Court says post-shutdown coin custody still qualifies as virtual asset business

A South Korean court has ruled that even if a crypto exchange shuts down trading operations, continuing to hold and manage customers’ unreturned digital assets still qualifies as virtual asset business activity under the country’s Special Financial Transactions Act. According to Digital Asset, the Seoul Administrative Court dismissed CPLabs’ lawsuit on Oct. 1 seeking to revoke a corrective order imposed by South Korea’s Financial Services Commission. CPLabs argued it was no longer a virtual asset business operator because it had already ended its exchange operations, but the court found that managing and safeguarding digital assets as part of liquidation and remaining administrative work also constituted business activity.