South Korea's Financial Commission Refers Two Crypto Market Manipulation Cases to Investigators, API Key Lenders May Face Liability

Gate News message, April 29 — South Korea’s Financial Commission decided at its eighth regular meeting to refer two virtual asset market manipulation cases to investigative authorities. The detected manipulation methods combined traditional securities market tactics with API abuse techniques unique to crypto markets.

In the first case, the suspect purchased specific virtual assets in advance, then placed manipulative high-price buy orders to artificially inflate prices while setting false buy orders to prevent price declines, repeatedly selling for profit. In the second case, the suspect rented API keys from multiple accounts at a fee, executed repeated wash trades between accounts to create false trading activity, then used relay-style high-price orders to drive prices up before selling to retail investors following the price movement.

The Financial Commission warned that account holders who lend API keys used for unfair trading or money laundering may face civil and criminal liability as accomplices. The Financial Supervisory Service plans to strengthen its anomaly detection system logic and mandate that API keys be bound to registered IP addresses.