South Korea's Central Bank Seeks Circuit Breaker for Cryptocurrency Market

The Bank of Korea has recommended the implementation of a circuit breaker in South Korea's cryptocurrency market to prevent incidents like Bithumb's February mistake.

In its latest Payment and Settlement report, the central bank highlighted the need for a halt mechanism similar to those used in equities, where trading can be paused when extreme errors or volatility threaten to spiral. This recommendation comes as the country's digital asset market continues to grow in size and complexity.

The Bithumb incident, which saw 620,000 BTC mistakenly distributed due to human error, has been cited by the Bank of Korea as a key example of why such a mechanism is necessary. The central bank argues that operational errors can occur anywhere, but what matters is whether systems exist to contain them before they spread.