
DAXA claimed that the circulating number of WEMIX exceeds what has been disclosed by Wemix, much to the chagrin of the issuers.
South Korea’s largest crypto exchanges have announced they will delist WEMIX (WEMIX) — the native token of gaming company Wemade’s blockchain platform Wemix — alleging the firm provided “false information” in response to an investment warning it was issued.
Bithumb, Upbeat, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax — which are part of a collective called the Digital Asset eXchange Alliance (DAXA) — announced on Nov. 24 that they would terminate contract support for WEMIX, with trading set to end on Dec. 8.
In the investment warning issued Oct. 27, DAXA alleged that there was considerably more WEMIX in circulation than Wemix had disclosed, and Wemix had pledged to work with DAXA to alleviate these concerns.
After news of the decision to delist broke, WEMIX Communication released a statement claiming it had sincerely responded to requests and concerns raised by DAXA and corrected a number of issues where they believe the circulating supply had been overstated the group, adding:
“The WEMIX team does not acknowledge or agree with the unreasonable decision made by the Digital Asset eXchange Alliance (DAXA)... It is crucial to note that the Foundation has not circulated a single WEMIX more than what we have officially disclosed thus far.”
The price of WEMIX plummeted following the news, and at the time of writing is down 70.8% with a current price of $0.476.
The CEO of Wemade Henry Chang has reportedly invested his monthly salary into the WEMIX token eight times, including purchasing 18,928 WEMIX Classic with October salary this year.
Wemade is best known for its hit franchise The Legend of Mir which peaked at over 200 million sign ups and includes one of the world’s most popular blockchain games, Mir 4. It announced on Nov. 2 that it had raised $46 million from Microsoft, and asset management firms Kiwoom Securities and Shinhan Asset Management. Chang said at the time:
“Wemade and Wemix will continue to exert efforts to attract more capital and actively invest to build the global digital economy platform.”
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Wemade also announced a plan to release a new economy platform which combines non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).
While South Korea is one of the biggest gaming markets and blockchain adopters in the world, the country has banned play-to-earn (P2E) blockchain games.
Since being elected on Mar. 10 in a tight race, crypto-friendly President Yoon Suk-yeol has hinted that the ban could be lifted and is looking to grow the virtual asset market by overhauling “regulations that are far from reality and unreasonable.”
The increased trading volume comes following the country's Financial Services Commission requiring crypto trading platforms to register as digital asset service providers before Sept. 24.
Crypto users between 30-39 years old in South Korea are reportedly the demographic with the most deposits on major exchanges in the country.
According to a Sunday report from the Yonhap News Agency, South Korean residents in their 30s deposited roughly 2.2 trillion KRW — $1.9 billion at the time of publication — to crypto exchanges Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit by the end of the second quarter of 2021. Teenagers in the country represented the group with the fewest deposits at $3.4 million, but this still was a more than 400% increase compared to the $824,000 those under 20 years old deposited in Q1 2021.
“All age groups are investing in virtual assets," said Doo-Hyun Yoon, a member of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee. "The government needs to be more careful in setting up policy on virtual assets, including paying special attention to the position of young investors."
Upbit users accounted for the majority of the deposits with 3.5 billion KRW, followed by Bithumb and Coinone. This month, Upbit reportedly became one of the first South Korean crypto exchanges to register with the country’s regulators — the Financial Services Commission announced earlier this year local crypto trading platforms would be required to register as digital asset service providers before Sept. 24.
Related: South Korean FSC denies plans to shut down 11 crypto exchanges
As major crypto exchanges work to meet this deadline, smaller ones have reportedly been considering suing the South Korean government over its alleged failure to to take responsibility for excessive regulatory pressure. The new regulations allow authorities to impose a fine of up to 50 million KRW on exchanges not in compliance or have their operators face up to five years in prison.