- Panic sets in as Korean finance authorities fail to publish reports on Bithumb and Coinone.
- Many theories are formed as to why the two exchanges’ virtual asset reports haven’t been announced.
Two months ago South Korean exchanges known as the ‘The Big Four’ registered with the Korean Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in September in compliance with the Korean digital asset regulations. However, for the second time in a row, the results of two of the exchanges, Bithumb and Coinone have not been published. Due to this, speculations are arising about the exchanges.
Following the South Korean crackdown, ‘The Big Four’ namely, Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit, who control 90% of the crypto asset trading volume in South Korea secured contracts with banks for real-name verification from the Korean Internet and Security Agency around September 23. In furtherance to the registration, they submitted it to FIU for clearance to operate as a virtual asset provider.
At the moment, only Upbit and Korbit have received reports as virtual asset operators out of the four exchanges. The Korean financial authorities are yet to give a specific reason for the delay in accepting the report. On account of this, the Korean crypto market is in a state of confusion as to why Upbit was repaired within three weeks of reporting, yet, Bithumb and Coinone results are delayed.
Subsequently, Korbit is the second exchange to receive the report on November 1. However, Bithumb and Coinone that completed the business report a day earlier than Korbit did not receive any notice.
What’s more, the delay and abrupt silence from both exchanges have created various theories and speculations. Also, the fact that its customers only got a ‘wait for now’ signal without further explanations adds to the panic. For this reason, some say the prosecution of Bithumb’s former Chairman Lee on the charges of fraud related to the listing of BXA tokens is one of the causes.
In addition, some also point out that another problem is that the number of listed coins is higher than that of competitors. Moreover, a total of 180 cryptocurrencies were listed on the Bithumb Won market. Likewise, Coinone has 188 listed cryptos.
On top of that, there are assumptions that Bithumb and Coinone are in a money laundering dilemma. As a result, the anti-money laundering (AML) force is investigating their cases, hence causing the delay.
Conversely, a new report alleges that Bithumb and Coinone inquired from FIU about the cause of the delay. In response, they were told that the repair schedule has been delayed due to a lot of processing work. At this point, we will have to follow up with the case and report as new developments arise.