Massive Altcoin Delisting Could Be Coming to South Korea

We may see hundreds of altcoins be delisted on crypto exchanges in South Korea later this year, according to that country’s newspaper Daehan Kyungjae.

There is new legislation going into effect next month, called the Virtual Asset User Protection Act. The act will allow South Korean officials to have more oversight in the crypto sector, giving them broader and greater powers of enforcement. Transaction support could quickly come to an end for around 600 crypto tokens across all exchanges operating in South Korea.

The legislation could mean major changes for the industry in that part of the world, affecting trading platforms like Coinone, Gopax, Upbit, Korbit, and Bithumb. These platforms will have to align with the new rules, which may mean delisting coins or limiting how they can be sold. The platforms likely to have coins delisted will be those that have not managed to get KRW trading permits yet. Their only options will be to obtain the appropriate trading permits or to only trade from one crypto to another.

When the law goes into effect, it will reportedly affect 29 trading platforms operating within the country. The 60 altcoins listed on those platforms will have to be examined and may suffer delisting as a result.

Ongoing Legislative Effects

As the law takes effect, the changes may be swift and extensive, but there will be opportunities for the platforms to shape up and obey the law. Each exchange will have to submit to a quarterly review, which would help to identify risky coins and delist those that are deemed questionable.

For the first six months, the government will help with assessing the coins on the platforms. After that, the exchanges will have to do their own assessment and submit reports every three months to the relevant governing bodies.