Another major news development in South Korean cryptocurrency regulation.

According to a Jan. 30 report in Reuters, South Korea’s customs service claimed in a statement that it had uncovered 637.5B won ($596M USD) worth of illegal foreign exchange trading via cryptocurrency markets.

74 percent of these crimes (approx. 472.3B won) came from illegal foreign currency trading, according to Customs. The service did not share details into what action South Korean authorities would be taking against these crimes.

Of that number, Customs apparently identified cases wherein Japanese investors transferred 53.7B won ($50.5M USD) to South Korean partners to sidestep regulation, amounting to 8.4 percent of the cited breaches.

[Ed note: Investing in cryptocoins or tokens is highly speculative and the market is largely unregulated. Anyone considering it should be prepared to lose their entire investment.]

This development follows major news over the past week regarding South Korea’s treatment of cryptocurrency trading. On Jan. 23, South Korea’s Financial Services Commission detailed its plan to only permit cryptocurrency trading from real-name bank accounts in order to ensure KYC AML compliance and cut down on “illegal activities such as crimes, money laundering and tax evasion”—which also went into effect Jan. 30.

Some believe this step will prove positive longterm for cryptocurrency.

“I think it’s the start of a crackdown on anonymity and the illegal use cases that some cryptocurrencies might have,” Co-Founder and President of TenX Julian Hosp said in an interview with CNBC. “If, afterwards, investors and companies have more legal security working in the ecosystem, it’s going to have some short-term downsides, but long term, it’s going to have a really, really big boost.”