South Korea Refers Two Crypto Manipulation Cases to Prosecutors

According to the Financial Services Commission, on Wednesday, South Korea's financial watchdog referred suspects in two separate crypto market manipulation cases to prosecutors following discussions at its regular meeting. In one case, the FSC accused a crypto whale of using tens of billions of Korean won over roughly two months to manipulate a token's price across domestic and overseas exchanges. The suspect allegedly accumulated nearly half the token's circulating supply, inflated the price on overseas venues to attract domestic buyers, then sold holdings on a local exchange, causing significant losses to retail investors.

The second case involved an individual who used API channels to repeatedly place small buy and sell orders while submitting high-priced limit buy orders to create false impressions of liquidity and momentum. The FSC warned investors against chasing tokens with unexplained sharp price or volume surges, and said it plans to strengthen detection of concentrated holdings and order-book manipulation.