South Korea2026.10.06Digital Asset

Court Rules Holding Customers' Remaining Coins After Exchange Shutdown Still Counts as Virtual Asset Business

• Seoul Administrative Court's 2nd Division (Judge Gong Hyun-jin) dismissed CP Labs' lawsuit against the Financial Services Commission on October 1, which sought to overturn a corrective order (disposition).
• CP Labs had operated the digital asset exchange CPDAX but halted trading and deposit/withdrawal services before the Virtual Asset User Protection Act took effect, continuing only to process the return of existing users' digital assets.
• CP Labs argued it had already ceased exchange operations and thus should not be classified as an active virtual asset business, but the court rejected this argument, finding that holding unreturned customer assets still constitutes a virtual asset business under the Specified Financial Transactions Information Act.