South Korea is a huge market for crypto, accounting for an amazing 30% of all crypto trading. It is arguably the only country in the world to have truly mainstream investment in crypto, with up to half of all white collar professionals invested in the emerging sector. And of the many exchanges vying for business, the largest is currently UPbit, with no less than 53% market share. So when the exchange was raided by authorities in May in light of accusations of insolvency, it threatened to rock the crypto markets, both domestically and internationally.
The accusations, which came from an anonymous source, posited that Dunamu, the company behind UPbit, were fraudulently inflating volumes and manipulating balance sheets. Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) and Financial Intelligence Units (KFIU) immediately moved in and seized hard drives and documents to investigate the claims, and days later leading accounting firm Yoojin were enlisted to conduct an audit. The results of the Yoojin investigation were released soon after the audit on May 15th, and confirmed that UPbit holdings matched its balance sheet.
But the failure of either the Korean authorities or Dunamu themselves to release a full report on the issue lead to further uncertainty in the markets, and until now there have remained questions in Korea as to the reliability of the exchange.
This weekend the situation was finally clarified as Dunamu released a report listing the full results of the Yoojin audit. Providing some much needed relief for the beleaguered markets, the report confirms that the exchange hold the full 100% of user funds plus an additional 27%, enabling them to comfortably reimburse traders should they wish to withdraw their funds.
