South Korea's Bithumb Freezes Transactions with Suspicious Payment Platform

South Korea's Bithumb has frozen all transactions with Heleket, an overseas payment platform suspected of money laundering and terrorism financing. The decision is based on blockchain intelligence that reveals Heleket's connections to Cryptomus, a Russia-linked cryptocurrency payment processor and exchange.

The intelligence analysis by TRM Labs suggests that Heleket was likely developed by the administrators or affiliates of Cryptomus to continue facilitating illicit activity after Cryptomus implemented mandatory KYC controls in response to a record-breaking penalty from Canadian regulators.