A South Korean ruling party lawmaker has been accused of "suppressing Upbit and securing a job at Bithumb for his son," but he denies the allegations.

[South Korean ruling party lawmaker accused of "suppressing Upbit and securing a job at Bithumb for his son," denies allegations] According to Mars Finance, on December 29th, Kim Byung-ki, the floor leader of South Korea's ruling Democratic Party, is facing pressure to resign. Multiple South Korean media outlets have reported that while the National Assembly was pushing for criticism of Upbit, South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange, his son was allegedly given an internship at competitor Bithumb, raising serious questions about a conflict of interest. A former aide to Kim Byung-ki claimed that at Kim's request, the team was instructed to "attack" Upbit's operator, Dunamu, in the National Assembly, focusing on accusations of market monopoly. The instructions reportedly came in February of this year, when Kim Byung-ki was still a member of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee, which directly oversees domestic financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges. Investigative media outlet NewsTapa previously revealed that Kim Byung-ki's son was "quickly arranged" as an intern in Bithumb's data analysis team shortly after his father's private meeting with Bithumb in November 2024. In the following weeks, Kim Byung-ki repeatedly criticized a "monopolistic trading platform" at committee meetings, without naming it, but this was widely interpreted as a direct attack on Upbit. Kim also mentioned that the trading platform was found to have approximately 700,000 violations during anti-money laundering and KYC checks, but made no similar comments regarding other exchanges that were found to have similar issues (including Bithumb). Bithumb denied any wrongdoing, claiming its recruitment process was "open and transparent"; Kim himself also denied the allegations, emphasizing that his remarks were merely a principled statement against monopolies, and that his son's employment "had nothing to do with his legislative activities."