Last week, reports surfaced that the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, UPbit, had been raided with a number of assets seized, on a warrant executed due to suspicions of fraudulent activities taking place within the exchange. You can see more information regarding this in a recent article of ours, that discusses how UPbit may have affected the markets at the end of last week, check it out, here- https://cryptodaily.co.uk/2018/05/least-know-whats-killing-markets-today/ The investigation is ongoing, yet now it seems almost definite that this was the root cause of the mid-May market slide, during which we saw some huge chunks of value taken off many major currencies. I should also mention that the occurrence of another coin dump from a Mt. Gox wallet, may also have amplified the issues that eventually stretched on through the weekend. Overall, UPbit are accused of accounting for currencies that they did not have and did not store. According to CCN, this suspicion rose from the fact UPbit have thus far failed to integrate any cryptocurrency wallets into their exchange, leading some authorities to wonder how they stored the vast amounts of currency, their customers had allegedly exchanged through the UPbit network. According to CCN:
“Users of the 30 cryptocurrencies on UPbit that are yet to see independent wallets integrated by the exchange, cannot deposit or withdraw the tokens directly from UPbit and have to exchange the assets to other cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and Ethereum before withdrawing. The lack of wallet support for dozens of cryptocurrencies led to the investigation and the government accusing UPbit of inflating its balance sheet.”
See more from the full piece by CCN, here- https://www.ccn.com/upbit-audit-confirms-south-koreas-biggest-cryptocurrency-exchange-not-at-fault/ As it stands, we can’t actually say if UPbit have been falsifying their accountancy sheets, or if this really is a part of a bit misunderstanding, overall though trading on UPbit is still active and thus, it can be argued that customers still have a belief in the UPbit exchange. If indeed this is just a misunderstanding, and nobody has been deceived, things will continue just fine for the company. If, however, investigations uncover something more serious here, criminal proceeding will follow and UPbit will be forced to close, that’s for sure. As it stands, it’s normal service as ever at UPbit. Their 24-hour trading volume currently stands at $928,211,299.00, with EOS making the majority of that volume at 17.35%. It’ll be very interesting to see how this develops over the rest of the week. As findings from the investigation are announced, both sides of the UPbit argument will no doubt find further evidence to support that they either did or did not engage in this fraudulent activity. One thing is certain, whatever happens, the markets will react to it. Our advice for now, remain cautious, keep an eye on the news. As soon as we hear anything, we’ll let you know!
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