South Korean Ruling Party Lawmaker Accused of "Pressuring Upbit, Securing Bithumb Job for Son," Denies Allegations

Dec 29 — Kim Byung-ki, an in-house representative for South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party, is facing calls to resign amid allegations of a serious conflict of interest. Multiple South Korean media outlets have reported that Kim’s son interned at competing crypto exchange Bithumb while the lawmaker pushed to criticize Upbit—South Korea’s largest crypto platform—in the National Assembly. A former aide to Kim claims that at his behest, the team was instructed to “target” Dunamu, Upbit’s operator, zeroing in on allegations of market monopolization. The instructions allegedly came in February of this year, when Kim sat on the National Assembly’s Legislation and Judiciary Committee—the panel overseeing domestic financial institutions and crypto exchanges. Investigative outlet NewsTapa previously reported that Kim’s son was “quickly placed” as an intern on Bithumb’s data analytics team shortly after Kim held a private meeting with Bithumb in November 2024. In the weeks that followed, Kim repeatedly criticized a “monopolistic exchange” during committee sessions (without naming it, but widely seen as targeting Upbit). Kim also noted that one exchange had roughly 700,000 violations in anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) checks, but did not make similar remarks about other exchanges with comparable issues—including Bithumb. Bithumb denied any wrongdoing, saying its hiring process was “open and transparent.” Kim rejected the allegations, stressing his comments were purely a principled stand against monopolies and his son’s internship was “completely unrelated to his legislative work.”