PANews reported on January 20th that, according to the Korea Herald, South Korean financial authorities are pushing forward with reforms to the digital asset regulatory system, planning to abolish the "one exchange – one bank" binding restriction and allow the issuance of crypto derivatives and participation in trading by corporate accounts, in order to break the current market monopoly structure and promote liquidity. Regulators believe that although this restriction is not legally mandatory, it has long been in place due to anti-money laundering requirements, limiting competition among exchanges and user choice. Subsequent policies will be incorporated into the second phase of legislation for the Digital Asset Basic Law, and both parties in the National Assembly have reached a consensus on some aspects of regulatory easing.

PANews Note: South Korea's "1 exchange to 1 bank system" means that each exchange can only sign a cooperation agreement with one bank to confirm the real-name deposit and withdrawal accounts, and vice versa. It evolved naturally from the main purpose of strengthening anti-money laundering (AML) and accountability. Currently, the financial authorities have initiated discussions and improvement procedures to abolish or significantly relax the system.