The Bank of Korea is preparing to require domestic virtual asset service providers to report the month-end crypto holdings of users who have made cross-border transfers. Under the plan, exchanges must submit monthly balance data—including personal information such as resident registration numbers—for any customer with a history of overseas transfers since July 19, 2024. Daily transfer records of inflows and outflows will also be reported by 11 a.m. the following business day.
The system is timed to the revised Foreign Exchange Transactions Act taking effect around December 2–3, 2026. Lawmaker Park Soo-young’s office estimated that more than 1.27 million users at South Korea’s five largest exchanges conducted such transfers between July 19, 2024, and September 30, 2026. Reports will cover holdings converted into won, monthly cross-border flows, and assets in dormant accounts, delisted tokens or staked positions. The Bank of Korea will share the information with the National Tax Service, Customs Service, Financial Supervisory Service and Financial Intelligence Unit.
The Drivers of the Current Situation
The main issue is the Bank of Korea’s plan to collect ongoing domestic holdings data on users who have transferred virtual assets overseas or to personal wallets. A reporting manual distributed to the Digital Asset eXchange Alliance outlines daily transaction submissions and monthly balance reports. Coverage extends to anyone with even a single qualifying transfer after the July 19, 2024 cutoff, regardless of subsequent activity.
Related factors frame the initiative. The rules stem from amendments to the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act aimed at closing monitoring gaps for crypto movements that bypass traditional banking channels. Operators must register as virtual asset transfer businesses and feed data into the central bank’s foreign-exchange network. Authorities intend to use the information to detect illegal foreign-exchange transactions and capital flight risks. Only the December start date, the 1.27 million user estimate, the inclusion of personal identifiers and residual balances, and the planned data-sharing arrangements are established in the leaked manual and contemporaneous reporting. Whether historical transfer details before the launch will be requested retroactively remains under review.
Continued monitoring requires observation of final reporting thresholds, any easing of the balance-report scope for operator burden, and the first submission cycle. Limited public detail on exact data-retention or privacy safeguards forms a narrower path for assessing long-term compliance costs. The central bank and exchanges continue refining the operational details. The situation is the Bank of Korea’s move to track crypto holdings of users with overseas transfer histories.
Impact and Broader Context
Questions about the Bank of Korea tracking crypto holdings of users with overseas transfers keep growing. The reporting regime creates uncertainty about the volume of personal data collected and potential effects on user behavior. It also elevates attention on how central banks integrate digital-asset flows into foreign-exchange oversight. Investors, exchanges, privacy advocates and tax authorities continue to assess the implications.
The issue drives debate on the balance between capital-flow monitoring and individual privacy in the crypto market. It raises questions about the durability of domestic trading activity once residual balances are routinely reported, the limits of exchange-based data collection, risks of market chilling, effects on near-term cross-border volumes, and competition among regulatory priorities. Officials emphasize closing blind spots in foreign-exchange surveillance. Coverage notes the scale of the affected user base alongside the inclusion of dormant and staked assets.
The mid-October disclosure of the reporting manual forced renewed focus on South Korea’s crypto oversight architecture. The current regulatory review shows how subsequent refinements to the balance-report criteria, first-cycle data quality, or user responses will determine the lasting effect.
New guidance from the Bank of Korea, exchange implementation updates, or adjustments to the reporting scope will clarify the operational impact of the holdings-tracking system.
This analysis uses the Bank of Korea reporting manual details obtained by lawmakers and contemporaneous coverage. Implementation timelines, final data fields and any scope adjustments remain subject to ongoing consultations and the December launch.