Upbit, one of South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has announced that it will temporarily suspend deposits and withdrawals of digital assets worth more than 1 million won (approximately $721). This decision was made in response to changes made by Ten&Ten, a virtual asset service provider (VASP) that facilitated these transactions.
In a blog post on April 17, Upbit stated that the suspension was a result of the termination of Ten&Ten’s Travel Rule Solution service. Ten&Ten had already halted transaction support on April 15, and customers will have until April 22 at 10:00 KST to withdraw their crypto assets.
Upbit relied on Ten&Ten, along with other VASPs like Bblock, Gopax, FlatExchange, Aprobit, Prabang, Borabit, BTX, Flybit, Foblegate, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, Coredocs, GDAC, Hanbitco, Qbit, Korea Digital Asset Trust (KDAC), and Oasis Exchange, to facilitate deposits and withdrawals of digital assets worth more than 1 million won.
According to a report released by the European Union (EU) on April 10, Upbit holds the second-largest market share in the crypto industry, following Binance, with approximately 528.57 billion. Furthermore, in the first quarter of 2024, the South Korean won (KRW) surpassed the US dollar in terms of crypto trading volume. Kaiko data reveals that KRW transactions on centralized exchanges amounted to over $456 billion, slightly surpassing the cumulative volume of around $455 billion in USD transactions.
South Korean financial authorities are currently working on new guidelines to impose stricter regulations for token listings on centralized crypto exchanges. These guidelines are expected to be released by the end of April or early May. Additionally, the authorities plan to prohibit the listing of digital assets involved in hacking incidents on domestic exchanges unless the root cause is thoroughly determined.
Upbit experienced a decline in its 24-hour trading volume, which dropped to $3.8 billion at the beginning of April after reaching a peak in March. On March 5, the exchange achieved a daily trading volume of nearly $15 billion, marking its highest volume this year. This surge in trading volume can be attributed to Bitcoin reaching a new all-time high of $69,200 on the same day.
In other news, Hong Kong’s financial regulator has reportedly approved three spot Bitcoin ETFs, which are expected to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in approximately two weeks. Meanwhile, the price of Ethereum (ETH) is nearing three-year lows compared to Bitcoin. Many are wondering if the introduction of an Ethereum ETF will help reverse this trend.