South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) has initiated a comprehensive investigation into the fee structures of major cryptocurrency exchanges, a move widely seen as the first step in fulfilling President Lee Jae-myung’s campaign pledge to reduce trading fees.
The inquiry targets key exchanges including Bithumb, Upbit, and Coinone, and will closely examine:
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Flat trading fee rates
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Tiered or user-specific pricing models
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Actual fee collection amounts
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Transparency and disclosure practices
The FSC aims to evaluate whether these fees place undue burdens on consumers, and how they compare to global standards. Based on the findings, the commission may consider policy recommendations or encourage voluntary fee reductions.
Currently, domestic trading fees average around 0.05%, while President Lee has publicly committed to reducing this rate to 0.015%. FSC officials describe this effort as a policy design phase rather than a mere data review.
“Crypto trading affects everyday investors directly,” one FSC official said. “Excessive fees represent a major barrier to entry and a key point of information asymmetry. If necessary, we may introduce baseline standards or disclosure mandates.”
The industry views the move as a potential pivot from exchange-centric operations to more consumer-focused oversight. Some exchanges have already begun internal modeling or preparing experimental fee reductions in anticipation of future policy shifts.
