The SEC’s lawsuit against Binance has stalled the crypto exchange’s buyout agreement with South Korean exchange Gopax.

The report, in a local South Korean newspaper, suggested that the Financial Services Committee (FSC), the country’s financial watchdog, is examining Binance’s acquisition of local crypto trading platform Gopax. Binance bought a majority stake in Gopax in February with the intention of re-entering the South Korean crypto market after a two-year hiatus.

FSC Says Accepting Purchase Request Is Very Difficult

The FSC has reportedly suspended Gopax’s executive change report submitted on March 7, citing the recent SEC lawsuit.

The report detailed the nomination of three Binance members as internal director of Gopax, including Binance Asia Pacific CEO Leon Singh Poong. In its review of the Gopax deal, the FSC claimed that it was very difficult to accept the buyout request at this point, given the allegations of securities law violations and other requests from the SEC to freeze Binance.US assets. One of the FSC executives said it was important to consider the SEC’s case, adding: “It would be prudent to say that the report was reviewed internally.”

Binance’s acquisition of Gopax was aimed not only at the crypto exchange’s re-entry into South Korea, but also at the revitalization of the local crypto trading platform.

In November 2022, Gopax stopped withdrawing principal and interest payments from the decentralized financial service GoFi following the bankruptcy of FTX and Genesis. Digital Currency Group, the parent company of Genesis, is reportedly Gopax’s second largest shareholder and a key business partner providing the GoFi product.