Upbit, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea, has made the decision to halt transactions involving digital assets worth more than 1 million won ($721). This move comes in response to recent developments at Ten&Ten, a local facilitator of deposits and withdrawals and a virtual asset service provider (VASP).
On April 17th, Upbit announced that it would suspend deposits and withdrawals, citing the suspension and termination of Ten&Ten’s Travel Rule Solution service as the reason. However, withdrawals of cryptocurrency will still be available until April 22 at 10:00 am Korea Standard Time. This decision was made because Ten&Ten ceased supporting transactions on April 15.
Ten&Ten had facilitated over 1 million won in cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals for Upbit. Other VASPs, such as Borabit, Coredocs, GDAC, Hanbitco, Qbit, Korea Digital Asset Trust, Oasis Exchange, and Prabang, also allow deposits and withdrawals above 1 million won.
Furthermore, Upbit had a trading volume of 528.57 billion, ranking second in market share according to a study conducted by the European Union (EU) on April 10. The leading cryptocurrency exchange in terms of market share was Binance.
In the first three months of 2024, the amount of cryptocurrency transactions using the South Korean won surpassed that of the US dollar. According to statistics from Kaiko, the total amount of transactions in US dollars was approximately $455 billion, while transactions in Korean won on centralized exchanges exceeded $456 billion.
At the beginning of April, Upbit’s 24-hour trading volume dropped to $3.8 billion, down from a previous high in March. On March 5, Upbit reached its highest trading volume of 2024 with approximately $15 billion in daily trades.
In other news, USDC issuer Circle has successfully completed a SOC 2 Type 2 Audit.
