Unreturned won currency deposits and virtual assets left behind by 15 domestic virtual asset service providers that shut down had reached 22.114 billion won, or about $15.8 million, by May 4, with only five operators having returned anything to users. The figures show 1,949,742 users across 10 firms with confirmed records were exposed to the closures.
Only 174 users had applied for repayment as of May 4, and 74.52 million won, or about $53,000, had been returned to 131 of them. That amounts to about 0.3% of all unreturned assets, a stark sign of how little money has made its way back even after the shutdowns.
The Digital Asset Protection Foundation, created by DAXA in October 2024, was meant to help solve that problem. It was set up to take over user assets transferred from operators, store them and manage the return process. But under current law, virtual asset service providers are not required to transfer user assets to the foundation when they shut down, leaving the system dependent on voluntary action by firms that are already closing their doors.
That gap has fueled concern in the market that post-closure protections remain too weak. Of the 15 operators, 10 had confirmed figures for user numbers and assets held, one had only virtual asset amounts identified, and four had neither user data nor asset scale confirmed, making the full scope of losses even harder to pin down. Kang Min-kuk said the foundation has not done enough to inform users about the claims process and needs to strengthen its guidance system to reduce user losses.
The next test is whether lawmakers or regulators move to require transfers to the foundation before another exchange disappears, because the current setup leaves users waiting for money that may never be fully returned.
