South Korean Exchanges Increase Liability Following Demands From Regulators

Five South Korean exchanges have taken on new responsibilities for user losses, going in line with the regulators’ demands. According to the local English-language news outlet The Korea Herald and its reports on June 17 (citing Yonhap News Agency), the reported situation in the altcoin news is very important in the country.

Also, it comes a year after the Fair Trade Commission requested Bithumb as well as four other platforms to adapt their policies. All of the South Korean exchanges will now hold themselves accountable if user funds are being stolen.

Moreover, the latest cryptocurrency news show that the onus for paying out will be in line with the exchanges – even if no willful or gross negligence occurs on their part, as Korea Herald stated.

Before this, South Korean exchanges only reimbursed users if it was proven that their own systems were at fault and were responsible for the mistakes. However, the changes come after a lot of new regulations in the domestic exchange sector. This is especially applicable to Bithumb, which suffered a hack of user funds over the past year.

“The overstatement of trading volumes by cryptocurrency exchanges, and by implication the understatement of the importance of listed futures, suggests that market structure has likely changed considerably since the previous spike in Bitcoin prices in end-2017 with a greater influence from institutional investors,” JPMorgan wrote in a piece that speaks about Bitcoin futures and regulations.

As we reported earlier this year, increasing security for South Korean platforms is also important due to the increased risk of cyberattacks from the neighboring North Korea. Last month, for example, there was a phishing scam that targeted users of the South Korean exchange Upbit – and was later confirmed to be work of North Korean state actors.

At the same time, the coming altcoin news reported that a lot of South Korean exchanges were reporting gross losses for 2018 mostly because of the bear market. Data showed that only the Upbit crypto exchange made profits. Coinnest, for example, has shut down altogether in May this year.

All in all, South Korean crypto exchanges have always been a hot topic reported by many best cryptocurrency news sites – especially because of the tight regulation and variety of users.