South Korea Reopens Review of Binance's Acquisition of Gopax, Binance May Return to South Korean Market

ChainThink report, October 14, according to TheBlock, the South Korean authorities have restarted the review of Binance's acquisition of the local exchange Gopax, which has been on hold for over two years, indicating that Binance may be preparing to return to the South Korean market. The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), a subsidiary of the Financial Services Commission, is currently evaluating the formal report submitted by Gopax regarding the replacement of key executives, and it has taken a positive stance, with the change in ownership between Binance and Gopax potentially being approved as early as the end of 2025. Under the current legal framework in South Korea, there are no specific qualification reviews for major shareholders of cryptocurrency exchanges; therefore, this executive change report is essentially regarded as a review of Binance's major shareholder qualifications.

In 2023, Binance intervened to rescue Gopax, when approximately $47 million in customer funds of Gopax were frozen due to the bankruptcy of Genesis Global Capital. After Binance acquired 67% of Gopax's shares and became its largest shareholder, it submitted the first executive change report. Since then, the South Korean authorities have suspended the approval process. However, recent actions by the FIU seem to have been influenced by the resolution of U.S. compliance issues.