South Korean regulator mulls DeFi access restrictions based on study

The South Korean government may impose access restrictions on DeFi services, treating them as unlicensed businesses, BloomingBit reported exclusively. The move follows the release of a government-commissioned study by the Korea Institute of Finance (KIF) in the first half of this year, which argued for regulatory intervention in the DeFi sector. The KIF report recommended classifying decentralized operators as "unlicensed virtual asset service providers" due to the difficulty of establishing regulatory jurisdiction. It proposed that authorities should "actively utilize measures such as restricting access for domestic users and limiting transactions." The institute also suggested that anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regulations should be broadly interpreted to apply to DeFi services. South Korea's Financial Services Commission (FSC) commissioned the study in the second half of last year to help draft a foundational digital asset law. As government ministries typically use such reports as a key basis for legislation, the study's recommendations are likely to be reflected in the government's future bill.