South Korea Resumes Binance's Acquisition of Gopax Review, Binance May Re-enter Korean Market

BlockBeats News, October 14th, According to TheBlock, South Korean authorities have reopened their review of Binance's acquisition of local exchange Gopax, a transaction that has been on hold for over two years, which may indicate Binance's potential return to the Korean market. The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under the South Korean Financial Services Commission is currently evaluating the formal report submitted by Gopax regarding the change of key executives and is positively inclined towards it, with the Binance-Gopax change expected to receive approval as early as the end of 2025. Under the current South Korean legal framework, there is no specific qualification review for major shareholders of cryptocurrency exchanges, so this executive change report is essentially treated as a review of Binance's major shareholder status.

In 2023, Binance intervened to assist Gopax when around $47 million of Gopax's customer funds were frozen due to the bankruptcy of Genesis Global Capital. After acquiring 67% of Gopax's shares, Binance became its largest shareholder and submitted an executive change report for the first time. Subsequently, South Korean authorities suspended the approval process; however, the recent action by the FIU appears to be influenced by the resolution of compliance issues in the United States.