South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb has won a lawsuit in which an investor had sued the company for his loss of around $355,000 in an alleged hack. Local financial newspaper The Korea Economic Daily reported on the outcome on Dec. 24. According to the report, the investor — 30 year old civil servant Ahn Park — alleged he had been the victim of a hack of his Bithumb account on Nov. 30, 2017, which resulted in a loss of 400 million Korean won, or around $355,000. Within hours of making his won deposit, Mr. Park alleged an unidentified hacker had …

South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Upbit has denied accusations it had manipulated its order book after regulators indicted three of its staff, local English-language news outlet The Korea Times reported 21. Upbit, which is owned by developer Dunamu, is accused of falsely inflating its volume figures on three occasions between October 2017 and December 2018. Citing reports from the Seoul District Prosecutors Office Friday, The Korea Times says two senior executives from Dunamu and one Upbit employee have been indicted, but not detained, as part of an investigation into the proceedings. The case came from South Korean finance regulator, the …

South Korea-based cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb has denied allegations of faking trade volume, Forbes reported on Dec. 19. Cryptocurrency exchange ratings and analytics service CER has accused Bithumb of faking up to 94 percent of its trade volume since the late summer of 2018. In response to the accusations, Bithumb reportedly told Forbes that "Bithumb is doing nothing to inflate trade volume. Bithumb is not selling mining-based coin. Bithumb is trying to get more customers by providing various promotions just like any other company in the world as a normal business." CER reasoned their accusations by measuring CoinMarketCap’s data, which, in …

Two South Korean government ministries have launched a blockchain pilot for port logistics innovation, according to a press release from the country’s Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIT), published Dec. 18. MSIT, together with the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, are reportedly testing whether the technology can make Korea’s container shipping industry more efficient. As the press release outlines, the pilot will run over a period of one year in the Port of Busan, the country’s largest port, and the fifth busiest container port worldwide. The initiative aims to ascertain whether leveraging blockchain technology can successfully increase transparency …

2018 has witnessed a steady increase in the number of food manufacturers and retailers using blockchains to enhance their operations. From tracking the quality of food to facilitating international trades in grain, blockchain technology has been turning up repeatedly in recent months; and while many deployments of such tech have been conducted on a trial basis, a growing number have been implemented permanently. However, as much as it now seems that blockchains are becoming a familiar feature of the food industry, they aren’t an infallible solution to every problem it faces. Even though many blockchains will provide an 'immutable' and …

South Korea’s largest messaging app operator Kakao has invested in Orbs, an Israeli blockchain startup, Reuters reports Dec. 13. The report states that Orbs did not disclose the size of the investment. Moreover, the startup reportedly explained that this investment “builds on its existing partnership with Kakao blockchain subsidiary Ground X.” As Cointelegraph reported in October, Ground X released the testnet of its DApp platform Klaytn ahead of its scheduled release next year. The aforementioned partnership gave place to a collaboration “on blockchain applications and research and development projects.” According to CrunchBase data, Kakao has raised a total of $1.5 …

South Korea’s representative body, the National Assembly, has held a crypto regulation debate arranged by major local cryptocurrency exchanges, IT media oulet ZdNet Korea reports Monday, Dec. 10. According to local business outlet Financial Leaders, the topics of the debate were proposed by seven crypto exchanges — Bithumb, CobitCoin, Coinone, Upbit, Gopax, Coinplug and Hanbitco. The debate was attended both by crypto entrepreneurs and politicians, such as Democratic Party member Kim Byung-wook and representatives for the Liberty Korea and Bareunmirae parties, both with a significant number of seats in the National Assembly. The country’s financial watchdog, the Financial Services Commission …

South Korea’s government will spend 4 billion Korean won (KRW) (about $3.5 million) to set up a blockchain-enabled virtual power plant (VPP) in the city of Busan. The development was reported by South Korean newspaper Yonhap News Agency on Monday, Dec. 10. Busan, South Korea’s second most populous city after Seoul, has announced that the city administration has selected a project to support an innovative energy industry in the region by building a VPP based on a citizens-shared blockchain. The project will reportedly be represented at a national competition in 2019 hosted by the largest electric utility in South Korea, …

South Korea’s second-largest commercial bank, Shinhan Bank, has embarked on a project to implement blockchain in internal processes to decrease human error. The initiative was reported by English-language daily news outlet The Korea Times on Dec. 10. Shinhan, which has sought integration with both the blockchain and cryptocurrency spheres over the past eighteen months, also completed a staff training program to increase knowledge of blockchain for various applications. According to The Korea Times, the bank implemented interest rate swap transactions using the technology on Nov. 30 in what it called a “first” for a South Korean lender. Now, operations such …

A South Korean blockchain startup, Presto, will reportedly file a constitutional appeal over the county’s ban on Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), South Korean economic media outlet Sedaily reports Dec. 6. Presto claims on its website that it provides a “total solution to development teams from website building to token issuing.” The startup was reportedly trying to run a Decentralized Autonomous Organization-based Initial Coin Offering (DAICO) in South Korea for the first time. As Cointelegraph explained in a dedicated guide, DAICOs aim to improve the ICO fundraising method by integrating some features of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). This fundraising method enables …

Cryptocurrency exchanges registered in South Korea have overtaken their Maltese-registered counterparts by average daily trade volume in November. This is according to a report by cryptocurrency market data provider CryptoCompare, published Thursday, Dec. 6. The November edition of CCCAGG, a monthly crypto exchange review published by CryptoCompare, shows that South Korean exchanges, including Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Upbit among others, registered a combined $1.4 billion of average daily trade volume. In the meantime, their competitors in Malta had only achieved $1.2 billion. This is a significant change when compared to the October’s CCCAGG. According to CryptoCompare, back then the combined …

A South Korean financial authority has warned two major domestic banks about their lack of management of cryptocurrency transactions and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulation, local online media outlet The Daily reports Dec. 4. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has reviewed Kookmin Bank and Nonghyup Bank and found “unreasonable elements related to virtual [currency] handling business.” However, the article notes that the regulation standards are not clear, and the FSS’s order applies only to some accounts that have been contracted with a real -name verification service, not crypto counterparty (exchange) accounts. The banks have also received orders for improvement and must …