South Korea tightens controls on crypto trading bots as DAXA orders exchanges to revoke suspect API keys

South Korea is stepping up enforcement against trading bots that thin out crypto exchange order books, as the Digital Asset Exchange Alliance (DAXA) tells member platforms to shut down API keys suspected of being shared or loaned. Regulators and exchanges are targeting a specific pattern of abuse: programmatic access passed to third parties that place and cancel large buy orders to create the appearance of demand, then sell into the resulting price pop—classic spoofing at scale. The Financial Supervisory Service estimates automated trading now makes up about 30% of domestic crypto turnover. Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax will apply a tiered response ranging from enhanced monitoring and re-verification to mandatory API key expiration. Exchanges will also expand IP whitelisting so API keys work only from pre-registered addresses. The measures do not ban API-based trading.