According to a post by Chinese cryptocurrency journalist Wu Blockchain, Google Play has blocked unregistered foreign VASP apps such as KuCoin and MEXC in South Korea.
Accordingly, Google has blocked access to 17 exchanges that are not registered in South Korea since March 25, upon the request of the South Korean government.
South Korea’s regulator, the Financial Services Commission (FSC), said in a statement that 17 unregistered foreign exchange apps, including KuCoin and MEXC, have been blocked from the Google Play Store in South Korea.
The FSC also stated that applications belonging to the exchanges in question cannot be installed and existing users cannot update.
The FSC noted that these cryptocurrency exchanges were operating without proper registration while targeting Korean users.
“It is expected that the domestic access blocking application of unreported businesses to Google applications will make a significant contribution to preventing money laundering through virtual assets and harm to domestic users in the future.”
According to the FSC’s statement, the blocked exchanges were listed as follows: “KuCoin, MEXC, Phemex, XT, Biture, CoinW, CoinEX, ZoomEX, Poloniex, BTCC, DigiFinex, Pionex, Blofin, Apex Pro, CoinCatch, WEEX and BitMart.”
The FSC added that the criteria for evaluating the domestic business activities of exchanges are “1. Whether there is a Korean-language website, 2. Whether there are marketing activities to attract Korean customers, 3. Whether payments in Korean won are supported.”
As a result, users in South Korea are no longer able to install or update affected apps via Google Play.
*This is not investment advice.
