June 19 (Cointime) -South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Gopax has appointed vice president Lee Joong-hoon as its new CEO, replacing the current CEO who is about to resign. Gopax was one of the companies that was acquired by Binance in an attempt to address the lack of funds following the FTX incident. The reason for the change of the CEO is to smooth the declaration of the change of the virtual currency business operator, and no other reasons were disclosed.

June 16 (Cointime) - Haru Invest and Delio, two South Korean crypto firms, have suspended customer deposits and withdrawals, leading to over 400 investors of Haru Invest and 150 investors of Delio preparing for class-action lawsuits. The investors are likely to sue the crypto platforms for charges including fraud. Haru Invest has filed a criminal lawsuit against its consignment operator B&S Holdings, while Delio has reportedly deposited a certain amount of crypto assets in Haru Invest. There are also concerns that Haru Invest may have exposure to beleaguered crypto exchange FTX.

June 14 (Cointime) - South Korean crypto lending platform Delio has temporarily suspended withdrawals to protect customers' assets due to heightened market volatility following Haru Invest's suspension of deposit and withdrawal services. Delio CEO Jung Sang-ho stated that the decision was made to calm the situation as withdrawal requests poured in after the incident. The platform did not disclose when it might reopen withdrawals or whether it was still accepting deposits. UPbit, one of South Korea's largest crypto-asset exchanges, also plans to restrict digital asset withdrawals to Delio as part of its investor protection measures.

South Korean crypto information portal, CoinNess, has announced a strategic partnership with Ness Labs to transition to a more Web3-based economy. The partnership will enhance the transparency and security of CoinNess' community functions and integrate the utility functions of Ness tokens.

CoinNess, a popular South Korean crypto investment news and information platform, has partnered with Ness LAB, a venture focused on building a distributed, transparent, and secure ecosystem of services and applications for the efficient transfer of value. The partnership aims to promote the adoption of blockchain technology through information sharing, user education, and effective on-ramps to decentralized applications and services. Both projects strive for better user education and onboarding for all things related to blockchain and Web3, and the partnership will deliver seamless access to information and value-creating opportunities for users and investors. The MOU between the parties includes transitioning CoinNess to Web3 with the assistance of Ness LAB, with the goal of improving the performance and trust of its community functions through highly robust and engaging user experiences. Further joint initiatives are expected in 2023.

South Korean police officials have claimed that North Korean hackers targeted South Korean ministers in a crypto campaign last year. The police officials took control of a server they claimed was used during the attempted attacks and found two cryptocurrency wallet addresses on the server. Transactions worth almost $1,600 were made using these wallets. The campaign was conducted from April to July last year and allegedly targeted nine people, including former and current high-ranking officials, academic experts, and a journalist. Pyongyang has been blamed for a number of high-profile attacks on South Korean crypto targets.

According to a report in a South Korean daily, the Financial Service Committee (FSC) is reviewing Binance's acquisition of local crypto trading platform Gopax due to the recent SEC lawsuit against Binance. The FSC has reportedly suspended Gopax's executive change report, which detailed the nomination of three Binance members as inside directors of Gopax, including Leon Singh Poong, CEO of Binance Asia Pacific.

South Korean police are set to hold a "virtual asset exchange practical meeting" with the country's top five cryptocurrency exchanges and Binance, according to a report by the Korea Economic Daily.The meeting aims to establish a system that will allow the police to confirm virtual asset wallet addresses and request the freezing of funds, not only for the top five domestic exchanges but also for overseas exchanges such as Binance.

A civil servant in South Korea has been given a suspended prison sentence and two years of probation for stealing around $159,000 worth of public funds to invest in cryptocurrency. The official, who was in charge of budget expenditure at an administrative welfare center, siphoned off the money over 41 separate transfers and tried to cover their tracks by marking the embezzlement as "expenses." The court heard that the official had already suffered significant losses from investing in cryptocurrency before turning to public funds. Some media outlets have criticized the leniency of the sentence, but the judge cited the fact that the embezzled money was repaid and the accused cooperated with the investigation.

South Korean police have arrested a 38-year-old man on fraud-related charges for allegedly scamming victims out of $218,000 by promising high profits through his crypto project. The suspect posed as the director of a famous stock trading company, a successful crypto trader, and even a well-qualified civil servant to dupe his victims, who were mainly housewives and office workers. He operated the scheme from September 2019 to August 2022 and frequented investment and crypto-themed group chats on the KakaoTalk chat app platform. The rise of crypto scams in South Korea has led to the formation of a new crypto scam-fighting unit and a pledge from the country's President to wage war on crypto-powered drug traders.