Hwanchigi, a cross-border remittance method operating outside formal banking channels, accounted for $6.4 billion of the $7.1 billion in illegal crypto transactions recorded in South Korea since 2021. The technique was described as sitting behind 90% of the country's illegal crypto transfers. Money laundering cases also surged in the first half of 2026, rising 152-fold from 8 cases in all of 2025 to 1,214 in six months. Police detected more cases than ever during the period, but arrests remained limited at 18, underscoring a widening gap between enforcement detection and prosecutions.