), Vietnamese (3.2%), and Russians (1.6%). The growing prevalence of cryptocurrency in illicit activity parallels a broader surge in crypto investment within the country. Many South Koreans have turned to digital assets, often with home ownership as a long-term goal. Trading on local exchanges, Bloomberg reported, is heavily skewed toward more volatile altcoins, which make up more than 80% of total volume.  That stands in contrast to global markets, where investors largely focus on Bitcoin and Ethereum, which together make up more than half of overall trading. The momentum in local crypto investment intensified after Donald Trump’s U.S. presidential victory, with crypto trading in Korea reaching $27 billion in December 2024, about 80% of turnover on the KOSPI stock index. The investigation underscores the growing challenge for regulators in tracking and containing cross-border financial networks that rely on cryptocurrency and informal money transfers. As crypto adoption deepens in South Korea and scrutiny widens abroad, authorities find themselves navigating an increasingly intricate intersection of financial opportunity, enforcement, and risk. 

Wemade Leverages Blockchain to Host Professional Women’s Golf Tournament in BusanWemade, a blockchain game company headquartered in South Korea, is gearing up to host a professional women’s golf tournament at the Haeundae Beach Golf and Resort in Busan, the nation’s southern port city. The tournament is scheduled to take place from November 18 to 19.Photo by mk. s on Unsplash1 million WEMIX prize poolThe event, titled the WEMIX Championship 2023, will showcase the top 20 KLPGA Tour golfers in the WEMIX point ranking, along with four invited players. They will vie for a prize pool of 1 million WEMIX, which, as per CoinMarketCap, is trading at $0.5585 at the time of publication. The tournament will be live-streamed through the SBS Golf television channel.The WEMIX point ranking, established in collaboration with SBS Golf, is determined by assessing the performance and results achieved by members of the regular Korea Ladies Professional Golf Association (KLPGA) Tour.NFT tickets and souvenirsDuring this event, Wemade’s DAO and NFT platform, NILE, will showcase non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that represent admission tickets and official souvenirs. These NFTs will be available for purchase on the NILE marketplace starting in October, giving golf enthusiasts the opportunity to acquire them.By integrating blockchain technology into the golf tournament, Wemade is expected to deliver a fresh and innovative experience for both organizers and spectators alike.Furthermore, Wemade aims to increase its investment in the WEMIX Championship, with the goal of enhancing the tournament’s reputation as a prestigious season-ending event.

BitMEX Chalks Up Two New Perp Contract ListingsSeychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange and derivative trading platform BitMEX announced recently that it has added perpetual contracts relative to two additional digital assets.A perpetual contract is a crypto futures contract without an expiry date. Just like with a more conventional futures contract, a perpetual contract is a derivative product, deriving its value from the underlying crypto asset.$SUI tokenTaking to Twitter, the company outlined that it has added perpetual contracts for the $SUI token. The contracts will be available in $SUI/USD and SUI/USDT pairings. Leverage relative to the contracts is being made available up to a maximum of 50x.$SUI is the native token of the Sui blockchain platform. Sui is a layer one blockchain which launched earlier this week. It’s a smart contract platform maintained via a network of permissionless validators. The blockchain network claims to offer a scalable network with ultra low latency. Such low latency can enable diverse use cases such as retail point of sale payment systems and gaming.The contract allows users to post bitcoin as collateral, earning or losing in bitcoin as the SUI/USD rate changes. Maximum risk limit is set at 50 bitcoin. Meanwhile maker and taker fees have been set for the product at 0.02% and 0.075% respectively. A base initial margin of 2% applies while base maintenance margin of 1% applies.$PEPE tokenOn Wednesday, BitMEX also launched perpetual contract products relative to the $PEPE token at 04:00 UTC. There are two listings, PEPE/USD and PEPE/USDT. Pepe coin is a meme token project, inspired by the Pepe the Frog meme. The origins of the cartoon character stem from the Boy’s Club comic in 2005. It later became an internet meme, and later still it was adopted as a meme within the crypto space.The token itself was launched in April, sky rocketing to a $502 million market capitalization since then, representing a 2,100% rise in the token’s unit price since its launch.As in the case of the $SUI token, $PEPE is also available to trade on BitMEX with leverage as high as 50x. In an interview with one crypto news publication, a representative of BitMEX commented on the launch as follows:“PEPE needs a Perp! Perpetual Contracts are the most traded product in crypto and offer all investors taking a long or short position on tokens with better liquidity and fewer network risks. At BitMEX, we offer Tether-margined and Bitcoin-margined perpetual contracts. We are proud to be the inventor of the Perpetual Swap and have long been a leading trading venue for crypto derivatives, offering uncompromised security, a reliable platform, and deep liquidity — as professional traders deserve.”Many commentators in the crypto space have repeatedly pointed to the high risks involved with leverage. In this instance 50x leverage is incredibly high risk, making the product suitable only for those traders that fully and thoroughly understand the risk that comes with such leveraged trading.Photo by Shubham Dhage on Unsplash