Some of South Korea’s leading crypto exchanges have apparently begun coin purges for low-volume tokens – but there could be a catch for the exchanges and the South Korean cryptocurrency industry as a whole, as a number of delisted tokens are Kakao Klaytn partners.
Per a report from South Korean media outlet News Tomato, the purges are taking place at the country’s “big four” crypto exchanges: Bithumb, Upbit, Coinone and Korbit.
As previously reported, in the second half of last year all four exchanges independently declared they would be setting up token review committees in an effort to delist underperforming coins from their platforms, which many critics have previously called “bloated.”
But there are signs that the delistings drive is set to intensify in the first half of 2020.
The media outlet says that industry sources state that both Bithumb and Coinone have decided to delist three tokens apiece, while Korbit has also removed three tokens since it established its token reviews platform late last year.
News Tomato quotes an anonymous industry insider as stating,
“With the market still suffering, the number of projects that end up getting delisted may increase rapidly due to low trade volume figures. Delisting is now unavoidable in many cases.”
Another unnamed insider criticized the move, stating that exchanges are “carrying out excessive delisting policies without considering the unique characteristics of the blockchain industry.”
