According to a report by South Korean news outlet Chosun Biz, Shin is accused of orchestrating a series of fraudulent activities during his tenure as the CEO of Bitsonic, which spanned from January 2019 to May 2021. One of the primary allegations against Shin is that he artificially inflated cryptocurrency prices and trading volumes on Bitsonic’s computer system.
Shin was also accused of withholding critical information from investors.
Amid mounting deficits and an inability to fulfill withdrawal requests from investors, Shin is alleged to have concealed and sold 10 billion won worth of cash and virtual assets. The investigation also uncovered that Shin operated a paper company established in Singapore to facilitate these manipulative actions.
Shin also made a false notice during this period stating,
“We have entered into a business partnership with a famous overseas virtual asset exchange.”
South Korean authorities’ ongoing investigation into the case began in 2021, and it also includes Bitsonic’s Vice President, identified as Mr A in the report. Mr. A was accused of creating and overseeing a scheme enabling Shin to buy cryptocurrency from Shin’s holdings within the exchange platform. The VP has also been billed to undergo trial without being held in detention.
This development arrives on the heels of South Korea’s establishment of the Joint Investigation Centre for Crypto Crimes in July 2023. The specialized unit is composed of 30 experts from legal, financial, tax, and customs backgrounds. Its mission is to combat cryptocurrency-related offenses and enforce regulations to protect investors.
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Shin received another prison sentence
In July 2025, Shin was sentenced to an additional six months in prison in a separate fraud case involving the manipulation of Bitsonic Coin. The court found that he had continued using the token’s artificially inflated value to defraud investors, with the additional case involving about 100 million won.
That means Shin’s legal exposure ultimately went beyond the original seven-year sentence arising from the customer-fund case.
This shows that the problems at Bitsonic were not limited to a single misuse of customer deposits. The courts found new patterns involving manipulation of the exchange’s token and its trading environment.
The Bitsonic case shows an operator can control both the marketplace and the asset being traded on it
In Bitsonic’s case, Shin was both the exchange’s CEO and the effective issuer of BSC. The courts found that he used that position to manipulate the token’s price and create the appearance of demand while presenting the exchange as financially healthier than it actually was.
The case also shows why proof of reserves alone cannot necessarily establish that an exchange is operating honestly. An exchange may hold assets while still manipulating its own token, inflating reported activity or misrepresenting its financial position.
South Korea’s crypto market has since moved toward tighter oversight, making the Bitsonic case part of the broader regulatory push to protect customers and improve transparency among virtual-asset service providers.
For the industry, the lasting lesson is straightforward: customer assets, exchange finances and an exchange’s own token cannot safely be treated as separate issues when the same operator controls all three.
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