Upbit, South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange, is being investigated by local police and ten investigators for alleged fraud, local news outlet Chosun today, May 11. Upbit is a crypto-only exchange , and currently the crypto exchange globally by 24-hour trade volume.
Chosun reports that police believe the exchange has faked its balance sheets and deceived investors. South Korea's Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) reportedly sent ten investigators to the exchange’s head offices in Seoul at 10 am this morning, and will access the company’s computer system to audit the exchange’s virtual currency holdings.
Multiple crypto on social media have that the news is already impacting crypto markets, with many of the down today by over 15 percent.
Upbit is not the first crypto exchange to attract the Korean authorities’ attention this spring. As Cointelegraph in March, the Korean Financial Intelligence Unit (KoFIU) and the FSC announced a joint investigation into crypto exchanges’ corporate accounts in Korean banks, citing (AML) compliance concerns.
In April, major Korean crypto exchange CoinNest’s co-founder and chief executive were on charges of embezzlement and fraud, for allegedly moving “billions of won” in customers’ digital assets into their personal accounts. That same month, 12 crypto exchanges were to improve customer protection in their contracts.
At press time, bitcoin is trading at an average of , down about 7 percent on the day. Ethereum is down almost 10 percent on the day, trading at an average of .
Published at Fri, 11 May 2018 10:23:18 +0000
