During his campaign, Lee Jae-myung, the recently elected president of South Korea, allegedly pledged to lower the cost of cryptocurrency trading transactions.
According to local media, South Korea's financial authority is to look into transaction fees that local cryptocurrency exchanges impose in an effort to lower trading expenses for users.
According to a Thursday Herald Economy story, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) of South Korea will investigate transaction fees levied by regional trading platforms and consider possible corrective action.
The action is a component of the larger pro-crypto agenda of newly elected South Korean President Lee Jae-myung. As part of his presidential campaign, Lee allegedly pledged to lower the cost of cryptocurrency trading transactions in order to assist novice traders.
The FSC intends to examine cryptocurrency exchanges on their present fee structures, billing practices, and collected amounts as part of the investigation.
Are local exchanges more expensive than platforms located abroad?
At a policy briefing before the State Affairs Planning Committee, which acts as the Lee Jae-myung administration's presidential transition team, the FSC revealed its intention to look into cryptocurrency trading costs, according to Herald Economy.
According to reports, an FSC official stated, "We need to examine whether the current fees of domestic exchanges are an excessive burden on consumers and whether they are at an appropriate level compared to overseas cases."
Additionally, the FSC stated that it has not yet established a target commission rate and intends to develop policy guidelines by comparing domestic and foreign exchange rates and user preferences.
A 0.6% exchange supervision fee for prior efforts
Months after the regulator allegedly asked exchanges to pay a 0.6% tax on operating revenue as a monitoring fee in March 2025, South Korea has announced plans to look into the cost of cryptocurrency trades on exchanges.
The South Korean crypto business is expected to pay 8 billion Korean won ($5.8 million) in supervision fees annually, according to a report by the local news outlet Naver.
Upbit's main company, Dunamu, reportedly made 986.2 billion won ($714 million) in operating revenue during the 2023 fiscal year, while smaller exchanges, such as Bithumb and Coinone, made 135.8 billion ($98 million) and 22.4 billion ($16 million) won, respectively.
No comments were received from the FSC or the local self-regulatory group, Digital Asset eXchange Alliance (DAXA), on the report.
