Worldcoin is fined again! Crypto Store Clerk Makes $500,000: Asia Express

Worldcoin was hit with a fine of 850 thousand dollars in South Korea

The WorldCoin Foundation and Tools for Humanity have gotten the rap on the knees for illegally collecting and transmitting biometric data from South Korean officials.

The Personal Information Protection Commission announced on September 26 that it had imposed a fine of 1.1 billion Korean won ($850,000) on WorldCoin and Tools for Humanity.

The country's privacy watchdog earlier began investigating WorldCoin after complaints and local media reports alleged it was a project to collect biometric data in exchange for cryptocurrency without proper authorization and legal basis.

The investigation found that the Worldcoin Foundation and Tools for Humanity, which operates the WorldApp cryptocurrency wallet, violated South Korean laws by collecting the data of nearly 30,000 Korean users of Iris without proper consent and legal basis.

In addition, WorldCoin transferred this biometric data abroad without disclosing the recipient countries or address details to users, depending on local regulations. The WorldCoin Foundation also failed to provide clear notices about the purpose, retention period and other mandatory details of the data, the commission said. The consent form was initially only available in English, limiting understanding for local users until a Korean version was released in March.

In its defense, Worldcoin argued that the iris code information is only used to prevent duplicate registrations and cannot identify individuals. However, the Commission rejected this claim on the ground that the iris code information is unique in nature, immutable and directly linked to the individual.

Worldcoin's controversial iris scan has drawn attention from regulators including India, Hong Kong and Germany.

Singapore said it has opened an investigation into individuals suspected of buying and selling WorldCoin-related services, but Tools for Humanity told Cointelegraph in an earlier interview that these suspects had no connection to WorldCoin in any way.

Global regulatory oversight will not stop the expansion of Worldcoin. On September 25, Worldcoin announced the launch of Orbon certification in Guatemala, Malaysia and Poland.

Malaysia is one of the rare cases where the government has adopted iris scanning technology.

In August, the government's research department signed a memorandum of understanding with the WorldCoin Foundation to integrate the technology into the country's digital infrastructure.

The clerk of the crypto trading store lost half a million dollars

Hong Kong police have reportedly arrested two people in connection with a 4 million Hong Kong dollar (around $500,000) robbery at a cryptocurrency exchange shop in the Sham Shui Po district.

Local media reported that on the afternoon of September 23, a 43-year-old man deposited money into a physical cryptocurrency trading store in a shopping mall. The victim went into a room in the store as she handed the money to a female store clerk.

The clerk did not return and found the man locked inside the store.

Police later arrested two men, aged 23 and 30, who were said to have been involved in setting up a cryptocurrency exchange shop to steal money from customers while doing business with the female employee and other individuals.

The victim had already made two successful transactions involving approximately HK$400,000 ($51,400) and HK$800,000 ($102,800) in early September, which built his trust in the store and increased his investment to HK$4 million.

According to police, there have been 12 other cases this year where victims visited shops to trade in crypto currency. These 12 cases resulted in a total loss of HK$10.8 million ($1.4 million).

Japan has blocked DMM Bitcoin from reopening until emergency measures are implemented.

Japanese authorities have issued a business reform order on cryptocurrency exchange DMM Bitcoin following a major security breach that led to the theft of 4,502.9 BTC ($305 million at the time).

On September 26, Kanto's local finance office requested administrative action. The company will strengthen system risk management, implement measures to prevent future leaks and clarify management responsibilities. The exchange must submit a detailed improvement plan by October 28 and is barred from reopening until it completes the suspended services.

Regulators discovered loopholes in DMM's bitcoin risk management and internal controls in May, which allowed hackers to withdraw customer funds.

The investigation found that the exchange's security protocols were dangerously lax when operating without a system risk manager. Private keys were not managed properly, and staff lacked sufficient oversight, leading to vulnerabilities exploited by hackers.

Moreover, DMM Bitcoin failed to establish a proper logging system, which hampered efforts to quickly investigate the breach.

The DMM Bitcoin security breach on May 31 was recorded as the biggest hack of 2024. North Korea's state-run hacking group Lazarus is believed to be behind the cyber attack on the Japanese exchange.

Since then, Lazarus has been responsible for attacks on other Asian exchanges such as WazirX and Indodex.

Last week, Singapore-based BingX became the latest major exchange to be attacked. The hacker behind the BingX attack has not yet been officially identified.

However, on September 26, BingX said they “have determined that the group responsible for other similar attacks in the industry is behind the current incident.”

Users are protesting the closing of Terraform Labs

Terra blockchain users have raised concerns that their tokens could be lost if Terraform Labs eventually shuts down the service.

“You can't close the station wallet used to hold yourself and take care of Luna, if you can't transfer it to the community, people withdraw all their tokens, including those that haven't been fully donated yet,” said one X user.

Terraform Labs is preparing to shut down many of its products and services on October 30 unless outside parties intervene.

In a post on X on September 25, it announced that it is still in discussions with third parties to sell some of its products and services.

If these efforts fail by October 30, key products, including Station Wallet, will be discontinued, allowing users to suspend their activities until then.

Singapore-based Terraform Labs, the company behind the UST stablecoin, lost its stake in May 2022 after the greenback, citing the $40 billion destruction of the Terra Luna ecosystem and subsequent contagion effects on the liquidity and losses of several cryptocurrency companies. Three Arrows Capital and FTX.

In June, Terraform Labs announced it would cease operations following a $4.47 billion settlement with the SEC.

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John Yun

Yohan Yun is a multimedia journalist who has been reporting on blockchain since 2017. He has contributed to the crypto media outlet Forkast as an editor and covered Asian tech stories as an assistant reporter for Bloomberg BNA and Forbes. He spends his free time cooking and experimenting with new recipes.