The Seoul Southern District Court has acquitted senior executives at Upbit crypto exchange of fraud charges.
Insufficient Evidence Against Upbit Chiefs
Delivering judgment on the matter, Deputy Judge Oh Sang-yong dismissed the 30-count criminal fraud and market manipulation charges leveled against the Upbit directors for lack of evidence.
According to South Korean media outlet Newsis, the court declared that the activities of the Upbit hierarchy were not sufficient to materially impact the spot price of bitcoin (BTC).
The prosecutors earlier argued that Upbit was trading against its customers, setting up fake accounts to manipulate market prices. According to the prosecutors on the case, the Upbit hierarchy was creating fake buy orders to artificially inflate trading activity for crypto tokens.
Numerous market reports have revealed massive spoofing and wash trading within the crypto market. Analysts say the greater percentage of trading volume data displayed by crypto exchanges in inflated.
As previously reported by Bitcoinist, South Korean authorities raided Upbit’s headquarters back in May 2018 on suspicion of being insolvent.
One of the “big four,” Upbit was the first licensed crypto exchange in South Korea. While the other three major platforms posted losses in 2018, Upbit was able to declare a profit of $123 million amid a year-long bear market for cryptos.
Bithumb, another of the big four recorded a loss of $180 million which was more than the losses incurred by Korbit and Coinone combined.
South Korean Crypto Businesses Still Under the Cosh
While the big four continue to soldier on, smaller crypto exchanges and other cryptocurrency-related businesses in South Korea are shutting down. The 2018 bear market and the increasingly stringent regulatory climate in the country appear to be dampening enthusiasm for what was once one of the most vibrant crypto markets.
On Friday, Bitcoinist reported that Bitberry — a popular crypto wallet platform, was shutting down. Smaller volume crypto exchanges are also closing down their businesses with reports stating that 97% of crypto trading services in South Korea are close to bankruptcy.
Compliance costs are also reportedly on the rise with commercial banks setting fresh hurdles for offering services to cryptocurrency exchanges.
Crypto stakeholders in the country say the current regulatory climate is choking digital innovation in South Korea. Many blockchain startups are electing to list their tokens on exchange platforms based overseas amid shrinking won-denominated trading activity in the country.
Do you think Upbit was engaging in wash trading? Let us know in the comments below.
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Several of South Korea’s top crypto exchanges have found themselves in hot water, with executives at a couple of exchanges facing criminal charges and jail time. According to a news report on the Korean website Blockinpress, the CEO of Komid, a Korean crypto exchange, has received a three-year prison sentence for committing fraud against investors by artificially inflating the exchange’s actual trading volume.
South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, UpBit, faces criminal charges after top executives were formally indicted by the country’s legal prosecutors, as reported by Business Korea on December 21, 2018.
Officials at South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Upbit, have been indicted for fraud. They allegedly made bogus crypto orders worth approximately $226 billion and sold 11,550 BTC to around 26,000 investors.
The executives South Korea’s cryptocurrency exchange UPbit have been formally charged by the country’s prosecutors, CoinDesk reported. The Prosecutors’ Office of the southern district of Seoul has indicted three senior staff members, including founder Song Chi-Hyung, on charges of fraud.
According to reports from a Korean accounting firm, the biggest South Korean crypto exchange UPbit is cleared of charges from the allegations that were made against it last May. The exchange was blamed to have manipulated its balance sheet which resulted in a rise in its trading values. Soon after unknown sources claimed that the firm […]
A Binance team found that "VIP" clients – those trading more than $100 million per month – were engaging in pump-and-dump schemes and wash trading, the Wall Street Journal said.
Wash trading, a deceptive practice in financial markets, has emerged as a pervasive concern within the decentralized cryptocurrency exchange (DEX) landscape, according to a recent report from Solidus Labs.
The daily bitcoin trading volumes come out into billions of dollars every day, with hundreds of thousands of daily transactions being carried out. It is one of the reasons why bitcoin draws the most investors, given such high trading volume and good depth across all exchanges.
