Real-Name Bank Account
Real-name verified deposit and withdrawal account · Partner bank account · Real-name account
The account in your own name at an exchange's partner bank: the only route for moving won into and out of a Korean crypto exchange.
Simple explanation
Background: Every Korean won exchange is paired with one bank, and users can move won only through an account in their own name at that bank. Koreans call it 실명계좌 ("real-name account"); the legal name is 실명확인 입출금계정.
The arrangement lets money move only between the exchange's account and its users' accounts at the same bank. The bank checks that the account holder and the exchange member are the same person, hence "real-name". So won can be deposited only from your own account at the partner bank and withdrawn only back to it. Money in another bank has to be moved into your partner-bank account first, and accounts in other people's names cannot be used at all.
The system started on January 30, 2018 as the government's "real-name verified deposit and withdrawal service". Before that, exchanges took money through banks' virtual accounts, which made it hard to see who was paying in and raised money-laundering fears, so deposits and withdrawals were limited to cases where the trader's account and the exchange's account sit at the same bank. When the amended Specific Financial Information Act took effect in March 2021, an exchange handling won needed this arrangement to register with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), making it a legal requirement. Before granting it, the bank checks things such as whether the exchange keeps customer deposits segregated, holds ISMS security certification and runs a money-laundering risk system. An exchange without one may operate only as a coin-only market.
As reported in October 2026, the pairs are Upbit with K Bank (extended to October 5, 2027), Bithumb with KB Kookmin Bank (extended by a year in September 2026), Coinone with KakaoBank (extended to August 2027), Digital X (formerly Korbit) with Shinhan Bank, and Gopax with Jeonbuk Bank. The pairs change over time: Upbit moved from IBK Industrial Bank of Korea to K Bank in June 2020, Coinone from NH NongHyup Bank to KakaoBank in November 2022, and Bithumb from NH NongHyup Bank to KB Kookmin Bank on March 24, 2025. Contracts are usually renewed a year at a time, and banks may inspect an exchange's anti-money-laundering setup on site before renewing. When the partner bank changes, the exchange files the change with the FIU and users must open and link an account at the new bank, so check each exchange's notices for the current bank.
For now each exchange offers real-name accounts through one bank only, because the financial authorities have kept a "one exchange, one bank" principle. Companies also long struggled to get these accounts, not because a law banned it but because the authorities advised banks not to open them for corporations. In February 2025 the Financial Services Commission set out a phased plan, starting with accounts for selling and moving on to trading by listed companies and professional-investor firms, and in 2026 letting more companies in, along with allowing an exchange to work with several banks, is under discussion. Nothing of this is final.
Users run into practical limits too. Opening a partner-bank account involves a check on the purpose of the account, and a new account opened online often starts as a "limited account" with low transfer and withdrawal caps. When Bithumb changed banks in 2025, a new KB Kookmin Bank account opened online had a withdrawal cap of ₩1,000,000 (about $700) a day for three months, and the exchange and bank made it easier for users who met set conditions to lift it. Exchanges also hold back crypto withdrawals for a while after a won deposit, up to the amount deposited, so voice-phishing proceeds cannot leave as coins; the Virtual Asset User Protection Act treats a hold of up to 72 hours after a deposit for this purpose as a legitimate reason. Periods and conditions differ by exchange and can change.
Won left on an exchange (the user deposit) must, under the Virtual Asset User Protection Act, be kept apart from the exchange's own money with a bank or similar custodian, and if the exchange closes or goes bankrupt the custodian pays users back first when they claim. That protection covers won deposits only; it does not protect coin prices or your principal.
It ties into the kimchi premium. Buying on a Korean won market requires an account in your own name at a Korean bank, so people living abroad cannot easily join in, and when buying crowds into Korea, overseas money cannot rush in to even prices out. That is one of the foundations of the premium. The Tether premium, Tether's won price on Korean exchanges sitting above the exchange rate, has the same root: it is the price of buying dollars with won.
CoinGaja works out a separate premium for each of the four exchanges that run won markets through real-name accounts (Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone and Digital X) and uses the median of those with fresh prices as each coin's headline premium. The Live Tether premium page shows how far Tether's price on Upbit's won market sits above the exchange rate, and the Exchange notices page gathers the exchanges' notices in one place. This is general information, not legal advice.
Example
To put ₩3,000,000 (about $2,100) from another bank onto Upbit → first transfer it to your own K Bank account → then deposit from that account to Upbit (two steps)
If your partner-bank account is a limited account with a ₩1,000,000 daily transfer cap → moving ₩3,000,000 takes 3,000,000 ÷ 1,000,000 = 3 days
On an exchange whose hold after a won deposit is 24 hours, if you deposit ₩3,000,000 today and buy coins → that amount of coins can be sent elsewhere only after 24 hours
Withdraw ₩10,000,000 (about $7,100) from selling coins → it can go only to your own account at the partner bank
Bithumb switched its partner bank from NH NongHyup Bank to KB Kookmin Bank on March 24, 2025 → from that day won could no longer move through NongHyup accounts, and users had to link a KB Kookmin Bank account
※ Example numbers, for illustration only
See it on CoinGaja
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