South Korea considers 99% cold wallet rule after $6.3bn Binance hack

Regulators in South Korea may require digital asset exchanges to store nearly all customer funds offline following the recent breach at Binance.

By Lakshya Mishra, YourKhabri DeskNov 3, 2026, 12:57 PM UTC1 min readSouth KoreaBinanceCold StorageRegulation

Photo: myself (User:Piotrus), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Key takeaways

1South Korea is evaluating a requirement for crypto exchanges to hold 99% of user funds in cold storage.
2The measure follows the $6.3bn Binance exploit, of which $2.85bn has been frozen or seized.

South Korean financial authorities are considering requiring digital asset exchanges to keep 99 percent of customer funds in offline cold storage following the $6.3 billion Binance hack, Watcher Guru reported on 3 November. The regulatory proposal comes as authorities globally reassess platform security requirements.

Under the reported measure, crypto trading venues operating in South Korea would need to move nearly all customer funds out of connected hot wallets. Cold storage systems keep private cryptographic keys disconnected from network infrastructure, protecting funds from remote breaches but requiring manual intervention to execute transfers.

The policy review follows the cyberattack on Binance, in which hackers stole $6.3 billion in assets. Authorities have frozen or seized $2.85 billion of the stolen funds so far, according to earlier reporting by YourKhabri. North Korean actors responsible for laundering the stolen assets opened approximately 12,000 wallets to distribute the funds, while US Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Michael Selig observed that the exploit targeted exchange security infrastructure rather than underlying blockchain smart contracts.

Enforcing a 99 percent cold storage requirement would require exchanges in South Korea to restructure their daily liquidity operations and asset management processes. While higher cold reserve mandates reduce the risk of large-scale hack losses for exchange customers, platforms will need to balance offline security controls with the operational need to process instant withdrawal requests.

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Reported and edited by the YourKhabri desk under our editorial policy. Nothing here is investment advice.