South Korea’s crypto exchange closures lock $13M in investor assets

Greater than 33,000 crypto traders in South Korea are at the moment unable to entry their belongings, which quantity to roughly $13 million, because of the closure of a number of crypto exchanges within the nation, native media outlet The Korea Instances reported on October 14.

In line with the report, 14 digital asset exchanges in South Korea have halted or briefly suspended their operations in response to the Digital Asset Consumer Safety Act. Because of this, roughly 17.8 billion received, or roughly $12.8 million, of buyer digital belongings are at the moment locked on these platforms.

This info comes from current knowledge launched by Consultant Kang Min-Kuk of the ruling Folks Energy Get together. In line with the report, a complete of 33,906 South Korean customers try to get well belongings from the affected exchanges. Notably, eleven exchanges have closed, whereas three others have suspended their providers.

Earlier than their closure, these exchanges held a complete of 17.8 billion received in buyer belongings, of which 1.41 billion received in money and 16.4 billion received in digital belongings.

Cashierest, which closed in 2023, held the most important share of buyer funds: 13 billion received, or about $9.4 million. It’s adopted by ProBit and Huobi, which personal belongings value 2.25 billion received ($1.6 million) and 579 million received ($419,000), respectively.

Along with the closed exchanges, about 30.7 billion received (equal to US$22 million) is tied up in platforms which have briefly halted operations. This example might considerably enhance the variety of clients with frozen funds, though the precise impression stays unclear.

The affected exchanges embrace Oasis, with 16.2 billion received ($11.7 million), Flata, with 14.35 billion received ($10.3 million), and Btrade, with 80 million received ($57,962).

Consultant Kang famous that the continued push for regulatory compliance might additional enhance these numbers. He reportedly stated:

“With the digital asset market in droop and regulatory compliance prices rising, extra exchanges are prone to stop or droop operations through the FSC’s ongoing renewal evaluate course of.”