Largest Korean Exchange Upbit Goes on a Delisting Spree Ahead of New Regulation

Upbit, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, is removing several cryptocurrencies from its platform. The exchange announced the removal of the KRW market pair of MARO, Paycoin (PCI), Observer (OBSR), Solvecare (SOLVE), and Quiz Talk (QTCON) on Friday. MARO/KRW, PCI/KRW, OBSR/KRW, SOLVE/KRW, and QTCON/KRW pairs will no longer be available for trading after June 18, 12 PM (KST). While BTC pairs won't be affected, the exchange would not support the trading for GBP against these crypto assets either. The exchange cited failure to meet internal standards for maintaining the KRW market pair as the reason for the removal. The same day, the exchange flagged 25 crypto assets with an “investment warning.” These cryptocurrencies include Komodo (KMD), ADX, LBRY Credit (LBC), Ignis, D-Market (DMT), Einsteinium (EMC2), Twelve Ships (TSHP), Lambda (LAMB), Endor (EDR), Pixel (PXL), PICA, Red Coin (RDD), RINGX, Byte Token (VITE), ITAM, Syscoin (SYS), BASIC, NXT, BFT Token (BFT), Nucleus Vision (NCASH), Fusion (FSN), Flian (PI), Ripio Credit Network (RCN), PRO, and Aragon (ANT). Business and team competency, public disclosure of information and communication, technical competence, and global liquidity for investor protection are the reasons given by the exchange for the investment warning. Upbit will conduct a detailed review of these digital assets for a week to determine whether these cryptos should be delisted. The exchange said,

“If the reason for designation of a significant item is not fully clarified during the clarification period, Upbit will notify the end of the transaction support through a separate notice, and the exact transaction support end schedule will be announced through the transaction support termination notice.”

Cryptos designated as items of concern cannot be deposited after the time this notice is posted, added the exchange. “Korean traders are calling it “Bloody Friday,” said DooWanNam, co-founder of StableNode and working with DeFi project MakerDAO. He further shared that this move is taken by Upbit because “the new regulation is incoming and it penalizes exchanges for having too many coins, especially shady ones.” Additionally, there are rumors that “the exchange is watching the Financial Services Commission and is taking action against a project with conflict of interests.” According to DooWanNam, these 25 cryptos flagged are “most likely” to be removed while noting some of these coins are popular Korean natives with high volume. He said,

“Many of them only have Upbit as the major exchange (or for some only exchange), so it will be for sure death unless they find an alternative exchange. Likely global ones this time.” "While this will be bad for Korean coins, it can turn out to be good news for global retail coins like ADA and XRP."