Korean Crypto Exchange Under Pressure From Prosecutors

Korean Crypto Exchange Under Pressure From Prosecutors

The biggest cryptocurrency exchange in Korea is accused of manipulating its data processing system to bring in over 120 billion won - which is equivalent to $106.8 million) while contradicting 254 trillion won worth of false orders to inflate the exchange’s trade volume.

“According to the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor's Office, Friday, three top-level officers of Upbit, including Dunamu's board director chairman surnamed Song, were indicted without detention for allegedly falsifying the exchange's data system to rake in 122.1 billion won. Dunamu is Upbit's operator.”

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) reported the case to the prosecution with suspicions that the crypto exchange of manipulating the data processing system through a bot program in an attempt to grow the volume of digital assets transactions.

As reported by the Korea Times, allegedly, the bot program was used to “inflate underperforming virtual coins to attract more investors while falsifying the crypto exchange trade volume” as said by the FSC.

On top of this, the FSC said that the crypto exchange had reportedly conducted this scheme twice last year in the belief that the exchange had been fabricated orders from October 2017 to December 2017, then more recently in the past week. Apparently, the orders involved the deceiving 254 trillion won worth of fake transactions at the time.

An official from the FSC was quoted saying, "I'm worried about investors who may lose money in this market because of exchanges like Upbit. We need a way to make the market and the industry fair and transparent.”

The cryptocurrency exchange has denied all the allegations saying in a recent press release, "Upbit, as a corporate body, has never liquidated any assets acquired via fraud or used fraudulent assets to make further transactions. We will fully cooperate with the prosecution's investigation to show the allegations are totally false."

As said by the lastest Blockchain Transparency Institute report, the Korean Crypto exchange has become the third biggest virtual coin exchange across the globe in terms of trading volume.

Currently, Upbit’s 24 hours trade volume was around $241 million in December, the third after Binance and Bitfinex. “If it is convicted of falsifying its transactions, however, the ranking table is expected to revise the Korean crypto exchange downwards.”

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